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Chapter 10 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 there unto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because of the worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins?
But in those sacrifices there is remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherever when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has to have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I lo, I come in the volume, the book it has written of me to do thy will, O God.
Above, when he says sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure 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 2nd.
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest endeth 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.
Four by one offering hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. For the Holy Ghost also was a witness to us. For after that he had said before, This is a covenant that I will make with him after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now we're remission of these ends. There's 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 yet 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 of faith.
Your heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
That hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some years, but exhorting one another, one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses, Lord, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses.
Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and encountered the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace?
For we know him that have said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will repay, saith the Lord.
And again, the Lord should judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Call to remembrance of former days in which after that you were illuminated, He endured with a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made as gazing stuck both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while He became companions of them that were so used. For He had compassion of me in my bonds.
And looked joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven it better.
And an enduring substance.
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Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward, for you have need of patience, that after He have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and neither shall come, Will come, and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them which draw back unto perdition, but of them that believed to the saving of the soul. It has often been said that the Epistle to the Hebrews, the characteristic word, is better, and how everything in Christianity is better than that which was given under the old order of things in Judaism.
About he shows how in the end of the ninth chapter.
All these things were a pattern, a shadow of those good things to come. And he sort of sums it up in the end of the ninth chapter, in the 26th verse, the middle of the verse. But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation. In the 26th verse it refers to the Day of Atonement and the sacrifice. And the Day of atonement laid the groundwork by which God could go on with the guilty people. And he shows how that the work of Christ took up and settled the question of sin. And I thought.
Sinned by the sacrifice of himself really looks on to the time when there will be a new heavens and a new earth for indwelling righteousness. It's a similar thought to John 129. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And so, as I say, on the Day of Atonement, the groundwork was laid by which God could go on with the people. But then there was the scapegoat, and upon over the head of that scapegoat were confessed the sins of the people, and those sins were carried away to a land not inhabited. So not only has the work of Christ laid the groundwork for a new heavens and a new earth and blessing where?
Results will never enter, but there are people who will share in that and so we who deserve the judgment. How wonderful. It says Christ was once offered to bear the sins, not the sin, but the sins of many, so that those of us who know the Lord is our Savior can say that the Lord Jesus bore our sins and just like those sins confessed over the.
Escape God not the sins of the whole world, but of those who were to be brought into that place of blessing. They were confessed over the head of that scapegoat, and carried away. And the Lord Jesus bore the sins of many, But he settled a question of sin, so that there would be a new heavens and a new earth. And so when it says in the end of the 28th verse. And unto them that looked for him shall he appear the second time.
Sin unto salvation. It shows that when the Lord Jesus comes again, it will not be to take up the question of sin that has been settled, and whether it be for ourselves to take us to glory or to bring an earthly people into blessing, It's all founded upon the work of Christ. And that's why the chapter begins by showing us that the law only had a shadow.
But the Through the work of Christ we have been brought into this place.
Of blessing. And then, as the chapter goes on to show us, He would have us to be in the present enjoyment of this, in liberty before Him, brought into the very holiest, and then that practical fruit in the life they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. But He first of all, shows us where we have been brought through the work of Christ.
I just mentioned these few thoughts because I believe they introduced to us the 10th chapter in the precious truth that He's opened up to us.
And its fullness in this 10th chapter. So he starts with that in this chapter to show them that if they went back to that, they were only going back to the shadows and they were leaving the real thing, which would be an awful solemn thing for them to do.
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Warning too because of what we see all about us in Christendom and emphasis laid on ordinances and many people feeling that they are.
Even blessed and saved through Christian ordinances. But he shows that everything is founded and rests upon the work of Christ. And all those things of the past were a type and shadow. And even now too, the privilege of being baptized and of remembering the Lord. These things bring certain truths before us, but salvation is only through what Christ accomplished on the cross.
And he makes everything of the work of Christ, and of how through that work we have been brought into blessing with those things that these professed Christians among the Jews were in danger of going back to. And so in Christendom we find that there has been a taking up with these shadows, and they're making much of these ordinances.
And they speak of them as grace for this and grace for that.
Well, the grace of God is apart from ordinances. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself at Calvary and gave himself for us. Christ loved the church and gave himself for us on the ground of grace. And we when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we accept God's extension of grace, his unmerited favor to us. And that's what we stand on. But as soon as we go back to trying to.
The law and to follow all these ordinances, we forsake the ground of grace and we are getting on the on the on the ground of works. Well, God doesn't want us there. He wants us on the ground of grace because that's a solid ground to stand on.
I think we notice as we read through the book of Acts, how very patient God was with that people in connection with their holding on tenaciously to the law and to all the ordinances, and how very patient and gracious He was with them in bringing them into the full light of Christianity. As we were coming up, we were reading a little from a book in connection with the Reformation.
And it's marvelous to see how patient the Lord was as He was giving them a little light here and there when they acted in faithfulness on that light and how patient He was in that connection. And we were reminded of a verse that says, For the pathway of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. If we act in the light that God has given us, He'll bring us on into more light. But we need.
Doing up with those that are still clothed with a good deal of darkness about these things if they're beginning to come into the light, how we need patience to help them on. Keyword in Hebrew seems to be better.
And that is that the the Lord would be impressing upon us what we do have.
The how much better it is than what the people of God had in days past.
Because it seems that our danger is to lose the sense of what we really have been brought into by the grace of God and what has been brought to us.
The the period in which we live is the most privileged when you say of all of the the.
Various dispensations that that man has been blessed of God. We have the whole revealed mind and will of God, we've been brought into heavenly and eternal and spiritual truths. But the tendency of course, is to drop down to the level of the flesh.
Either in farms that are like we have in the Corinthians, scandalous things or to fall down or drop down to the level of the flesh religiously. And it seems that the Epistle to the Hebrews is more from the religious side, is it not Corinthians. The Corinthians were in danger of of the dropping down to the level of the flesh as tomorrow's and one would not say that we're not.
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That, but sometimes we forget that the flesh can take up religious things, man in the flesh. And it seems that we if we don't really value what we've been brought into, there is a danger of dropping back into those farms that the flesh can be comfortable in. So while in a way we can apply these things to Christendom.
It seems that we need to.
Maybe exercise our own heart and conscience to that we might value the better thing, God having provided some better thing for us, and that we might value it or else we would be in danger, perhaps of of dropping down to the level of what the flesh can take up and enjoy in a religious way. Those things can greatly hinder.
Spiritual growth. It's remarkable.
You mentioned Corinthians and Hebrews. In writing to the Corinthians he says, I believe I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet now are you able, for ye are yet carnal. In writing to the Hebrews, he says, when for the time he ought to be teachers, he have needed one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God.
And are become such as a need of milk and not of strong meat. So that the things that you mentioned can be, I would suggest a very, very great hindrance to the spiritual growth that should be proper to the believer. Isn't it possible that.
There might be many even among us who?
By hearing much teaching.
They make sort of an ordinance or law out of those things, and perhaps even without being born again, they try to live up to these Christian principles.
Well, we need to regard Christian principles, it's true. But unless a person is really born again, has a new life in nature, and has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, he cannot live up to these principles. He may try in the flesh to do it, and he might make a fair show in the flesh, and this kind of thing is what we have to guard against.
Trying to make a fair show in the flesh.
And perhaps we can put on a good show and when we're at meetings of this kind or when we're at assembly meetings, but how do we act when we're away from our brethren and we are alone? Oh, this is the test. And perhaps it can lead to a lot of hypocrisy trying to be something we are not.
And so we need to remember this, that in the book of Hebrews.
If they were going back to those ordinances, they would be trying to profess something really in the flesh. And it was, it was not real. It wouldn't be real. Now, I don't suppose that those who were real.
If they, when they receive these exhortations from the apostle that they would go back, I would judge that they would judge themselves and go on. Perhaps there were those who were not real and they would just drop back into that, be satisfied with that kind of thing.
Well, we need to be before the Lord, and I believe greatly exercised about this.
That we might be real before the Lord, that we might receive really the better things. And the Lord Jesus Christ in this epistle is shown to take the place of all of these different things that are brought before us, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I suppose that's why we get toward the end of the epistle, looking off unto Jesus, looking off unto Jesus, not looking back.
Not looking at these ordinances.
Not trying to make a fair show in the flesh, but looking off unto Jesus, being occupied with him, filled with Him, feeding upon Him and His precious Word. This is what will produce a spiritual man. What is spirituality? Well, it's not looking at myself and asking the question, how am I doing? Am I measuring up?
Am I what I ought to be? No. It's looking at Christ being occupied with Christ.
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Because the Holy Spirit, who is the one who dwells in the believer, would not occupy us with anyone else or anything else but the Lord Jesus Christ. So the mark of spirituality is being occupied with Christ looking away from ourselves.
We might bear in mind that it was God who gave all these things in Judaism. It wasn't things that they had started themselves. The law had a shadow of good things to come, but God was testing man. And so it's spoken of in the first part of the ninth of Hebrews. There were ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.
We might ask, Well, why did God give all these things? Well, in the Old Testament, man was placed under trial, and the test was as to whether these outward things would actually draw the heart to God. But when the people who had all those outward things which were a shadow of the good things to come, But when they went on with these outward things, and yet rejected the Lord.
So religious they were that it tells us they wouldn't go into the judgment hall because they wanted to eat the Passover. So they stood outside of the judgment hall and cried away with Him. And yet the Passover was a picture of Christ showing how a person can go on with outward things and have no heart for the Lord at all.
Now the Lord Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of all those types and shadows.
And so, as we see in this chapter, why it's a new and a living way, it's new. It's not an extension or an improvement of the old system. It is the fulfillment of the type. And one has to have divine life to enjoy spiritual things and to enjoy true Christian worship. But strange as it may seem to us, as our brother Bilasali remarked, God.
On with those people. And so they actually went on with the Tabernacle, and went on also with a breaking of bread, and carrying on as God had brought before them in Christianity, and they mixed the two things into a system.
And if you read through the Acts, this is very clear that they went on with those things. In fact, they were very much disturbed because they wanted to have people circumcised and keep the law. And yet these were people who had professed faith in Christ and no doubt many of them were real.
That is, they mixed the two things into a system. And what is being brought before us in Hebrews is the fulfillment of what the Lord Jesus said, that the new wine must be put into new bottles, and that it was not a patch on the old garment, but an entirely new garment. And Christianity is not a mixture of the two things. It's not an improvement on the old thing, it's the fulfillment of it.
The type is fulfilled in Christ, and it's very precious for us, but a great part of Christendom still goes on with mixing the two things. In fact, we might say, sad as it seems, that the great thing that will be judged after the Lord has taken the church home is really a mixture of Judaism and Christianity and paganism into a system. That's what Babylon really is.
It's confusion, the mixture of the whole three things together. Now, what are you seeking to bring before us into He in the Hebrews is to bring us into the full blessed liberty of Christian position. And that we must go outside the camp. It's not the priest himself going inside the veil, but every believer having title to enter into the holiest of all, every believer being a purged worshipper.
And all how precious it is for us to get hold of this. It's only as we get hold of it in our souls that there really is the enjoyment of what we have in Christ and of true Christian worship. And we don't realize how much we're affected by all these things. What is was of Judaism, a grand building, music, robes, all those things.
And now what is true worship?
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Well, true believers are living stones. It's not a building that man bills. And what is true worship, it's melody in the heart is that which is produced in the heart by the Spirit of God. And what is the altar? Christ himself is the altar. And as we get hold of these things, then the soul is brought into the liberty of Christianity and occupied, as our brother said.
With a person whom God delights to honor, who has fulfilled His will.
And this chapter, it seems to me, sums it up and shows us where we are brought through the work of Christ.
Significant to see in the gospel how that in the very beginning of the life of the Lord, that voice comes from heaven and says, this is my beloved son, in whom is all my delight. Well, a Jew hearing that voice, he'd know that that voice came from God in heaven.
And here he was, God was speaking about this one here on the earth. And if they were real in their souls, and I'm sure there were some of them, and there were those that followed the Lord, they should have said in their hearts, well, if God is delighted, altogether delighted with this person, that's the person that we ought to have our delight into.
But with most of them, it was just the opposite. They didn't have delight in him. What a sad thing.
The sacrifices were in contrast to the one sacrifice of Christ.
I just looking down there at this verse.
Verse 12 but but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, oh verse one says, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers around too perfect.
There was number perfection in the law, The law. There's perfection in Christ. One sacrifice, not sacrifices, but only one.
I think some of us have heard it said that Christianity is not intended to be an improvement on Judaism, nor an extension of Judaism, but a whole new presentation of a person.
The Lord Jesus Christ. I say that because so often we hear the term the judeo-christian religion as though the Bible presents to us man's search after a knowledge of God, which gradually developed into what we now call, or what is called, I should say.
Judeo-christian religion oh how wonderful it is to realize that although.
This was indeed God-given, yet it proved in the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the incorrigible heart of man, and that that which we now have is something infinitely better. And to try to mix the two would be very, very hateful really in the sight of God.
Someone also has said that as as spiritual life declines, man naturally turns to ordinances because these things are appealing to the flesh and an unconverted man can go into a fine religious service and the field benefited by it. He likes that which he sees and hears.
And it makes him feel that he has fulfilled the religious obligation.
But what a wonderful thing it is to be found in the presence of the Lord Jesus, and to find that he Himself and the wonderful truth that is centered in him actually is a delight to the soul. And I believe it's right to say.
That if there is anyone here that does not find a personal delight in the person.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ there is no evidence that you are born again at all. Could I say that again if there is anyone here who does not find a personal delight in the person of the Lord Jesus?
There is no evidence that you that you are born again at all. One of the essential differences of Judaism and Christianity is that there's been, you might say, a change in the man who is before God. In Judaism, it was man in the flesh, as our brother was mentioned mentioning being tested for the time of testing.
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And Judaism is connected with the with man in the flesh, that is natural man.
It was really an arrangement that God made whereby he could go on with a man in the flesh during the time of probation and testing. But that's all over and has been mentioned. There's one been introduced. This is my beloved son in whom I found my delight. He's the 2nd man, isn't he? He's the last Adam, the 2nd man, and that's.
Christianity is connected with.
The second man, the Lord out of heaven, it's not connected with man in the flesh, so it doesn't appeal to the natural senses. Christianity is essentially spiritual and not sensual like Judaism, which appealed to the senses. And so I I feel that to be very practical in regard to these things.
We need to think in long terms like that.
That are we attracted by the religious things that appeal to the flesh?
Or is it that we recognize that those things have been set aside, that's all connected with Judaism, and the Lord Jesus is outside that? I'd like to make a remark in connection with that first verse in Chapter 9 that was referred to.
That Judaism had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary, which is an unusual combination.
And that isn't true today. There is no such thing owned of God as having divine service and a worldly sanctuary. We might say that was true at one time in Judaism. There were services, the ordinances were God-given, but he was in connection with a earthly or worldly sanctuary. Now then, the.
The services of God is not connected with the worldly sanctuary at all.
So to continue this combination is really what the camp is, isn't it? The camp would be characterized by that which seeks to continue this, this connection of things, of divine service with a worldly sanctuary. Sometimes individuals ask, what is the camp? Well, I I think that's one, at least one of the indications of it, those two elements being combined.
You can give up.
Christianity and go back to Judaism. Is he not saying that the blood of bulls and of groats is better than the blood of Christ? And if we continue with worldly ordinances, are we not putting them before on a level 2 with the precious blood of Christ? You might say that the Lord fought.
And Christianity was such a new thing to them.
And they at one time faithfully obeyed the ordinances given in the law, the sacrifices, and they dared not to disobey. And it was difficult for them to accept the change and the patience of God with His earthly people. That's one thing, but we ought to be careful not to apply the same as to.
Gentiles being brought under this kind of thing.
Refined Galatians is the epistle that would really be helpful, and we see how strong the apostle Paul speaks. They are when Gentiles who never were under the law are sought to be brought under that *******. And I believe that we ought not to be afraid to point out faithfully in the terms of Scripture.
The sin and the terrible system that is being introduced and practiced in Christmas.
Today, because Scripture does not hesitate at all. While it is certainly true, we ought to be patient with those who are brought up under this corrupt system, and the Lord will gradually give light, but we must never be afraid to.
Name the thing for what it is.
Disobedience, and it's really religious wickedness that is introduced and practiced in Christendom all around.
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To remember that when God did set aside the law and all that was connected with it, the ordinances of divine service.
Although those things are not carried on today in Christianity, if we are intelligent as to the position we are in, we can gain a great deal from the types and shadows. Or if God instituted that whole thing in order to show how He could go on with a guilty people while they were waiting for the time when the one sacrifice of Christ would be made.
Why isn't it lovely to see that we can go back and see?
How remarkable the pattern is. And the law it isn't as it tells us here. It's not the very image of the things. And we can never make those sacrifices fit exactly into the full light of Christianity. And we don't have to say, well, we're not interested in reading Leviticus anymore.
Because we don't have those sacrifices, we can go back and see that when God set those things up, He gave the most beautiful type and shadow of these good things and many of those precious things. We have enjoyed those of us who don't go on with the building any longer that was built by King Solomon or the Tabernacle that was constructed by Moses.
We can see in a beautiful picture.
Of what we have now in Christianity, living stones and those coverings of the Tabernacle and the altar of burnt offering, and all these things are most precious. So only God could do something like that. When man has something and the trial fails, then he must discard it. But when the trial failed because of what man is in the flesh, the Lord Jesus came and fulfilled.
All the types. But we can go back and enjoy those types and shadows and see that God foreknew about the work of Christ and how God would be glorified in it. And all those things were a shadow of the good things to come. As it's been quoted from the Psalms in my temple. Every hood of it doth utter thy glory.
So the the things in the Old Testament are precious to us.
But to go on with them now, when they've been fulfilled, is to go on with the shadow when the reality has come. And as it's been pointed out, to turn our back upon the reality, and we have it in this chapter would be serious indeed.
Say that these things in the Old Testament, these ordinances and so on, are like a signpost pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, as soon as we found the one that the signpost points to, we're not occupied with the signpost anymore. We're thankful for the signpost. We're thankful that it points the way we should go to the object that we're to be occupied with.
We can be thankful for the these shadows.
These sign folks, but when they pointed us to Christ and were occupied with Christ, we're occupied with him.
And justice thankful for the signposts. It used to perplex me when I would read of those multitudes of sacrifices, especially like in the dedication of the temple, thousands of beasts and all. But when you stop and think, what is that in comparison to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? And I believe that when we read in many places in the Old Testament, we can see that the heart of God.
Was entreated in connection with the sacrifices, especially like the daily sacrifice.
Because it reflected on to the time of his beloved son when he would sacrifice himself. And two, I was just thinking as we were considering this, for the Jew it was definitely an advantage. That is, it says what advantage then half the Jew?
It says unto them, were committed the oracles of God. It was like a schoolmaster, conductor.
That kept them more or less in the way they were shielded, I suppose, to a large extent, from all the wickedness and corruption that existed in the Pagan world at that day. And so for them it was a different story, wasn't it? Because Scripture does say the law is holy and just and good.
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But then as Galatian brings out, it brings us unto Christ, doesn't it? That comes to the point of Christ. Maybe it'd be good to read that in in Galatians chapter 3 verse 23, it says before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster.
Unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith, but after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Cometh into the world in verse five, bring us to the same point, don't they? To Christ. And that was the object before God. It wasn't those sacrifices and offerings that were offered.
Their value was in what they typified, what they pointed forward to. And so this desire of God comes out in a very wonderful way in these verses, which are taken up from Psalm 40. Sacrifice and offering thou would not.
That is, it wasn't God's desire just to have that.
No, it goes on and says here a body, hast thou prepared me? It's interesting. If we look at Psalm 40, it doesn't say a body has stopped prepared me. It says my ear hast thou opened. And so the thought of God goes way back into the past eternity from the council, I believe, of the Godhead thinking of what would take place in creation.
And the necessity of having a redemption. And how is it going to come about? Well, the purpose of God was to redeem. So the Son says, in effect, I will do thy will. So he has the ear to hear. And the Psalm, it's the ear to hear. And here it goes a little further. And as where God says.
Well, if you're going to undertake this work, you're going to have to have a body.
So now we have the body of Christ in sacrifice brought out in our chapter. Another change which is interesting in the way it reads here in Hebrews in contrast to Psalm 40, is that it leaves out our delight to do thy will. Oh God, I wonder if it isn't, because here in Hebrews.
We read about Hoover. The joy that was set before him endured the cross.
In the body heat bore our sins on the tree. That wasn't a delight, that was suffering. That was endurance. That was the cross. That's the sacrifice. Well, just those little changes in the quotation from Psalms. The Hebrews have a great meaning, I do believe.
Someone remarked, and I think it's well to remember it, that the law that God gave was perfect. The law that God gave was perfect, and we have no right to refer to it in any other way. But even in the Old Testament, do we not see again and again that God had this new thing in mind, even in giving that which was perfect?
There are many such illustrations, but in the case for instance of.
Samuel Anointing, David.
Jesse presented two Samuel 7 that perfect number seven of his sons.
And Samuel and Flier are there not any others? For God had not yet pointed out anyone of these seven to be the one who would be the ruler over Israel. And so the 8th. 1. David is brought in, and he is anointed, and is the one whom God so mightily use. And then again, and I hope this is not too remote, but in the 119th.
We find that in every section of that Psalm.
And those sections are part of inspiration, divided as they are by inspiration. There are exactly 8 verses in every one of those sections in Psalm 119. And as we know, that's all magnifies the law from verse one to the very end, over and over. And verse after verse the law is magnified and it's beauty and perfection.
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Declared, but instead of having 7 verses, there are 8 indicating I believe that although the law was holy and beautiful and perfect, yet God had in mind something new, a new beginning. Even in the case of Gideon in.
Judges chapter 6, When he was about to be used for the deliverance of Israel, he was told to offer a sacrifice and he was told, and this to me is very remarkable take from his father's heard the second bullet, even the second Bullock of seven years.
That's rather unusual that he should be told exactly which bullet to select.
The second bullet, our brother remarked that the Lord Jesus was the 2nd man and last Adam, and here when Israel was oppressed by the Midianites and they were about to be delivered, an offering is presented and it's not the first.
But the second book of seven years, just what we would expect that which was perfect in the sight of God. I say this because I think it's very, very beautiful to see even in the Old Testament where these types and shadows and where the law is given that not only is it beautiful to meditate upon, but.
God had in mind that which would be perfect and which would be presented to us, His beloved Son, in connection with that, I thought.
Of Psalm 40.
As being somewhat like David being the 8th, as you say, a type of the Lord Jesus as the second man. The seven sons brought before before us there would represent the whole history of the first man, wouldn't it? Complete 7 is the number of completeness, and in the whole history of the first man that was not found, one upon whom the eye of God could rest.
As he could upon the Lord Jesus when he came into this scene as the second man. Then I thought of the that in Psalm 40 we read of the Lord Jesus. I'll just read that one verse.
Verse eight I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, yeah, Thy law is within my heart.
That wasn't true of the first man, but here is a man who has the law within his heart. I delight to do thy will, O God. And I like to think of the Psalm 119. Now we find that the the people of God have the law written in their hearts. And that's really the terms of the new Covenant, isn't it? He says that I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts.
And that that is because we are connected now with we are connected with the 2nd man, not the first. We find that in the Romans 5. Is it not the latter part that we are now associated with Christ, the 2nd man? And the the work of God is to write into our hearts and minds His very laws, as it were, the desire to do His will.
Just as the Lord Jesus when he was here, that's.
And it seems to me that the apostle in this very epistle that we have, is seeking to do that, seeking to to give them impressions of Christ, so that they might be able to respond to that exhortation. Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, as their hearts would be engaged with Him, and they would have these impressions.
In their hearts and drawn to him, then they would find such an exhortation.
An invitation rather than something that would be irksome going forth unto him without the camp.
Deuteronomy 10IN connection with what our brother has said to carry the thought on a little.
It is so nice. There we have Moses. At that time the Lord said unto him, Hear thee 2 tables of stone, like under the first.
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And so he goes up and he gets those tables of stone. The second time comes down verse five. I turned myself and came down from the mount and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and there they be as the Lord commanded me. Well, the type is.
So pointed pointing to Christ, who is pictured by that ark.
In the most Holy place, and so the Lord could say.
Thy law is within my heart. He fulfilled the law.
And so now we read in Romans 10/4, Christ is the end of the law.
For righteousness to everyone that believeth. So that's that's the doctrine of the gospel that we have today. And how futile it would be for we poor Gentiles to try to get under the law under the which we never were. Yet we have the book and we're living in a day when.
Organized religion has taken up the law and mixed it up with grace, and some are coming out of that. And so we have the guidance in this book, which fits the day in which we live, too.
Doesn't it? The verse was quoted, The law was wholly just and good. But I am carnal, sold under sin, and as we have in our chapter here, it says.
The first verse it could not make the comers thereunto perfect, and another verse in Hebrews says the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. And so the law was all right. It was given of God, holy, just and good. But we just like having a very, very good set of tools.
And working with rotten lumber, you can't make the thing right no matter how good the tools are.
If the lumber is rotten, and that's what is brought out. The law was holy and just and good, but there was no good in us, nothing to respond to it. And so as our brother has brought out, the law was taken and placed in the ark, and on top of the ark was the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled. And they in that way God made a way of approaching to His presence. And then too, as it goes on in this 10th of Hebrews.
We are brought into that place. Christ is our mercy seat and now too he has put his law into our hearts so that we delight to do those things that are pleasing unto him. So that that really shows that what God has done is not taken up the laws a rule for man in the flesh because he couldn't produce any fruit for God, but he has imparted a new life and is that 40th Psalm says.
Pleasure of Thy will, O God, is my delight. And so for us who know the Lord, that new life that has been imparted to us finds its delight in the path of obedience.
Was just thinking too to make a couple of comments about those many sacrifices. I believe it was not only to show that God always had in view the work of Christ, but it was also to show the enormity of sin in God's sight. If you had been there and witnessed thousands of animals being slain, you would have naturally said why is all this required? And the answer would be sin is so enormous.
God's sight that thousands upon thousands of animals could never put away even one sin, but that flow of blood was a reminder of that. If you go to the 7th of Jeremiah, I think it helps to explain why it says that he didn't have any pleasure in those sacrifices. Jeremiah Chapter 7 and verse 21.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.
What you're burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh, for I spake not unto your Father's, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices, But this thing commanded I them saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people, and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be will well.
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With you. But they hearken not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the councils, and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. So God didn't command them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. Concerning sacrifices, He wanted obedience. But why were the sacrifices necessary? Because they were disobedient. Because they didn't fulfill His will.
And so.
The Lord Jesus came. He has done the will of God. He has glorified him. His one perfect sacrifice has put away sin. But now to go on with those sacrifices is a denial of the fact that that one sacrifice was enough to glorify God.
Because he never did have pleasure in the death of all those animals. He didn't create those animals to have to be slain upon Jewish altars. He created them as part of that creation that was given to Adam to enjoy. But sin came in, and so Abel had to offer his sacrifice. Adam and Eve had to be clothed through the death of an animal, and those sacrifices had to go on continually.
Not because God wanted the sacrifices, but because of man's disobedience which required a sacrifice.
And now how he's been glorified in this wonderful work of Christ. And I think that helps us to understand what it's speaking about. A way back in those eternal councils of God. He was looking beyond all this to the time when his beloved Son would come.
Take a body, settle the question of sin, glorify Him, and put an end to those sacrifices so they wouldn't have to continue.
And that's why I believe it says.
In the eighth verse above, when he said sacrifice and offering and bird offering an offering for sin, thou wouldest not. Neither has pleasure therein, but He had pleasure in obedience, and He has pleasure in our obedience. It's not how much we go on with ordinances, but the obedience of heart that He values. Even in the things that we have in Christianity, as I mentioned, baptism in the Lord's Supper, they have no value at all.
Apart from faith, people speak about taking communion, but the the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
The blood, the cup, is the communion of the blood of Christ. It's only as our hearts enter into the meaning of those things that they have any value before God. If we're in communion with His thoughts, then they have value in His sight, but not the things themselves.
There on the ordinances to call to our mind of that which God delights in the person and work of his beloved Son. I think that's very important to to in connection with the an erroneous thought that in the minds of many in Christendom.
That there is a God of the Old Testament and a God of the new, as if the God of the Old Testament did delight in these animal sacrifices, but that now he's a different type of God. But it's the same, isn't it? He delighted in obedience then. What he looked for then in his people was that obedience to himself and submission.
And those animal sacrifices was whereas an acknowledgement on their their part.
Of the debt that they owed, it was a remembrance made every year of sins. It was an acknowledgement that they were sinners and that the death is the is the result of sin. So rather than it being something that God delighted in.
It was, as you say, a necessity on their part and an acknowledgement on their part that they were sinners. And every year there was a remembrance, a calling to mind. It's remarkable that the word in verse three of our chapter, remembrance is the same word that is used in First Corinthians 11. This do in remembrance of me.
A calling to mind a memorial and those offerings it was a memorial of of the.
The fact that they were sinners and acknowledgement of the debt. It wasn't paid. The debt wasn't paid, but there was an acknowledgement that they were debtors. And of course, and now that the work has been accomplished, we do not remember a call to mind sins, but it's the Savior, isn't it? The one who put them away. Perhaps a word, you might give us a word on that, this word perfect.
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Because.
You know, it's used commonly in our language today of meaning something that is flawless.
That really isn't the meaning here is there is. No one is perfect. We hear that expression which is true. None of us are perfect, but there is a sense in which we're perfect, wouldn't you say? The believer?
That's what's referred to in Hebrews 6 is not the.
6th Chapter of Hebrews. In the first verse, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, you have a margin. It says, Leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, Let us go on unto. Let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and so on.
That is, when the Lord Jesus was here walking upon earth, the work of redemption had not yet been accomplished. And he said to the disciples, the Pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore that they bid you observe that observe and do.
Saw that it was right for them to go on with those things that God had ordained under Judaism until Christ had accomplished the work. But when the Lord Jesus had accomplished the work, then we go beyond what He said in His pathway here before redemption was accomplished.
We hear the voice of a glorified Christ speaking from heaven and going on to perfection. As your remark is not perfection in the flesh, but it's a perfect work that a was accomplished by a perfect Savior that gives the believer a perfect standing before God.
The subject. That's the way the word perfect is taken up in Hebrews. We're not perfect in the sense that we still have the old nature, but every believer here who's resting upon the work of Christ can say, I have a perfect Savior, He did a perfect work, and I have a perfect standing before God. One enjoys that lovely verse in First Epistle of John in the 4th chapter.
As he is, so are we in this world.
As Christ is, with death and judgment behind him, a glorified man at the right hand of God. That is our standing while we're still here. And that's really what perfect is in the sense that it's used in Hebrews. But of course there is another sense what it's used.
In the 12Th chapter where it speaks of the spirits of just man made perfect, and that looks on to the time when the Old Testament Saints will have glorified bodies or in the end of the 11Th chapter, they without us should not be made perfect. That is, we're going to have glorified bodies like Christ. The Old Testament Saints who died in faith will have glorified bodies like Christ.
And then we'll be perfect, not only as to our standing.
We sing sometime in soul and body. Perfect, all glorified with thee, the perfect there in Philippians.
Three, does that not have to do with full understanding, or at least a proper understanding of these things? Verse 15 of Philippians 3. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Yes, I believe the thought in that verse is full growth. I believe in the 12Th verse.
Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect. He's saying there that it won't be saw until, as we have in the end of the chapter, we have been changed into His likeness morally and physically. But we can lay hold of these things where God has put us through the work of Christ, and that is the condition that He's bringing before us here.
And every believer is entitled to enter into and enjoy these things, that he is in that perfect standing before God.
And if he has entered into that and he's not looking at himself, he's pressing on in the race with Christ as his object and with the hope before him of being like him physically when he comes.
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Perhaps we might think that perfection is connected with our comprehension of the truth of what has Christ has done. Well, I'm sure there's not any of us that has a complete, full comprehension of all that Christ has done.
But the perfection comes from the work of Christ himself, from Christ himself. And if you have just simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have that perfection of perfect standing. The work that Christ has done for you is complete, and it doesn't depend upon our knowledge of it or our comprehension of it. That is the amount of it. But simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him.
When we receive Christ as our Savior, we have it all. We have all that God wants us to have.
Dispersed all the Philippians 3 and verse 15 he is Speaking of laying hold of it because I believe there are I believe I could say thousands of true believers in the Lord Jesus who has to their standing are perfect before God, but haven't entered into it in their own souls.
And they're losers, buy it. And so when he's addressing them here, he would have them to come to that.
Knowledge in their own souls as to what the work of Christ is before God, and what their standing is as a result. And in that sense it is practical here in Philippians 3. But as you say, the position is founded, and only founded upon the work of Christ.
Really the only when one apprehends what his true place is before God, that he can understand what his responsibility is when you say as many as be perfect. Let us be thus minded. In other words, if if we apprehend it, then we know what God looks for in his people and.
No doubt this is a source of weakness.
In that we don't apprehend what we really are before God in Christ. And I was thinking too of another sense of perfection even in what we have in our chapter.
Chapter 10 it says at the end of verse two, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins, and connect that with the verse nine of Chapter 9, which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts.
And sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. So a believer we might add to what you were saying, what the believer has in the way of perfection, he has a perfect conscience in this sense that is a conscience free.
Of the sense of guilt before God.
In the way of judgment. Now, of course we know governmentally it may not be so. One might not have liberty because of his walk. But a believer who is entered into the value of the work of Christ, one who has entered into the value of the work of Christ, has a perfect conscience in regard to his sins, so that he knows that he will never be brought into judgment.
And that God will never bring those sins up again. And I was thinking of the and I think in Luke 19, is it not the prayer of the public? And when he smote his breast and said, God be merciful to me, the Sinner, you might say, he would have not yet been brought to perfection. Because now we see God has been merciful to the center.
And we see what God has done for the center and how many.
Times we hear, have heard the prayer, I trust not among us, but we have heard the prayer and forgive us our sins for Jesus sake. Well, one in that condition wouldn't be perfect as to his conscience, would he? He still has a conscience of sins and he's asking God for mercy or forgiveness. But when we see the value of the work of Christ.
Then one has a perfect conscience before God.
In regard to his sins.
Important, the way in which. So I say the truth of these things and the practical side of these things are woven together in Scripture. I really believe it's very important. In fact, I was surprised one time to find how many, many times doctrine is mentioned in Paul writing to Timothy, which we just had brought before us this afternoon.
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And I believe that if through the goodness of the Lord, we see what the Scripture says as to how God sees us and where we stand before Him, then the practical result of it in our lives should be carried out. Not that we are seeking to arrive at or strive after.
These wondrous the wondrous position that the Scripture presents to us.
Presented to us in all certainty and at all clarity, these are points of doctrine, but then interwoven with it are those reminders as to the conduct suited to one who is in such a position, just by way of a little illustration.
From time to time you see a comment or hear a comment about excuse this British illustration, but His Royal Highness Prince Charles.
And as to the kind of behavior that is suited to him, why suited to him because of the family into which he has been born, because of the dignity of the position that he represents, wherever he is and at all times. He's not striving after such honors. He's not seeking for such a position. He was born into it. And there's a certain kind of.
Behavior suited to him, and he would be smartly reminded of it if he failed to maintain it. So I believe when we read the doctrines of the Word of God, how thankful we should be to discover where we are before God.
The standing that is ours, the love that shines upon us. Then define the kind of behavior that ought to be at all times.
Displayed by those who are in such a place before God.
Well, even in connection with the believer not being under law, still we read in Romans 8 it says for the righteousness of the law. Or rather let's see, yes, that the righteousness of the law verse 4 might be fulfilled in US who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. I believe the thought is that the righteous requirements of the law will be fulfilled.
In those that walk, not after the flesh.
But after the Spirit, so we need the exhortation of the New Testament Scriptures, do we not to appeal to the new man to be an exercise to our hearts in practical righteousness? Is there not a connection? Is there not a connection with this perfection to do with the changing from as we get in 2nd Corinthians 3? But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Is there not a connection there between that and growing up into Christ, our being perfect?
That's really laying hold on that which is eternal life.
Might read Hebrews 514 on that point.
Hebrews 514 But strong meat belongeth to them that are in the margin, says perfect.
Or full age, even to those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
It's really a.
Kind of a convicting verse. That is, do I have my senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil? If so, these.
Precious, deep things of God.
Are for me.
If not, I'm still.
Needing the elementary things.
Practical, isn't it?
And so in connection with the Lord Jesus Himself here in our chapter in the seventh verse.
For I come in the bottom of the book, it is written of me to do Thy will. Oh God, what a perfect example we have. We have Him brought before us. Here, of course, is the one who glorified God about the whole question of sin and opened up all His blessing for us. But what was it that characterized His whole pathway? Even the Calvary? It was doing His Father's will. That was the only.
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Liberty that his blessed soul knew it was liberty to do His Father's will. And if you and I are in the enjoyment of this, I surely that's what will be seen in our lives as our brother brought out in the young people's meeting. It's not having our own will at all.
We have one who at such tremendous cost, at his father's will, took that place and bore the judgment so that all this blessing might flow out to us who never did one thing to please himself. Now, what an example for us. It's opened up in the end of the chapter here, but the person who did it is brought before us as the one who came into this world not like us.
He Isaiah 53, says We turned everyone to his own way.
But here's one who came into this world with one purpose, to do His Father's will. Well, may it be so with us, because we possess His life. Now I think it's interesting in the prayer in John 17, how the Lord speaks in the fourth verse. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do.
He takes that work as a gift.
Something the Father gave him to do. It was his delight to do it. Do we take up our work that way?
220 Four 224 Oh, that we never might forget what Christ has suffered for our sake.
To save our souls and make us meet of all His glory to partake. But keeping this in mind, press on to glory on the victors Crown 224.