Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Like to turn to the 10th chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10.
The beginning of the first verse.
For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect for them, would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take.
Sins. Wherefore when He cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Now would it not but a body hast Thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin? Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do Thy will, O God above, when He said, sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, Thou wouldest not, neither had pledged.
Therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but this man after.
He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool, or by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereas the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts.
And in their mind will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now her remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having an high priest over the House of God.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance.
Faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promise. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and a good work, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some, is but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Can we also turn over to the 12TH chapter?
And the first verse.
Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed to boat with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Enemy.
The 10th chapter and the 10th verse we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle. 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. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate forget not. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Well, it has often been remarked that the characteristic expression in the book of the Hebrews is better.
And the Spirit of God brings before us how much better everything is in Christianity that it was in the tights and shadows of Judaism. The glory of the person of Christ is brought before us as being far, far above the prophets who spoke to them, or the angels whom God used to communicate His mind in the Old Testament. Now He has spoken in Son. How much better the glory of that person.
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Than all that went before.
And then we find too, in regard to the priesthood, why they were types and shadows, the Aaronic priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood. But oh, how much better In the Aaronic priesthood, sacrifices had continually to be offered in the priesthood of Melchizedek, Why we find a shadow of that one who has now gone up on high and who can dispense blessings because the work has been accomplished.
And then we find in these chapters how?
That God has even something better in store for us as believers. Israel had an earthly hope, earthly promises, but we have something far better, God having provided some better thing for us. That is, you and I, who have been saved now, who are part of the body of Christ, are going to have a more wonderful place than any of those who lived before the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Oh, what?
A place of blessing we have been brought into. And in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, it seems to me he brings a sort of a summing up so that we might be brought into the liberty of all this and the enjoyment of it in our souls, and also that it might have its practical effect in our lives. And that's why I've read the other verses in the 12TH chapter and in the 13th chapter because.
We find in this 10th chapter, and also in the 12TH and 13th, those two little words. Let us.
And I think this is the most beautiful. Now that is that you and I might be brought into the liberty of this, and walk in the blessedness of it.
Man thou shalt, and thou shalt not. But what holy liberty belongs to the Christian now, just as you might say to a friend, Well, let's do this, or let's do that. God by His Spirit has brought us into the place of blessing to enjoy it, I should say, that has been one for us through the work of Christ. And then He exhorts us in this lovely way now, that we might be in the enjoyment of it and in the practical.
Of it in our daily lives.
In the end of the 10th chapter of Hebrews, we have brought before us the Day of Atonement. And you know there were two goats on the Day of Atonement. Now the first one, the the goat was slain and its blood was brought into the holy of Holies, sprinkled on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat, and that provided the ground by which God could bless the people, and He brings it before us.
The 26th verse of the 9th chapter to show us now that through this glorious work of Christ there is a ground that God will put away sin and that looks on beyond this present time. It looks on to that marvelous time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, as we look around in all the confusion of the world today.
Isn't it grand to know that a work has already been done?
One by which that one who is the Lamb of God will take away the sin of the world, will bring in that glorious scene. I say again, where, as we often sing, all taint of sin shall be removed, all evil done away, and we shall dwell with God's beloved through God's eternal day. Doesn't it thrill your heart and mind amid all the wreck and ruin that we see in the world, to know that the work has already been accomplished, the grown work, if I could.
Put it that way, has been laid by which all this has been brought about, and the Spirit of God points us to the person. Just as John the Baptist looked at the Lord Jesus and as he saw sad results of sin and the condition of the nation, He said there's the one that's going to set everything right. Isn't it blessed for you and I to have our eyes upon Him, to know that one, and to know the glorious work that he has accomplished.
And then in the 28th verse, he brings before us the other goats. Now that is, there was the second goat, if I could speak in that way.
That the things of the people were confessed over that goat, and it was led by the hands of a fit man into a land not inhabited. Well, the first one brings before us propitiation. Now that is, the groundwork has been laid. The blood is on the mercy seat. So I can say to.
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Center Christ died for you. The way of blessing has been opened for you. Now God invites you to come because the blood is on the mercy seat. But it's only true of believers that we can say that the Lord Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And that's why it's careful whenever it speaks of that side of the work to say.
He bear the sin was once offered to bear the sins of many.
Oh, I trust that each one here is among the many who can not only say, I know the blood is on the mercy seat, but can say I know that my sins were placed upon the Lord Jesus. I know he exhausted the judgment for my sins, and my sins are gone. They're gone, as it were, into a land not inhabited. They were carried out of God's fight altogether because the Lord Jesus has borne the judgment of those sins and exhausted it in fact.
Translation of this 28th verse. It's remarkable that it says Christ was once offered to exhaust the sins of the many. Now that is, the judgment of those sins has been exhausted. The Lord Jesus has borne all a judgment. 1 is often thought of a very solemn thing, that as we hear those precious words of the Savior, it is finished. We rest upon those glorious words and know the Lord Jesus has exhausted.
Judgment of God against sin. But I've often thought of this. Those are three words a Sinner will never be able to say in a lost eternity.
He'll never be able to say it is finished.
God tells us that the judgment of those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal because it was only one who could exhaust the judgment. Thank God he has exhausted it. And all what those words mean to our souls when we think that right here and now we can say all the judgment of my sins has been exhausted. It thinks there's nothing left for you and I because the Lord Jesus is born at all. But oh, if there should be 1 here, that's not saved.
I warn you that if you should find yourself in a lost eternity, you'll never be able to say those words because you'll never be able to exhaust the judgment of God against sin. Only one can do it, and thank God He's done it. Only God grant that each one of us may enjoy this in our souls. And then he's coming back again without sin. That is, He's not going to take up the question of sin again. That's been settled.
Isn't it wonderful that when we gaze into the.
Of our precious Savior in a coming day.
The question of sin being charged to us will never be raised, and it's all been settled. The Lord Jesus has soulfully glorified God about the question of our sins, that when we look into His blessed faith, why not one shadow will cross that blessed faith that there's anything between US and Him. It's forever gone. And we wait for Him the second time without Him not to take up that question again because it's been settled.
Unto salvation.
God will be with Israel when they too are brought into blessing. What a marvelous thing it will be for them to see when they look on that one who may Pierce, and to know that He settled the question of their sins. That's why it tells us in the end of the book of Isaiah that it mentions before she traveled, she brought forth. And then he says, who heard such a thing? That is, how could it be a child would be born.
For travail. How could that be? He says, but he said that's what Israel is going to find out when they pass through the travail of the tribulation. Then at the end of it, they're going to look into the face of the one who is a man child. He was already born for their deliverance. He already accomplished their deliverance and they didn't know it. And he says you never heard such a thing, but it's true. And when Israel looks upon the face of that blessed one who may tears, they'll see that he was the sent 1 he was.
One who accomplished that glorious work. When we come to this 10th chapter, it says the law having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things. We need to remember this that the Old Testament is full of beautiful types and shadows, but not the very image of the thing. That is, It didn't bring before us the full blessedness, but it did have the shadow.
And the reason he mentions this is because there was a danger with these Jewish believers after they were saved, to go back to these types and shadows. And he wants them to realize that now that the substance has come, now the shadows have been fulfilled.
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They were not to go back to those types and shadows, and they were to live in the enjoyment of that which was the fulfillment of all those types and shadows. That's the meaning in the 6th chapter of Hebrews about going on to perfection. It doesn't mean perfection in the flesh. There'll never be such a thing as perfection in the flesh, but going on into perfection is going on to the enjoyment of this perfect work that has.
Been accomplished by a perfect Savior that gives the believer a perfect standing before God. That's what's going on. The perfection is how many there are who are looking in and wondering if they've gone on to perfection. Old friend, look to Christ and then you'll see a perfect work accomplished by a perfect Savior that has given you a perfect standing before God. What a blessed thing it is. But the Lord had the shadow, but not the image. And so He tells us.
And that if it had been so that the shadow was sufficient, as then they wouldn't had to continue offering the sacrifices, he says in the second verse for them, would they not have ceased to be offered for because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of Samson. That is, if it was possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, and then it wouldn't be necessary for them to continue offering these sacrifices because?
It would have been enough, but all those thousands and thousands of sacrifices never put away sins. It does say in the scripture that they were accepted to make an atonement, and the word atonement comes from a Hebrew word that means to cover. But when we come to Christianity we find something very blessed. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sins.
To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
So that God has not only, he has not only shown us in the type and shadow that there was something that was accepted for the time to cover sin, but He has shown us that a glorious work has been accomplished by which sin has been put away, put away in God's blessed sight. And what a thing for you and I to know that this work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished.
Has put away sin, and so that God doesn't see sin before him in the believer. It tells us in two Corinthians 5 in the last verse, He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God sees the believer in Christ. He was the one who was made sin by his blessed work and by his precious blood sins.
Been put away and now the believer is in a perfect standing before God and no more sacrifice for sin is needed.
When we when we gather to remember the Lord Jesus and his death, it's not a sacrifice for sin. We know that there are those who speak of a continual sacrifice of the Mass now that shows that they haven't laid hold of the fact that this work the Lord Jesus did was once for all.
It's not to be repeated. When we gather, I say to remember the Lord Jesus. We must always bear this in mind. It's a remembrance of something that has been finished, has been done, and so we remember it. This do in remembrance of me.
And then he goes on in this fifth verse. Wherefore when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me? What a remarkable thing.
The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came down into this world and took a body capable of death, not subject to death. Your body and mind under normal circumstances is subject to death and will pass through death if the Lord doesn't come. But with the Lord Jesus, his body was not subject to death. It was necessary for him to dismiss his own spirit because of who he was. And so he said, no man taketh it from me. I have power to lay.
And I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. But just think of him taking a body. And then too, isn't it lovely, brethren, to think now that He didn't come down and go straight to the cross?
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If it was just a question of putting away our sins, that was accomplished in what the Lord Jesus did in those three hours of darkness when he suffered for sins and His precious blood has been shed. But His blessed pathway from the Manger to the cross was a pathway of perfect love and obedience, and it's an example to us, and it's also a reason by which He can be a merciful and faithful high priest.
All those years of His blessed pathway here, he was a perfect example for us, I'd say, and He was entering into all that we have to pass through sin apart, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest, but it was not during his life that he was suffering for sin. It was not during the first three hours that he was suffering for sin, but it was when forsaken of God that he was suffering for sin.
Bearing the judgment that was necessary to put away your sins and mine.
And now when it says I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me. This carries us right back into our past eternity. God had these eternal purposes in his mind, and long before this world was made, God had a purpose and that purpose was. And that his blessed Son would glorify him as man here would accomplish that work, and that he would remain a man and have the company of redeemed men. And you and I would be part.
That company and so this was the way back in the councils and purposes of God and he, I might say, as we probably all know that these verses are quotations from the Psalms. Now that is what he is bringing before these Hebrew believers was at least there's no new thought in the mind of God. He said even while you were going on with those sacrifices. God had something else in view. He always.
Had his blessed son and the work that he would accomplish before him. And so, as we often sing in a little hymn.
Center of two eternities, which look with wrapped adoring eyes, onward and back to thee now That blessed work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross was the center of two eternities.
Well, perhaps that you have wondered why it says sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, an offering for sin. Thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure therein. When we think of all these sacrifices, and we think of how God asked them to offer these sacrifices, or perhaps I should say, commanded them to offer these sacrifices, you might say, why? Now then, does it say in the Psalms that He had no pleasure in them? Well, because they were only a shadow.
And perhaps I could say more, God had no pleasure in the death of all those animals. It was made necessary through man's sin. It was made necessary. The whole lore creation has had to suffer as a result of man's sin. As soon as man sins, God made coats of skin and the lower creation, men began to suffer as a result of man's sin and all sacrifices that were offered.
Where a constant reminder of the seriousness of sin, that death must take place, blood must be shed so that God could be propitiated. But he didn't have pleasure. And perhaps you've read some time about all those thousands of animals that were slain at the time when Solomon dedicated the temple. And you wondered. Well, here it tells us.
In burnt offerings and.
Offering for sin thou what is not? Neither had pleasure therein. God looked upon them, God commanded them.
But it was pointing on to the cross what the Lord Jesus would do and when He would accomplish that work once and for all.
So it tells us in the ninth verse. Then says, He Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second. Now there those animals were offered. It wasn't any willing thing on their part. They were taken and offered as necessary sacrifices, but it wasn't any willing thing on their part. But think of 1 Coming into this world.
Whose?
Delight. What's to do with Father's will? Every step of His blessed pathway.
It was his joy and delight to do His Father's will. And then, when it was necessary to glorify God about the question of sins, we find that blessed One fulfilling what his Father desired in making that sacrifice, in doing that blessed work upon Calvary's cross. And so it says, He taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second, that is, the whole of the 1St.
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Was.
Perhaps I could say, uh.
A mixture, that is, a God, demanded something of man, and the law was never withdrawn, but He provided under this, under the sacrifices, a way by which he could go on with the people until all the claims of the law would be satisfied. The one sacrifice of Christ would be accomplished. So, if I might put it this way, the people were never under pure law. If they had been under pure law, it would have been certain condemnation.
How about without withdrawing the law, God provided the sacrifices, and this looked on to the cross, where there would be one who would settle all those transgressions under the first covenant, who would glorify God about them, so that we might be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so the Lord Jesus came to do his Father's will. And now, if I can put it this way, not a mixture of the.
God is not going to have part of that old order of things and the new. No, the old order of things has been set aside. He taketh away the 1St that He may establish the second. Now that is, there is One who has so perfectly and completely glorified Him now that now it is no longer necessary to offer those sacrifices. It isn't necessary that they should go on with all that ritual, because it's all been fulfilled and we have become dead.
To the law by the body of Christ it's most important that we should see now that we have been completely brought out sanctified means set apart and so it says by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all that is we're completely set apart from all an old order of things and brought into a new order of things in Christ Oh how blessed it is now that this is so and that we can.
Now be in the enjoyment of these.
Thing and this sacrifice the Lord Jesus offered is once for all.
So it says we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Notice this. Never take away sins. Those sacrifices did not take away sin. They were accepted to make an atonement, but they did not take away sin.
And so there was one article of furniture. We have quite a few in this room, but there were none in the Tabernacle. There were no seats. There were no seats. He stood. And why? Well, he could never sit down because the sacrifices never came to an end in Judaism. They had to be carried on year by year, continually. And when you think of all the failures of the people.
Why? What a great what a vast number of sacrifices.
Were offered. In fact, I don't think anyone who's read carefully all those instructions in the book of Leviticus hasn't thought, well, how could they ever find enough animals to provide for all the sins of the people? Well, God was seeking to show them that sin was so serious in his sight that nothing less than that which those things pointed on to could meet his holy requirements. The precious word of Christ would be once for all.
They offered those sacrifices and there was no seed for the priest to sit down. But how different here it tells us of 1 and it says, But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever sat down on the right hand of God. That is, having offered this one sacrifice. Now he'll never, never have to rise up again to offer another sacrifice.
And he died. He died under sin once, and now this afternoon, he's a glorified man seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. All the majesty and glory of God's throne has been fully upheld and vindicated in this work that he has accomplished.
And what he is waiting for now is the time when everything will be set right.
If falls will be made his footstool. But this 14th verse is precious for us, isn't it? For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Isn't this grand? Doesn't say by one offering He has perfected till we sin again, but by one off. And He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now that one work the precious Savior has accomplished has been so glorious in the sight of God the Father, and that He has seated him.
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The right hand of the majesty on high and it says we are perfected forever. And that's your standing. If you're a believer this very afternoon. You don't have to do something to get this. You just accept it by faith. You believe it. The sacrifice has been made. Oh, you say, am I one of the sanctified ones? Well, the tenth verse says by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And so if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus, then you're one that is included in this number because it says.
That He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. I might say that this is really positional sanctification. Now in John 17 we have practical sanctification, but this is positional. I think we mentioned a little illustration before that would perhaps make this clear. Supposing you go into a store and you want a basket of apples, we'll say, and there are 10 baskets sitting there on the floor, and you purchase one of these.
And you say to the storekeeper.
Welcome back in an hour and pick this up. So you put your name on the handle, you pay the price. It's yours. It's really set apart in his mind for you because you have paid the price. But a little while afterwards, someone else comes in and picks out the same basket. And he says, well, that one's been sold. I can't sell that one to you. A little while later, another person picks out the same basket. And so he takes it and he puts it out in the back of the shop.
Well, it wasn't any more sanctified.
When it was in the back of the shop than it was when it was sitting there with the rest, as far as he was concerned. But there was a little confusion by it being mixed with the other nine. But when it was out in the back of the shop, it was practically set apart as belonging to you. And now what God is seeking to produce in your life and mine is practical sanctification. But let us not confuse this with positional sanctification. This is ours through the offering of the body of Jesus.
It's by His will that were sanctified through what Christ has done, and it's once for all perfected forever.
And so then, God has not only told us these blessed things, but the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. God has not only borne witness to the work of his beloved Son, but he has sent down the Holy Spirit to bring our souls into the good of death. And so the Spirit of God here on earth is to lead us into the enjoyment of these things.
The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto.
To us again, because ye are sons God has sent forth is the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ABBA father. Oh, how wonderful it is then that the Spirit is a witness to us. I don't speak here in a particular context.
The covenant has to do with Israel, and God will fulfill the covenant that has been made with Israel, that new covenant, and He is going to bring them into blessing. As believers. Now, we're not the subject of the covenant.
But if we come into the blessing of the work, the same work that will be the ground of Israel's blessing is now the ground of ours. And we enter into the enjoyment of this because God made a covenant with Israel to get blessing on a conditional basis, and they forfeited every right to blessing on that ground. So God says a new covenant is necessary. Now they must have a new covenant so that they can be brought into blessings, not on some basis that depends on them.
Thought that which depends upon the work of Christ and so that covenant will be made with Israel in a future day and they will be blessed through the work of Christ. But we weren't under the first covenant and a covenant hasn't to do with a Gentile. God blesses us though on the ground of what Christ has done and that's why it says the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. He brings us into the good of these things beforehand because that work as we have noticed is.
Ground of all blessings, all blessings. There is no blessing for fallen man apart from that one glorious work accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So it says in their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now her remission of these is there is no more offering for sin, no necessity to have any further sacrifices, because this sacrifice has laid a ground and has been accepted by God the Father, and He has seated them in His right hand. He has sent down the Holy Spirit to lead our souls into the enjoyment of it.
And now there are some exhortations here that follow.
Notice this 19th verse. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
Has blessed the way the Spirit of God brings before us the fullness of that work. And brethren, is 1 glorious work. Now that is, He was made an offering for sin. The veil was wrapped, his blood was shed. It's all one glorious work and the Spirit of God would have our souls to lay hold of the largeness of this the one offering.
For sin has glorified God about the question of sin. But it was necessary also that we should be brought into a place here, that we could be in the very holiest of all. And so the veil must be rammed, and the blood has been shed. And so the type has been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. And so we have here.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, you know the high priest only entered into the holiest, and that but once a year. And he had to bring the blood of animals into that place, because there was no other way that he could come into the presence of God, except as God provided through the blood and with the incense. And so he went in once a year.
But isn't this lovely? When the Lord Jesus died, the veil of the temple was renting twain from the top to the bottom.
Now that is from God's side. That's why it says from the past right to the bottom, so that every believer now has access into the very holiest of all.
And isn't this word lovely? Boldness? I love that word because the high priest, I'm sure, went in with fear and trembling. But boldness?
Is it possible for us to go into the very holiest of all with boldness?
When I read that word, I think is the way a child comes into its own home. Watch a child coming home from school. Does it hesitate? Does it wonder if it's accepted? No, it just comes in with perfect confidence. And isn't it marvelous that the Spirit of God should resort to such a word as this, that tell us that we can come into the presence of God without one question as to our acceptance?
Because as a little hymn, says his precious.
Blood has spoken there before and on the throne, and his own wounds in heaven declare the atoning work is done. And so our place of acceptance and our place of worship is in the very holiest of all. That is where the believer has been brought before God, and we have title to be there through this blessed work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished.
And that veil?
If you recall, it was blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen. It represented the various glories of the Person of Christ. I believe the blue represents to us that He was the heavenly one. In second. Man is the Lord's in heaven, and then the purple represents royalty. He was the one who was Israel's rightful king.
It was there was a scarlet because He is the only one who has any right to human glory, a man who claims a lot of human glory for himself. But there was one who had a right to human glory, the Lord Jesus, and in His life that fine twined them, and that perfect practical righteousness that ever shone out in His blessed life. But what did that veil say?
Before it was rent. Oh, if you looked at all those beautiful colors, what it really said is no entrance.
And the Lord Jesus here in this world, by his life only condemned it only said.
You can't measure up to this standard, and so you're outside.
But when the Lord Jesus died, for it says the veil, that is to say, his flesh to them, the veil was wrapped. And now the believer can go in, God can come out. For in the Old Testament he dwelled in the thick darkness. But God has come out now, and he's told all that's in his heart, and he's brought us in. And so we're in there in perfect acceptance. And so through the work that Christ has accomplished, we have been brought in. And so that light.
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Faith, which would only condemn them, was given upon the Cross, and now, through that precious blood that He shed, we have access into the very holiest of all. What a place we have been brought into.
And now the 20th verse, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. Now this was new because it was never sold in the Jewish ritual. Why when King Uzziah tried to go into the Temple, why he was smitten with leprosy. The high priest alone once a year could go into the holiest of all with blood and incense.
But isn't this lovely? This is something new, every believer.
In the very holiest of all, what a place we've been brought into. But now it says it's a living way.
Why is that? Well, under the ritual of Judaism, it wasn't necessary to have a new life to go on with those things. Now that is how they could go on with all the ritual of Judaism without being born again.
And that's why people like to bring ritual into Christianity, because the flesh can enjoy it. It tells us in the 9th chapter it was a worldly sanctuary. Perhaps you wondered sometimes why God gave that grand building and why those robes and why that music and all that sort of thing. Well, if it was possible for man to be improved by ritual and ceremonies and that kind of thing, then God gave everything that was appealing.
The very finest of music, the very finest of robes, the grandest building. People will say, well you had a grand building. I might feel like going.
If you really had a good orchestra, I might feel like going well now. Under the ritual of Judaism, God gave all those things.
And after man had had all those things, what did it prove? It proved that all those external things didn't change his heart at all. It never improved the flesh. And you'll see in these verses that now what God is doing is a living thing.
And he has arranged an order of things in Christianity, if I can put it this way, that you can enjoy unless you possess a new life. And that's why a person who has not been born again thinks, well, what is there that's interesting about this? Because he doesn't possess a new life, about this new order of things in Judaism, in Christianity, as the Lord Jesus said, the new wine must be put.
A new bottle, that is. The new joys of Christianity could not be contained in the old bottles of Judaism. And so we have been brought into this place, and I'm quite sure.
That if you came into the meeting and you're not saved, why there's nothing that is particularly appealing, but if you really love the Lord Jesus, how it appeals to your heart that in simplicity, one after another can open his mouth in the liberty of the Spirit and give thanks and praise and adoration to the Lord Jesus can think of his sufferings and death and you're not thinking of whether.
They're building is wonderful or whether.
The singing is grand, or whether the people that sing have robes. It's a person that you have come to be occupied with. It's a new and living way. That's Christianity in contrast with Judaism. And then it says and having an high priest over the House of God, isn't this lovely?
And you and I might lose the enjoyment of all these things. So God says the person that died for you is going to live for you up there to maintain your soul in the enjoyment of it.
And many of us have been saved for a good number of years, and we just know that it's because we have one who's there at God's right hand is our great high priest and our advocate that we're still in the enjoyment of these things.
Here he is a high priest over the House of God, not to offer another sacrifice like the high priest in Israel, but to maintain our souls in the enjoyment of the place that we have been brought into.
Now let us draw an ear with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
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Azariel from the side of the Lord Jesus, there was the blood and there was the water. And the blood brings before us the fact that sin has been put away by what Christ has accomplished, and God looks upon the blood and he has been propitiated. And so it says, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And isn't it lovely that we can sit in his presence and say.
The blood has so completely removed sin from God.
Website that I don't have to sit here with it on my conscience. I can know that the work of Christ has put it away. It's not the question here of our state, but of our standing.
There may be hindrances to our enjoyment of these things by something allowed in our lives, but the point here is our state and God has removed sin from the believer's conscience by the work of Christ. And it says in full assurance of faith, That is, we rest upon the value that God has put upon the work of His beloved Son and upon the precious blood that he has shed. And so isn't it lovely to sit there on Lord's Day morning and know?
Now that the blood has so completely answered to God that you can say, well, I don't have to have sin on my conscience, because the Lord Jesus has settled the question of sin and the worshippers once purged, have no more conscience of sin, That's the believers standing.
And then it says our bodies washed with pure water, while the water has spoken of in Titus is the washing of regeneration.
That was a little difficult to just get this thought, but perhaps I could bring before you what the Lord said to Peter. He said he that is washed.
Is clean everywhere, that is.
Peter didn't have to be washed all over again. He was now not only cleansed by the blood as before God, but he has looked upon as being in a new standing before God, that is.
Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you.
Perhaps I could use a little illustration. Supposing I was a thief and I stole $100 from someone and he forgave me. Well, I'm very grateful that he forgave me. But I must confess I wouldn't feel too much at ease in his presence because I'd always think, well, he looks on me as a forgiving thief, I'm sure.
There's no question in my mind that he's forgiven me, but still I'm in his presence, knowing that I've been forgiven, but not for liberty. But supposing he said to me, Oh, I want to tell you something more. I've not only forgiven you, but every time I look at you, I'm going to look upon you as though you'd never done this thing. And I'm going to look on you in all the favor and acceptance and love that I have toward my own sons.
Now the believer has been placed before God, not only with his sins gone in the blood, but this is where the water comes in. We are now before Him in a perfect standing, washed all over, so that we are seen in Christ and before Him, accepted in the Beloved, and that is why we have the blood.
The heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and the water are new standing, so now I can say.
Well, I can feel at home now in the presence of that person, because I know he doesn't look on me as a forgiven thief. He loves me. He loves me just as much as he loves his son. Oh, you say, but he must think about that. Although he said that I wouldn't, that he wouldn't remember it anymore. And that's what God has said. Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Isn't it a wonderful whom, brethren, that said in his presence in this way.
I've often thought of it as we have in 1St Corinthians 10, where it tells us that we are at His table as members of His body.
We're not just there as forgiven sinners, although we are that, but we're there as though he were looking at us and saying, thou it all fare, my love, there's no spot in me. What a place then. Well, that's what faith lays hold of then in the 23rd verse.
The correct translation is hope, so I'll read it as in the other translation. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that promise, because the three things that are brought before us here are faith, hope, and love. And so faith lays hold of what Christ has done, and then we have a hope.
What is the hope?
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Well, Israel had a hope of getting blessing that was conditional, but we have a hope that is founded upon what Christ has done. And so we hold it without wavering. Because we're faithful. No, because He is faithful. Isn't that lovely? He's faithful, you say, Oh, but if you sin, you might lose it. Oh, but he's faithful. He not only settled the question of my sins, but He's the captain of my salvation, carrying me through.
And he's not going to lose.
Of his arm so you say well I'm afraid I'm unfaithful remember those words. He is faithful he is faithful and that's why we're told a whole fast the confession of our hope. We've made a confession that we're going to be with Christ in glory. Oh and someone says but I assure you'll attain well we say he's faithful he's faithful he's going to carry us through isn't that lovely That's our hope and so we have faith and hope and now.
This 24th verse and.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good work.
Here we have now provoked love. So we have the third thing we have faith and hope and love and so wouldn't it be lovely, brother? And if we.
More to fulfill this little exhortation, I often think of it. It speaks to my own heart. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love. We can look at one another and see failures in one another, and I'm sure you see failures in May. But isn't it nice to look at one another with this thought? What can I do to encourage that person to love the Lord Jesus more?
That's what it means. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works.
My father told me one time about when Brother Heaney, an old brother, used to be with us. I visited a sister in Ottawa and he said to the sister, do you provoke the same sister?
Well, she said, I hope not. It's better healing. But he said you should.
Why don't you get nodded, man? He said, Well, we should provoke one another unto love and to good work. Let me know what's easy to provoke our brethren other ways. And I'm afraid we often do things that provoke them. But wouldn't it be nice if we provoked them the right way, that we stir them up? So they want to do a little more for the Lord. They want a lot more to please Him. They want to walk more in the enjoyment of His love. Well, let's think about one another in this world and as we see one another.
Perhaps someone drifting and getting cold?
I want to be nice to say to ourselves, what can I do to revolt that brother to love and good work? What can I do to encourage him or her to follow the Lord Jesus more so isn't this lovely? After bringing before us the standing has been brought into we have here 3 exhortations sounded unsafe and hope and love faith that energy into and enjoys all this because God has said it.
Hope that and knows that it's also secure.
Because He is faithful and love that is like the lubricant that keeps us going on together for His glory in the little time that remains to us.
Briefly at the others here I I just like to mention them in the 12TH chapter.
And this first verse, it says, let us lay aside every weight.
And the sin which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Here we have we're running in a race.
And there are things that are hindrances in this race.
And they may not be wrong in themselves.
A weight isn't necessarily something that's wrong, but it's a hindrance.
I might have a pair of heavy shoes and they may be very fine for some occasions, but they're no good in a race and if I was going to run a race I'd take them off because they're a hindrance in the race.
And perhaps I hear someone say, well, tell me what's wrong about this or what's wrong about that. Well, it may not be wrong at all in itself, but it wouldn't be better to say, I wonder if this is hindering me from following Christ.
And even if it's not wrong in itself, it can be a hindrance in following Christ. And so if there's anything in your life or mine that is awake, it's just sort of dragging us down. It's hindering us from running after the Lord Jesus. Now let us just put it aside. Let's just put it aside. Then there are other things that are positively sinned and we're told here.
To lay aside the sin which does so easily beset us. And there may be something that's a positive sin. I believe here it prefers primarily to the sin of unbelief. But I think each one has some particular sin that is a particular snare, and we need to watch.
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Sin in a believer's life can hinder fruitfulness. How many a person has ruined his life because he has given away some secret sins and that has spoiled his life and testimony. It's hindered him from following Christ. And so it says, let us run with patience or endurance. The race now that is the Christian race is not 100 yard dash. It's a race of endurance. Now that is we need to go on.
It's easy to make a dash and start out, but somehow it takes constant looking to the Lord, constant dependence on Him, just to go on from day-to-day. Run with endurance the race that is set before us and we look to Jesus. He ran with endurance to race. He started it and He finished it to the glory of His Father in everything in his life. He had His Father before him and He is the exempt.
For us, others have run in the race and we can imitate their faith, but there was only one that ran it perfectly. So don't follow me, because if you followed me, you might make some mistakes, but if you look at the Lord Jesus, you will follow. You'll find one who was always perfect. He began and He completed the path of faith.
Now let's turn over to the 13th chapter.
Now I'd just like to make a few brief comments about this.
We have spoken about our place inside the veil now, that is, we have been brought into a marvelous place of nearness in Christianity.
But how does this place fit in regard to all that which might be called a carryover from Judaism that has been introduced into Christianity?
Paul christened them today, has taken on the character of Judaism now, that is, they have built these buildings, they have introduced robes, they have introduced ritual, they have introduced all kinds of singing entertainment, and all this kind of thing has been brought in now into Christianity. It is really the carryover and the brilliant end of that which was the shadow into Christianity.
Now we do.
Have the place in the holiest of all through the blood of Christ. But as regards all that which has to do with the old order of things, we recognize that as being the camp of Israel, and our place is outside. And then He goes to show us that just as that blood was brought into the very holiest of all, and sprinkled there and provided.
A way by which God could go on with the people, then he said, But we must.
Also remember that when that was done, the body of that animal was taken and it was burned outside the camp. Now he says, and the Lord Jesus by his glorious work has rent the veil and by his precious blood we have access into the holiest of all about if we want to be identified with the person, he's outside the camp, he's outside the camp. And now we have those two little words again.
Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach, and to take our place outside of all this that has been set up and organized in Christendom, which is really a mixture of Judaism and Christianity, which the Spirit of God is condemning in this epistle. It's a new thing, it's a better thing, it's a living thing.
It's not an improvement on the old order. The old order was a shadow.
So it's now an entirely new thing. The new wine must be put in new bottles. And where do we find ourselves? Outside the camp, gathered to a rejected person?
And there's no mixture. He says we have an altar of our love. They have no right to eat, which serves the Tabernacle. Now God is not mixing the two systems together. He is bringing us into a new place. And may you and I enter into this blessed privilege. Now this brings reproach, because for a Jew to step out from all that old order of things and identify himself with a rejected Christ brought recruits, and in a similar way today.
When we take our place apart from all that man is organized in Christendom, and go out to a rejected person, we bear his reproach. Isn't that lovely though his reproach? May the Spirit of God give us to value this privilege, because separation in Christianity is always to a person. Go forth unto him without the camp.
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And so in separation is enjoined in Corinthians it says.
Come out, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
But as you might say, we had a city though, and God placed his name in that city. Well, he said, we don't have a continuing city here. We meet around the Lord Jesus as a rejected Savior here. But we do have a city. We seek one to come. We're going to be in the heavenly city. We're going to be in Jerusalem, which is above. We're going to be with that vast company of Saints in that glorious city above. And that's what we're looking for. But here we're.
Pilgrims and strangers, all that you say. What about sacrifices? Well, we offer the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips. Oh, how well can you play the instrument? Well, God is looking for what comes from the heart, and so he says, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And so you can see that now in Christianity the shadows have been fulfilled. It's a new way, it's a living way as to nearness.
It's inside the veil.
But as to our position in Christendom, it's outside the camp. It's to a rejected Christ, and we don't introduce physical things. We don't have to build an altar because Christ himself is our altar. We don't have to glory in some particular city. Sometimes people say to you, well, where's the center of this movement?
The head is up there in heaven.
That's the city that we were waiting for, the city and the heavenly Jerusalem. Because you're coming to the mountain Zions, the heavenly Jerusalem. That's the place that we have been brought to. Well, what kind of sacrifices do you offer? The fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. And then this love flows out to do good and to communicate. Forget not, our hearts get filled.
We're so filled with what he has done for us, but then it flows out.
In the seeking the good and the blessing of others. Because the truth of God will never make us selfish and self-centered. It's impossible for the Lord to fill your heart and mind that it doesn't overflow. Our hearts are just too small to contain all that He wants to put in. And so whenever He fills our hearts, there's always an overflow. And I've often been struck, brethren, at the similarity between.
Worship and service, and I've enjoyed it more and more as I think of it.
That in worship we present Christ to God in all the excellence of his person and work, and in service we present Christ to the Sinner in all the excellence of his person and work. God delights to have us occupied with his beloved Son, speaking well of him. Well May God grant that the truth of these things may grip our hearts. And then that these little exhortations that are mentioned here in these different verses, let us.
I haven't read them all, but let us as if we should just take the arm of another Christian and say, well, let's live more for the Lord Jesus. He's done so much for us. We belong to him. He has a rightful claim over our hearts and it's a privilege that we can have now.
To know all that he has done for us and in response, to seek to acknowledge his claims and live for him until he comes again.