Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
In a part of Hebrews 10.
And.
Veteran are happy to go on with it.
I'd like to make a remark or two.
Before the portion is read.
There are many young people here, and sometimes there is a certain amount of apprehension in connection with reading the book of Hebrews.
But may I just point out that in the 1St place you'll find?
That it's Jesus that is before us. If it's the blood, it's the blood of Jesus.
And so on. You'll notice that as you read it beside that.
It's the man Christ Jesus.
Now it's true. In the first chapter we have his full glories. God.
Jehovah and man, But in general we find that the subject is the man Christ Jesus.
Besides that, the subject is just like it was in the Old Testament where Moses was leading his companions to the land of rest. The Lord Jesus is with his people in Hebrews. It's true that He's in heaven interceding, but it's just as true that He's with us down here.
And that.
We can have that sense of companionship with him as we read these passages, because in Hebrews the believers see not in the position of the church exactly, although it is that, but the believers seem rather as his companions.
On their way to that rest now I just make those remarks because.
It would help us, perhaps, to see that the Lord Jesus came down as a man.
To do all the work and to bring us into the presence of a holy God.
Without spot or stain. And so while we are thinking of the Lord in that place of nearness, we must remember.
That the place He brings us is into the presence of a holy God.
And that is most solemn besides the fact of the nearness.
By which we approach the throne. It's a solemn thing to consider that He's brought us into the very presence of God himself.
Through his own precious blood.
Now what verses was it that we were that we stopped at?
I suppose we might as well read from the first verse of the 10th chapter, perhaps to the end of the 25th again. Hebrews 10 from verse one to verse 25 from someone read it again.
Hebrews 10, verse one.
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 then 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.
Or it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest 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 hadst 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 second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
00:05:01
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices.
Which can never take away sin, 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.
The Holy Ghost also was 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 minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where 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 hath 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, 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 promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.
But exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.
The reason he brings this in, as he does in the first part of this 10th chapter, is the danger of the Hebrew Saints going back to the ritual of Judaism. And it's important for us because we find much of Christendom as a mixture of Judaism and Christianity, and he is seeking to lead their souls into the full enjoyment of that which was typified in the.
Tabernacle and the provision that God made.
But not into the Tabernacle itself, or into the temple itself, but rather into the place that we are brought in Christianity, and where it's not a building made with hands, but into the very holiest of all. And he is showing how all these things in the types and shadows fell short of the reality, and that it was in the eternal purposes of God.
That there should be a way into the presence of God, not through a building made with hands, but through a person, as our brother said.
The one who came down in lowly grace, who took the name of Jesus, will save his people from their sins. And in connection with what our brother was saying, I was thinking of that verse in the second chapter of Hebrews, the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory.
So as the captain of our salvation, he's leading us and leading us home to glory.
But he would have our souls to be in the enjoyment of our present position and standing. For how many dear Saints of God do not enjoy this, and are occupied with things that are seen and the rudiments of the world? The purpose here of the Spirit of God, I say again, is that we might be in the enjoyment of our present standing and position as the work, as the result of the work of Christ being accomplished.
Sometimes.
Children play with chatter.
By seeing children play with shadows.
Particularly, sometimes children step on one another's shadow. Of course you have a shadow when the sun is shining, and I've seen them play games with that.
Well, when they're stepping on the shadow, they're not stepping on the real thing.
There is a real thing.
That's making it a shadow.
Who is the real faith? What are the real things that speaks of the?
Very image of the thing, although it has Christ and all that's connected with him.
That's the real faith. And Turley, the writer of Hebrews, was very much exercised here and had a burden.
And who was it that laid this burden on his heart? That was the Lord Himself. And he wrote under the direction and guidance of the Spirit of God. So these words come right from God Himself. And he wanted his own dear earthly people to get occupied with a very image of the thing, to get occupied with Christ Himself.
00:10:15
It was true. Perhaps they were going to be occupied or wanted to be occupied with.
Messiah down here on earth and all the things of Judaism that they thought would be connected with him. But that wasn't enough. Christ had been here. He'd gone to glory. And we find four times, I believe in this epistle, and one of them in this chapter where the Lord Jesus Christ is in glory, sat down at the right hand of God.
And the the Spirit of God.
Was occupying them through the apostle Paul with that very thing. Christ himself in glory. He'd already gone up there and he sat down.
We used to term that might be helpful to explain.
Right, Christendom and Christianity.
Now there were remarks made on Saturday about Christianity and when we think of Christ going up in the beginning of AD.
There the king went up into heaven, and we might say that Christendom lost sight of Christ right then. And then the remark was made That is helpful on Saturday is that Christianity begins the other side of the cloud. It begins with a Christ in glory and brings the light of Christianity back to the earth.
When we think of this people.
Israel, whom God worked with.
For many years, but especially for their 40 years of children in the wilderness.
They, after they were redeemed, had a thought of bringing God down to dwell with them.
Let us prepare him in habitation, they said in Exodus 15.
And God took them up on that.
Proposition and.
Gave them the directions to build a house, the Tabernacle.
And when they had followed the pattern and built it, he came down and dwelt amongst them.
A type of something better.
For God's thoughts always exceed our own.
What we have in Christianity is not God come down to dwell with us. Exactly.
Although he does do that by faith and certainly the Spirit of God dwelling in the house, but the purpose is to bring a people up to dwell with him. That's the whole thought of God, to bring a people up to heaven. That's Christianity. That's our hope. But nevertheless, the Lord having gone up there and serving us now as our high priest, having finished the work of atonement.
He is there to intercede for us. But our brother's remarks introductory are so needful and helpful. The last chapter of this book says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And so the Lord Jesus comes down, and he is known to faith, to direct and to bring his people through the wilderness, but to teach us of heavenly things, and that our worship now is not.
Sanctuary.
We were remarking between.
Just individuals after the meeting on Saturday that the law having a shadow of good things to come.
It just says that those visible things that they had were a shadow. That seems kind of strange when we think of it. They had that wonderful building covered over with gold on the inside, both the Tabernacle and the temple. And the law says, or at least here it says, those things were just a shadow of what is a real thing.
And so it is, Peter says, silver and gold, which corruption, the most durable substances that we know can't compare to the eternal values of what we have in Christ, all settled in heaven for us to enjoy now.
00:15:04
President Kalashnikov, third chapter, the second verse, that's your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. If he be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sit us on the right hand of God, you're dead. Your life is dead with Christ in God. That's where our life is, is with Christ in him, and he's there.
That's Christianity and I was thinking.
When this was several years ago, when Khrushchev was torn through our country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, all the states taking the scene, everything, he met many of Chrysodom but his statement in San Francisco when a reporter asked him, what do you think about Christians? And he said.
If that Christianity, I don't want any part of it. They want heaven.
They don't want it now. They want it when they die. That isn't the way we are. We want it now. We want Christ now. We want him to come take us home while we're here. There's things to do, that's right. But our hope and our expectancy is to be there. That's Christianity. Well, he may have met Christian, but they weren't living in the good of us.
What we have with Christ, the right hand of God, that's where our life is.
In Colossians chapter 2, our brother was just reading from the third chapter. In the second chapter of Colossians, verse 16, the apostle says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of in holy day or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. That's what we've been reading about.
The law having a shadow of good things to come.
Here, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ, What are they a shadow of? What are all these things in the law and in the Old Testament economy? A shadow out there, a shadow of Christ. And the body that casts the shadow is Christ. And so we have in Hebrews the Lord Jesus as the substance and fulfillment of all those shadows and types.
They were not the very image and that should serve as a warning to us, lest when we interpret the Old Testament types we become fanciful and go beyond the leading of the Spirit of God. I believe we should be very guarded in how the Old Testament types are applied and be sure that that our applications are according to the New Testament teachings. But all these types and shadows of the.
Testament have Christ as their substance, His body as it were, cast the shadow. But as it says here in Hebrews 10, these are not the very image of the things and what we have in Hebrews over and over again.
Are comparisons and yet contrasts? Because these types and shadows are not very imaged even in the comparison.
It comes out in the final result as more of a contrast, for instance, the inverse 11 of Chapter 9. But Christ being common high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building or creation, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood.
He added in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.
So the comparison is the blood of the goats and calves compared with the blood of Christ. But that's really a contrast because the blood of goats and calves have no eternal value whatsoever. Their only value lies in the fact that they pointed forward to Christ. But now our eternal redemption has been affected through the precious blood of Christ, and where he has entered, that's our place.
And so the 10th chapter says, having therefore brethren, boldness for entering the holiest.
By the blood of Jesus, he's entered there in the power of and characterized by his blood. Not the blood of bulls and goats, but by his precious blood. He's entered. He's come, and he's entered the glory. And now we can enter where he is gone by the blood of Jesus.
00:20:09
There is a tendency with everyone of us and that's the reason we need these scriptures.
To take on the character of the shadows in a religious way. And so in the first verse it says.
Shadow of good things to come. Now it's the good things to come, or the heavenly things that the Spirit of God would set before us in Hebrews. And when it says heavenly things, it's referring to a person who has replaced all things that were once shadows.
Now in the 6th chapter, the apostle said, let us go on to perfection. What does he mean?
He means to go on to heavenly things.
Of course the subject is the priesthood there, and it's the after the order of Melchizedek, but still heavenly things that is the exhortation. There are many things that are religious in their character, but if we stay with them without remembering that we are a heavenly people, we will only become a part of the religious camp around us.
And beside that.
Unless you and I are continually fortified by the scriptures.
That bring before us heavenly things, we will lose a sense of our secret.
And become worldly Christians, and we will take on the character of this religious world around us, and we will begin building the things that make for the shadows. But if we are simple in our souls, and we have Christ before us, or Jesus as we have here, we will be occupied with the good things to come.
Because that's where he is now.
And we want to go there, and we're waiting for him to come, just to take his home to himself. And so it's the heavenly things, the things that belong there, not the things that belong to earth. And it's not only the religious things either. There's so many things down here that would take our minds and hearts that would hinder the progress of our souls in heavenly things.
Because the moment we fill our minds and our hearts.
With things, whatever they are, religious or temporal, we're going to in that measure not leave room for these heavenly things. You can't fill a vessel with two things at once. And if we're going to really be in earnest, we will be taken up with heavenly things. And of course that means that we will be occupied with Christ and as we are occupied with Christ.
We we take on that character.
That he manifests when he manifested it here but also up there.
It was important for these Jewish believers to realize that this was no afterthought with God. In order to be a shadow, there has to be a reality to cast the shadow and this is what He is bringing out here, brethren, is that it was no off afterthought. Way back in eternity God had these eternal purposes. There was the volume of the book that was written of Christ.
God had purposes that Christ was to have a bride, that there was to be a heavenly people.
And the Tabernacle was on the pattern of things in the heavens. And so God gave this to the people while they were under trial. Some might say, Well, why did God give all that? Why didn't He at once introduce that which was in his mind, the reality of things as we speak of them now? Well, God must first Test man. Galatians says, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.
Of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law and so man was under trial. Could he fulfill God's requirements? So God makes known all his requirements to him and what did he do? How he violated everyone showed his incapability and not only his incapability, but that he did not even have the desire. All that there was such a heart in them. The Scripture says that they might walk in my ways.
So there was neither the heart nor the desire. People will say, oh, but if we had a grand building and beautiful music and robes and ritual, people would be drawn. So in the trial, God gave everything. Everything in heaven is going to be grand and glorious, but it will not be used as an appeal to man in the flesh. But God makes an appeal now, and he sets up everything under the law that would appeal to the senses of man.
00:25:21
With this grand building, with all this ritual, change men's hearts and draw them to God. What was the result of the trial? The result was that the people who had all these things, when the Lord Jesus came, they said away with Him, away with him, crucify him. The shadow, the outward thing did not change the heart of man. So it's an entirely new thing and they're just passing on.
And ahead to the 20th 1St.
I am new and living way which he hath consecrated or made news through the veil. It's an entirely new thing now, because God begins all over again. And where does He begin? He begins inside. And so it's a new way and it's a living way. It's new because all the ritual is now passed away, and it's now that which is reality. And it's living because let me put it very simply.
You don't have to be saved to enjoy music and robes and fine buildings, but you have to have a new life to sit down quietly and enjoy the presence of the Lord inside the veil. As a worshiper, you have to, as I say, have a new life. And So what He is showing them, I believe in this chapter, is that all those things that they were tending to go back to were only a shadow, and it wasn't any afterthought with God. He knew all this beforehand, but He put that under trial.
And when the trial was over, then he pronounced judgment upon the whole thing of what man is in the flesh. And we are the circumcision which worship God by the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. If you're rejoicing in a nice building in robes and music, you're not rejoicing in Christ Jesus. You're rejoicing in what you can see and hear.
But Christianity is this new thing, as our brother was talking.
Christendom, and Christianity christened them, is the sphere where Christianity is known, and Christianity is the entirely new thing. And as the Lord said, brethren, the new wine must be put into new bottles. The new joys of Christianity are not contained in the old order of Judaism. Now they were slow to learn this, and God has gone into a great deal of detail in the Epistle to the Hebrews to.
Lead these people out of that and it's important for us.
Because what Christendom has done, and this is what is called the camp in the last chapter, is to rebuild the old order of things and introduce into it a mixture of the two things, Judaism and Christianity, and what the Spirit of God is seeking to lead us to. And I hope our hearts lay hold of it, that we should quietly sit in the presence of the Lord Jesus, just enjoying this blessed, glorious person.
As our brother said, the man Christ Jesus.
The one who stood in the midst of his own in an upper room, not in the temple, but with all kinds of entertainment, shall I say, but just quietly stood in their room where the doors were shut, in a place of separation, and showed them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
And if the reading of this portion draws our hearts more to Him than as our brother has just been saying.
It will not only give us to realize what true Christian position is, but it will also make us separate.
From the world and from all that the world has set up to appeal to the eyes and to the senses, not only in a natural way, but in a religious way too. All that our souls might be LED into what God by His Spirit is introducing us to our new physician, where we can enjoy the person of Christ as his companions, knowing him as the captain who's leading us to the scene where everything will be perfect. A.
Seen for all that's there will minister Christ in all his fullness to our hearts. Well, that's what we're going on to, and what God wants us to enjoy is this thing now by the Spirit as understanding the truth of where Christianity has brought us, consequent upon the work of Christ, and God will surround himself with nothing but perfection.
And so not only.
Is that which speaks of the order of things to be perfect. But the believer himself must have something more to rest upon than the blood of animals. And that's what is led to here, that the sacrifices that were made before did not leave the conscience perfect.
00:30:24
They had to be made again every year.
But in Hebrews, in another passage earlier, we learned that the sacrifice has an eternal character.
In fact, as we noticed yesterday, everything in Hebrews leaves us with that thought.
Of having an eternal character, the inheritance of salvation, and even the judgment, so that God is going to surround himself with that which is perfection itself. Now this is a wonderful thought for us to think that those of us who by nature and practice were far off from God because of not only what we were, but what we have done.
Are are going to be seen as those who are perfect.
In Christ forever we are already, but in that coming day God is going to surround himself with children.
As we have in the second chapter of Hebrews, just like Christ. And so in order to do so, there had to be a work accomplished. That in itself was perfect. The victim had to be perfect, and he had to be a man.
And all this was provided back in the councils of God, as we have in our chapter the volume of the book mentioned in those Councils of God. He had this in mind. And we have added here one expression that was not in the 40th Psalm.
A body hast thou prepared me? That is, we find that it's the man Christ Jesus. And to me this is so precious that the Lord Jesus came down as a man.
It wasn't that that God came down in a way that you and I would run. No, He came near unto us. And as you find in Luke's gospel, if you would go out in the morning, you would find the Lord Jesus standing on the corner possibly.
Healing the sector, cleansing the lepers or encouraging some poor soul that needed help. That was that was his business. Day by day he was near his people and he came to enter into their trials and difficulties.
Now he's the same yesterday and today and forever. But.
The work we're thinking of just goes much deeper than that. It's the work of our eternal redemption. That's in view here in our chapter. And so the blood of animals will never do. And these sacrifices were performed year after year. Once a year, the high priest went in, not without blood. I'm not saying he went in every year, because Scripture didn't tell us that, but we know he went in once.
But at least the the the type is there.
That he went in a type of Christ going in in the efficacy of that blood. I say that because there's a false doctrine out that Christ took his blood into heaven, which is not true. He went in in the efficacy of that blood and the value of it for us. He enters the presence of God.
As a result of that, there will never have to be another sacrifice for sin. I say sins because it's the guilt.
That attached to each believer. That's all taken care of.
Those sins will never be remembered again. They're all taken care of now. In this we have perfection, because the sacrifice was perfect.
The work itself was perfect.
The person himself was perfect.
And so, brethren, we have something solid to rest on that this world and this religious world knows nothing about, with all of their ordinances. They know nothing about the perfect finished work. And you speak to some of them, they'll say, you say, are you a Christian? Yes, Oh yes. Are you trusting in the blood? Well, I, I don't know what you mean.
I don't know what you mean.
00:35:00
And so you see so many today who are simply trusting in what is called a common faith.
A common faith, not as Jude uses it, but as the Christendom uses it, something that they all sort of believe in a general way that you should believe on Christ. Now that's not Christianity. It must be the blood of Christ so that there's one sacrifice and only one sacrifice that puts away every spot and every stain, because if there's one left, left, you'll have to go to the cross.
We know you never will do that. We found that out in the first verses. We read the end of the previous chapter. Once in the end of the world, hath you feared you'll never come again. For that purpose, it's all finished. And so we have a perfect sacrifice. We have a perfect Savior.
We have a perfect rest as a result of it.
We could say that verse 14 is really the key to the Epistles we're in. Or by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. The work is done and complete. Now we've been mentioning that there's criticism.
More Judaism than Christianity, and I believe it's true today, if more of Judaism than Christianity. Why?
It appeals to the flesh. It's something to do, but it's all done. And I was thinking in Acts 15, just for one or two verses, we see how quick it came in, how quick it was a problem.
There they were trying to get those Christians to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses. And in verse five it says at the end the Pharisees told them it's needful to keep the law opposed.
Why would they do that? Why would any even think of it when we're completely free and saved forever on that work of the cross? Well, it's the flesh. It gives the flesh something to do. Keep called Moses. That's what they want to do today.
They're doing things, but notice what Peter said when he rose up. He said at the end of verse 7.
Hear the word of the gospel, and believe God, and God which knoweth the hearts, bear them with us, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us Jews, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore, why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. Notice, even as they, the Jews now, even as the Gentiles, the shadows are gone.
Christ has come, the blood has been shed. That's the thought.
There they quickly wanted to get back under the law. The Galatians really want to get back under the law.
Today, Christianity has brought him. The law is solemn, isn't it? The flesh is the reason it brings the flesh into play.
Isn't it true that in Prestonham we have an element which is 5 words in Judaism?
It's really a mixture of Christianity, Judaism and idolatry.
And as the principle of Judaism.
Is the deadening effect on the spiritual growth of the believer, though it is also with the principles of idolatry. This is really the mixture that we are facing today.
At Christmas and Easter, where do they have their origins? I believe we need in faithfulness to warn ourselves that we do not with our hearts cling to those things which really have no origin in God.
Its origin in God and was given to the Jews by God. And he has much patience with his people who had difficulties realizing that these things had no more values.
Looked in Acts and throughout the pressures in the early days of the church how patience God was in bearing with His people, because after all, what they had had its originate God.
00:40:05
What excuse do we have for clinging and Christendom, and for clinging to custom, which has their origin in debt, which is most faithful to God? Idolatry. So may the Lord help us, because if we do not sober us, then these things are what they are and will have a deadening effect on our spiritual growth.
It might hinder us to reach perfection as we have it presented in the 6th chapter, although they are most definitely referred to Judaism.
How wonderful, and I do not make these comments, to have us get off that wonderful subject of perfection that we have reached through the sacrifice of Christ. There seems to be here especially before us, and that has given us a standing before God which is perfect to which we cannot end, and from whom nobody can take anything away.
But has asked the question, What is a Christian? And it was answered, A Christian is one who is in Christ where Christ is, and one who is for Christ where Christ is not. And I believe we have that brought out in this very Epistle in the 24th verse of the 9th chapter of Hebrews. Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true.
But into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, We read in verse 12, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. Now he appears in the presence of God for us, but he's entered into heaven itself. And that was a tremendous thought to a Jew, to these Jewish Christians.
To realize that it wasn't an earthly religion.
It wasn't an earthly order of things, but Christ has entered into heaven itself. Now that defines our place. The present position of Christ with respect to God and with respect to this world defines our place in chapter 10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way.
Which he had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
He's entered in. He is there. Now we enter in. That's our place. Christ in heaven, Christ in glory is our place. But turn to the 13th chapter. And here we have in verse 11, 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. So in with respect to God, he's entered into heaven. He's entered into heaven to appear in the presence of God. For us. That's our place. We enter there, that's where we worship yesterday morning when we remembered the Lord and worship and praise and adoration.
We didn't worship here, we worshipped in the holiest. We added into the very presence of God.
But what's our place on earth with respect to all the religions of man, with respect to everything that appeals to man after the flesh? What's our place that's outside? He suffered without the gate. Without what gate was it? It was the the metropolis, the center.
Of earthly religion it was that people that had the law. What people was it that crucified Christ?
It wasn't the heathen, it wasn't the gentiles, it was the Jews. It was those that had the law. The very chapter you've been referring to, brother.
They're the ones that wouldn't have Him, the ones that had a religion suited to man after the flesh. Christianity is not that at all. It's something altogether new. Let us go forth, therefore unto Him, without the calf bearing His reproach, our place down here.
Is outside of all established religion that man after the flesh can find some comfort in Christianity? Is not that at all? Let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing city.
00:45:01
Seek one to come. Our place is defined by Christ. It's in heaven. But down here it's rejection. It's outside the camp. And I just want to make a few comments on Galatians 4IN connection with what Brother Heinz has brought before us in Galatians 4, he said that in Christendom there's something worse than just Judaism.
There's idolatry, but the principle of idolatry and the principle of Judaism.
In principle are identical are identical Galatians 4 verse 8. Albeit then when you knew not God, He did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. He's talking to Gentiles who were converted to Christ and he says when you knew not God you worshipped idols. But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again?
To the weak and beggarly elements.
Whereunto you desire again to be in *******? Why does he say again twice?
Because in principle they weren't going back to idolatry, they were going to the law. They were going to be made perfect by the flesh, by some efforts of the flesh, he said. In principle, that's exactly what you came out of when you came out of paganism. You're going back to the rudiments of the world. And that's what Christendom has become. It's a vast system of religion suited to and adapted to man after the flesh.
He observed days and months and times and years. Christendom is doing that. We heard Christmas and Easter and all these holidays that are being celebrated. Is that Christianity? No, it isn't. That's that's paganism. That's the principle of the world, that's bringing in things. And Judaism too, he says. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you.
Labor in vain? Well, I believe a faithful word is needed.
As we realize, as we have Hebrews before us, we realize that our portion is in glory. It's not anything that the flesh can glory in. The flesh has been judged and set aside at the cross. Our place on earth is outside the camp, bearing His reproach, but entering in to the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
What you were?
What you were what you were referring to?
In Galatians is of course connected with the Gentiles. The apostle Paul had been all through that land country of Galatia preached the gospel, tolls had been saved, little companies of Christians had sprung up there, little assemblies. And what happened then? Well, there were those in Judaism that thought they needed something that fall didn't reach.
So they went up there and those poor Christians are just young in the faith. They were affected by this.
And they were taking up with this thing. And it's really a solemn thing just to see that inverse 8 of what you were reading chapter 4 of Galatians when you knew not God. He did service unto them, which financial were no gods referring to their time in idolatry, worshipping idol. And then came along these who introduced this other thing. But we had experience of that in the Congo way back in the 30s.
We went about preaching the gospel.
And time and again I would go on a gospel trip through the villages, preaching Christ, nothing but Christ and him crucified.
And then it wasn't long until someone else came along.
And told them that what I was preaching was not right, it was wrong. I was leaving them astray. And these very men that went through the villages, after I had been there, they introduced to those people a different kind of idolatry.
Those natives had idols in their houses, idols that they themselves had made and which had been sanctified, according to them, by the witch doctor. Sacrifice had been made, blood had been sprinkled on those idols and those who were the ones they worship.
When this man who came afterward, when I preached the gospel, he said, well, these idols, you ought to have new idols, And he would bring out images of the Saints and even of Christ, and said, now you put these in your house in there. And there, there they were standing. I saw them in the very place.
00:50:00
Where the natives had had their own idols before taking them away from 1 system of idolatry to another. And that's all they can do. That's all that system has been doing for years. And to think that that kind of thing can creep in amongst all those in Christendom is solemn indeed. But who is behind all of this? It's the enemy of souls, the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we we thank God for the scriptures we have.
To point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And how wonderful to point people like that, pagans to the Lord Jesus Christ and they find rest, joy and blessedness. We find here in Galatians in this same chapter that the apostle Paul has to say to them, where is then the blessedness you speak of? They were robbed. They were robbed by this system of things.
For I bear your record that if it had been possible, he would have plucked out their own eyes and have given them to me. That's how happy they were in this, this freedom they brought in and brought into liberty in Christ.
Liberty from the ******* of idolatry, liberty from worshiping Satan, worshiping demons. Because Paul says plainly that the things that the Gentiles sacrificed to idols, they sacrificed to demons. So it's just another form of demon worship when different idols and different systems is introduced. But it's still idolatry. And it's it's sad. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
But this is solemn too. We become the enemies of those.
Who want these religious things to give expression to the movements, the motions of the flesh? That's all it is. And we become their enemies. May God give us grace just to cleave to Christ and all that we have in Him. He's enough. Oh, I have enjoyed this.
Course about the Lord Jesus Christ being perfect in every aspect, and then we read in Colossians and ye are complete in Him. He's complete and we're complete in Him. How wonderful.
Have this given to us by God. One could ask how do we avoid these things that we're talking about? Paul gives the answer. I would just think how brief it is in Philippians 3, just the the second verse he tells the three dangers. The third verse he gives the three ways to avoid it and the first verse he tells me we've been speaking about in Hebrew.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. That's the thought. Everything is in Christ. But noted, beware of God.
Evil workers, beware of the concession. These three things really bring in everything we've been talking about. What's the solution for? We are the circumcision, which worship God by the Spirit. That's the first thing, Rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's the second thing. Have no confidence in the flesh.
That's the third really. There's the solution for all these things we've been talking about.
We worship by the Spirit of God, that's the answer. And we have no confidence in the flesh. I trust we don't. We may act in the flesh at times, but I trust there isn't any confidence there. Satan is clever. He gets the flesh moving and acting. That's true. But we shouldn't have confidence in it. It's absolutely worthless.
Paul said. I know that in me, that is my place. No good thing. Let's get that. Let's get that at home in our hearts.
Let's remember it. But the biggest thing is rejoice in Christ.
That's it. Verse five of our chapter.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offerings Thou wouldest not, but a body Hast thou prepared me? Remarks were made a while ago about the change here from the 40th Psalm, and I think it is so very interesting and helpful to look at this as.
The Council of God in the past eternity. Christianity.
Is no second thought with God at all. He had a purpose to glorify His Son in heaven and in earth and in manhood too, and to have a company around him in both spheres to the glory of God. In all perfection this will all be accomplished.
00:55:05
But in the Psalm it says My near hast thou oh, or dig.
The difference is this, that in that Council in a fast eternity.
The Father and the Son, we may say, considering what would take place in the fall of man.
And a ruined creation. What should be done? Well, they had the plan.
And it meant a sacrifice.
Oh, the Son heard the will of God to make things clear.
And simple. Sometimes we say that everyone of us who are saved.
Are saved because of the will of God and the work of Christ.
And the witness of the Holy Spirit, we have all these things in these verses here.
Well, if the sun was going to do the will of God, he had to hear what that will was.
And then in order to do it, a body has self repaired me. He was to become a man. The word was made like God manifested in the place Christ come down a man to be this perfect sacrifice. Now he has done that. Yesterday twice we had bread for us. Those words it is.
Finished. The atoning work is done.
All that is necessary for the salvation of.
Every Sinner that will have him, and that which will take away all sin finally is all done. This work is done, and the moment that it was done and the Lord Jesus yielded up His Spirit. It says the veil of the temple was rented train from the top to the bottom.
For two reasons.
God has, as it were, been shut up in that darkness, although God is like the way was not made manifest while that first Tabernacle was standing. But the moment the work was done, the veil was rent by God Himself from above to below, so that He could come out into the light unto man and reveal all this Christianity we're talking about.
Which brings man in. That's the other side.
Man come into that light and how in peace, because it's a perfect work and that's where our worship is.
In heaven itself now, it doesn't arise there through organs and pianos.
And instruments of mine.
It was quoted in Philippians 3, referred to twice.
We are the circumcision which worship God by the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Man did. Man was tested by God in the flesh. We've had us fully brought out and the end of it. Christ on the cross. Now in Christianity just to make this simple and clear as to worship.
And why we do not use musical instruments? I think we should turn 2 verses more.
We've already had one.
And to rejoice that God does receive worship and praise from us. Romans 15.
We will read first.
Verses 5:00 and 6:00.
Romans 15 five Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that he may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way our expressions are praise and worship.
Enter into the holiest of all, into heaven itself.
By Christ Jesus, who is there to present this to God? One more verse to make it clear in Acts 17.
Our young people run up against these problems and it's good to have an answer from Scripture.
To help satisfy others who may be inquiring as to why we don't follow the pattern of the great house around us, there must be an answer.
01:00:04
Here Paul preaching to the Athenians in Acts 17, the most cultured and educated people of the day. He gives them the most elementary things, But it's Christianity.
Verse 24.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. We're having this too in our chapter. Neither is worshipped with men's hands. No, not with hands, not musical instruments, not with dancing of feet either. As though he needed anything.
Seeing He give us to all life, breath and all things. So now, beloved in Christ, we have access right up to the throne of God. He is there to appear for us, and it's there that our worship arrives.
But it must be, according to the light that has shined out in Christianity, to be followed so that what we present will be acceptable to God by Christ Jesus.
And when verse 7.
Of our chapter.
I believe that there is one subject.
In the volume of the book, and that is the person of Christ as a man.
That's the subject of the volume of the book.
Because He was the one who was to come down and glorify God in everything.
And to complete all of those councils as a man.
That expression that we have in our chapter.
Which is not in the 40th Psalm. A body hast thou prepared me? Of course is inferred, but it isn't there. But we have it here. He actually took a body as a man. And I believe that's what the Spirit of God would occupy us with this morning. Mainly is the person of Christ as a man and his work.
And we have his work here in this chapter.
There are many things that relate to it, but it's good for us to keep our thoughts.
Mainly on the person of Christ and his work, as we have set before us here in this chapter, because.
We have.
The fact of the sacrifices.
Now there was only one sacrifice that God would accept.
And so the Lord Jesus had a body.
And in that body.
That sacrifice was made.
Now we have the illustrations in the Old Testament. The lamb kept up to the 14th day and so on to show all the perfection of that person.
That the work itself will be seen in this perfection because of the sacrifices and perfect.
How can the work be perfect?
And I think it's so beautiful to see that here, that if our hearts are directed to the person of Christ who see perfection.
In everything.
It's perfection in the counsels of God as to Christ.
It's the perfection of the sacrifice.
The perfection of the work that's accomplished and the results of it.
Are all in perfection because of Jesus, the one who said before us this morning in this chapter.
And say also that the.
That fries the human heart more is an open door.
What we have in this one, who is here in this perfection, is I come to do thy will, O gone.
When we have a closed door, as in the Old Testament, man can say I cannot go in.
But when the door is open, man must say, I will not go in.
And what we find is, as in the case of Cain.
Pain did not just make a mistake and offer as a worshiper to God that which was unacceptable.
01:05:05
We learned from first John that Cain was of the wicked one. He offered an open rebellion to God.
My brother asked Are you read where the question How can you turn again?
Well, it's open simple rebellion. A man that will not follow this example of perfection, that is to do the will of God.
Though he seeks to set up his own will. Again, a man seeking to prove that God is not right when he says that there is nothing good in the flat and that all perfection is in Christ. And I'd also like to add.
You know, in Hebrews the failure here is not so much the failure of going to business. That's the real danger for us to turn aside, to go into business.
To turn aside from Christ to go into.
Grow sins of this world to turn aside from Christ to go to church.
Go into religion.
May we heed these warnings that are set before us and when it says in verse.
23 to hold fast our profession.
Just a reminder to us that giving out a gospel tract and saying I'm a Christian, I'm saved is not what is totally not what is contained in this verse.
Walk as those who do have access, who do have an open door, and who do enter in that open door because it's all under sink that when God opened the door and would show forth the perfections of this One who has come.
Man closed it back again. I can just picture those priests and Pharisees and Sadducees with a needle and thread, just closing that veil back up again. And isn't that what we have around us? So indeed, let us.
Guard ourselves against taking a lower revelation of Christ. And one more verse, if I might, in Hebrews chapter 6.
Verse one A verse has been referred to.
Tells us of different levels of revelation of Christ.
And he says leaving the beginning, the.
Print of Christ, I believe is the way it should read.
There you have the teachings of the Christ or the Revelation of Christ in the Old Testament up to the time of the cross I would suggest.
Now we have another Let us go on.
To maturity go on to Christ seated in glory.
Our brethren around ensnared in Christendom, they do enjoy Christ.
But they lose that revelation of price that belongs to maturity, that is to go on to Christ seated in glory.
Through an open veil, not exercise our will and say I won't go in, but to following his steps and do the will of God.
Wonder if I could just add a little comment in connection with this. The blood of bulls and gold should not take away sins. You'll notice all through the Old Testament it never speaks of the animal sacrifices taking away sin. We do have the expression accepted to make an atonement and the word atonement comes from the Hebrew word to cover. And so those sacrifices for the time being were accepted and the sin was.
In the presence of God by a provision that he had made, but only temporarily. Now it's a question no longer of a covering being made. But first John says he was manifested to take away our sins and this is what God would have us to enter into and enjoy. We sang the atoning work is done. There's no necessity to go on with any of those sacrifices anymore. It's all completed now.
In this one glorious work that the Lord Jesus accomplished.
And this also explains why it tells us here that God didn't have any pleasure in the sacrifices that were made before. We might say I don't understand that because it speaks of them being a sweet saver. But as we think of all those animals that were slain, thousands upon thousands of them, did God take pleasure in the death of all those animals? It was a necessity.
01:10:18
Caused because of man's sin.
And the enormity of man's sin was perhaps emphasized by those many sacrifices that were made, and how terrible a penalty that actually thousands of animals had to be put to death, but God always had in view when those animal sacrifices would come to their end.
And the Lord Jesus, the one perfect sacrifice, the one who could say a body has thou prepared me, the one who came down and took a body not subject to death, but capable of death, and there upon the cross glorified God, that one sacrifice so complete that now it doesn't ever have to be repeated again because.
By one offering us perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And so he is showing these Jewish believers that this whole thing had now come to its end. The one sacrifice had been provided. The way of access into the presence of God was now made known. And as our brother has said, the important thing for us is to live in the enjoyment of it in our hearts. Are we sewing up the veil and placing God at a distance?
And saying we must have someone to come between US and God. But the Spirit of God is leading us here.
Is to realize the blessedness of this work that gives every believer the place of a priest to come in with holy boldness, not to sew up the veil, but to rejoice in the veil being rent. As someone has said, it was rent for two reasons. That God might come out in all the riches of his grace because he was hidden, as it says in Second Corinthians chapter 3 that in that ritual.
It says the children of Israel could not.
Notice the word could not behold those things because.
The way into the holiest was not made known, but now it's not a question of could not, but would not. And so it goes on to say, let's look at it because it's quite interesting. I believe Second Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 12 of.
Verse 11. For as that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth his glorious.
Seeing them that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel notice that could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. It was not possible for any in that dispensation to know all these wonderful purposes that were in the heart of God. There was, as it were, the veil, and when the temple was built, it says that God dwelled in the thick darkness.
But it says here, But their minds were blinded, for until this day remain at the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart, and that's why in the last verse.
It says we all with open are the correct translation. Is we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord?
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Why doesn't Israel see this? It's not because the veil is upon the heart of Christ. The veil has been taken away. The work has been done, the way of access has been provided. Where is the veil? The veil is on his heart. And brethren, it can be on our hearts too. We can each ask ourselves, are we really enjoying this wonderful privilege that God has given us of access?
Into His presence as Purge worshippers, are we entering into it and enjoying it when we gather?
Do we enter into this wonderful privilege that we can be there and that each brother is LED of the Spirit, can give out of him or raise his voice in Thanksgiving and praise? And the sisters too, our priests, although they don't take the public part, still they're also in this same place of nearness. And if we're not enjoying this, it's because the veils on our hearts, there's no veil upon his face. We always unveiled face beholding the glory.
01:15:01
The Lord and in this chapter he's seeking to lead us into this holy liberty. And what will be the result? Well, it produces as we see Christ like us. It's not only that we enjoy this place, but it also produces something in US so that others take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. They say all those people are different. And why? Well, we've been actually in His presence and in some measure should reflect something of the glory of it.
May God by His Spirit lead us to enjoy these things. They're given to us to enjoy, not to just look around and find fault, but to only wish that others might be in the blessedness of it. Because God is being robbed of the blessedness and they are being robbed too. If my family don't know I want them near me, near me, I'm robbed that they're not near me, but they're robbed of something that I want to display to them. And God is robbed and we are.
We're not enjoying what is opened up to us rather than this 10th chapter of Hebrews and I suggest too in the comments that was just made.
I'm sure our brother will allow.
This that, the beginnings of the Christ.
That expression and its connection in the 6th chapter where it says let us go on to perfection, would lead us up to the beginning of Paul's ministry and especially the prison ministry, because as we have said already in these meetings.
Of Christianity begins on the other side.
And anything before that, whatever it may be. And there are so many.
Of those who make professional Christianity Today, who stay in the beginnings of the Christ, they do not accept Pauls ministry. And so I believe we can, if you allow that go that far in saying that the beginnings of the Christ with all that which goes before.
Has been taught of Christ, but still not yet.
Going on to perfection, which is heavenly things.
That scope of things that is brought to us through the ministry of the apostle Paul and chiefly in his present ministry. Speaking of pleasure, giving pleasure to God, That's what we read about here. We read about the Lord Jesus. He said, I do always those things that please him.
God got perfect pleasure, joy, satisfaction out of the Lord Jesus Christ.
While He was here and now He's sparing the glory at His right hand, the highest place in heaven. God was exalted him to that place. He finds pleasure in him, and if we find pleasure in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be occupied with Him and exalting Him, and that too will give pleasure to God.
132.