For Zion’s Sake – The Building of Zion

[00:00:00] Isaiah, chapter 61. [00:00:05] We will read from verse one. [00:00:11] The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. [00:00:20] He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive captives and the opening of the prison to them that abound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. [00:01:02] And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the wealth of the nations and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. Instead of your shame ye shall have double. And instead of dishonour, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity. And I will give them their recompense in truth. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. [00:02:19] I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth its bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. For Zions sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. And the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. [00:03:32] The little phrase that I have taken as a kind of. [00:03:39] As the theme for these special times is in Isaiah, chapter 62, and verse one. For Zions sake will I not hold my peace. And for Jerusalems sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth for Zion's sake. Last night we spoke from the second psalm, and we particularly underline that wonderful little verse six in that psalm. Yet have I set my king upon Zion, the mountain of my holiness. [00:04:28] And then it goes on. I will tell of the decree this day have I begotten thee, ask of me, and I will give the nations for thine inheritance and the outermost parts of the earth for thy possession. [00:04:46] Now, this evening, I want to really take the little word zion and ask a question. [00:04:57] What really is this Zion? It is, in fact, spoken about again and again and again in the word. For instance, in Isaiah, chapter 60 and verse 14, we read these wonderful words, these prophetic words, and the sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the holy one of Israel. They shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the holy one of Israel. The zion of the holy one of Israel. That's what the word of the Lord says. The redeemed of the Lord shall be called. But what is Zion? [00:06:06] There are few names which are mentioned more in the Bible than this name Zion. And I suppose there are few names that are probably more misunderstood. I am sure that some of you younger folks in your teens probably associate Zion with strange old victorian hymns. We've sung at least one of them this evening. The other one was a good deal older than the victorian era. [00:06:39] Marching to Zion. That was a good one. And actually, I think that's probably a little earlier than the victorian he would come to think of it. I think it's Isaac Watts. But in the way we sing it and the song that we sing it, it is in fact a sort of mid 19th century hymn. And as I said last night, many people's idea of Zion are some little sort of gray stone chapel in Wales with the word zion engraved above the door. Or sometimes you find it round these parts, normally small chapels belonging to particular denomination, and they're called Zion. But, you know, the Bible has a tremendous amount to say about Zion. Just a few of the ways these are just a few. Listen, to all these things we read of Mount Zion, of the stronghold of Zion, of Zion the city of the great king are the inhabitants of Zion the daughter of Zion the daughters of Zion the children of Zion. We are told that the Lord loves the gates of Zion that he has founded Zion, that he calls it my holy hill of Zion, that he has chosen Zion, that he dwells in Zion, that he is great in Zion, that he fights for Zion, that he is jealous for Zion, that he will roar from Zion that out of Zion the perfection of beauty he hath shined forth. We are told that the Redeemer will come to Zion, that he will save Zion, that he will build Zion, that he will comfort Zion, that he will reign in Zion and that the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness, and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Now, that's only a little sample of the way this term or name Zion is used in scripture. But I hope it's enough for you to realize that we're dealing with a vitally important matter. We're not dealing with some little sideline of the Bible, some little side path of the Bible, but we're dealing with something that God speaks of in association with himself. He speaks of it as something that he loves, something that he says, something that he dwells in, something that he has chosen, something that means a tremendous amount to him. He speaks of it as something from which we can depart and something to which we can return. [00:09:21] It is very important, therefore, that we should understand just what this is all about, don't you think? [00:09:28] I think that however young we are in the Lord, or however old we are in the Lord, here is a matter upon which we need the Lord to to poor divine illumination. Now, if you're young in the Lord, and you almost feel like switching off at the very thought of talking about Zion, it seems a bit old fashioned somehow. Don't switch off. But instead, just ask the Lord to really give to you an original, your own original understanding tonight of this matter. Something that the older ones may not quite see as you see in a way that you may see it for yourself. I don't mean that you see it in an entirely different way to the old ones, but you see it for yourself. When you see something, it changes your life. When you really begin to see it for yourself, suddenly the importance of it and the sort of its fundamental nature dawns upon you. So ask the Lord. Even now, in the quietness of your heart, Lord, will you meet me in this matter and really give me an understanding of, of what this subject is about what this name Zion is. Now, the name Zion is used four ways in the scripture. It is a very interesting thing that in Hebrew we really cannot. We cannot. Yet after all these years of study that has been on this subject, we cannot actually discover the real meaning of the name Zion in Hebrew. Zion. We just cannot. We don't know it. It has been suggested that it comes from the word zion, which means a dry, parched up ground. [00:11:23] Well, that's very interesting if it does mean that, isn't it, that the Lord should have chosen dried, parched up ground? And it's certainly true of Jerusalem. [00:11:32] Jerusalem is the only capital city in the world that was chosen without its own fountain or spring of water within its gates. [00:11:42] The little spring of Gihon was always outside until dear Hezekiah got the idea from the Lord that he should blast away, as it were, through solid rock for 1770 7ft and bring the spring of Gihon right inside the city walls. But until that time it must have been the only capital city in the world that was selected as a capital and didn't have its own water supply within the walls. [00:12:15] Well, it may be that this is just what the Lord's done. Just as Zion or Jerusalem is a smaller hill surrounded by higher mountains, there is not a single mountain around Jerusalem that is not higher than those three little smaller mountains, hills that had been chosen for the site of Jerusalem. And that was again because the lord didn't want them to have a high place. He didn't want them to have a high place like the rest of the nations in which they would worship. So he chose the three hills that were a little lower than the surrounding mountains, which are round about Jerusalem. [00:12:51] And in the same way, maybe he chose it as a dried up, parched ground, deliberately so that as the psalmist says, all my springs are in thee. [00:13:06] Now it may well be that that is the key. I don't know. There is another suggestion made by more recently by jewish scholars, and that is that Zion really comes from a word which means stronghold or rock. [00:13:22] Well, we don't know, but there are four ways in which the word Zion is used in scripture. First of all, it is used of an actual geographical mountain or hill called Mount Zion, upon which Jerusalem is built. If you turn to psalm 78 and verse 68. [00:13:48] Psalm 78 verse 68. [00:13:53] But God chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. You have it again in, of course, psalm 48 and verse two beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. So it is an actual geographical mountain or hill in the promised land. That's the first way it is used in scripture. [00:14:26] It is, by the way, just a small aside point, almost certainly that Mount Zion is to be identified in its beginnings with Mount Moriah and Mount Ophelia. It wasn't independent of them as it is today. In other words, for those of you who know a little of Jerusalem, the southwestern hill, which is today called Mount Zion only came to be called Mount Zion from the time of King Hezekiah. But before then it was probable that Mount Moriah, upon which the temple was built was Mount Vernon Zion. So Mount Moriah, Mount Ophel, the Jebusite city, really Mount Zion to begin with? Well, that's what Professor Mazan says, and I think he probably writes it clears up for us a number of problems in the word about the temple being on Mount Zion and so on. Later, as the city spread and the west end, as we would call it, of the city, the upper class part of the city, they took the name Mount Zion for themselves up on that end of the city. Now, the second way that this word Zion is used is of the city of God. It is not just a mountain or a hill, but it is a name for the city of God, for Jerusalem, it is synonymous with Jerusalem. If you look at two Samuel, two Samuel, chapter five and verse seven, nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. The same is the city of David. [00:16:07] And then again in psalm 48, verse one and two, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in his holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. Then again, you get it. Verse twelve. Walk about Zion and go round about her number, the towers thereof mark ye well, her bulwarks consider her palaces. In other words, the name Zion is not just a mountain. It has become the name for the city of God, for Jerusalem. So that is, again how it is used. Then it is used, and this is not often understood. It is used in a third way in scripture. And I want to make this perfectly clear. I believe in it with all my heart that it is used for that national and political movement which we call Zionism. Now, this is where a point of controversy immediately comes, because there are those who say, how on earth can a national and political movement for the liberation of the jewish people led by agnostics and in some cases atheists, be predicted in the word of God, or found in the word of God. But it is. That is the only. Now, I'm not going to dwell on it. You'll have to read this new book that I've written to get a little bit of that. But, and that's not a plug for it, I mean, just a fact. [00:17:45] The thing is that we cannot discount if we really believe that the recreation of the state of Israel is the fulfillment of God's prophetic word and the hand of God is behind it, we cannot discount or ignore that political national movement by which it came into being. [00:18:13] We read, for instance, in psalm 137, verse 20, those very wonderful words which I believe are in connection with this. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion upon the willows. In the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive, required of us songs, and they that wasted us, required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget thee, o Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I remember thee not, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Now, I would like to know what value this psalm has in the book. I mean, what is it? Is it just the fossilized sorrow of the people of God in the first exile? Is that all the meaning of it? If there are those who see in this something of the travail of heart, of those who know the Lord and love the Lord, and who sorrow over the state of the people of God, over the church of God, over the body of the Lord Jesus, then I can see some value in this psalm. But I cannot believe that God just puts antiques in his word. I mean, just things that are sort of fossilized points of history. [00:19:41] We can see in this psalm something that meant a lot to people 2600 years ago but has absolutely no bearing whatsoever upon us today, I cannot believe it. No, I think that it is part the expression of that desire of God's earthly people to really know a renewing of their sovereignty as a state amongst the states of the earth. And of course, you will find this again if you turn to Jeremiah in a way that cannot, I think, really be denied. In Jeremiah, chapter 30 and verse eleven, the Lord for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee, that is, of Israel. For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have out of thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure and will in no wise leave thee unpunished. Verse 17. For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord, because they have called thee an outcast, saying it's zion for whom no one cares or no one seeks. Well, that again, I think, is to be related to the physical side of things. The literal. There's a literal meaning to some of these prophecies. And of course you will have it. One last one for you. Isaiah, chapter 66 and verse eight. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in a day? Now, how do you spiritualize that, may I ask? [00:21:21] Shall a land be born in a day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? [00:21:28] If we say that this is the church, we cannot say she was brought forth at once. [00:21:35] And then it goes on. For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. [00:21:42] And there was 1800 years of jewish anguish and sorrow in which they were dispersed through the ends of the earth and took it lying down believing that it was the judgment and curse of God upon them. No jewish bride would wear gold or silver on her gown because of it. Every jewish man who built a home left a little portion near the door unfinished to remind him that they had lost Zion. They were never allowed to play orchestral music except on special and specified occasions. All these regulations were to remind the people they'd lost their beloved Zion. It had been taken from them because of transgression. But you see, what is interesting is this, that literally at the end of the last century, in 1897, really, that's when it began. There came into being a movement called Zionism. And the moment Zionism came into being and began to travel within 50 short years, she brought forth her sons. [00:22:49] And after 1900, years of exile and sorrow, in 50 years the thing was done. It was the most anguished period of jewish history. But in the end, a land was born in one single day, the 14 May of 1948, and the nation was brought forth at once. Now, we mustn't spend too much time on this matter. But you see, that is the third point. It goes through scriptures and those who ignore it or try to overlook it are going to come into very real problems in the last days because this matter is really a vital indication of where we are in the economy of God. [00:23:32] The third way, of course, that the word Zion is used is the eternal and the spiritual. And that is the most important thing of all. It is that matters which has been on the heart of God and in the mind of God from before times eternal. It is that which he had longed for, that which he conceived when he created the universe and created man and woman. [00:24:00] It was something that was in his heart from the very beginning. He called it Zion. That's how it came to be called later, Zion. [00:24:09] It's more than an ideal. It is the very expression of the desire and longing and purpose of God for mankind. Now you have it, of course, in a scripture like, for instance, psalm 50 and verse one and two, the mighty one, God the Lord hath spoken and called the earth on the rising of the sun and the going down thereof out of Zion, the perfection of beauty God hath hath shined forth. Now I know Jerusalem and Zion, I believe as well probably as anybody, and I must say this both from the historical point of view and from the contemporary point of view, that I don't think that Jerusalem has ever been the perfection of beauty. [00:25:00] I can understand some people going and being disappointed, but they have these Sunday school notions of some wonderful great city of gold and silver and all the rest so clean, so pure, so holy, the perfection of beauty, God shining out of it. And what they see are smelly old bazaars and souks and flea bitten alleys and smelly sewers and batshish everywhere. And a lot of other things. Of course, if that's all they see, I'm very sorry for them, because you should be able to see beyond that to what it symbolizes, of what it is an expression. But this perfection of beauty is the eternal and spiritual Zion, which has been on the heart of God from the very beginning. And when we turn to Hebrews and chapter twelve and verse 22, we read those wonderful but ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, and unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels. [00:26:17] You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is the fourth way that this word Zion is used in scripture. Now, having said that, let us look a little more closely at this whole matter. What is the Zion of the holy one of Israel that we read of in Isaiah, chapter 60 and in that verse twelve? [00:26:48] Well, as I've said, it is that which really is in the very heart of God for us from the beginning. Last night I turned you to psalm 132 and verses 13 and 14. For the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here will I dwell, for I have desired it. Now these are incredible words. Have they ever really sunk into you? Listen again to what the Lord says here. The Lord has chosen Zion. [00:27:29] He has desired it for his home. [00:27:34] Did you get that? [00:27:36] He's chosen Zion. He's desired it for his home. You know, when a person goes out to look for a house for a home, I mean, you've got to have a house to have a home. [00:27:48] But you can have a house without a home. [00:27:52] But when you've got the two together, you've got a great boom and blessing. [00:27:56] Now when the Lord, as it were, when a person goes out to look for a house for a home, then finally he knows what he's looking for. He and she, both of them, they know what they're looking for. And when they finally see, they that's it. We choose it. [00:28:13] Providing you've got plenty of money in an area like this, particularly, you can buy what you have chosen. You've desired it for your home, you choose it. Now, the Bible says, the word of God says that God has chosen Zion and desired it for his house, for his home, for his dwelling place, for his habitation. Now does that begin to get into your heart? You see, the thing is, we can only talk in one way in Sunday school language. And thanks be to God, the Bible is in Sunday school language in one way. Otherwise half the world would never be able to understand it. Supposing it, some people say, why isn't it more scientific? Well, if it had been more scientific, we would only have those scientific nuts. We'd be able to understand it. And furthermore, people like myself would be tied up in knots. [00:29:09] How would you ever unravel it if it was put in scientific terms? And anyway, for century after century and for very large parts of the earth, the book would be completely impossible of any real understanding. But God has taken spiritual realities and expressed them in the simplest of human language. He has taken things like marriage and said, now this is the illustration of what I want. He's taken a home and said, now this is what I want. Not a bad home, I want a good home. All but a real home is meant to express, now that's what I want. He says, the union between a man and a woman, that in the end which ends not only in a home, but in a family and in service, this, God says, is what I want. I don't want to be alone. That is why the Lord Jesus says in one of those wonderful messianic psalms, I am the children whom God hath given me. What a wonderful little word you know, you are the children. [00:30:16] It says in the midst of the congregate congregation, actually, in the Hebrew, it is the word we use today for church. In the midst of the great church, I will praise thy name. And then, as it says in the book of Hebrews, little eight, I am the children whom God hath given me. It's as if the Lord said, I don't want to be alone. I have come to glory. When he was transfigured in glory, he could have stepped into the kingdom, but there would have been only one man in the kingdom. It would have been the Lord Jesus. But instead he came back to the cross to die for us and was raised on the third day so that he might save you and me and bring many sons unto glory with him, so that he could share his glory, so that he could share his inheritance, his heritage, so that he could share his throne. Now that, to me, makes a lot of sense and adds another dimension to the gospel. We are so used to hearing a gospel that is just to do with forgiveness of sins and just to do with being saved in that way that we get forgiveness of sins and then we become christians, that we forget that the gospel in this book has three, four more parts to it than that. [00:31:43] It is not only a question of being forgiven, it is a question of being brought into union with him. And it is not only a question of being in union with him. It is a question of being anointed with the Holy Spirit. And it is not only a question of being anointed with the Holy Spirit, it is a question of becoming his Zion, so that we become his bride, so that we become the wife of the lamb, so that we become the city of God, the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, so that we become his home, his dwelling place, the temple of the Lord. Oh, these terms, they spell out one after another. But you see, it doesn't matter how they're used. You see, if you think that God is going to have one day, an actual temple, you've got another think coming. If you think that God is going to actually marry somebody, a lady called his wife, you've got another thing coming. Do you understand? In other words, what God has done is he's taken very simple ideas that you and I understand. And he said, now, this is what I desire. This is what I long for. It's something like this. In another dimension, it's something like this, not on the earth, but in the heavenly, not on the transient, but forever. [00:33:04] A human home is only till death breaks it up. Marriage is only till death breaks it up, all these relationships down here until death dissolves. But the family of God and the Zion of God and the home of God, the household of faith, that is forever, those are eternal relationships. That is a home and a family that lasts forever. Now you come back to this wonderful matter and you begin to understand a little bit more about what the psalmist was talking about. The Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here will I dwell. What isn't it? And a wonderful thing to have a resting place. There's a vast difference between a hotel bedroom and a real resting place. Now, I know something about this. I get shoved into beds of all sizes and shapes. Sometimes there's hardly a curtain at the window, there's only a bit of net. Sometimes there's not even that shuttered on the outside. And if you are like me, the kind of person that needs darkness to sleep, I find it terribly difficult. And then, you know, if you go on one of those little narrow, two foot beds, I find it so hard on one of those two, I feel as if I'm in a coffin. And all night long I sort of afraid that, you know, of expanding all day, you know, it's not a resting place, it's just a long. [00:34:42] It's something to be endured. [00:34:46] There's a vast difference between a resting place. Now I feel sorry for anybody whose home is not a resting place. I know that one of the tragedies of contemporary life, and I suppose it has always been, is that homes, instead of being the place where you can rest, where you can relax, where you can be yourself, where you can be absolutely, truly what you are, it becomes a place of tension, a place of strain, a place of artifice, a place of facade. Somehow or other, people can't really be themselves either with one another and they can't reach that sort of rock bottom level. But you see, for a resting place, it has to be a place where you can be absolutely 100% yourself. That's the basis of relaxation. I mean, you cannot relax if you feel someone studying you. You know what I mean? Well, of course some people can. I mean, they're the kind of extrovert. They could relax right in front of anybody. But I mean, if you feel that somehow or other someone's watching you, you know, I mean, you don't feel like taking your corsets off or your wig off or your false eyelashes off or whatever else. I mean, you just don't feel like it when you're being studied. But if it's your home, you can be yourself. You can pad round in slippers, you can let your hair down, you can be yourself. Now I'm not saying that it's always nice to sort of be totally yourself, but it is a resting place, isn't it? Now forget just for one moment the coarser side of that and think of the Lord, this is my resting place forever. [00:36:26] Here will I dwell. He did not say, here will I visit, but here will I dwell. [00:36:33] This is my resting place. In other words, as if God saying, I long to be just absolutely myself, somewhere where I can share the secrets of my heart, somewhere where I can open up the very inner secrets of my being. [00:36:51] Now thats why he refers to this in other places of the Bible as being like a marriage. [00:36:58] He speaks of the church as being his bride, as being the wife of the lamb. In another place, he speaks of it as being growing into a holy temple in the Lord. And its interesting that it says in that final city there is no temple there. It says, for the Lord God and the lamb are the temple thereof, as if somehow we in him have become the temple of God, in which there is eternal praise and eternal worship and eternal communion, eternal service. [00:37:39] It doesn't matter what terms you look on this thing, whether it's head and body. You have never seen a living bodiless head and you've never seen a living headless body, have you? I mean, the whole point of head and body is that they're stuck together. [00:37:54] I mean, woe betide us if you and I get divided from our heads. [00:38:01] We will not live very long, will we? [00:38:04] The whole point of a head and a body is that they belong together and function together. They're part of a living organic whole. Now that's a term that's used again and again in the New Testament for this. Zion head and body. The Lord Jesus head, the body as it were, bought out of him, produced out of his nature and life. You and I are members of the Lord Jesus, and members one of another. Or again, take the vine. Jesus said, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. And then he said, abide in me, and I in you. As the branches cannot bear fruit, except they abide in the vine, so no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Now the wonderful thing is this, that all those dear disciples, being jewish, when they heard the Lord speak about Israel, they knew just what he was talking about. But it was a great shock to them because for them they knew that the vine was Israel. [00:39:02] They knew that the vine was. It was the covenant people of God. And Josephus, that great historian of the first century, tells us that one of the incredible wonders of the ancient world was that great golden vine that out of gold or tracery work with great grapes and tendrils and leaves hanging, which was right over the porch of the sanctuary, so that when the children of Israel came in to have their rams or bullocks or turtle doves slain and offered on the altar, looking up, they saw this amazing gold filigree work. Now, when Jesus said, I am the true vine, it must mean a terrible shock to them. They must. How can he be? [00:39:55] To say he's messiah of the chosen people is one thing. To say he's the king of the chosen people. Even if he said he was high priest of the people of God, they might have understood if he said, I'm leader of the people of God or savior of the people. But how can he be the people of God? Yet the Lord Jesus said, I am the true vine. Abide in me, and I in you. [00:40:19] He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Now, most people understand that as if he was saying, I am the trunk, you are the branches. He didn't say, I am the trunk, you are the. He said, I am the vine, you are the vine. In other words, I am the whole thing. I am the root and the trunk and the branches and the tendrils and the leaves and the blossoms and the fruit. And you are in me. [00:40:45] You are something. You are part of me. You become partakers of me. You are branches in me. [00:40:53] So abide in me and I in you. [00:40:56] You see, it's the same thought again. Zion, the heart of this whole thing, is union. Do you begin to see it now? It's union, just like marriage is one man and one woman blending together, taking one name, living in one home, producing one family, sharing one life with one purpose. So God has desired that he might bring us into such a relationship with himself. We may be surnamed with his name. We may share his life, we may share his heritage, we may share in his purpose. [00:41:38] Well, now, I find there's so much to be able to say about this. But you see, this begins to somehow unfold the whole matter of Zion to us, doesn't it? If you turn to psalm 87, you find something else which is very wonderful. Psalm 87. [00:41:59] His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, o city of God. Or we could translate that. Things of glory are spoken of thee, o city of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among them that know me. Behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one was born there. Where? In Zion. [00:42:26] Yea, of Zion. It shall be said, this one and that one was born in her. And the most high himself will establish her. The Lord will count when he writeth up the peoples. This one was born there. In other words, even if you were born in Egypt, he says, if you're born of God, you're born in Zion. You may be Philistia, which is an old enemy of God's people. Or tyre, which was not, but was still not the people of God. Or Rahab, which is Egypt, which was another great enemy of the people of God. Or Ethiopia, which in the old days was also an enemy of God in the long, long way back all these. But God says, if you were born in these countries, but you are spiritually born of God, that's okay. Your birthday is cancelled out. You're registered in Zion. Now. That means that every person in this room is a true Zionist. [00:43:22] If you're born of God, you're a Zionist. It can be nothing else. And you're in the greatest liberation movement the world has ever known. [00:43:30] We are in the liberation movement of the spirit of God to bring about the restoration of the whole earth to the Lord. [00:43:44] So we're back to psalm two. The king Zion, the mountain of his holiness and the outermost parts of the earth for his possession. [00:43:54] That is the job of the church. You see, of course, we do great injustice as whole matter of Zionism. All we talk about is being built together. Being built together. Being built together. And we think, oh, dear, when we look at one another, have I got to be built together? We think, what is the purpose of being built together? I'm stuck here with so and so having to rub shoulder. Wouldn't it be easier to get out and do this or fly out there and do, or go over there and get on with the job? But, my dear friend, the whole point of being built together is not to stop there. It's not just a factory for bad times, much as some will try to make it like that, you know, as if the whole point of being in Zion is to have bad times. [00:44:37] And the more bad times have, the better it really is. That's not the point of being in. Our point of being in Zion is that being built together, growing together up into him as head, fitly framed together in him. We should be able to wield his authority. [00:44:55] We should start, as it were, to reign now over the nations. We should start to command the will of God to be done concerning this matter and that matter and the other matter. But we cannot do it unless we are built together, unless we begin to learn to find each other in the Lord, unless we learn to know what it is to be fitly framed together, knit together, until there is some process of something of that process taking place. There cannot be the authority of the Lord going out of Zion. So that, as it says in psalm 110, the lord will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Don't you see that the king wants to rule in the midst of his enemies enrichment? Don't you see that the king wants to rule in the midst of his enemies in Britain? Don't you see that he longs to send forth the rod of his strength out of Zion? But if there is no Zion, what shall he do if you opt out and someone else opts out, and someone else opts out, and someone says, well, I don't know what all this talk is about having to find each other in the Lord and having to be built together. What's it all about? [00:46:09] And the enemy whispers to you, says, well, of course, they're a bit queer anyway, you know, take the good and leave the bad. [00:46:19] Well, of course, after a while, our authority in prayer will diminish and diminish and diminish, and we will just become so many little prayer meetings, that's all praying about, so many little petitions. [00:46:36] Only God can burn this thing into our hearts in such a way that we begin to see what is the end. Now, you younger ones, there will come a time when some of you who are teenagers are going to have to take the whole thing on your own shoulders. [00:46:54] God preserve us if, when that day comes, youre not ready for it. But if you start here and now to get to know the Lord and get to know things like this, and allow God to bring you into the house of God and find your place, of course, you say straight away, oh, dear. What? Some of those old ones. [00:47:15] It would kill me. I don't know whether it would kill you. [00:47:21] I think it might even release you. [00:47:24] I tell you one thing, you probably do them a world of good. [00:47:29] There's nothing like a few young ones really coming in with a fresh contribution and some originality to start sort of chivvying up all the old ones, you know. I mean, I'm not talking just about the old ladies, I mean, all of us. You know, we all get so old maidish as we go on, don't we? We know it all. We've heard it for years, and we've got a phraseology and we know how to sort of fit in at the right place. It was a wonderful thing when a few youngsters come in and start tripping across the traces and everyone has to start waking up again. And when you are told that you can't make head and tail of your phraseology and suddenly you have to think again, well, what do we mean? [00:48:17] You see, the real thing of this Zion is not just a lovely idea or an ideal that is marvelous, but impossible of realization. This is something that God wants to do down here amongst us on this earth. And if it is not done here, dear ones, it will never be done up there. [00:48:43] So don't cast away your confidence, which has such great recompense of reward. [00:48:52] Don't just throw in the glove and say, oh, dear, I feel weary with it all. I've heard this for years and so on. Why not ask the Lord to breathe the whole thing into your heart in a new way so that it becomes yours? Instead of secondhand through me or somebody else, it actually becomes yours. And you begin to understand. That's what it means. That's the heart. That's why the whole Bible talks about this thing. This is what the Lord loves. This is what the Lord has chosen. I want to be in that. I want to be part of that. [00:49:24] When it speaks about Zion being builded compact together, I want to be in that. When it talks about the perfection of beauty, I want to be part of that perfection of beauty. When it talks about the rod of his strength going out, I want to know and experience that. When it talks about his ruling in the midst of his end, I want to know it. [00:49:49] Well, you begin. You see what I mean when we talk about this? You see, if you think that I'm just talking out the back of my head, look at Galatians chapter four and verse 26. Galatians 426. But the Jerusalem that is above is our mother. [00:50:07] That is above is free, which is our mother. [00:50:10] Now did you know you had a mother? [00:50:16] I'm not talking about the blessed virgin. [00:50:23] Did you know that you have a mother? [00:50:28] You have a mother. [00:50:30] Your mother is the Zion which is above. [00:50:35] Oh, then come back to last night again. Isn't it important to have these highways to Zion in our hearts? It's one thing to have just sort of cul de sacs. I think so. Many have got christian cul de sacs, Bible study. [00:50:51] And then it becomes a cul de sac or just little prayer things on a local level or personal level becomes a cul de sac. [00:50:59] Or some experience of the Holy Spirit, blessed and powerful as it is, comes a cul de sac or some experience of holiness can become a cul de sac. [00:51:10] Oh, to have the highways to Zion. There's only one through way with God, and that's Zion's highway. [00:51:16] It's the only through way, the only motorway of God. That's the way right through the highway of God. And once you've got the highways to Zion in your heart, you'll never be the same again. What if God were tonight, some of you youngsters, if God tonight were to give just a shaft of light on this matter into your heart, you'll be spoiled for anything else for the rest of your life. You'll have me to thank for that. When you're sort of. Oh, all that I don't want. You don't want to be superior, as goes all to very easily become superior. But, you know, when you see something, you're spoilt for anything less. Dear old Abraham. They depict Abraham as if he was some smelly, illiterate, nomadic shepherd. Wandering around with a few scraggy goats and sheep. I'd never heard of such nonsense in my life. Abraham was an aristocrat. Abraham came from a family of real standing in order of the Chaldees, a sophisticated city, one of the great centers of ancient civilization. A lot of the ladies jewelry is being copied from her of the Chaldees. To this day. [00:52:24] I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I'm just saying that it's so. [00:52:29] I mean, it wasn't anything so poor as people tried to make out. As if God only had to whisper to Abraham he was out of that place like a bomb. I mean, that sort of rat race. [00:52:44] Never. [00:52:46] When Abraham went out of Ur of the Chaldees, it was a colossal step of faith out of sophisticated civilization into the desert. [00:52:59] And the only reason he did it was that he saw the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. He had seen a city so tremendous, so eternal, with such foundations. That earth, with all its glory, was spoilt for him. He could never go back to it again. [00:53:20] And that happens with you and me. When we've really seen the city. And, dear ones, we don't see the city as a thing. May I just say this? We see the city in God. Let me try to put it this way. You see, Stephen, before he was martyred, said, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham and said, get thee out of Ur of the Chaldees. [00:53:43] And the writer to the Hebrew says that by faith, Abraham obeyed to go out when he was called, not knowing whither he went. And then he says, for he saw the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. In other words, in the God of glory, he saw the city of God. Did you get it? In the God of glory? He saw the city of God. He didn't see the city of God as a thing. He saw the city of God as somehow something to do with the person of God, with the being of God, with the life of God, with the salvation of God, with the calling of God. Do you see it like that? [00:54:26] You come to the end of the book and you read revelation 21 and 22, and there are all these. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that we shouldn't sing these wonderful hymns that we've been singing and we've been talking about treading the streets of the golden streets. Or another hymn puts it treading the streets of gold and all the rest of it, you know, and pearly gates and all the rest of it. But, you know, the city at the end of the book is an extraordinary city. If I am right, I believe I am right in saying it's 115 miles high, 115 miles wide and 150 miles deep. Now, that I find extraordinary. I mean, for it to be 115 miles deep, 150 miles wide, okay, but 115 miles up, that is something. [00:55:14] And then it has twelve gates. [00:55:17] All right, no way. No problem there. I mean, there's about, what, about almost 115 miles going above one of the gates, I suppose. [00:55:29] But it has only one street. [00:55:32] Now, that's a problem. [00:55:36] Now, that's a real problem, isn't it? And when we talk about all these golden streets and it says there's only a street, it only speaks of a street in the singular. [00:55:46] So someone says, well, that's all right. It's a spiral. [00:55:55] Well, I know that one day these sort of science fiction things, they think of cities that are going to be like this or suspended in the air and all the rest of it. But, you know, really, and truthfully, I don't think that that city is meant to be understood literally. Now, don't get me wrong. I do believe that there will be a literal city because there is a new heaven and a new earth, and we're going to have bodies that can eat because our Lord Jesus has a redemption body and he ate broiled fish. You will remember that. And bread. So we know that we're going to have actual bodies which are located. We should be able to go through walls. Think of that. Just straight to the wall. That'd be lovely. Through closed doors. I mean, that kind of thing. We won't need that, but we will have bodies that are located. And therefore there will be some kind of city, I'm sure, some kind of location that I'm quite sure about. But when we come to the city at the end of the book, it is quite clear to me that this city is a spiritual reality. [00:56:51] God is using simple language to express a reality. Why? I tell you why. Because I have never, ever in my little life ever heard a husband to his wife as his city. [00:57:04] Have you? [00:57:06] I mean, she may look like a fortified bulwarks and towers and all the turrets and all this, but I have never heard a husband say, my beloved city is over there. [00:57:20] Or may I introduce to you the municipality. [00:57:27] You never heard anyone refer? No, of course not. But the Bible speaks of the bride of Christ, the wife of the lamb, as the city of God. [00:57:41] That's because you have two things. On the one side, you have abide. What does abide symbolize? The most intimate union known to mankind. [00:57:54] Two people becoming one. [00:57:58] The most intimate relationship possible. [00:58:04] Now, that's the one side of Zion. God longs for a union which is intimate. A union, an eternal union with himself. It's not a matter of technique. It's not a matter of. Of doctrine. It's not just a matter of method. It's not just a question of the science of government. It is a question of love. [00:58:29] First love, right the way through. [00:58:34] It is an eternal relationship of love. [00:58:41] How wonderful. Did you realize your Lord loves you so much that that's what he wants to bring you in. What he wants to bring me, all of us, into such a relationship with himself. Now, if we should love him like that because he loves, how much should we love one another? [00:58:59] The whole thing is a love relationship. We'll come to that when tomorrow we look at that. Isaiah 58. But you see, the real point I'm trying to get at just now is the very simple thing that when the Lord speaks about the bride, the wife, he's speaking of a very intimate, a union with himself, which is eternal, which is so intimate. [00:59:19] But when you speak of a city, you speak of a metropolis. You speak of a center of government, a center of administration. And that's the other side of Zion that's ruling now you know there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, but God needs people who are going to rule in it. Now are you going to just lead that to one or two old ones? Dear friends, I want to tell you something. Just because we're here in this company doesn't mean we're all going to rule. Some of us are incapable of ruling a tiny little portion of our household, let alone ruling in the kingdom. Unless God can teach you and me how to get the victory down here and how to reign with Christ down here, we can't there. But you see, what I'm really trying to say is this well have to begin to draw this to a close now. But really what the Lord means by Zion is something glorious. No wonder the psalmist says, glorious things are spoken of thee, o city of God. [01:00:27] The Lord loveth the gates of Zion. [01:00:32] Now if that doesnt inflame you with some kind of desire for knowing the Lord in a deeper way and for understanding this whole matter of what his hearts purpose is, I dont know what will. [01:00:51] You see that Zion is produced out of certain materials. Where are they produced? Precious stone, pearl? Gold. Where are they produced? They are produced here. Down here. Not up in the never never down here. In our relationships with one another, in our relationships at work, in all the problems and experiences and vicissitudes of life. That's where the gold of his nature and the precious stone of his life and the pearl of his suffering is wrought in us. And that is the material out of which that city is being built. The bride is being produced out of that Christ in you, the hope of glory. [01:01:39] Don't you want more of him? [01:01:44] How can we get more of him? [01:01:50] Well, this is just where we can get into deception. Sometimes people tell me they can get more of him by just going away and being alone. And I'm quite sure there are real dangers in fellowship when we learn to rest so much on one another. We don't have any life of our own with the Lord. That is a terrible danger. But so is the other danger when people think that they can go off and be on their own and grow in the Lord. My dear friend, it's a form of escape. [01:02:16] It can be a form of deception. You can go off, shut yourself off from all the problems of your brothers and sisters and seemingly grow and grow and grow and grow. You're not growing at all. [01:02:29] It's in the rub. The rough house, I was going to say of the church down here that we really grow in relationships with one another in the way we go through, in the way we open up to one another, the way we're built together, the way we really share the life of the Lord together. That's where it happens. So you see, coming back to this wonderful Isaiah, chapter 61, we shall take up some of this tomorrow evening. But did you hear what the Lord said? Listen again. I want to read those words. Chapter 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. This is of Jesus of the Messiah. Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that abound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. [01:03:32] To comfort, or to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness. That is something living, the planting of the Lord. That's something that originates with God, that he may be glorified. It ends in glory. And then comes this. Listen. And they shall build the old wastes. [01:04:03] They shall raise up the former desolations. [01:04:06] They shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks. Foreigners shall be your ploughmen and your vine dresses, that ye shall be called the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God. In other words, it begins with the ministry of our Lord and ends with the building of Zion. [01:04:32] It begins with the loosing of the bonds. It begins with the bringing out of the dungeon, out of the prison. [01:04:41] It begins with the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, joy for mourning and all these wonderful things. And it ends with the building of all that has laid waste for generations. Whether it is the first building of Zion or whether it is the restoration of Zion, or whether it is the completion of Zion, it doesnt matter. And who is the builder? The Lord Jesus is the builder. He said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Thats why we have those wonderful words. For Zions sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. [01:05:30] The Lord Jesus intercedes this very night. For this whole matter of the building up of Zion. [01:05:39] Well, I hope that you just understand a little of that. He has a determination and he is the builder of Zion. And I want to know where you stand. [01:05:52] You see, it says in psalm 102, the set time has come. It's a beautiful little word, psalm 102. I'll just read these verses from verse twelve. But thou, O Lord, wilt abide forever and thy memorial name unto all generations. Thou wilt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for it is time to have pity upon her. Yea, the set time is come for thy servants take pleasure in her stones and have pity upon her dust. [01:06:27] So the nation shall fear the name of the Lord and all kings of the earth thy glory. For the Lord hath built up Zion. He hath appeared in his glory. Now, did you hear that? The set time has come. The set time has come. What a wonderful thing it is when the set time has come for the building up of Zion. You know, in church history there have been some glorious appointments. Pentecost was one, and there have been some glorious appointments since then. You can. We can just mention a few. The reformation was certainly one of them, and the wesleyan era was certainly another, and the brethren era was certainly another. And so has been the outpouring of the spirit in our own day. That's another. It's been a set time. What is the Lord's object in it? Just to make the saints happy. Not just that he wants us to be happy, but his real object is to build up Zion. [01:07:18] There is something eternal. You know, you have one short life. If you live your full span of 70 years, many here will not live that. Others will live longer. But you have only, I wear, have only one set span of life. And in that one short span of year, either God builds you into Zion or not. [01:07:49] And one day, when you look back, your whole experience here will be like a pinhead. [01:07:58] Your birthday, your life, your salvation, all your experiences will all seem just like a little tiny pinhead compared with an endless eternity. [01:08:10] And you will marvel at the grace of God that in that one little pinhead of time, he did something. [01:08:18] And then, oh, that God would deliver us from regrets in that little pinhead of time. [01:08:26] I refuse to let the Lord do this and this in my life. And I wouldn't let him have his way there, and I wouldn't settle this issue and I wouldn't allow him to lead me into this or that. [01:08:38] Dear friends, we shall regret it for the whole of eternity, won't we? I would. Wouldn't you to see that you held on to some stupid little issue in your life that you thought would please you and lost an eternity of usefulness to God. You won't lose your salvation, but you could lose an eternity of usefulness to God. And think of the joy of having a position in the government of God, of having a position in the Zion of God, of having a position as being part of the bride of Christ, the wife of the lamb. How wonderful when it's looked like that. You understand why Paul spoke of our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Of course, you see it when you see it light, that you can see it in no other way. Isn't it true? [01:09:30] And listen to what this psalmist says. If he says, the set time is come, he says, thy servants take pleasure in her stone and have pity upon her dust. I don't know whether you have any pleasure in the living stones around you. [01:09:49] I think some of us, all we ever see are all the sort of faults and blemishes and breakdowns and failures and everything else about the living stones around us. But it says, thy servants take pleasure in her stone. [01:10:05] What a wonderful thing it would be if I could see you as one of those stones that God has quarried out of the life of Christ and take pleasure in it. And you could see me as a living stone quarried out of the life of Christ and take pleasure in it. Have pity upon her dust. [01:10:26] I don't think we have too much pity upon her dust. Frankly, we don't show always very much pity to one another when it comes to these things. Well, I think that's enough for one night. But isn't it marvelous that God has made a divine provision of grace and power for the building of Zion? [01:10:49] Weve talked all about Zion tonight. [01:10:52] And if youre born of God, youre in Zion. Youre born of Zion. Youre registered in Zion. Youve got the highways to Zion, or should have in your heart. [01:11:04] What about starting to walk in them? [01:11:11] Doesnt matter how young you are, you can take the first step tonight. [01:11:18] You can go to the Lord in your own quiet. You say, Lord, I want to walk worthily of the calling with which youve called me. [01:11:32] I want to begin to understand this matter, because, you see, it wont be all that long before all that we see is shaken and disappears. [01:11:51] We speak about being in the last part of the age, but none of us really finally face up to what its going to mean to live in the last, as I said last night, not the least bit afraid about it. It's wonderful. [01:12:06] But we need to face up to the fact that you're not going to have months and months and months. Not, certainly not years. And I very much doubt that you'll have months warning in which you can suddenly turn around, turn over a new leaf and start to learn all the lessons you ought to have learnt over years and really get the experience you should have had. You can't do it. [01:12:28] What you need to do, if you're wise in the Lord, is to start now very simply, and you start with the king, not with the kingdom, start with the king, really have it out with the Lord and start with him, and then begin to get your relationship when you've got it right with him, with others. [01:12:58] And then God will start to do this work of building up Zion amongst us. And then maybe, praise God, we shall know something of the glory of God appearing in Zion and his ruling out of Zion. May he do it. Shall we pray? [01:13:22] Lord, weve talked about Zion tonight and, Lord, it can either be just a subject that is sort of a dusty subject, a biblical subject, or lord, thou canst make it a living reality to us, and thou canst take just one thing, o Lord, and thou canst shine it like a shaft of light into our hearts. [01:13:45] Lord, wilt thou do that? Grant, lord, that spirit of grace and of wisdom and revelation will be given to us in this matter. Bring home this to us. Lord, we pray for those who are really young in thee, those who are just in the early years of their life, but know thee as lord and savior. Lord, wilt thou reveal this matter of Zion to such we pray may come to those who are older with real freshness. Lord, like a clarification from on high. And for those who are young, let it come with all that glorious, illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we pray that we shall all be found really seeking for the city which has the foundations whose builder and maker is thyself. [01:14:49] And Lord, we ask this together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.