Hebrews. 13:7-16
Part 3
“We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” Who are the servants of the tabernacle? They are religionists; people who believe in having religion; and that religion consisting chiefly in forms and ceremonies and rituals—the world is full of them, and increasingly so.
Of what does Christendom consist today: Does it emphasize the simple, blessed truth of the Gospel as revealed in the Word of God, and practiced by the apostles in the beginning? O, no! What we have around us today is one great, complex mixture. Various elements are found there, but I suppose the predominant element is Judaism; i.e., bringing into the present what belonged to the old, and seeking to revamp Judaism into a kind of Christianity. In some cases it is not quite that bad, but the Christianity that is found is more or less tempered and weakened with the introduction of the elements that belonged to Judaism.
God keeps these things separate, and if we learn to keep them separate, it will be a mighty help to our souls. We must not confuse; each of those is good in its place; each God-given, and having distinctly its place. And those who are going on with that which speaks of the tabernacle, which speaks of ritualism, and a God who can only be approached through a priesthood, serve the tabernacle, and they have no right to be servants of the altar, which we have. God refuses to be a partner to anything of the kind.
Christ is now “the way, the truth, and the life”; He is the door, and if we are going to have dealings with Him, it must be on the ground of what we have revealed to us in the New Testament. If we are going on with what was Judaism, we shall lose the sense of what Christianity is; and if we lose that, we shall lose the liberty of Christianity. The Lord Jesus promised to set us free.
“By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)) what is that? That is liberty, not bondage. Are you finding it bondage, you who are seeking to go on with the Lord? I think not. I do not see any marks on your faces indicating that you are enduring the rigors of legality.
“Ye shall go in and out, and find pasture” this is different from the restrictions of a hard Jewish system. You and I do not wish to go back to what has a great big “Thou shalt not” over it that is Judaism, but we want to maintain ourselves in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free.
“We have a altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” Our altar is Christ. Yes He was the altar; He was the offerer; He was the priest; He was everything.
“For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.”
Christ has a sanctified people, and He sanctified them, set them apart, with His own blood. Dear young believer, you know that that blood has sanctified you, it sets you apart. Regardless now of what your life is, if you are a saved and converted soul, you are sanctified by the blood of Jesus; and the blood that sanctified you, was shed outside the gate.
It was not in Jerusalem, it was not within the shadow of the temple, but it was outside the gate. All that great imposing system, of which the temple was a center, was left behind. The Lord went out of that city which laid claim to being the place where God had set His name; He turned His back on the whole thing, and He bore His cross outside its gates; and there on that lonely hill on Calvary He suffered outside the gate. And where is Christ now? Where is He? He is outside the gate. If that is true, here is a blessed “Wherefore.” There are many of those in Scripture.
We have been called into a kind of sacrifice. It is not the blind worship of the heathen, it is not without reason. God has His “wherefores” and here is one of them:
“Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Now there is something for you; He went out, He left the thing behind, He went out to sanctify you with His own precious blood. Now God says,
“Let us go forth therefore unto Him.”
I suppose that most of the young folks here today can say, “Well, we have done that.” This is one of the most familiar Scriptures one could speak on. And most of you say,
“Well, I have done that, ‘Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp.’”
I wonder if you have? You are associating with those who have been gathered unto His blessed Name thank God for that but has this come as a result of an individual faith with you? Have you ever individually and conscientiously taken the step, or has it just been a sort of mass affair with you, with the meeting or with the circumstances you found yourself in? Or have you definitely and individually gone forth unto the Lord Jesus?
“Let us go forth therefore unto Him” it is unto Christ. I find it distinctly different in my soul to have Christ as my object, than to have in a sort of abstract way, the truth as my object.
Being occupied with the truth, and losing the sense in one’s soul that Christ, His blessed Person, is the issue. If we have before us only the truth abstracted from Him, we lose the blessing of it, for He said, “I am the truth.” But is it with you that you have simply accepted truth?
Have you acquiesced in what father and mother have taught you? what you have learned in attending the meetings, or have you followed Christ for yourself? Have you said,
“Yes, Lord Jesus, I want to go forth unto Thee?”
Was He that drawing object that led you forth unto Himself? Going forth unto Him is different from just an abstract going forth.
One finds all over the country, people who are more or less disheartened with what they found in organized Christianity. Their souls have become hungry for something more real, and they have left what they were connected with; and they have gone out. A great many of them have become just drifters; they do not know where they are; they have left something that was not according to God, but they have not found a center, have not found a resting place. That won’t do. We must have an object. Going forth alone is not what is contemplated here; it is “going forth unto Him” it is an object for the soul.
(Continued from Page 101)
(To be continued)