November 13, 1928
It is before me at this time to speak of the Lord Jesus in some of His circumstances on earth, and some of His circumstances in heaven. The first are past, and those we are about to speak of are future.
We will go back for a moment to the gospels, to that night in which the Lord was betrayed, and will follow Him in our thoughts as led by the Spirit of God, into Gethsemane; and we shall follow Him out of Gethsemane, and still follow Him—the bound, led, captive prisoner—into the palace of the high priest, and will watch Him there. See the reception and treatment He receives at the palace—shame, scorn, and spitting. We will follow Him from the palace of the high priest to the judgment hall of Pilate, and again we will watch and see what the Blessed One receives there-sorrow, grief, and shame. Follow Him from Pilate's hall to Herod's hall—the same thing. Follow Him from Herod's hall back to Pilate's hall, and it is the same thing. It is good for us to follow Him thus in our thoughts from place to place. Now follow Him from the judgment hall of Pilate to the "place called Calvary." And what about the place called Calvary? "There they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left" (Luke 23:3333And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. (Luke 23:33)). Such was the last of the Lord's circumstances in this world. Such was the answer He received for a life of untiring love and service.
Notice, after He leaves the judgment hall, and before He reaches Calvary, the striking instance of divine love in its care for others. A number of women follow and bewail Him, and well they might. He has forgotten His own circumstances for the moment, and turns to them saying, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." What a touching instance of the Savior's love, looking not on what was before Him, but what was before them, because of their rejection of Him. "For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" v. 31. The time had not yet come when Jerusalem would receive governmental retribution for the death of God's Son. "When the morning was come" (Matt. 27:11When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: (Matthew 27:1))—O fellow Christian, think of the night that had preceded that morning! Gather up the circumstances of the blessed Savior during His last days on earth. Think of what that life of His had been toward God and man—service, service, service to man—devotedness, devotedness, devotedness to God. It ended at Calvary, the place of the skull. Such is the answer this poor world has given to God sending His Son in infinite love into it. Can we wonder that the end of the world has come?
Luke 20. The parable of the vineyard let forth to husbandmen pictures God saying, "What shall I do" (v. 13)? I have sent My messengers. All they have received is shame, persecution, death, casting out. It is a wonderful thing, the Lord Jesus picturing God doing that, saying, "What shall I do?" There is but one resource—"I will send My Beloved." Did they reverence Him? What does Calvary tell? Did they give Him a crown?—a crown of thorns! Here is God's last resource. He did not have another. Now what shall that blessed God do? There was but one thing, and that which He had no pleasure in—draw the sword. Upon whom did the stroke fall? "Awake, 0 sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 13:77Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. (Zechariah 13:7)). God drew the sword and the stroke of judgment fell on His Son; and it is on that basis that mercy is offered now to man. It is well for old and young to remember that there is a suspended sentence over this world, and that suspended sentence is a sentence of judgment; and that is the next thing for God in His ways with this world.
We shall now speak of the blessed Lord in far different circumstances, as we find Him in the 4th and 5th chapters of Revelation. Chapter 4:1, "After this"—after what? Dear friends, there is a wonderful event to happen on earth, and a wonderful event to take place in heaven, that will change things on earth and things in heaven.
After what? After an event like this has taken place. A shout is heard, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God has removed all His redeemed from the earth; what has become of them? The shout has changed them all. What an event! And that is the very next thing that clears the way for judgment to fall on the earth. After this, after the Church's history is closed, there is a change in God's attitude toward the world. He sits on a different throne. Now, His throne is a throne of grace; but in Revelation 4, it is a throne of judgment. His attitude toward the world is not longer as a Savior God, the character in which He rejoices. Out of that throne in Revelation 4 proceeded "lightnings and thunderings and voices." When will this change take place? It will be according to the length of time of God's longsuffering and the prolongings of His patient grace toward this world.
When the redeemed are gathered home, heaven has a company which it has never had before—a vast company—and they are known as the redeemed. Well, there is that One sitting upon the throne—the throne in the rainbow. Why the rainbow? He is a faithful judge and remembers His covenant with the earth, when He set the rainbow in the cloud as a sign of mercy. Why is it seen before the throne, and what is the color of the rainbow? Green, "like unto an emerald." The freshness of His covenant with the earth is before Him, and all that redemption is founded on—sacrifice. And the bow in the cloud tells us about God having "smelled a sweet savor." (Gen. 8:821.) This is very instructive. What is the result of Abel's sacrifice? Personal acceptance. What is Noah's? Blessing for creation as such; these two things give us the double aspect and bearing of the sacrifice of Christ.
This Sitter upon the throne from which proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, is sitting there in silent majesty, while those that wait upon Him cry, "Holy, holy, holy." In Revelation 4 we have God in an atmosphere in which He is not at home. He has no pleasure in judgment. He delights to save, but His nature and His character force Him there.
How reluctantly He draws the sword; but when He draws it, He draws it. If there is an unsaved one in this room tonight, O take this warning. He has a book in His right hand, full, written within and without.
Chapter 5:2. "A strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice" through the universe. What does He say? "Who is worthy?" And the answer to the challenge was silence. This brings the Lord Jesus more definitely before us as the worthy One. "And I wept much, because no man was found worthy." What a strange sight, but what an instructive one, especially if our hearts are warm to Christ. The new nature, the new heart (an expression I do not often use) finds its joy in Christ, and in Christ exalted.
Verse 5 speaks of the "Lion of the tribe of Juda." In what circumstances have we seen the One here called the "Lion of the tribe of Juda"? Not in claiming or asserting His rights. In those circumstances, instead of being as the "Lion of the tribe of Juda," He is seen as a Lamb dumb before its shearers. Picture the Lord Jesus, His hands bound, receiving insult after insult, and answering when asked if He were the Christ the Son of God, "Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Matt. 26:6464Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64). "Nevertheless," in spite of all My circumstances, here I am your captive, as it seems at your mercy, but "hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power."
The world would have Him stay there "on the right hand of power," but there is a limit to His sitting there. He is coming, coming as the Son of man. That is what the world fears. It will be an awful day for it when the heavens are opened and the Son of man is revealed.
Here we have "the Lion of the tribe of Juda" as "a Lamb as it had been slain"—not the Lamb in His atoning character, but the Lamb as a sufferer at the hand of this world, the Lord "reckoned with the transgressors" (Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12); J.N.D. Trans.). When His praise is celebrated it is as the One who has accomplished redemption; but in verse 6 it is the Lamb character—the Man of sorrows and of shame and woe, in heaven.
The sufferings of the cross are divided and distinct in their character and result. They are divided into two three-hour periods. During the first three hours, God is allowing man to display what is in his heart toward Him; and that class of sufferings the Lord felt intensely, but the sword was not drawn yet. There is no atonement in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in the first three hours on the cross, but the manifestation of man's enmity; and had the stroke fallen then for these guilty ones, which it could have done in righteousness, it would have been their everlasting ruin. In these second three hours the Lord has to do with God. All is changed now. The sword is drawn on that blessed One. "All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me." Who can measure the cross? It is only when we can enter at all into God's thoughts of it; only there can we learn it. There is only one place where we can learn God's thoughts of it, and His love to sinners. Where? At the Cross.
Two natures are manifested there. The nature of man toward God, and the nature and attitude of God toward man. The Lord condemned sin in the flesh, and found Himself not only suffering at the hands of man, but under the heavy weight of God's judgment against sin. At the cross alone is the measure of God's love seen.
Such were the circumstances of the blessed Lord on earth. It will be a wonderful thing to get to heaven and look upon Him, not only as the "Lion of the tribe of Juda," but as the Lamb of God, the One who bore the judgment of God. What can ever begin to equal the cross of Christ? The point this evening is not the cross, but the bearing of the cross. It is good for the soul to think of the Lord bound before His persecutors. We see there the heart of the Savior, and one looks forward to the time when we shall see Him exalted.
Rev. 5:77And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. (Revelation 5:7). From those solemn hands He takes that book, not in personal right, but He takes it as one who has acquired the right to take it. We are apt to overlook the acquired rights and glories of the Lord. In 1 Pet. 1:1111Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. (1 Peter 1:11) we should read, "the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow." The word "glory" should be in the plural.
He had prevailed to open the book. From end to end of the creation His worth is celebrated. But first, before we go on, let us notice the Lamb of God has "seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God." Contrast this with the Lord in the judgment hall of which we have spoken. The seven horns speak of the completeness of power; the seven eyes speak of completeness of discernment; and the seven Spirits speak of the Holy Spirit in the completeness of His power and Person. When this power and this discernment are used, it is done in all the completeness of the power of the Holy Spirit. As here on earth, so there in heaven, when the reins of government are in His hands, all will be done in the completeness of the power of the Spirit.
What a contrast between heaven and earth! See the place the earth has given Him! Measure all by Christ. God's controversy with the world is the place it gave Christ.
There is no such scene in existence now as we have in our chapter. The great change has to take place when the vast company of the redeemed are gathered to the Lord. It is a future scene, and our eyes will behold it. How one anticipates it! What will it be to be one of that innumerable throng! And not a heart will be there that is cold or indifferent toward Him, and not a tongue will be silent in His praise. The saints are there to give. Happy saints! Happy Savior!
The change on earth and the change in heaven is at hand—verses 8 and 9. Faith and love are challenged; and faith and love can say, What other one could be found? What a wonderful thing to look forward to when the vast, vast throng of the redeemed will fall down before Him.
Those who are Christ's have no more place in this world than He had in the day they crucified Him. Preach condemnation coming to this world, and see what you will get.
Verse 8. They fell down before the Lamb. One's ear anticipates the joy of that. O redeemed one, you and I will be there. The "four and twenty elders" are in relation to Christ as their Redeemer, and each one of the innumerable throng is one of the kingdom of priests to God. How great will His joy be when He sees in that day the fruit of the travail of His soul. We shall see that joy.
They fall down before Him, "having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints." There are no more prayers needed for themselves, but there are others who need their prayers. "They sung a new song,... Thou art worthy." Now we get the atonement. He is first introduced to us as the silent sufferer; but when we bow before Him, it will be as the One who redeemed us to God "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Verse 10. "And we shall reign over the earth" (J.N.D. Trans.). Heaven awaits the transference of power from God Himself to the hands of the second Man.
That book (v. 8) entitles the One who takes it, to "power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."
Verse 11 introduces another circle—the vast circle of the unfallen, glorious creatures which, according to their Creator, excel in might—the angels. I have connected in my own reading and thought some words from Heb. 12:2222But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, (Hebrews 12:22) and the first phrase of verse 23. What is meant by "an innumerable company of angels,... the general assembly"? I have illustrated it like this: there is a change in the administration of the government of the country. All the ambassadors are called in which were sent out by the other government. Here is a change of government. How is God governing this world? Providentially, and His providences are administered by angels. They are all called in now; the power is transferred to that Person referred to as the "Lion of the tribe of Jude"; and the former ambassadors rejoice to see that One take the reins of government, though they lost their places, mg it were. Heb. 2:55For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. (Hebrews 2:5). "Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come." That is what I take to be the meaning of those "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" of angels rejoicing here in seeing Christ receiving His earthly rights from God. His receiving those rights is the substance of the whole book of Revelation. First, He gets the title, then He takes possession.
There are three circles of praise here—first, the redeemed; second, the angels; and third, all creation. Verse 13 gives the third circle, the praise of all creation. How beautiful—the Lamb forever and ever worshiped! All ends in worship. All creation is brought under the effects of Him having received His rights on earth.
I hope you and I will enjoy more and more Christ on earth, and Christ in glory; as we follow Him in His sufferings here, think what the answer will be there.
"Jesus, Thou alone art worthy
Ceaseless praises to receive;
For Thy love and grace and goodness
Rise o'er all our thoughts conceive.
"With adoring hearts, we render
Honor to Thy precious name,
Overflowing with Thy praises,
Far and wide Thy worth proclaim.
"Praise Him! praise Him! praise the Savior!
Saints, aloud your voices raise-
Praise Him! praise Him!- till in heaven
Perfected we'll sing His praise."