You young folks have studied history, and I think it is a good thing to study history, within proper limits. You have found in history the life story, the panorama, of the rise and fall of nations. That is history, and if you take the rise and fall of nations out of history, what have you left? And yet, I suppose that each nation as it rose in its turn to the height of its prosperity, was just as sanguine, just as hopeful, just as concerted about what it could do, as men are in the present day. Man has always been like that. Nebuchadnezzar lived a long time ago, and as he looked out over the grandest metropolis in the world, he could strut back and forth, and could spread himself and say,
“Is not this great Babylon that I have builded?”
If you had looked upon that city, you would have said,
“Surely it will endure for millenniums to come.”
What is it today? Just a few old mounds. Nobody lives there. It is just a few mounds of earth, scattered out over the Plain of Shinar. Why? God said by His prophet that that city was going to be destroyed, and that it would never be inhabited. There it lies today, a silent witness to the truth of the Word of God.
Dear saints of God, don’t be deceived. One feels a constant battle in his own heart not to be taken away by all the schemes and plans of man that are so freely talked about today. Man has always been like that. He has never learned his lesson, and the only safe thing for you and me is to just say,
“We see Jesus.”
I don’t want to close without reading the first verse of chapter 3,
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession (confession) Christ Jesus.”
We are holy brethren. I might ask you,
“Are you one of the brethren?”
Yes, by the grace of God you are, if you know the Lord Jesus. If He is your Saviour and you have put your trust in Him, you are one of the brethren. But are you one of the holy brethren? Do you shrink from that? Suppose I come to you at the close of this meeting and say,
“Brother, are you one of the holy brethren?”
If you know the truth, you will have to say “Yes.” Who are the holy brethren? Why, they are the ones who are attached to the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. He is up there in the glory, and He has been trying for over 40 years to get my heart out of this world. O, how poorly I have responded to His love! He has been trying to wean me from this poor scene and get my eye centered in heaven, and He is trying to do the same thing with you, because He wants us to be practically what He has made us positionally.
Now, holy brethren are separate brethren, aren’t they? They walk a separate life—and what makes them like that? Why, they are strangers and they are pilgrims. They are seeking a heavenly home, and that makes them misfits in the world down here—and the more they become conformed to that blessed One up there, the stranger they seem down here. When they speak of the things of the world, the people of the world understand each other. But when we speak the language of our heavenly calling, our heavenly hopes and aspirations, and the heavenly promises, the world does not understand what we are talking about. But you and I should be able to understand that language. Which do you understand better—the language that you hear at the meetings, or the language you hear at the barber shop? Where are you more at home if you join the conversation? That is searching, isn’t it?
“Partakers of the heavenly calling.” What is the heavenly calling? It is the calling to heaven. What could be more simple? When God called the Jew, He called him to the earth—right to a spot of ground down here in this world. But, Christian, when He found you and drew you to Himself, He started you on the way to heaven, and the only reason you have not landed there long ago is the long-suffering patience of God that is waiting for somebody else.
“Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.” Why Christ Jesus? Christ is the glorified one, and so it is the glorified Jesus. He is the Apostle and High Priest. Now, consider Him! O, think of Him. Think who He is, and think where He is—and the two things go together.
You will find those two themes running all through Hebrews. If you and I consider Him—if that forms our thinking, we are going to be more like Christians. We are going to be more like heavenly citizens. We sometimes sing a hymn about being more like the saints that used to be. What is going to make us more like the saints of old who had heaven before them? We have it right here.
“Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.”
Concluded.