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10303.
Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Look to the Lord.
Hebrews 13 What verse would be good to commence with?
Verse 8 Hebrews 13 Beginning with verse 8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, or is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.
Not with meats which have not profited them.
That have been occupied therein we have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, which serves the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest through sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.
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We're here. We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto his hands. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, or with such sacrifice, as God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, or that is unprofitable.
Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
Who won't be glory forever and ever?
Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. For I have written a letter unto you on a few in few words, knowing that our brother Timothy is said of liberty, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you salute all them that have the rule over you, And all the same they have Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
To this book of Hebrews.
That's the name of it.
Well, who were the Hebrews?
Paul says in Philippians that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Back in Romans Chapter 9, he identifies the Israelites.
As that people through whom Christ came. Let's look at that verse in Romans Chapter 9.
And the love, the affection of Paul for his fellow countrymen.
Now Paul was raised up to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
But he was in Hebrew of the Hebrews and the Pharisees. The Pharisees and the Hebrews and the Pharisees had had great things given to them that the Gentiles had not had.
In the old economy.
The book of Hebrews is.
Goes back to that and teaching upon the Old Testament, and in particular the.
Tabernacle but in Romans 9.
He says in verse three. I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, you are Israelites.
To whom pertain to the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God.
And the promises.
Whose are the fathers? Now look what it says, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. Who is overall God? Read it that way. Christ is over all. God bless it forever.
So our book of Hebrews begins with God. Jesus is God.
And the full revelation of God comes out in the New Testament. But the blessing was very great for the Israelites and the Jews.
Before that, when Paul was perhaps the top man.
And concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
He could write, He could say, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day, persecuting Christian.
And his conscience didn't bother him till he met the Lord. Well, that changed everything for him.
Now this book was written about 63, is that about right you think?
Yeah.
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About 63. Well, I think it helps you find out when it was written and to whom it was written.
And see the circumstances that they have in that day.
Oh, persecuted the church, but.
Let's look in first Thessalonians to get a relationship.
Between the suffering Saints of the Gentiles.
And the suffering Saints of the Hebrews in First Thessalonians.
We enter in just a little bit and to these feelings of the opposition of the world around us when we live godly in Christ Jesus.
1St Thessalonians 2 Verse 14 He brethren.
Became followers of the churches of God.
The churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
Well, certainly the Hebrews.
The epistle must have gone to Judea, perhaps Jerusalem, but it's addressed to Hebrews going on reading here.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen.
Even as they have of the Jews.
That is, they suffered over in vessel Anaika like they did in Judea of opposition against crazy and what had been introduced of the better things.
And it was written to those in Judea.
Who embraced Christianity?
They had all those things that were an advantage to them under the law.
And then they got the light of Christianity, and they embraced it.
And they were in danger of pulling away. Just notice in our book Hebrews Chapter 6.
What was given to them in Christianity, as well as all that they had before that?
And this is where we get the warning that comes down to today. It's the warning about falling away from what has been committed to us.
We will start reading in verse four to make it a little bit brief.
It is.
64 Hebrews.
It is impossible for those.
Who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away. Now that's giving up and the epistles written to us for that purpose. At the end of the age we're coming up to that. That is those Jews in in the year 63 who received this.
And had embraced Christianity. They could not.
At that time, give up what they'd learned of Christ and of the particulars of the Holy Ghost, and go back to their old religion, which was God-given to even though the temple was still standing.
It was impossible. That was apostasy that was giving up.
So much of what is written in this book is for us not to give up.
The whole path that which is committed to us.
We never were exposed to the Chapel and the old.
Testament religion given of God As for us to keep.
As Gentiles it was never given to us, but these Jews at that time had had that.
Wonderful favor of being Hebrews, even Paul was.
But he got light from heaven.
And it turned them around completely.
And God had selected him to write to the Gentiles and to go to the Gentiles, and he did that. But his love for the for the Jews was still there. So I believe that God in grace.
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As we tried to point out on Saturday.
Used the Apostle Paul without naming him.
Except through Peter as the writer of this book.
What a favor that was. He loved those people so much.
Then if we go to the 10th chapter to pass on to another example of the Jews at that time they suffered from their countrymen, and they took joyfully to the spoiling of their goods in chapter 10.
But there is the danger of apostasy still.
And in the 10th chapter we will begin reading in verse 26.
If we.
Sin willfully. After that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. That was especially to those Hebrews who had embraced Christianity.
And then there was a danger of the willful sin the will get again.
And going back to what they like better under the law and there was number more sacrifice for sins. That is Christ came when that's so beautiful. Yesterday he completed the work. I think what I read in Genesis 24 is not generally noticed.
Abraham told that servant, beware that thou bring not my son hit her again in Genesis.
22 in the tight the son had died.
And in Genesis 23.
Sarah had died.
That's typical of the Jews set aside.
And that's what happened.
When the Jews crucified the Lord Jesus, they were set aside as a nation, as a government in the earth. They were set aside earlier than that. But then Christ came and he was presented to them, and they rejected him. They sold their Messiah. That's the 12Th chapter of this book of Hebrews.
They sold him for 30 pieces of silver.
They could have had their Messiah.
He came unto his own the Jews, and his own received him not then we get the general state, but as many as received him them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So we're in the new economy, Christianity, and it's given to us and.
The type goes on, and I must hasten on to get to the things that we have here.
To our age.
Christened them.
Has had so in it.
The Bad Seed, The Kingdom of Heaven, Christmas.
Has had the bad seed sown in it on top of the good seeds, and the bad seed has grown up.
And has become a great secular thing in the world, and it's filled with internal corruption.
So that.
Our time is parallel a little to when these Hebrews.
Lived, and the temple was still there and set aside by God, and heard for them to catch a hold of that. So God was merciful to them, and there was a time of reformation. I referred to the.
Those who are born.
Under the law had grown up in the God-given religion.
And then Christ had come.
And he had been rejected.
And then he had Christ had finished the work, and he'd gone up on high and set down the Holy Spirit to begin the new thing.
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Today.
Christianity has gotten old and the.
Great House has gotten large and christened them, in which the church is formed.
Has the results of the bad seed along with the good.
Now that's another thing.
But.
We've come down, we're coming down now to the person who makes the place. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.
Bearing his reproach. That's the central point of the teaching, I believe, in this book. The climax of the book of Hebrews is right here in the last chapter. God has given all this teaching to the Jews.
To help them to understand where they had been and where they now are in Christianity.
Now that's kind of like being born in America.
In the western world and having the.
Great mixture.
That men call the church and make churches out of it.
And have their own ideas as to worship.
But God has his own way of worship, and the way into the holiest of all is made manifest.
It was not made manifest while the first was standing.
But when this book was written to the Hebrews, they had the way into the holiest made known, so that in those chapters 6.
And ten we have an invitation.
Let us.
Come forward under the Throne of Grace.
To find help in time of need. Now that's an invitation to come into the presence of the Lord.
Preach from our sin to ask what we want as we did this morning.
Then.
In the 10th chapter, we're invited to drawn here in the full shirts of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
That's for praise and worship.
So the ways opened up, but now this last chapter I really think we're getting.
Into that place, the person is the place.
And justice as there was a warning to those who had embraced of the Jews, Christianity, the 6th chapter, not to fall away, that's apostasy. Not to commit the willful sin, that's the same thing. So there is today a danger of giving up. That's what falling away is giving up late, once known.
All of us here.
Have experienced seeing that?
Dear brother, giving up what was once known, let's look at the third chapter of Hebrews to get the warning for us about that.
The 12Th verse.
I'm speaking to ourselves as a brother.
The word is that. Take heed, brethren.
Don't give up. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
Brethren have had the light of the truth of the Gathering Center.
Since 1827 about.
The Lord in the midst.
Where the two or three are gathered to his name.
It has been a most wonderful place to have the light of the truth fully developed.
And in our generation and our time, there seems to be a definite effort.
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To break that up, now I know that God will keep it.
What keeps it? Faith. Believe God.
And so in this book of Hebrews, there is a great contrast between faith and unbelief. I'd just like to point you out. Then I'd like to hear somebody else say something to the 12Th chapter again as to where faith brings us today.
There are eight things that faith brings us to today.
And we're in danger of letting them slip, giving, giving them up, not listening to the Lord, speaking from heaven. And the better things I enjoyed so much what was brought out about the good. So I thought, brethren, we've got, the better we've got, the better the heavenly thing. So that in the 12Th chapter of this book.
It tells us what we are come to in faith, I believe, beginning with verse 22.
Ye are come unto Mount Sinai. That's grace. That's grace. That's grace. We're come to grace.
And under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly. That's the second thing we're coming to. We're come to grace, to Zion, and we're come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
And to an innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly, that's the third thing. Faith brings us right to these things.
And.
The second clause of verse 23 Church of the first born, which are written in heaven.
There's the true church, everyone whose name is written in heaven. We are come to that. What a wonderful thing this is.
And to go up the judge of all or come to God. The book starts with God.
Faith brings us to God.
When we're met together and the Lord Jesus is there, we have God, we have God, He is God whoever come to God the judge of all and.
In the spirits of just men made perfect.
They're ugly. They're ugly. There are others who come to them.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, that's the better covenant that this talks about. We come to that.
Still more.
And I think it's so remarkable the last one and.
To the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things and that available, that's the last thing, because that precious blood is the foundation of everything we've got. Now we're come to that. Let's don't give it up. Let's hang on to the truth, what faith has for us, which is eternal.
And not be turned aside by arguments and reasonings.
What would say you? People think they're better than anybody else. You think you're the only one that's got the Lord?
Well, where is the Lord?
Is Christ divided?
That question in First Corinthians chapter one is.
Full of me.
I'll give you another question that's raised in First Corinthians that we must rejoice in and hold on to in the 10th chapter because it expresses.
The fact that Christ is not divided and that there is an expression to that fact.
And nobody can bust this up.
God maintains it. First Corinthians 10.
And verse.
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21.
He cannot drink.
The cup of the Lord.
And the cup of devil he cannot be partaker of the Lord's table there let's singular.
The Lord's Table. There is one Lord's table where the Lord is present and at the table of demons.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Now this is the other question. Are we stronger than He?
Are we stronger than He? Is Christ divided? No, He can't be. There is a place, and we're called to go forth to Him without the camp bearing his reproach.
I was thinking as you were speaking as Paul.
Better thing. And so he's going into the sheepfold and he's leading his sheep out. That's the Hebrews.
So he's convincing them in Hebrews that it's better things than Christianity than they had in Judaism. They had someone composed of, and that's what all of our hearts want. There was a temple and there were law and ordinances that distinguished them from all the people around about them. And now in Christianity, he bled them out. He's leading them out and showing them that in Christianity we have better things and sold it. You were thinking a little bit about that, but see.
The scripture said, no man having faith in the old wines, straightway desire of the new, the new. There was something. There was an old wine connected with Judaism. There was a temple.
You can take people to something. You can point them to the most beautiful building on earth. There was ordinance that there were priestly garments. There was an order of service that had something to please man in nature that he could point to, that he could boast. And that was above the heathen religions in which most of our ancestors were engaged. It was a beautiful thing.
But now in Christianity, we have Christ and Christ alone. They didn't have the temple anymore. They didn't have the ordinances. They didn't have all of these things. How Christianity has become a debate thing, and it's not really exactly a return to Judaism. But the camp has built up a system where there's something for man in nature. So they built churches with swimming pools and gymnasiums and all kinds of things for the natural land. But what he showed us in Hebrews is that he's LED us out to something far better and asked Christ.
And I believe in our chapter he lays the foundation for it, and the foundation. He goes right back to the very beginning, the marriage, and then to our conduct with respect to things in this world, covetousness. And then he speaks of the the ones that have gone before, that have walked in the pathway of faith to show that no God has LED us out into something bitter, that God's moral ways and God's moral principles don't change. And so all of Christianity raised rest on the foundation of marriage.
It rests on my conduct with money.
And my conduct in this world and then we're to observe those that have been our leaders so to speak, we passed over that verse that have spoken the word and we can look back at the conduct of those who have gone before with respect to these things and we can see the goal. God has let us out. And though we weren't Hebrews, but it let us out of that system where there was something for man in nature that he is really his moral ways in connection with nature haven't changed and they're very important.
And so I believe that that's why we have the first verse that we have here, Jesus Christ, sustained yesterday, today and forever, that God's moral ways in connection with these things don't change. So he's going to lead us out of the camp. He's going to lead us to Christ. As you've been pointing out to the true gathering center unto him till the gathering of the people be. It's not a physical place, it's not a temple. And Judaism, there was a place, there was a physical place where they could go.
They could find it whether they had any divine life or not. All they needed was a man. But now we have a place and it's Christ. And so he's leading us to this, the most wonderful way that you can see how all the Lord desires to lead his people out. And so as you pointed out, there's a time of reformation. And so now from heaven, he's got all the complete the work that he started in the gospel of leading his people out of the fold of Judaism and into the blessings of Christianity.
I think it's so good to.
Verse 13.
Unto him without the camp. Sometimes we emphasize without the camp, and that's important. But the attraction brethren is his glorious person, and that's what set before us so vividly in the whole epistle of Hebrews, right from the very start of the book, the first chapter, the glories of the person of the Lord Jesus.
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Are presented in our hearts are to be attracted to him. So many people think that Christianity is another worldly religion like Judaism was. The idea I find amongst Christians so often today is that Christianity is an extension of Judaism. It really is not that. It's really a certain way because it's the opposite of Judaism.
Judaism was something that focused on man in the flesh. Christianity focuses on our God, and that's the way this book starts. It's his glorious person, that Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the attraction when he presented himself to this people that were specially privileged under the Judaistic religion that was God-given.
There was number place in that religion for Jesus. They took him outside of that camp, that religious Judaistic camp where there was everything for men in the flat, and they nailed him to a cry outside of that city. Now is there going to be a place for me in that religious system of things that I can enjoy?
Not when they refused and rejected my Savior. He's outside, and my place necessarily is to go out to him. But I think it's so important for young people, for all of us. Brethren, what is the attraction to this place of gathering? It's not we, brethren. We don't compose the place. What composes the place?
It's the person.
Glorious person of God's beloved Son. And so in this epistle we have almost. It's interesting to look through the epistle. Almost more time is devoted to the glories of His person than even as to His work, His work is is brought out as well. You cannot divorce that from His person, but you don't get His work taken up in so much detail as until you get to.
Chapters 9 and 10.
It's this person that is the attraction and I think that's so important for our days, brother, and it's not a system of religion.
You lookout and young people sometimes see great movements in Christian circles and they say, what is this?
Brethren, it's not great movements. It's not people that should attract this. It's the glorious person of God's beloved son. That's Christianity. Christianity is really looking at it in the book of Hebrews is not a religion.
Christianity as a person, the person of God's beloved Son, and were called unto him in the Old Testament. When there was idolatry in the camp, Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp.
Far off from the camp and it says all those that sought the Lord.
Doesn't say they sought people.
They thought the Lord went out to seek him, where the Tabernacle was pitched outside the camp.
I think that's so important to keep that focus before us in the verses before, in our chapter 13, in verses 9 and 10, it mentions things that are connected with that Judaistic system of religion. And I think we have to recognize brethren because it was a religion for men in the flesh. There are things in that system that attract.
Our hearts naturally speaking.
Music is one thing that really attracts our hearts. Naturally speaking. Why don't we have a piano in our worship? Why don't we use instrumental music? It's attractive, but brethren, it's not. What's to attract us now? What's to attract us now is God's glorious.
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Son is the Lord Jesus. That's the attraction point and I think that's so important to get a hold of.
Not meat that we have in verse nine. It's not an altar that we have in verse 10. It's interesting that in many Christian circles they actually have in the front of their what they call a sanctuary and altered.
But if you serve the Tabernacle, there is an altar that you have no right to eat, because to go back to those Judaistic principles is to deny Christianity and all that has been done.
By the Lord Jesus in his work of redemption, it denies the whole thing and so one is a contradiction of another. They they're not compatible. Judaism, Judaism and Christianity are not compatible.
And you use the word movements and idolatry and sex and Christianity are what idolatry was in Judaism.
I'd just like to explain what I believe that statement means. Idolatry is that man forms an image of God that is suitable to himself. He may even take an attribute of God and make of it out of Woodard stone, something that he can worship. But it is God according to his own imagination, or an attribute of God that he takes and he worships. They made a golden calf. And in Judaism and Christianity, what has man done to show you the seriousness of sex and division?
Taken a part of the truth, heresy means to choose. And if, as you have right before, it is, Christ is our object, and I have no choice to make, it's the whole truth of God. It's the first name of Christ to whom I go. It's not to a part of the truth, but it's to Christ. And so sex and divisions of common people have been carried away with things because they've been occupied with parts of truth of Christianity, things that may be true but have taken their hearts away from the Lord.
And so now in Christianity our hearts have been drawn out to the Lord and sex against. To repeat what her brother said, sex is to Christianity what idolatry was to Judaism. It's just fabricating a view of form of worship that is suitable to man according to his own appetites and desires. And so he mourns us about this in this verse, not to be carried away with divers and strange doctrines. I would like to just say something about me, because in Judaism they have strict rules according to what they ate.
But now in Christianity, our hearts are established by grace. So we take up the word of God. We take up the Old Testament. They had to eat fish and it had to have scales and fins. They couldn't eat an eel because an eel splithered along the bottom and didn't go, couldn't go against the current. And so now we don't take these things in a carnal way, a totally unregenerate man, to understand that he was doing this kind of fish and not to eat an eel. But under Christianity, we take up those scriptures and they provide life for our dwellings.
And we can use those scriptures, our hearts established by grace as our brother was saying, to act against evil flow of the world. And so all this instruction that God is beforehand given in his precious word now becomes light for our dwellings. Not a system of rules to distinguish us from others, but that we can take up and see in these pictures and images something that can help us embrace to oppose the evil current of the world. And so in everything in the Old Testament now we don't see rules and regulations, but we see Christ.
Now, something like that question then.
In connection with what Bob was saying too that.
If we turn to Exodus 33 and maybe it would be helpful to read some of these scriptures, don't ask the question why is it? Does God not work then outside of the assembly? Or do we not see works with God in in the gospel and so forth apart from the gathered Saints? Well indeed he does work and God is sovereign. And I believe we get a thought here in Exodus 33 verse 7.
We'll read from verse 7. Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp a far off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which thought the Lord went out under the Tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses went out under the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle.
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And it came to pass as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as the man speaketh unto his friend, and he turns again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle. Now I was my thought was that that Moses, as a type of Christ, to believe here, has a prerogative, shall we say, to go back into the camp. But Joshua did not. And as gathered to the Lord's name, we we are thankful that the Lord works with others.
And in his sovereignty and and blesses the word of others in the camp. But I believe as as Joshua we are like Joshua we have no right to go there just because he does so. And do we not get that little picture here, that as Moses went back into the camp the Lord blesses the gospel His word in other places. But I believe we have no right to go there ourselves because Thistle.
Because the Lord is here, it's unto him and.
He is outside of that whole system as to a gathering center, but he does bless his word in other places. We can be thankful for that.
I believe it is often red.
Medical for.
That is not where we are to be.
I want the young people particularly to take peace. I've heard the thought of my attention a few years back.
You can be outside the camp.
You may not be onto him.
So be careful.
That you have a person.
God's son that you are attracted to.
They caused by brave and the day of her brother Dart that just as you know a priest and I think the separatists were in a sense outside the camp, they disallowed the the Church of England I believe is what Kirkstrae said. That was not enough. The point is.
We feel we separate ourselves from the systems of men and we're outside the camp, but they love it. We have been gathered to a church.
And we have to embrace the full title.
Not Jesus, not Christ, not God, the full Bible, all combined together in the Lord Jesus, right? If we do not own him as Lord and we're not gathered to him outside the man, we love it, remember? Because if we do not be gathered unto that person, I'll fight the camp where in trouble.
That's a very important point.
I remember an incident at home where we met up with some folks that we knew.
And this man said, well, we too are. We've gone without the camp.
So dear brother Jacobson was with us at the time and he said you've left out a very important word.
And that word is unto him.
If it isn't unto him, we're just separating things from our for our own views. So the point as you brought out, I think is a very important one. And and who is this Jesus Christ? The same yesterday, today and forever. The one who was a divine Messiah was revealed, died on the cross for us. And his word is authorized in this book. And his person that is his humanity is brought out in this book. And here in the end of this book, we find Jesus Christ and He is the center, He is the one.
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To be to be gathered.
Not just a group to separate from other things that they're not interested in, they would shepherd themselves. But the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is really the keynote, isn't it? There's another one.
Think about Brethren in connection with this verse 13 is that sometimes we might say, well, we're without the camp, and that certainly should be where we should be. But sometimes we allow principles of the camp, and I say, especially to our young people, to understand what are the principles of the camp. It's Judaism, Brethren.
And it's that Judaistic system of religion. In the Judaistic system of religion, there was one tribe that was chosen to do the service of God, the tribe of Levi. Of that one tribe, one family was allowed to go into the presence of God, the family of Aaron. And of that one family, one person could go into the very holiest of all.
Only once a year. That was the high priest Aaron when he was High Priest. But in Christianity we find that we are all free.
Brothers and sisters together are priests and sometimes.
As we were mentioning perhaps some yesterday, the tendency is when we come together.
To break bread, we sit back and we are not exercising our priestly service in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We kind of let others do all the priestly service. Is that not?
A tendency towards Judaistic principles. Are we not called out of that brother? I think we need to be exercised because.
As I say again, our hearts naturally tend to like those Judaistic principles. They are attractive to us in the flesh, and we need to be exercised about those principles. Young brother in the Lord, when you come together, do you sit down in the Lord's presence with the attitude, Lord, I'm here in your presence. I want to be a vessel ready for your use, if you want to use it. Or do we just say no, I'm not going to take any part.
Brothers up there, I'll do the taking part. Is there exercise about that?
Brethren, we need to be exercised about these points because they are part of what is that Judaistic system.
Music is a big thing and sometimes young people get attracted by music.
Nothing wrong with a little honey. In the Old Testament, we're told to take a little honey, but a little, it says. But brethren, that was not allowed in the sacrifices of God, never to be allowed in the sacrifices of God that honey. And so they were their Judaistic principles that are attractive to us in the flesh.
And if we allow music?
Worship. We are really mixing in Judaistic principles that are characteristic of the camp.
The Lord give us to be exercised about these things, not just merely to say the canvas out there.
But realize that our hearts have a tendency to be attracted to those same principles. The Lord give us to the exercise study.
I'd just like to point out that often we say, well, is the Lord not with others. I'd like to turn to loose chapter 24 just so we might understand it. Because she said low I'm with you. Oh, it's even on the end of the age. That is true of every style of God on the face of this earth and he's going to be with them. But I believe we see a distinction here in Luke chapter 24 and.
Verse 27.
They were going away from the place where the disciples met and where they were to wait for the descent of the Holy Ghost.
And so in Luke 24 we read in beginning its Moses and all the prophets who founded unto them, and all the scriptures, the things concerning themselves. And they knew nigh unto the village whether they went. And he made as though he would have gone further if they kept walking to China. He would have walked with them. He was with them, He ministered here. And God is not going to leave his own on his bed. I believe that's what you're referring to.
00:55:27
What it says but they constrain him, saying, abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went to carry with them, and it came to pass, as he said, and eat with them. He took bread and break it, and blessed it, and break it, and gave to them, and their eyes were open, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. They had to go back to Jerusalem to find a place where the Lord was in the midst.
He They perceived him, He manifested himself to them. But He would have gone on with them, and they never would have perceived it with the Lord.
And in connection with what Brother Bob would say is that we need to have our eyes on the Lord and I believe in latency. And we get a little picture of this where they're blind and they have everything there they were rich and increased with good. But the Lord said you're blind and what's full to my heart when I was in division was the verse that were true. And we are gathered together on the my name there are mine in the midst And I looked at latest he is there and he said, behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice.
I will come in and some with him.
The Lord was outside, I believe, the place where I was. And so Lord is with the individual and he will never forsake his own. But if we want to know the collective presence of the Lord, they're gathered together under my name because the Lord died that he might gather together in one time that are scattered abroad. He died for that. We don't treat sectarianism as a light and as a light frivolous thing.
Died that he might gather together in one. The children of God are scattered abroad.
Two things about this portion that my brother's been speaking about in the Luke's Gospel again when they were away from the center.
It says, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself.
But they were away from Jerusalem then, and as has been brought out, the Lord will never forsake his own. I will never forsake leave thee, nor forsake thee. So he's always with the individual. But what about the corporate testimony in the where he is in the center? Then we go back, and we go on over in that chapter. When they return to Jerusalem, the divine center at that time. Then notice verse 44. These are the words which I spake unto you.
While I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written.
In the law of Moses.
And in the prophets and in the Psalms, why the Psalm? You know, the Psalms bring before us the feelings of Christ.
Read through the book of the Psalms and we find how he felt the sorrow that was felt by that blessed savior. And I think it's very important to see when we're in the right place. We know what the feelings of Christ are. We know what his heart desires of us. And so being away, yes the false the the Moses and the prophets that they have that but do they know how it how the Lord Jesus feels.
His soul exceeds.
Unto death. Do they know all this? No. We find this in the book of the Psalms. And it was back there at Jerusalem that it's recorded Moses, the prophets and the Psalms concerning me, the reason that.
That trolls turn away from the truth, I believe.
As has been mentioned, we've seen it ourselves of late and we're saddened by it. But the reason I believe is because their hearts have not really the first of Christ is not really been an attraction to their heart and and so they turn. He is not, He is not satisfied their souls, they're looking at other things and I believe if we ever get that feeling in our own soul.
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It's a dangerous thing because if we don't judge that first thing, you know, we're going to be dissatisfied with that little assembly where we are. And it's because we're not looking at Christ in the midst. We're looking at those about us and we're looking at the weakness of things and so on.
And so how do we, how do we overcome that? Well, we first of all go through the word, and then I believe we need to look at at the the whole picture through the eyes of Christ, what is, what is precious to him. Are we looking at this whole picture through his eyes or through the eyes of man? And I believe if we do that honestly, brother, we will, we will get that remedy very quickly.
Because he is there in the midst and and that's where he will stay. And he doesn't accommodate himself to our desires and to the imagination of the man and say, well, here's a nice group and I, they're bigger and I I believe that's where I will have put my presence. But no, we go to Hiandra. We don't gather together and then he comes in our midst, but we go to him.
Story where a brother said Now if the Lord were to come back here.
To which group would he go?
Well, there was silence for a minute and then another brother said he wouldn't go anywhere, brother. We'd go to him. And I believe that's the truth.
Don't know that.
Is in a beautiful example. Is in John 6.
And the feelings of Christ come out there, and the direction to whom to go is in John 6.
He had been teaching them that he was the bread of life, and things were hard for them to to accept those Jews at that time. And so in verse 66 of John 6 from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
What were the feelings of Christ about that?
Well, you can imagine him looking at the 12 verse 67 and saying, Will ye also go away? Simon Peter has the right answer this time he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? It's a person. Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe in our sure that there aren't that Christ, the Son of the living God. To whom shall we go with the person to be attracted to that person?
And they know his feelings about it. Are we going to foster time of this epistle to the Hebrews Was written that they might not turn away in unbelievable, that they might not fall away, that there might not be the willful sin of the flesh going its way. But subjection to Christ and the way into the holiest of all is made known in the Scripture that's made known especially in this book of Hebrews.
Now that they can do here in.
Having.
Just pick up the verse here.
Yes, verse 13.
Therefore, let us therefore.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.
What's the next part of that verse bearing his reproach?
It's a reproach, the reproach of Christ, isn't it? When I mentioned when someone says, well, where do you go to church?
In that term, well, I'm a Christian gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Never heard that before.
Oh, you never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ before?
It's a strange thing how what Christendom has done, they've robbed us of that. So by our confessing his name, there's a reproach connected with that, and that's blue. It's been always beautiful to me to think of it in that way, that if I'm gathered to his name, I want to let them know to whose name I'm gathered. I want to let them know.
That it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is where and then you'll get, you'll find, there'll be reproach. There's reproach connected with that name.
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And visible to the eye, the temple, the beautiful adornings of the temple, the priesthood, the robes that the priest wore, the beautiful music. It was all outward and visible.
They can point to a specific city, Jerusalem. There's our center of worship. They can point to a building. And that is important for us to understand that there is nothing in Christianity that is visible to the human eye. There is nothing to attract it that we can see with the material eye. We have the eye of faith, of course, that it's nothing visible. And if it is something visible, brethren.
If it is the group of brethren that we have our eyes on.
Brethren, let's be careful. We're going to be tested. As has already been said, if it's something else that attracts us there, that is not the person of Christ. That is what is not characteristic of Christianity. That was what was characteristic of Judaism. And we're called out of that to be attracted to one whom we cannot see with our physical eyes.
How do you know that Jesus is here with you? How do you know that he's present? We can only point to the scriptures only by faith. We have these things that are talked about in this epistle. I think that's so important. It says in verse 14 we have no continuing city. We seek one to come. That was mentioned in Hebrews 12. That city that we.
Have arrived at in Christianity, that city that is to come, but we don't have anything we can point to in an outward way, and in that way it is a reproach, like you said.
But the disciples didn't say where is the place. They said where do all themselves because he makes the place very, very I'd like to have is there a person says.
If he be reproached for the name of Christ happy, are ye for the spirit of glory of God resteth upon you? Right. There's a policy side of that reproof. And could we suggest that what is visible, what should be visible, is what we get in the latter part of this chapter.
It says in verse 15 by him we go forth unto him.
But then it says by him, And if there is nothing visible in a natural way, could we say to our own hearts there ought to be something visible in a spiritual way?
Brother Ron Clawson, would you quote that part of verse 9 again that you quoted in Jay and Darby's translation? I enjoyed it.
Concerning great.
The heartbeat confirmed with grace.
Isn't that beautiful? Converted with grace and unto him? Well, if that is true, what will the result be?
An older brother among us used to make this remark. It meant much to my own soul, he said. There ought to be enough power in every local assembly to attract every true Christian in the area.
Order, rebuke, and So what we have here in the latter part of the chapter, our time is gone. But I believe what we have here is what ought to be visible. The praise in verse 15.
They're doing good and communicating in verse 16 the obedience in verse 17.
The prayer in verse 18.
And so on the making.
Of us perfect and every good work to do His will working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight. There's a need in the day in which we live to witness against, isn't there? And increasingly so much so, very much so. But as our brethren have been bringing out, never, never let what we witness against assumed such proportions that it eclipses what we witnessed. For because that is the attractive power to where the Lord is in the midst, isn't it?
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Outside the camp.
And they're both in verse 11.
There is Body and Blood in chapter 10 and verse 19.
We enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. As another said, when we're inside the veil, we're outside the camp.
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
So when we're inside the veil, we're outside the camp, and it's the flood it was brought there. But the position of the body in this chapter, verse 12, is to sanctify the people, and it's outside that camp.
What a person.
Has wrought in our hearts that we might find him everything.
Let all the rest drop off. He is worthy.
Nothing but Christ as only threads the gift on Christ cause living bread.
Staff in hand and feet well shot, nothing but Christ, the Christ of God.
Nothing but Christ.
13th chapter of Hebrews.
13th verse. It has 13 words in it and him is the middle of the verse.
And to have the wonderful privilege of sitting in His presence without rank and file.
To realize that Christ is the glory of God.