Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 441
Revelation 4:4; 10,11.
THE universe of God is one—Heaven and earth are not so separate as unbelief has dreamed. As the Lord has but one family, written in one register, redeemed with one blood, quickened by one Spirit, so this whole household abides in one habitation evermore. We who are in the body abide in the lower room which is sometimes dark and cold but bears sufficient marks that it is a room in God’s house. For it is to the eye of our faith often lit up with heavenly luster and we, even we, while we are yet here, are by blessed earnests made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
It is the same house, I say, but ours is the lower room, while our glorified Brethren are up there, in the upper story, where the sunlight streams in everlastingly, where no chilling winds or poisonous breath can ever reach. It was well said that God’s great house seems to have two wings. The one was a hospital and the other a palace. We are as yet in the wing on the left hand side, which is the hospital. We came into it sick even unto death, leprous to our very core, polluted from head to foot, having no soundness in us anywhere.
And in this hospital we are undergoing the process of cure—a cure which is already certain, which is soon to be perfected. And then we shall pass from the hospital, the lazar-house, into the palace, where “without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,” we shall be recognized as the aristocracy of God, princes of the blood—royal of the universe. Sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. Still is it but one building—one roof covers the whole, both lazar-house and palace— one family, we dwell in it—one Church, above, beneath, though now divided by the narrow partition of death.
Now, to a great extent there is a likeness between the lower room and the upper room. As on earth we prepare for Heaven, so the state of the saints on earth is Heaven foreshadowed. In many respects the condition of the child of God on earth is a type of his condition in Heaven. And I may say without fear of question that what the character of the saints is above, that should be the character of the saints below. We may very safely take for our example those glorified spirits. We need not be afraid that we shall be led astray by imitating them, by learning their occupations, or by attempting to share their joys. Surely the things in Heaven are patterns of the things on earth and as they are before the Throne of God so ought we to be, and so shall we be in proportion as we live up to our privileges and receive the likeness and image of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brethren, it is upon this subject that I want to speak this morning. God is making Heaven very near to us. We are now so large a Church that according to the laws of mortality, we lose five or six every month by death, and frequently two or three are removed in a week. We can hardly hope to meet together upon a single Sunday without hearing that another of the stars is set. Some little time ago we went to the grave with an excellent elder of our Church, who had long known the Master and had served Him well—and now, during the coming week, it will be our lot to perform the same mournful office for another Brother who has been in Christ, I suppose, these forty or fifty years, and who has served this Church for some little time with industry and zeal—but this week has been removed from our midst to join “the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven.”
The veil grows thinner and thinner, and our faith in the unseen grows stronger. As the advanced guard of the army wades through the stream, and we hear their triumphant shouts upon the other shore, this world fades away and that better land stands out in stronger and more glorious reality than it did before. Come, let us talk to one another by the way, this morning, of that better land and let us encourage each other’s hearts to make ourselves through God such as they are who sit upon their thrones and to make this land, through the Spirit, such as that land is where God sheds His light forever.
With regard to the spirits before the Throne of God, we shall have three things to say this morning. First, a little concerning their state and enjoyments. Then, further, concerning their occupations and spirit. And a few words with regard to their testimony and precepts to us, as, speaking from the upper spheres, they urge us to follow their example.
I. First, then, Brethren with regard to THE STATE AND ENJOYMENTS OF THE SPIRITS BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD. In John’s vision, you perceive that the Church of Christ is represented by the four and twenty elders who sat round the Throne of God. We are to look upon them as being the representatives of the great body of the faithful gathered to their eternal rest.
Mark, then, in the first place, that the saints in Heaven are represented as “elders,” which we take to refer not merely to the office of the eldership, as it is exercised among us, although it seems most fitting that the officers should be the representatives of the whole body—but the reference is rather to the fullness of growth of Believers before the Throne of God. Here we have elders and those who are elders in office should be chosen, because they have had spiritual experience, are well taught in the things of the kingdom of Heaven and are, therefore, elders by Divine Grace as well as elders by office.