The City of God – The Issue of Human History

[00:00:00] The 46th psalm. [00:00:04] God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. [00:00:12] Therefore will we not fear. Though the earth do change. [00:00:18] And though the mountains be shaken into the heart of the seas, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof. [00:00:33] There is a river. [00:00:35] The streams whereof make glad the city of God. The holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. [00:00:44] God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. [00:00:50] God will help her. Her and that right early the nations raged. [00:00:58] The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice. [00:01:04] The earth melted. [00:01:07] The Lord of hosts is with us. [00:01:11] The God of Jacob is our refuge. [00:01:18] Behold the works of the Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease. Unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear. In sunder, he burneth the chariots in the fire. [00:01:37] Be still and know that I am God. [00:01:43] I will be exalted among the nations. [00:01:47] I will be exalted in the earth. [00:01:51] The Lord of hosts is with us. [00:01:56] The God of Jacob is our refuge. [00:02:10] Well, now, this evening I want to pass on a few more thoughts, or perhaps better, a burden that's on my heart. From this psalm. I do believe that the last time I spoke before I went on my journeys other than the Thursday evening was on this psalm. You remember when we had that week of fellowship and prayer? This was one of the passages that was given to us in the course of that week. [00:02:52] And we felt that there was, in the midst of all the confusion and change and conflict, the storm. There was a river from God which would make us glad and would carry us forward, as it were, in that great divine current of God's power and grace, to the final and ultimate fulfillment of his will in our day and age. [00:03:23] Well, I've already said something about this psalm, but I want this evening to take perhaps another aspect of it and underline it, because I am quite sure that it is of vital importance. So shall we just have one further word of prayer and trust him for an anointing, for speaking and hearing. Now, Lord, we praise thee, that we can launch forward now into thy word, trusting thee, because thou hast anointed the head, our Lord Jesus. And that anointing has flowed down to the hem of the garment and includes every one of us, speaker and hearer alike. So, dear beloved Lord, we take what we need now. Speak to us. Make it alive. Lord, we pray, even if we think we know all about it. May it come to us, Lord, with living vitality and freshness, may the eyes of our hearts be opened. And if they are opened, may our sight be cleansed. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:04:34] Now, I hardly need to say that the situation all around the psalmist is only too apparent in this psalm. Far from being a lovely, peaceful summer's day with birds twittering and a heat haze and the kind of sense of swinging in a hammock strung between two balmy trees, it's all an atmosphere of trouble. Verse two, our very present help in trouble in verse one. Verse two, the earth changing, an earthquake. Mountains being shaken into the heart of the seas. [00:05:24] Verse three, catastrophe, storm, the waters thereof roaring and being troubled, shaking though the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof. Verse six. Nations raging and kingdoms uttering their voice, or rather the kingdoms being moved. And in verse nine, wars, not just war, but wars. So that's the background of this psalm. [00:06:00] Now, even if a little pimple like Richmond Hill were to be shaken into the heart of the sea, it would cause us some consternation. [00:06:10] For such a shaking as to shake something like that into the sea would surely unmove most of us, possibly unmind us. [00:06:22] We would be very, very surprised and very, very shaken ourselves if such a thing were to happen. Yet the psalmist speaks of change all around. In the Bible, mountains nearly always symbolize perpetuity, something that goes on, something that's immovable. But he speaks of things which, generally speaking, we take as immovable and unshakable as changing the earth, changing the mountains being shaken into the heart of the sea, waters roaring and being troubled by it, the mountains trembling with the swelling thereof from the sea. That's the surrounding, the surrounding background, if you like, of this psalm, the situation in which the psalmist finds himself. Therefore, it's all the more wonderful when we find this great cry of faith not in the center of the psalm, but at the very beginning of the psalm. [00:07:24] He doesn't start off by telling us that the earth is changing, that mountains are going to be shaken into the heart of the sea, that the waters would roar and be troubled by it. The mountains tremble with the swelling thereof. He starts off with this simple, profound statement. God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear. [00:07:56] Then he tells us about the problem. [00:08:01] We will not fear. Heres the problem. Now we also find ourselves in just the same kind of situation. God has said that he will shake not only the earth, but the heavens. [00:08:15] We read in Hebrews and chapter twelve, Hebrews chapter twelve and verse 26, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well pleasing to God with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. [00:09:04] We understand from this great passage in Hebrews twelve that theres going to come a great shaking, and that God is not only going to shake things visible, but things invisible, so that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that the things which are absolutely unshakable, that is the kingdom of heaven, of God, may remain. [00:09:29] So we learn one great thing, that behind all this earthquake, behind all this change, behind all this shaking, God stands. [00:09:41] It's not that he's just using Satan. God has said, I will shake, I will shake. Now we must ask ourselves immediately, why? [00:09:51] What is it that God is doing? [00:09:54] Does he shake it for the delight of it? [00:09:57] Does he shake everything to show his power and majesty? Is God as immature as that? [00:10:04] Is he as little and as petty as that? What is it that God is trying to do? If we turn back to Haggai and chapter two, we find the quotation, we find the passage from that the writer to the Hebrews has quoted Haggai two six for thus saith the Lord of hosts. Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. [00:11:04] So we know that theres a great shaking. [00:11:07] I suppose most of us are aware that were in it in more ways than one. This century, of all the centuries in history, I suppose, has been the century of shaking after thousands of years of things remaining more or less as they have been the history of man. With one or two modifications, adjustments, and advances. Suddenly, in the last hundred years, we find tremendous change, sweep over the whole world, and we are seeing that change now, speeding up on every side. We see things changing, things being shaken. We see turmoil, we see fear, we see conflict, we see challenge, we see storm. [00:11:56] Truly the nations are raging and the kingdoms are moved. [00:12:02] There is, of course, war. I hardly need to say that even tonight, politically, economically, morally, religiously, everything that can be shaken is being shaken. Now, we have already said quite a bit about this, so forgive me, those of you who've not perhaps been before, if I leave that and go on. The fact is we are in the midst of an unparalleled shaking. And as a nation we are, we are surrendering some of our sovereignty and going, if the Lord allows it, into the common market, that, apart from anything else, is something of change. [00:12:57] If ever there was change, then there is one very big change indeed. [00:13:05] And naturally we might well wonder exactly what it will all mean, how it's going to affect us spiritually above everything else. [00:13:16] What is the issue now? What is the issue? [00:13:26] Why is God shaking everything? [00:13:30] Why is he using everything he can to speed up that shaking? [00:13:36] Why some things that may appear to us to be quite precious and worthwhile, why are they not being saved? [00:13:43] Why are they? Why is God, as it were, shaking them to pieces, allowing them to crumble, allowing them to collapse? What is the issue behind it all? [00:13:56] If I were to ask you, what is the issue in human history? Could you tell me, would you be able to write down from the word of God what you feel to be the issue issue in human history? Well, let me put it another way. What is the issue in God's dealings with mankind? From the beginning, you really write it down in a sentence or two. [00:14:29] There are many things that people would say, but I think we have it in this psalm, this 46th psalm. The issue is the city of God. [00:14:43] Now people will say, well, now, I don't really. I don't know whether I agree with that. Isn't the issue the glory of God? And I will return my saying, and what is the city of God if it is not the glory of God? [00:15:02] The city of God is the eternal habitation and expression of the glory of God. [00:15:11] Someone else will then say to me, I think the issue of human history, of God's dealings with mankind, is our redemption. [00:15:22] I take issue with you on that, that the redemption is the most foundational and fundamental, the most essential thing in the history of mankind. I have no question. But it's not the issue. [00:15:42] It is God's means to an end. [00:15:47] His whole redeeming purpose, his whole purpose of redemption, his whole great plan of salvation is to bring us back to this original issue, the city, however you like to look at it, it's found in many different ways. [00:16:11] But when we come to the very last chapters of the Bible, we find that all the different strands are somehow woven together. [00:16:25] Sometimes the church is called the body of Christ. [00:16:31] Sometimes its called the Israel of God. [00:16:36] Sometimes its called the temple of God. [00:16:41] Sometimes its called the body of the Lord Jesus. [00:16:47] Sometimes it's called the bride. [00:16:55] It's called all by many different titles. But when we come to the last chapters of the Bible, it's all summed up in two terms, the bride and the city. Of course, you've never heard of anyone describing their bride as a city, and youve never heard anyone describe a city as a bride. [00:17:19] But thats what God does. [00:17:22] This issue, which lies behind the whole of the history of mankind, behind the human story, is all to do with the city. It's something to do with the city. [00:17:43] Well, now, can we really have a look a little more deeply at this? Just find out. Some people might say, if they look at this, psalm 46 surely the issue is the river. [00:17:58] There is a river. [00:18:00] This is just where we make our big mistake. [00:18:06] The river is not the issue. [00:18:11] Others might say, well, surely the real thing is going to be the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. No, thats not the issue. Why is the Lord Jesus coming back? [00:18:26] Hes coming back for something. No, hes coming back for someone. [00:18:31] He's coming back for this city. [00:18:34] He's coming back for the bride. [00:18:37] So however we look, we begin to discover that even if we see the river, which is the very life of God made available to us by the Holy Spirit, we see that the issue is the city. There is a river. The streams whereof make glad the city of God. [00:18:54] There's not a river in itself, but it's a river that does something, a river that feeds something, a river that, as it were, vitalizes something, a river that takes hold of something for God, fills it with divine joy and divine worship and divine service and so on and so forth. The city, that is the issue. Now, I've already said, the Bible ends with the city. It ends with the city. And in the very last verses, we have these wonderful words. The spirit and the bride say, come now. That's how the Bible ends, more or less with just a few more words. It ends just like that. You can check it. Revelation 22. [00:19:54] What is the issue then in these days? Why is God now speeding everything up? Why does he say, I will not only shake the earth, I will shake the heavens, the sea and the dry land? Every single aspect of the human environment is going to be shaken to its foundations. I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come. [00:20:19] And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. That's the issue again. In another word, putting it in another way, I will fill this house with glory. John saw the city of God coming down out of heaven, having the glory of God. [00:20:37] I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord. That's the issue of human history. Now, let me remind you, you students of scripture, however young you are, in the Lord as one verse, surely you all know, for there is no distinction or there is no difference. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [00:21:04] What is this glory of God? That we have fallen short of this salvation, which was God's answer to our falling short of his glory, which brings us back into glory, so that we can say that God has called us to his eternal glory in Christ right at the very beginning. It's all there, you see? [00:21:35] Abraham, who is called in scripture the father of all who believe, and the beginning of the people of God as a people rather than a family. [00:21:47] Abraham, it is said of him, he sought the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. Now that is Hebrews chapter eleven and verse ten. [00:22:08] Hebrews eleven and verse ten. [00:22:16] For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and architect or maker is God. Now do you realize that the whole of the Bible from Genesis twelve is almost comprehended in those verses? [00:22:34] Going right back to Genesis chapter twelve when God spoke to Abraham and told him to get out. Now, all the way through scripture. Forgive me if I seem a bit disjointed, but all the way through scripture you have two cities. [00:22:52] Two cities. One city that we're told to get out of. [00:22:57] And the other city into which God, by his grace, has brought us and is bringing us. [00:23:05] Abraham was in a city of no small stature. [00:23:11] Ah, of the Chaldees in those days, greater than Babel was, just as it were a small place, a village in comparison, are other Chaldees. [00:23:23] As I've often said to you, Abraham was not some wandering, smelly bitch. [00:23:29] Some would have us believe. He was a man of education, a man of standing, a man of culture. [00:23:36] Ur of the Cowleys had a very, very high standard of civilization. Its post offices, its banking houses, its paved streets, its shops for ladies, its salons for ladies. Hairdo, its cosmetics, it's jewellery shops. All these things were out of the cab. They didn't have electricity, they didn't have the car or the airplane. [00:24:06] And they didn't have modern sanitation, but they had pretty well everything else. [00:24:14] Ur of the Chaldees. Now the God of glory, there it is again. [00:24:19] The God of glory appeared to our Father Abraham and said to him, get thee out of ur of the Chaldees into a land that I will show you. [00:24:35] Oh, you say, well, that was a geographical portion of the earth. That was what we call Palestine. What we now know is Israel. [00:24:47] No, no, you're quite wrong. The scripture says he didn't look for a city which was geographical in that sense. He didn't look for something which was physical in that sense. True, he did. God promised him a certain portion of the earth for him and for his seed forever. [00:25:06] But it was the city which has the foundations that he looked for. Ur of Chaldees. Of the Chaldees with all its glory and all its civilization, all its culture, all its art, all its commercial genius didn't have foundation as far as God was concerned. It was built on sand. The sand of human genius, the sand of human resource, the sand of human ability. [00:25:39] Abraham, God, the God of glory, took hold of Abraham, chose him for glory. [00:25:48] And what does it mean? [00:25:50] Some kind of victorian pomp and splendour. Drums and trumpets and someone pinning some medal on our chests telling us that we are, we've done well in this life? Is that what it means? No, I don't think so. I don't think that's what it means at all. The glory of God is nothing other than nothing less than the expression of the life and nature and character of God. [00:26:25] Visible expression. [00:26:27] That's glory, if you like the expression of the presence of God. Glory. The God of glory appeared to our father. Abraham, took hold of him. Had the God of glory appeared to you? [00:26:45] Do you know why you've been saved? [00:26:48] Do you know why the father sent the son to be the savior of the world? [00:26:52] Do you understand what is the goal of your so great salvation? [00:26:58] Do you also realize that you are no longer an inhabitant of this world, of the city down here, but you are a pilgrim and a sojourner, a citizen of another city. Oh, there's so much in scripture. You see, it says that he looked for the city which has the foundations. We read all about those foundations in revelation 21. [00:27:25] Oh, what foundations they are. Have you ever heard of a city with twelve foundations, each layer an incredibly precious stone? [00:27:36] That's this city. [00:27:39] And think again. Whose builder and maker is God? Did you know that the whole issue of human history is a building program? [00:27:50] Did you know that God is a builder, a spiritual builder. God is producing something. God is creating something. God is building something. He is both the architect and the builder. He has a mind, a design in his mind, a conception, a glorious conception. He is the architect of something. Not just your salvation, but what he saved you into. [00:28:16] That's called in the word of God, the city of God, or the bride of the lamb. [00:28:33] We find much more about it in scripture than just that. If you turn to Hebrews chapter eleven again, and verse 16, Hebrews 1116. But now they desire a better country. That is a heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. [00:28:56] There it is again. [00:28:58] He is the builder and the architect. He has prepared for them a city. These people who've got up and gone out, these people who are no longer inhabitants of this earth, but only pilgrims. Through it, God has prepared for them a city. Now, the issue of all God's dealings with mankind is this building program of his. [00:29:26] It is very interesting that when the Lord Jesus wanted to sum up the whole collision between himself and the jewish hierarchy in his own time, he put it like the stone which the builders have rejected, God has made the chief cornerstone. [00:29:53] In other words, he explained, as it were, the whole of jewish history, the whole of Old Testament history, in terms of a building program, and himself as the great foundation and cornerstone of the whole architecture of God. [00:30:08] And these who should have known God and should love God, they had rejected the building program and without realizing it, without hardly realising it, put themselves out of the building altogether, because God's not going to be frustrated. God is not going to be thwarted. God's going to go on. And this is what happens when we withstand God's building work, when we pour scorn upon it, when we deride it or devalue it, we put ourselves out of the building altogether. God says, very well, I will not forsake you, I will not take your salvation away from me. But if you want to put yourself out of my building program, you can do so if you want to be saved, so as by fire you can be. [00:31:13] It's quite simple. [00:31:16] We find this whole matter of these cities everywhere. [00:31:21] The builder and architect, God. [00:31:25] You look again at Galatians. Turn back to Galatians, chapter four, verse 26 27. But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. [00:31:42] For it is written, rejoice, thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry, thou that travellest not. For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband. Now, I wonder how many of you have recognized where that passage comes from. [00:32:02] It comes. Turn back to it. Isaiah, chapter 54, and verse one. Now where does Isaiah, chapter 54, verse one come? Immediately at the end of Isaiah, chapter 53. [00:32:18] Now that may all seem to be very, very simple. But we all know Isaiah, chapter 53, don't we? What is it? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so it goes on. [00:32:51] And then when you come to chapter 54 and verse one, what do you read? [00:32:57] Here it is chapter 54, verse one. [00:33:02] Sing, o barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more of the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. What is he speaking about? He's speaking about Babylon. [00:33:21] She seems to be so glorious, so wealthy, so powerful, so cosmopolitan. But God says, let Jerusalem rejoice. [00:33:32] She's despised, derided, provincial in the eyes of many. [00:33:39] But more are the children of the desolate than of the married. What is all this? The result of the saving work of Jesus Christ? [00:33:50] He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our. Who is our mother? [00:33:57] Jerusalem, which is above the mother of us all. Are you born of God? [00:34:02] Are you born of the spirit of God? Have you been begotten again by a living hope? By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Your mother is Jerusalem above. [00:34:15] Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has, as it were, begotten us. [00:34:23] What a strange way of putting it. [00:34:26] Jerusalem, which is above the mother of us all. Turn to Hebrews, chapter twelve. Now Hebrews, chapter twelve. Weve heard about Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of these others. Now turn to chapter twelve and verse 22. Ye but ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. [00:34:56] Youve come. So this is what God has been doing in history. First he takes hold of Abraham and tells him, get out. And he went out looking for this city which has the foundations, and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and so on. Moses, David, Samuel, the prophets. All of them were looking for this city. All of them went out looking for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. That was the issue. [00:35:33] Now what does the writer say to the Hebrews, you have come there too? [00:35:39] For he says in chapter eleven, verse 30 40, God having provided some bitter thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. [00:35:54] We always tend to think of these Old Testament saints as rather pathetic, you know, sort of added in after us. We are the one. [00:36:02] We are the people. Because the greatest in the kingdom of the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. But the Lord Jesus didn't mean that we are the least in character. He meant the least in privilege. [00:36:22] The least child of God in the kingdom is greater than John. The baptism privilege, let me put it that way. [00:36:32] These people in the Old Testament, all of them, God would said, now just wait, just wait. I've got a huge innumerable number of gentiles from every land and kingdom, hindered and tongue and nation that I want to bring into this city. [00:36:51] So you must wait. [00:36:54] And so it says that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. He said, I'm not going to complete. I'm not going to perfect what I have concerning you till I've got all this, not in what's the scripture calls the fullness of the Gentiles. [00:37:12] Now isnt that wonderful when you start to think about it? Now, in the same book, same letter, chapter 13 and verse 14, we seem to have a contradiction. [00:37:26] For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come. So first were told weve come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem. [00:37:38] And now we are told we have no abiding city here, but we seek the one which is to come. We are both in it and seeking it. [00:37:47] Potentially we are there, but we have got to be brought there in experience. [00:37:56] Somethings got to be done in us to realize our calling. Oh, how amazing all that really is. Now, I've already said that in scripture there are two cities. And we find this all the way through the Bible. [00:38:15] Almost from the beginning, I suppose no more clearly than in Babylon. [00:38:24] Now you go right back into Genesis to find the beginnings of Babylon. And it's in Genesis, chapter eleven and verses one to nine. Now is this not interesting? Just before we are introduced to Abraham in chapter twelve, we have in chapter eleven this other city. And here it is. I can't read it all, but I think most of you know what this passage is about. It's about the tower of Babel. [00:38:58] It's all about the tower of Babel. Now, many people think that Babylon is another place to Babel, but in Hebrew. Babylon is babel. Babel. [00:39:14] Babylon is the greek form. [00:39:18] It's not a hebrew word at all. It's greek form of the word babel. [00:39:24] So whenever you read in your old testament about Babylon, it's really Babel. Babel. It's babel. [00:39:33] Now, right there in those first chapters, in chapter eleven, we find, what is this city? What are they after? What do they want? [00:39:43] Man's genius, man's ability, man's resources. We will build us a tower that reaches unto him. And you know, in those few verses, you have all the aspirations, noble and base, summed up in the human city. [00:40:02] Don't think that God just says that everything about the human city, Babylon, is awful. [00:40:15] The aspirations often are good. They're noble. People are longing after something high, something good. What are they aspiring to? They're aspiring to heaven. They want to get to heaven. Isn't that why some of us get so confused when we read what unsaved people write? When we investigate the philosophy and the ideology of so much which is non Christian, we think, well, the aspirations are so good, they're trying to bring our utopia on earth. They smirk at us, they deride us because they say, you people, you talking all about the future, the future, the future. As Mark said, we want to do something for the earth. [00:40:59] We want to build Jerusalem on the earth. [00:41:04] That's Babel. Babel. [00:41:07] We will build something which reaches heaven. [00:41:11] We will build something which brings heaven down onto earth and brings earth up to heaven. We will build something which will span the way between man and heaven, that will bring this golden ideal into realization. [00:41:31] Human aspiration. [00:41:35] We look through the cities of the world, doesn't matter what they are. Rome, Paris, Washington, London, oh, all the cities of the world, and we find the same thing. [00:41:54] Man's wealth, man's genius, man's resources, man's ability, art, man's intelligence, man's aspiration to somehow or other do something. [00:42:13] But Babel hasn't got the foundation. [00:42:19] And that's why what man sets out to do, he inevitably ends up in defeat, with the greatest aspirations in the world, even with a philosophy of freedom. He ends up with bonding an ideology that was meant to set people free, take communism. [00:42:41] The very tenets of communism are to set people free. [00:42:45] But there is no system on the whole earth that destroys freedom, individual freedom and corporate freedom like communism. [00:42:58] Why are so many people taken in? [00:43:01] Why are so many people now swinging to Maoism as the purer form of Marxism? Because of the tenets of the thing. The tenets of the things seem to be so good. [00:43:15] We're told this is after all only that New Testament Christianity without the religion. [00:43:23] So people are taken in. [00:43:26] It's the age old controversy. Which city? Which city? Babylon. Jerusalem. Babel? Jerusalem. Which, which. [00:43:41] We see it all the way through history. Why? I dont know whether some of you feel like I do sometimes. [00:43:51] I think all of us have got a bit of Babylonians. [00:43:54] Thats the trouble. [00:43:56] You know when I was first saved I could never understand some of those chapters in revelation whether all the saints in heaven just went mad when God destroyed Babylon. [00:44:11] They just shouted with joy and they had a great hallelujah chorus exceeding anything that Handel wrote absurd. Oh I used to think, I don't think I could do that. [00:44:25] When you think of Beethoven and Brahm and Schubert, when you think of some of those, those buildings that Goethe called frozen music, when you think of some of the literature in the world with its beauty and its understanding and its depth, now you smile because you think, oh well I don't know. I think I'll say hello, Hallelujah. But I'm not so sure about that. I'm not so sure about that. You probably hadn't thought about it. [00:45:11] There are not so many people who would like to see everything destroyed, everything blown up, everything dynamited in this world. [00:45:19] They think that God, when he does it, is going to say this and this and this and this. [00:45:23] But you see the whole point is this is human endeavour, human genius, human aspiration. But it has no foundation. [00:45:33] It's the city without the foundation. [00:45:40] And so as we look through scripture we find that these two Babylon, Jerusalem. And when we come to the book of revelation, the whole thing is heightened. We now discover that it's not the real baby at all. [00:45:56] We find in the book of revelation that now the term is being used of something spiritual, something worldwide. London is Babylon, Rome is Babylon, Paris is Babylon, Washington is Babylon, Moscow is Babylon, Tokyo is Babylon, Peking is Babylon. It's all Babylon. We find it's all putting contra distinction to a Jerusalem which is above, not the Jerusalem down on earth. Even in revelation eleven it tells us that Jerusalem on earth is Babylon. [00:46:27] In fact, I think I might in saying it's called Sodom. [00:46:35] All of it is put on one side and on the other the Jerusalem which is above, we see the most amazing vision. [00:46:48] That's the story through the Bible. Now I think it takes the eye of faith and much more than faith, devotion and experience to be able to say hallelujah to the destruction of all that other. [00:47:07] A lot of us have got too much to lose to be able to say hallelujah. We've got too much of a foot in it to say hallelujah. We're too much part of it. Say hallelujah. We've got 1ft in the city and 1ft in Babylon. [00:47:23] As if somehow or other we can be citizens of two. But we can't. We can only be citizens of one city. [00:47:32] The Lord Jesus put it again. In other words, you can't serve God and mammon for either. You will love one and despise the other. [00:47:43] What's that? You can't do it. [00:47:48] Well, well, what do we say about all this? [00:47:53] You turn back to Isaiah, chapter 13, and then begin to understand that some of these prophets, they saw far more than some christian scholars. [00:48:07] Look at Isaiah 13. Now this Isaiah, chapter 13 is the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw. [00:48:18] Now, when you read church, you see it's all about the destruction of Babylon. [00:48:23] And then listen to this. [00:48:28] Verse 19. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. The beauty of the Chaldeans pride should be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. [00:48:37] It shall never be inhabited. [00:48:40] Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there. Neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. Now you say? Well, yes, all right. But now, have you ever noticed chapter 14? [00:48:59] Remember Isaiah didn't get these prophecies with chapters and verses. [00:49:05] Some dear old monk in the 15th century did all that for us. [00:49:10] This was just a message. Now go on in chapter 14. And what do we find? Verse twelve. [00:49:18] How art. How art thou fallen from heaven, o day, star, sun of the morning? [00:49:25] How art thou cut down to the ground that didst lay low the nations. [00:49:31] And thou sends in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven. Isn't that babel? [00:49:39] So now we find an extraordinary thing. We find that Lucifer, the Satan himself, the serpent, is behind Babylon. [00:49:53] And now this prophecy concerning Babylon has moved from what is visible to what lies behind. [00:50:00] From London, its streets, to what lies behind it. [00:50:08] Not just mans pride and mans glory and mans genius, but the God of this world. [00:50:21] When you look right through this, then you understand and come to the last part of that chapter 14. And read these verses from verse 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying, surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purpose, so shall it stand that I will break the Assyrian. That's just the Babylonian in one sense. In my land and upon my mountains tread him under foot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them and is burdened apart from off their shoulder. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. [00:50:59] And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. Whose hand? God's hand. [00:51:05] For the Lord of hosts hath purposed. And who shall annul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back. Now, what the Lord is saying here is this, that in the end he's going to deal once and for all not only with the outward manifestation of Lucifer, but but with Lucifer himself. [00:51:25] Now, when you come to revelation, you come to revelation 1718 and 19. That's exactly what you have. You see in chapter 17, this woman riding on a scarlet covered beast. She's a prostitute. And what does she have written on her head? Mystery. Babylon the great. [00:51:49] And then we hear the great cry, Babylon is fallen. Chapter 18, verse 21. And the strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, thus with a mighty fall shall babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee. And no craftsman of whatsoever craft shall be found any more at all in thee. And the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in thee. Culture, art, music, commerce, and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee. And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the princes of the earth. For with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth. Now after these things, I heard, as it were, the great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, hallelujah. [00:53:01] Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication. And he hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And a second time they say, Hallelujah. [00:53:19] And her smoke goeth up forever and ever. That's what they say. [00:53:25] And the four and 20 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, amen. Hallelujah. [00:53:35] And a voice came forth from the throne saying, give praise to our God, all ye his servants, ye that fear him, the small and the great and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters. Now some of you were at the festival of light, and I understand you were tremendously taken with all those thousands and thousands of people singing. [00:53:57] But what will it be like in heaven? [00:54:01] Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions. [00:54:10] Innumerable number. [00:54:15] It says their voice is the voice of many waters. That's the only way. Just like many, many waters. Noise and many waters and a voice of mighty thunders. And what do they say? Hallelujah. For the Lord God the omnipotent reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him. For the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. [00:54:46] Now that's just the issue of that. We have same put in a different way in psalm 46. [00:54:56] The earth changing, mountains being shaken into the heart of the sea, waters roaring and being troubled by it, mountains trembling with the swelling. Thereon there is a river. The streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place, his tabernacles. [00:55:19] Or, you know, it really is so wonderful when you begin to see what the issue is. [00:55:30] Nor is it something sentimental. [00:55:34] It's not just that. Oh, one day we're going to walk the streets of gold. [00:55:41] We're going to go through the early games. [00:55:44] That lovely picture that some people have got. This city may not even be a literal city like that. [00:55:52] This city is a people. [00:55:54] This city is a people that somehow God has done something so glorious and so wonderful in that he's produced in them and through them material out of which he's created this habitation. [00:56:09] Quite as simple as that. [00:56:15] Now really, I think we shall end more or less there this evening and we'll leave anything further we have to say to another time. But let me just end here. [00:56:29] The psalmist says, there is a river, the streams whereof makes land, the city of God. [00:56:43] In other words, something has been made available to us, mark you. It doesnt say there will be a river, the streams which will make clad the city of God. It doesnt say that. It doesnt say there might be a river. For those of you who are specially good or especially elite or of a kind of upper class spiritually, it doesn't say that. [00:57:13] It says simply, there is a river. [00:57:20] How comes that some people can experience that river and right next to them the someone else that it doesn't touch, that river is flowing right through this room. [00:57:40] Not because this room is anything, but because we are people of God. [00:57:46] It isn't amazing to me that wherever the people of God are, there is the river. But how few find it because they can't feel it, because they can't hear it, because they can't physically see it. They just seem to feel it, can't be there. [00:58:04] Who yet has seen the Holy Spirit? [00:58:09] Has anyone seen the Holy Spirit with these eyes? [00:58:18] But the Holy Spirit is here. [00:58:21] What is that river? [00:58:23] That river. To put it absolutely right, in technical words, that river is the resurrection, life and power of Jesus Christ made available to us through the Holy Spirit. [00:58:38] The rivers in scripture always speak of life, always speak of the spirit. Let me just give you an example. He that believeth on me from within him shall flow out rivers of living water. This spake, he of the spirit. [00:58:57] What then is this river? [00:58:59] Why? [00:59:01] Why is it that some know it, some don't. You see, there are some believers who haven't even as yet started paddling in the river. [00:59:10] There are others who are paddling and never get any further. [00:59:16] Fearfully dithering on the brink, tripping backwards and forwards in their normal garments, trousers rolled up a little paddling on the. Now, if you read Ezekiel 47, that's what you find. You find there are some there watered up to the ankles. They're just in paddling. They haven't got to disrobe or sacrifice anything or give anything away. Just roll up the trousers or lift the skirts. Of course, some of you won't need that, not with the mini, but I mean with the mix. And you might just leave it. [00:59:57] In you go paddling then. You may. If there are some who've gone a little deeper, it's up to the knees. Now that's a little more difficult. Some gentlemen are very good, especially if they have slim legs, to be able to roll up the trouser and still not sacrifice anything. [01:00:16] And some of the ladies can hold the skirts up in a decorous manner and still have water up to the knees. But then comes the divide water up to the thigh. [01:00:34] That means you've got to take a step there. [01:00:39] You need to be clothed for it or jump in fully clothed. [01:00:47] But you've got to make a decision. [01:00:51] And then there's water to swim in. Now, I want to say that if you've left your clothes when you took that step to go in up to your thighs, you're going to have some problem when it comes to swimming. [01:01:05] You'll have wished then that you'd got the right things on. [01:01:09] Now, I'm not just being folly, because this is just true of us. All the scripture says there is a river. Not there will be a river. There might be a river. There's a river that comes just to those who are good. The scripture says there is a river. This river doesn't flow when everything's good and everything's right and everything's marvelous. This river is found in the midst of storm, of darkness, of earthquake, of catastrophe, of trouble. When nations are raging, when kingdoms are being moved, when there are wars, there is this river all the time. In the midst of it, when things are being shaken to their foundations, overturned, the river flows just as strong. It's not hindered by any of these things, sunshine or storm. The river flows strongly. Why then, is it that some don't find that river? [01:02:07] Is it that somehow or other, we think we've got to take some kind of step which creates the river? [01:02:16] Some people seem to think that they've got to do something which somehow, suddenly, it comes into being. [01:02:23] But he doesn't say that. It says, there is a river. It's there. All you've got to do is to step into it, take your birthright, claim your possession, step into it. Now, this isn't just something personal. [01:02:38] It must begin personal. That's why Ezekiel 47 says, there are some paddling, some up to their knees, some up to their thighs. You can't all just go in together like some would like to all link arms, and we'll all jump in together. So the whole company. No, no, no. This is an individual thing. Some of us are there, and some of us are here, and some of us are there, and some of us are right out lost in the ocean of God's life. [01:03:08] But you see, the importance of this whole thing is that it is this river in which alone are found the materials out of which the city are built. Now, that may seem very crazily mixed up to you, but if you look in Genesis chapter two, you find there's another river there, and you're told you're to follow its course, and you find. Go follow its course. You find precious stone, follow its course, and you find something called bedellium. That's a kind of aromatic plant, which, when you break, a kind of substance comes out which hardens like a pearl. [01:03:50] And some of the rabbis in the Lord's day argued as to whether really, in fact, it was the kind of pearl that's found in the Euphrates, the mouth of the. [01:04:02] But whatever it is, we've got three things. [01:04:05] We've got gold and precious. Now, someone says, I think that's very pensionable. Right. Well, why do you think in Genesis chapter two, this mention is made? Why do we have to follow a river? What's the point of it? Is God so stupid? [01:04:20] Some people seem to think that God is inane. [01:04:24] No. Will he just say that to sort of titivate us, to sort of befog us virtually? Why does it say, follow the river and you find the gold, and the gold of that land is good, and. Go on. And you find ionic stone, which symbolizes on the high priest's shoulders, all the other twelve different stones. Why? [01:04:50] Why is it that when you come to the end of the Bible, you find only three materials out of which the city is made? Gold, precious stone, pearl. [01:05:00] Don't you see that these are all qualities of Christ? [01:05:06] Don't you see that all these things are aspects of the nature and life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ? And that that is the material which has got to be brought into us, which has got to be found, which has got to be exploited. It's in its war state. [01:05:24] Every believer has got gold in its natural state, in him, in a sense, every believer has got deep, deep down in his circumstances in his life, precious stone waiting to be mined, waiting to be taken hold of every believer. [01:05:40] I must be careful on this, but every believer is like a clam with a soft centre into which grit can fall some time or another. And by the energizing grace and power of God, that grit is turned into a pearl. [01:05:59] It's all there. [01:06:01] How much material is there in you? [01:06:05] What are you sending up? You've all heard the story of the very rich lady on her chauffeur, and when she arrived, they both had died. And when she arrived in heaven, she was being shown round. [01:06:24] She was all on tenterhooks to see her mansion. [01:06:32] And the angel said, oh, and there mister so and so, mister so and so lives there. What a mansion? She said, why, you know, he was my chauffeur. [01:06:43] Was he? Said the angel. [01:06:46] Oh, she said, I can't wait to see my place. [01:06:51] Can't you? Said the angel, and took her on down another avenue till they came to a small shack. [01:07:01] This is yours. [01:07:03] Mine? She said, this and my chauffeur's in that mansion? Yes, said the angel, this is all we could do with the material you sent up. [01:07:15] Now, that's only a little story, like a fairy tale. But the fact of the matter is, that's exactly what's happening. That's exactly what is happening. What kind of material are you sending up? One corinthians chapter three speaks of wood and stubble, which will be burnt up in the day of the Lord. [01:07:33] Lots of people are just sending up wood, hay and stubble. They think the city of God can be built with the same kind of stuff that Babylon's built on. [01:07:42] They've only got to consecrate it to God's work, throw it in, do as they will, live as they will. [01:07:50] They're going to be in it, they think. But the scripture speaks of being saved so as by fire. [01:07:59] The wood, the hay, the stubble is the material that you have produced and it's gone. You are saved, but you've lost something. [01:08:11] Go. [01:08:13] Precious stone, Pearl. [01:08:17] These are the things, the qualities of Christ, which can only come not through any sudden moment of experience. [01:08:27] They may begin in a glorious moment of experience, but they come through years of walking with God. [01:08:38] When all that happened to you in that moment is worked out in circumstances, in time. [01:08:47] Our time has gone. But you see, the point of this is quite simple. It's not just a question that one day we're going to be a city, are we? [01:09:01] Very much depends on what happens down here with us. [01:09:06] Our attitude to the Lord, our attitude to one another. [01:09:11] Why, that's this city is transparent as glass. [01:09:18] There's not a single thing from the heart of the city to its outside wall that stops the glory shining. [01:09:28] Multitudes and multitudes and multitudes of believers, so dealt with by the Holy Spirit in their relationship with the Lord and their relationship with one another, that they are transparent. [01:09:48] Then what about us when we are not transparent? [01:09:54] What about it? When there is trouble, when there is difficulty, when were not rightly related, when somehow or other things are disjointed, we can only say that that work is being hindered. [01:10:11] It's not just going to happen in the twinkling of an eye. So that somehow we say, when the Lord comes, the shadows are just going to flee like that? No, not at all. If we've been hindering the Lord's work in refining the goal, what can he do? [01:10:31] May God help us. [01:10:34] The issue of human history, of all God's dealings with mankind, is summed up in the city. [01:10:43] Babylon comes up from the earth, Jerusalem comes down from heaven. [01:10:53] The final word is Jerusalem. [01:10:59] That's the city which has the foundation, whose builder and architect is God. [01:11:09] And that's why God is shaking everything now, heaven and earth, dry land and sea, all nations. [01:11:19] So that in the light of the coming of the desire of all nations, he might fill this house with glory. [01:11:28] Oh, we need the Holy Spirit. [01:11:31] We need that river of life. [01:11:34] Are you in it? [01:11:39] Have you taken a step, by faith, into it? [01:11:43] If you're paddling, why don't you go in to your knees? And if you up to your knees, why don't you move in up to the bird? [01:11:53] And if you're up to your thighs, why don't you dive in? [01:12:00] Launch out into God. Lord, help us. Shall we pray now, beloved? Lord, we pray together. That thou wilt indeed get such material in all of us. How few of us really, Lord. Understand the issues of human history. [01:12:20] Dear Lord. Even when we've studied it, we hardly understand what it's all about. [01:12:25] But, Lord, we praise thee and we worship thee. That the issue underlying all thy dealings with. Is this city, this bride. [01:12:40] O God, what a privilege that thou shouldst have saved us with such a calling. [01:12:48] What a high calling. What an un high calling. Lord, may something of that glory dawn on our heart. [01:12:58] It says, the God of glory appear to our father, Abraham. O God of glory, appear to us also. [01:13:08] May we be captured for this, Lord. [01:13:13] May we be absolutely apprehended like Abraham for this, Lord. May we get up and go out looking for the city. Which has the foundation of which thou art both builder and architect, Lord. Hear, we ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [01:13:39] Amen.