IT is a great thing to know why a book was written; to be able to see why God sets forth His mind in the way He does in it. So it is well to read a book through before forming a judgment on it; for, from an isolated passage, it is impossible to get at the bearing of it. You may for instance read: " Woe unto them that rise up early," and stop there. The context is therefore the best explanation to what it is in connection with.
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish converts, to show them how superior Christianity is to Judaism, though Judaism in itself was a good thing-was of God. None of us ought to have needed Hebrews, but, as Christianity has dropped down into Judaism, it is necessary for us to read it; we may be very like the Jews, but we have no right to be. How far above and superior to anything that ever was before it, is the Christian position!
Hebrews 1 " God, Who in Sundry Times and in Divers Manners, Spake in Time Past Unto the Fathers by the Prophets, Hath in These Last Days Spoken Unto Us by His Son." That Is Not True of Us, but It Was of the Jewish Converts. " Whom He Hath Appointed Heir of All Things, by Whom Also He Made the Worlds." This Is a Matter of Faith; We Believe That He Did so.
Verses 3, 4. He has gone up to the throne. Verses 5, 6. He took the place of a creature, but far above all creature intelligences. Verses 7, 8. It is very interesting, as some one has remarked, that there is no revelation in Hebrews, such as you get in Ephesians for instance; it is all explanation of Scriptures which the Jews already had. Verse 9. He is put in company with others-" fellows." This is the great secret of the book.
I may say that the Hebrews is a child's book; it is addressed to a child-to babes. It is a book in which the believer is looked at in his lowest position. There is no union, no being in heaven, though there is going on to heaven; so it is a very simple book. In one sense we are all little children, because we know so little; but it is the simplest book we can take up. It takes the bright side of things here; Peter takes the dark one. He says there are desperate things out there; be sober, be vigilant. And we must have the two; if we have not we shall not get on; we must have the intercession of Christ as well as the sword of the Spirit. The Lord said, I will pray for you; but that did not keep Peter because he did not fight the devil. So that is the side he takes up, that we must fight the devil, for it is what he did not do himself.
Verses 10-14. The Creator comes out; He is Christ Himself. The Son has come forth, higher than the angels. And now, at the close of His career, He is called away to sit at God's right hand till He make His enemies His footstool.
It is most important to get hold of the fact that Christ was only called away from earth because of the state of things here, to wait until that state should be altered. Things here were such that He was called to leave them until the time that there should be a change-till His enemies should be made His footstool. This is the time that we arc in. It is like a sentence between brackets. God has called Him away because of the state of things here, and, if I be an honest and a righteous man, I shall own things to be in that state, and look for Him to come back to put an end to it. It is a parallel time to that in the Gospels, where it says; " No man after that durst ask him any question."
" Sit on my right hand." The apostle delights in this passage; here he quotes it to show that Christ is called away from things here by Jehovah; and in chapter 10. to show that He can sit down because the work is finished:
" After that he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God." But the quotation coming in thus in chapter i. is very important, as it points out the interval with which all our blessing is concerned. I do not belong to the place where my Lord is rejected, but to the place where He is received. If I am not within those brackets I have nothing. His rejection is one bracket, His return the other; we stand between the rejection and the return.
He is greater than creation; not only greater than the angels. All He has created will go to nothing, but He will not; they will all remove, be folded up like a vesture, but He will remain, He does not call the angels to make way, as he does all else in the epistle; they have to minister, that is their calling.
Hebrews 2
Verses 1-6. He next shows that Christ is greater than any man; He is the man of God's purpose, higher than any other that ever was. Verses 7, 8. This is a quotation from Psa. 8 The Son of man, not the Son of God. As Son of God all things are for Him; as Son of man they are all put under Him. Verses 9, 10. Now he turns aside to see how He gets the " fellows." It is like the high priest going up on the day of atonement. The priests went up with him to a certain point, and there they lost him, but we do not; we go on with him. There is no such thing in Hebrews as communion; it goes no further than being of one company; but I belong to Christ; I feel that I belong to Him, and that I am going on with Him. We have a Captain; we are the troop-those who are of His company. It is not " Perfect by sufferings," as some read, but " Perfect through." It is not the thought of a man being battered into a thing, being molded by the circumstances; it is showing out His perfection through them, in them. He might say: I can well lead you, for I have gone through all the difficulties of the road myself.
Verses 11-18. Then comes out the way the "fellows " are formed. It is a new company; it is not the Jewish company; it is those of whom the Lord says in John 20, " Go to my brethren." He never had brethren till He rose from the dead; we hear of His mother and His brethren, but that was as man speaks. They are " all of one;" that " one " must be left large enough to take in all which it is; so it is left " one " only. If you limit it to a noun you spoil it; of one glory limits it to glory; of one stock, to stock; but it is simply " of one " that it may be everything that Christ is. And He " took part of the same," that He might deliver them from all the difficulties that they were in. He is the Man who is to come by-and-by with all power, but, before doing that, He has been down into the lowest place that He might there take our place.
Turn to John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24). What is the simple meaning of these words? That Christ was a unique person; there was never anyone like Him. Where is the man who could say there was never any sin in him? But, says Christ, I want to have a people of my own stamp; and, if I die, I shall rise up, and have a harvest of the same grain as myself. It is not merely that people are saved, or that grains have been improved, but that there are a great many grains like this one. It is " new creation," not " new creature," as is generally read in 2 Cor. 5 It is wonderful how much mischief has been made out of this " new creature." A butterfly is a new creature; it is an immense alteration from a caterpillar; it could not be a greater; but it is not a new creation. New creation is a new thing altogether. People talk of conversion—say, " So-and-so is an altered man; " but you cannot alter new creation; it cannot be better than it is; so John insists on nothing but new creation. He says, " Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is born of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth hint not " so that we might keep ourselves from sin. I am not saying a word as to being united to Christ; it is merely that you are a new creation, that you are fellows of Christ.
Verse 18. He was tried by Satan, and now He can succor others who are tried; and that not in a temptation to badness, but in the way a godly person would suffer in the presence of a temptation, not a bad one. Satan tempted Him, but there was no response in the Lord to his temptations. But when we are tempted, as the Scripture says, we are " Drawn away of Our own lust and enticed." Suppose a child come into the room and see an apple on the table; it will look round, and if no one be there, it will take it. Now the Lord was never tempted in that way. The fact that a thing was not His own was enough for Him; it would have been pleasant to Him to have the apple, but it would have been no pleasure to Him to take it. Not so with us; to us it is a pleasure to. If he had let in any thought of this kind He could not have made atonement for us. Now I have an evil nature in me just the same as I had before I was converted. I am a tender flower with bad air all round me, and He says, I will put a screen about you to keep it all away; for when I was in flesh and blood I never let any of it in. The presence of God acts in two ways upon the soul that is in it. It first acts upon me, and then it occupies me with Himself. Some meetings are quite spoiled through getting hold only of the first of these actions and never rising beyond it. People say, "What a delightful meeting! the word cut me right and left." Certainly the disciples going to Emmaus had a grand time of it, but they did not know the One who was acting on them. It is quite right to have the word act on me: I need it. But that is not all. Having put me right it would occupy me with the Person who speaks it-with the Lord Himself. If I come into a lit up room, I do not want the light to be occupied only with me; I want to be occupied with what is in the room. I remember a person in a picture gallery saying, " At first I had this lighted up so beautifully that when I came in I could look at nothing but the light-at the glory of it. And I said, This will never do; so I had to have the light reduced until I could look at the pictures."
Hebrews 3
Verse 1. Now it is " holy brethren," and a "heavenly calling." Our profession is heavenly, and if you do not take heavenly ground you lose heavenly blessings. Between the going away of Christ and the return of Christ there are special blessings that are only given to a heavenly people. You must keep this new company in your mind; He has His troop round Him, all fellows going on together. I believe the book of Hebrews is carried on on the principle of the first of Acts; what they were rebuked for there-gazing up into heaven -is what we are called to do here. Your eye is to be upon Him. If it be to run the race, it is by " looking off unto Jesus; " if it be going outside the camp, it is going outside to Him; Christ is set before your heart; you find Him everywhere.
Verses 2- 6. Now we come to His house-His own circle. The "house" in Hebrews does not mean the house of God, the house on earth; it simply is that I am part of Christ's family, just as we speak of the house of Tudor, or the house of Brunswick. It does not allow of any one belonging to the house who is not put there by Christ Himself; as such He is the Son over His own house. Christ is gone into heaven for Himself and for His house. He has not gone in for Israel; He will come out for them soon; He has gone in for us; we get Him in the holiest; we do not get ourselves there; but He is there, and we have the right to go in. Many a child is brought to a palace without at all knowing what is going on in the palace. So the apostle takes us to heaven, introduces us into the place and says, Now study the length, breadth, depth, and height of it. I am an indoor servant; I have been in and know all that goes on there, but I cannot tell it to you; I can only open the door and let you in, and now you must find it out for yourselves.
Verses 7-11. What was the provocation? What has Christendom done? Christendom has been in the provocation; Christendom has looked down to earth instead of looking up to heaven. Christ has been rejected by earth, and, if my heart be right, I do not look for anything here, I do not seek to set things straight here; to do so would be to turn back to the way of Cain. Christendom has looked down, and that is the provocation. The book of Hebrews is that you are looking only up into heaven, for Jesus is there, and you have a right to go in; and when I go on to the Ephesians, and learn what the heart of God has for me there, I say, I may take it all, for I have a right to go in. The Israelites would not go into the land; it was the day of provocation, and the way they began was by remembering the fish of Egypt. If ever I hear a man talking of what he might have been, and might have done, I always think, woe betide you! Peter began saying as much to the Lord, and the Lord answered him, You have made a very good bargain; you have gained a hundred-fold more. I am sure there is nothing the Lord feels more than that we should put value on anything but Himself, or allow anything whatever to detain our hearts here. It is the provocation.
The question has been asked, " How can you be in heaven whilst you are on earth? " And that is true; I am not in heaven; but I am united to One who is. Jesus is there; and where is your heart if it have not gone after Him? The Captain of the ship is on shore, and the anchor is let down.
Verses 12-19. Just think of God being grieved They would not enter in. I do not unchristianize every one who has not got heavenly joys, but I do say his carcass falls in the wilderness; it is there that he dies. I have title to enter. But, you say, I might go back. Wait till you get there before talking of going back. It is a very interesting point that there is no such thing as restoration in Hebrews; you must go to some other part of the word if you wish to find that. It is never contemplated for a moment that you will give it up. The only thing put before us is, that if you go back to any of the old clothes, God will burn them off your back, "for our God is a consuming fire." He has taken the old. rags off, and made you fit for His presence; and do not you talk of going back to them. God would say, You have taken up that which I have put away, and I will not allow it. There is no such thing as provision for return; I have got rid of all the old things for you, and now, if you do not get rid of them too, I will burn them off you. You must drop them. Nine-tenths of those who complain of their dullness and weariness, owe it to the fact that they are cleaving to something they will not give up.
Verse 19. They could not enter in because of not obeying the word, is the meaning of the verse.
Hebrews 4
The point here is not rest merely, but "His rest," that is, God's rest. The prominent thought of God from the beginning was to have rest. As soon as everything was made, and he saw that it was very good He rested. The Sabbath was the sign of it; and in the time that is coming, it is said " He will rest in his love." The great desire of man, too, is rest; it is man's ideal; it is God's reality. The question for each of us is, are we looking for a rest before God's rest? There is rest of conscience for us: " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; " but it is not that. Neither is it rest of soul: " Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." It is the day when everything will be according to the mind of God when everything will be in unbroken rest gathered round Himself; his rest. Is that the rest we are looking for?
Israel got discouraged; they would not go on; they saw the cities walled up to heaven. And people now will not go on; they say the thing is impracticable. But as Israel turned back in heart first-" they fell a lusting "-so it is always. You first begin to think of the things that suit yourself, and then you refuse the things that suit God. Therefore it becomes a testing question to everyone whether it be God's rest he is looking for, or whether it be any rest in time. What is the desire of every man, from the politician in parliament down to the lowest and the poorest? He is looking for the day when he can lay down his cares and cease from toil, rest on his laurels, spend a happy old age in the bosom of his family, have a bright sunset in some little spot he has retired to. People look to connect themselves with earth in some way or other. Is that your thought? No! I expect no rest on earth. I have rest for my conscience and rest for my soul, but, as for my body, it is only " Come ye apart and rest awhile;" which is as much as to say, you must be working again presently. I am just going through the six week-days now; and I am going on to God's Sunday. Are you waiting for God's Sunday? Are you looking for no rest till it come? Do you expect nothing but toil on, toil on, now? If I engage a man to work for me six days, and I see him loitering on a Thursday, I say he is not an honest man. There is " time for meals " as it were; time to rest and work again; but you must not " seem to come short " of God's rest. Work, work, work, is the whole character of the thing. What is before my mind is God's rest; that is the only Sunday for me. It is not works for salvation; it is just anything that I may have to do. A man that is working for salvation is still in Egypt. It is thus I would meet a Wesleyan with his thoughts as to work.
God's thought, as I have said, always was to have a rest: first there was the Sabbath, which was broken; then there was the rest offered by Joshua, but which he could not give them; and then David spoke of a rest. But we shall never find our resting place until we get into God's rest; and that rest is not on earth; it is in heaven. If you had asked the apostle Paul how he expected to spend the evening of his days, he would have answered, I expect to be martyred. That is how he speaks in Philippians.
I leave it to every man's conscience what his work is; it is whatever the Lord would have you do; all I say is, it is work now and not rest. There must be duty. If it be your duty to go to the stake, go. I dare not dictate to anyone what he ought to do. I am dependent; I am longing for the word to show me what I am to do; and the moment I obey it I am all right. Saul of Tarsus says, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The greatest thing I deplore in the present day is the aimlessness, uselessness, want of any definite occupation of nearly everyone I meet. I believe everyone has a mission; I cannot tell others what theirs is; I might make a great mistake if I tried to. Still I can say to a woman with a family, there is no doubt about yours; but I add that the banks are not the river, though they determine the river. And just as the banks of the river are the greenest, sweetest spots, so it is at home, with those who are nearest to you, that you are to show forth most practically and perfectly your mission. Moses set to work forty years too soon with his mission. His was muscular Christianity. Afterward He was sent by God to do the work; but he had to beware of his muscularity to the end: it was that which prevented his going into the land.
At the end of the chapter, I get two helps for the way: one the word of God, the other the intercession of Christ.
Suppose you were in a large forest, in the midst of which you saw a hundred roads, one of which only led to heaven; all the others leading off different ways; a road of pleasure, a road of eminence, and so on. You say, I thought I might go up this road of pleasure a little bit. No, you must take only the one road. I am not only protected by the word, but I am also directed by it. This is its double action. It protects me from going in a way in which I might be drawn aside from its direction; and then, being in the road, it directs me. And in the road I got the company of Christ; He says to me: I have been all along it, and I can give you my sympathy in it. The One who is passed through the heavens, is the One who is sympathizing with me all along the way-I, a poor weak thing, always wanting to turn up one or another of those ninety-nine roads. And the more alive I am to the enjoyment of things here as a natural man, the more temptation and attraction there is to me. Well then, as I refuse to go up any of these other roads, the more I have Christ's sympathy with me as I tread His path. Christ does not sympathize with a person who is in a wrong path. There are two actions in the word of God: it corrects, and it directs. The Lord corrects Martha and directs Mary. A father would say to his child, If you walk in the mud I cannot walk with you; you must come out of it if you wish to be with me. You may feel your feebleness, your inability to stand all the difficulties of the way; but the Lord says, I will keep you company; I have been through it all before you, and I have never touched sin. If He had ever touched it He could not have lifted me out of it.
If you do not get heaven you lose all the blessings of Christianity; for if you want a priest, where is He? "Passed into the heavens; " through the heavens it really is. The " profession " we are to " hold fast " is this actually going on to heaven. It is that you are a heavenly man. It is a positive declaration; and it has become applicable to us because we have got involved in Judaism. It was creditable to them to be Jewish converts; it has never been a bit creditable to us; but we, having been brought up in it, the thing is for us to get clear of it. If you have not got hold of the heavenly profession, you have not got hold of Christianity at all. Christendom generally is looking for something to meet its condition on earth.
Then he says: " Let us come boldly to the throne of grace." People sometimes say when wishing to pray, " Let us come to the throne of grace." In answer to such an invitation I can only say, I hope we have not left it. I could say, " Let us come and use the throne of grace." We can come as poor feeble creatures and use it. The same in chapter 10: " Let us draw near; " we have no right to be out of the position of nearness. And to those who talk of fears of losing it, I answer, first get there before you talk of losing it. Most of those who talk of fearing to lose the holiest have never been there yet.
However, Hebrews does not put us within; it only gives us the right to go in; it is that I have got a title to be there. Just as Jonathan: he was not at the king's table; his place was empty; but it was his place as much as if he had been in it. We have a footing in heaven, and we have not to get it a second time. Have you ever known it?-ever felt what it was to be in the presence of God without a spot? He says to the Jewish converts, you have lost the old footing, and now you are on a new one, and if you have not got it, you have got nothing at all of Christianity.
Hebrews 5
He proves now that Christ is a Priest. The natural effort of every one who has to do with ministry is to put himself as a priest between God and man. "Infirmity" is the point in this passage. The Lord is not presented as the "faithful High Priest," as in another place; here it is to offer to God, and as learning obedience. We are shown the dignity of His person, as well as His being appointed Priest. It is interesting to notice that He took the place of a thoroughly dependent man: " He was heard in that he feared." It was not as a priest; but afterward he was appointed priest-" priest forever after the order of Melchisedec."
Verses 13, 14. You cannot explain the word " babe " in Hebrews by the same word in the the epistles of John. In John a " babe " is one who is really on Christian ground; but here the babe is a Jewish convert who is not on Christian ground at all, who has not got beyond the " first principles " of the next chapter. As a rule, every word in Scripture is best interpreted by the book in which it is expressed. Every book in the Bible contains sufficient to explain itself; I am not to go to John or Colossians to interpret Heb. 1 have no doubt the translators of Scripture in the present day will make many mistakes as to this.
The apostle gives us in verse 14 some that are grown up. The " babe " who has got on to Christian ground is " perfect " in Hebrews. It is not a question of progress here, as it is in John.
Hebrews 6
Verses 1-8. This is the " perfection " he means; these are the first principles; it is not Christianity at all. What! you say; not a converted man! No, not at all. None of these things are within the brackets. You might have a man have them all without being born again. We have very much lost a true thought which the churchmen have. The dissenters are all for membership; but it is members of a church, not of Christ's body, with them. A churchman, on the other hand, is all for getting a man to church. If you ask him, " Why cannot you say what you want to him here?" he answers, " Oh, no! I must get him into church." This thought we get in 1 Cor. 14, which shows us the power of God in the house of God. In that chapter is the only time the word "layman " is used. The layman there falls down, worships God, and acknowledges that God is " in you" clergy, not in himself. Being there, he is in a place of blessing; and if he go out from it there is no other for him; he had better take care not to leave it. Just as Noah might have said in the ark: Now, my son, you are in a safe place; do not leave it, or you will be drowned. It is no question of conversion. Then, you ask, what does he gain? He gets what we have in these verses 4 and 5. There is a wonderful sheltering power in the word; he is made a " fellow" of the Holy Ghost (not partaker); he is in company with Him, though not indwelt by Him. If I go into a house, and it down in a comfortable chair there, do you mean to say that I have not got some of the privileges of the house, though I do not belong to it? You know that I have. And you know perfectly well the power that is felt sometimes in a meeting; how every soul is hushed; and how the presence of God is felt, whether by converted or unconverted. The man at the feast, he got the feast, but he did not get the garment; he sat all through the wedding supper, and no one found him out until the king came in.
There is no real conversion in these verses. It is the wonderful action that takes place in the house of God short of conversion. We have lost too much the thought of the power of God's presence on the earth; we look at it too much only in connection with souls that are converted. It never says in Corinthians that the man who came in was converted; only that the " secrets of his heart were made manifest." The house is " the habitation of God through the Spirit;" it takes the place that the schekinah glory did in the temple: every one who came in was not a believer, but every one who came in was in contact with the glory. The question in Scripture is whether a man who takes a Christian position be able to maintain the position he has taken. The man in 1 Cor. 5 is admitted to be converted, yet he is put outside the assembly; he is not fit to be in it. It is, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person;" and that though he be a converted man. But he was brought back again among them very soon afterward. In this chapter of Hebrews the apostle is showing how a Jew, having taken Christian ground, if he turn away from it, crucifies for himself the Son of God, and from that there is no return; for if this wonderful thing come upon a soul and there be no answer to it, it is like earth drinking in rain from heaven, and bearing only thorns and briars after-fit for nothing but burning.
Verses 9-17. "But," he says, a "we are persuaded better things of you." There are real things that accompany salvation. You take an interest in what belongs to God: " We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." We are thrown into a new circle, a new relationship, and the question is whether we like this relationship. We must be relations to them. A man does not love his relations without their being his relations. In the church a man has got out of his own natural circle into one outside nature. "As I have loved you, ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
Verses 18-20. In chapter 4. we had the rest of God; now we have the hope. In Hebrews you are going on to heaven, and Christ is always the object before you. Are you in heaven? No; but He is there. Are you on shore? No; but the Captain is: " The forerunner is for us entered." And He is bringing us on to where He is Himself. It is not with us as it was with Israel; Canaan is not the type of our position; there is nothing about Canaan here except in contrast; it is heaven that is brought out here. Canaan is the heavenly man upon earth; there is nothing at all about that in Hebrews. The wonderful thing in the tabernacle is that it is not a type at all; it is a copy of the original. We are going on to the original of which it is the image. If you say the tabernacle is a type, then you must have an antitype of it to come after it; but it is not; Moses saw it up in the mount, and came down and gave the children of Israel' the pattern of it. If the tabernacle be only a type, then I must be waiting to come to the antitype of it; whereas, if it be an image, I am only going on to that which was there before the tabernacle ever was.
Abraham rested everything on the heir (verse 14); how much more do we rest everything upon One who is greater than the heir-upon that Christ who is the fulfillment of and answer to the heir, though I am down here and He in heaven a great way off.
There are three different ways in which we are looked at in connection with heaven. In Hebrews, the lowest of the three, we are seen on earth looking up into heaven; in Joshua we are in Canaan, heavenly men fighting on earth; and in Ephesians we are seated in Christ in heaven, which necessarily includes the two others. But Christendom is nothing more in principle than Jewish converts. They have not occupied the place of heavenly men for centuries; they have made the earth their center; converting the earth has been their aim. " They say they are Jews and do lie;" they are not Jews; if they were it would be no lie. And this is what makes the camp which you get at the end of the book. There is no Christianity proper if you leave out heaven; earth does not belong to Christianity proper, because Christ has been rejected from earth. We have not only the certainty of getting into heaven at some future time, but it is ours now. People say, I shall get into heaven when I die. And what will you get till you die? Earth. Exactly; and that is what object to. The apostle says, Though you are not in heaven yet, still I give you the place, and I set your eye on the One to whom it all belongs, and who is gone in there for you. God could not give us the earth that rejected His Son. My heart is to be occupied with the One who has entered there for me as High Priest; and therefore the apostle beautifully says that He is gone, not either into Canaan or into heaven, but " within the veil." He says, I will not talk to you of either earth or heaven; but is your eye on Christ? Is it turned to the magnet, the loadstone of the heart?
The truth that will deliver souls in the present day is the book of Hebrews, though it be a child's book. Souls do not know that they are saved. They have got hold of the value of the sacrifice on earth; but they will talk of " a fresh application of the blood; " they have not got a Priest in heaven.
Hebrews is uncommonly lovely to the heart, because it always draws it up. It says: It was quite right for you to listen to the prophets; but here is the Son of God for you-the One who has come down to contend with all your foes, and who has gone back to heaven, having overcome them all for you, and who now makes you His fellows. As already said, it is like the whole congregation of Israel going up with the high priest to a certain point, and then, to use a common expression, they are " at fault"-they have lost him. But we " see Jesus." If I look up to the highest point, I have Him there; and if I look down to the lowest point-to my weakest point-I have Him here.
Hebrews 7
Verses 1, 2. Christ has not yet come out as King of Righteousness; He is King of Peace already.
Verse 3. That is all they knew about him; no one knew what he was.
Verses 4-26. We look after this One gone into the heavens, and we find Him there a Priest after a new order; Christ is now the fulfillment of the Aaronic course in a new way. When He comes out it will be to bless Israel as Melchisedec did Abram. Many Christians have not got hold of the priesthood of Christ at all. If we do not take heavenly ground we cannot know it. When there was an effort made a little time ago to damage the priesthood of Christ, the question was put, What did the Melchisedec priest do? I do not know what he did inside, but I know very well what he does when he comes out; he blesses the people.
I have got in heaven a High Priest who is " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." I am not separate from sinners, but He is. My ship may move about a little, but it cannot part from its anchor, and that is safe within the veil. It is a wonderful thing, that, as the apostle says, I may have a " supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ "-a stream that comes down to me from heaven. I am here in the midst of all that is against me, and He says, This is what I send down to you. I am like a man in a diving bell, with everything most adverse to me: how am I sustained in it all? By a life that is in connection with Him in the holiest, in the full supply of His Spirit; a life that will not coalesce with the surrounding element. It is what we need for our destitute condition-what you call " journeying mercies," if you like. If you are not anchored within the veil, you have no anchor. He knows the circumstances I am in, and He sends down from God the suited grace. If I may say it with all deference, He knows them better than any one; so he is either thinking of you to give you suited grace, or He is thinking of you to no purpose at all. If you have real sympathy with me, and are thinking of me in the circumstances I am in, you cannot but minister to me if you have the ability. So I believe we never get near Christ individually about any transaction that He does not leave the impress of what His own grace would have been in the circumstance. When the Lord was in the ship He was asleep. The disciples naturally thought he was indifferent about them; if they could have been persuaded He was not forgetful of them, though asleep, they would have been as quiet as He was; but they were not; so they awoke Him. And what did He do? He put them all to sleep: "there was a great calm; " and that is what there ought to have been at the first. Otherwise, it comes to this, that He is thinking about me, but that He has not the suited grace to meet me. But He says, I have all that is suited to you; I am " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." That is the High Priest that becomes us.
There is not a word about sin properly in Hebrews: it is " infirmity." I am on the heavenly road; but I feel how weak I am, and how unable to get on. No sooner am I clear from judgment and death than Amalek comes against me. Now, the two things to help me in this are Hebrews and Peter. The Lord says, I pray for you. That is Hebrews. But when Peter was tempted, he ought to have said, I will take the sword and fight him. When he was asked to go in, he ought to have said, No; I will not go into your house; I will not go to your fire. So this is what Peter is strong about. The moment I take my place as a heavenly man, Satan says, I am against you in everything. We never fail that we find we did not resist. Peter's great point is " whom resist;" he does not take you out of the wilderness, but he says, resist the devil in it. There are two classes of ministry: one to save you from a snare, the other to save you out of a snare. In the one case you have got in, and you are rescued; in the other you are kept out of it. Happier to be kept out of it; but we get the two.
Bad temper is not infirmity: it is perverseness. The Lord never takes away my weakness; He does my perverseness. You say I am convinced that Christ is worthy of all my love. And how long will you keep to it? Not half an hour! " No infant's changing pleasure Is like my wandering mind." He says I will take away your thieving; I will not take away your timidity, but I will give you my strength in it. Christ keeps me on the road in spite of my infirmity.
Verses 27, 28. The apostle draws the distinction between the high priest's own sins and the sins of the people. Aaron offered for his own house; Christ for His-for His family, as we saw in chapter iii. It is not the house as a building; it cannot ever become " the great house." In Ephesians the house is looked at as not interfered with by man, but it could be, as we find it is in 1 Cor. But here it cannot be; it is the house of Christ. He offered the bullock for His own house; the two goats are not offered yet; He is gone in within the veil with His own blood, and the two goats are yet to come for Israel.
Verse 19. " Perfect " through the whole epistle is that he has got to the top of the thing: " they without us should not be made perfect," as we get it further on. They have not got to that yet; but it is the top, where no further improvement can be. So the law made nothing perfect nothing complete.
Hebrews 8
Verses 1, 2. We get the word " heaven " now. It was " the majesty on high " in the first chapter; now it is " in heaven." The tabernacle on earth was the image; we arc introduced into the reality, into the original.
Verses 3-5. This is a very important point; " If he were on earth he could not be a priest;" therefore He is not on earth. We have to deal with heaven itself; and those who think it is too high to go to heaven may do without a priest. If we do not know Him there, we do without the good of it; it is not that He forgets us; He is always pleading for us; He does not cease because you do not enter into the value of it, but how can you be in concert with Him if you do not know where He is? You do not get the special blessing connected with it. Formerly the association was earth; they never got into the holiest; the high priest himself only went in once in the year. The first thing God told Moses to make was the thing they never reached till Christ came: the mercy-seat was the first thing in the mind of God, and the mercy-seat was never reached till Christ's death. None of the Jews ever got to it. Whilst the book of Hebrews does not say that we are in heaven, yet we can look in, and Christ is gone in for us. Then, however holy a man might be, however sincere, a time came when he lost his priest: he went in; now the nearer I get the plainer I see. He who has accomplished everything for me is there, and I have a right to go in after Him; my right is established. As to title every Christian is there, but there is a moment when I first get the sense of the enjoyment of my right. Hebrews is individual; each individual has a right to the holiest as the fellow of Christ. We follow Him, not upon earth but into heaven. It is very necessary to learn that I have a right to go into my Father's house. It is the point that is settled all through the Hebrews.
Verses 6-13. It is important here to make one remark about the covenant, which may clear false ideas from peoples' minds. Among men a covenant is an agreement between two. I propose terms to you, and you correct them. until we come to an agreement. A covenant with God is quite another thing; God only has a voice in it: He defines the terms. The children of Israel said they would accept God's terms, but they did not make a single term themselves. Now God says, I am going to bring in a new covenant. We are not under this covenant, though we have to do with the Covenanter. He told them He would propose a thing to them: He would create a nature in them which should be entirely according to His own mind. He says, I will make a people who shall know me from the least to the greatest, and in whose hearts shall be written my laws. This is the millennial saint; therefore this epistle meets the millennial state, for we must remember it is written to Jews. Verses 11, 12 will be the condition of the millennial saints. Is it true of us? I hope so. I hold him to be a very bad Christian who does not go beyond the law. I will beat any Sabbatarian that ever was; for I keep the day not to myself, but to God. Whilst he is a legalist, I am trying to please my Lord the whole day through. He says, I keep Sunday as the Sabbath. I keep it too, but it is as the Lord's day. But the Lord's day being the Sabbath duration of time, I fall into creational order; only, instead of keeping it as an enactment binding on my conscience, I keep it to please the Lord of the Sabbath.
And so on with all the commandments. As to a thief, he is not only no more to steal, but he is to be a giver. No one could ever get into Canaan by keeping the law. I must die in Christ and live in Him, and so get in. Certainly a Christian will not be in practice below a heathen; but the moment I hear a man say, I am going to judge myself by the law, I say, There is a man who has no proper sense of what Christianity is. Christianity goes far beyond the law. The law says, you are not to call your brother a bad name; but I am to die for my brother. Do you mean to say that I am not higher than a millennial saint even now? I am not in millennial circumstances; but I am in more than millennial favor. Does Christ reign in your heart now? If He be reigning in your heart he will certainly reign in your house. I believe He holds every one of us accountable for behaving as if He were on the throne at the present moment; otherwise, we do not believe in His kingship. It says," Seek the kingdom of God."
Hebrews 9
Verse 1. " A worldly sanctuary." It does not mean anything of a sinful character; but it was an earthly arrangemement.
Verse 2-10. We have lost a great many things through being children. The Jewish converts were not up to it, and so the apostle stopped: he says, it is not the time to speak of these things. The great point is, that the way into the holiest was not made manifest whilst the first tabernacle was standing; but now the way is open, and he wants to get them, with a good conscience, into God's presence. So he shows them first that Christ is gone in, and then he opens the way for them. This chapter shows us Christ in, the next shows us ourselves. They have not got a good conscience here yet; the conscience is not yet purged. But they must be in first, before he will explain to them what is inside. It would be indulging mere curiosity to do so. God says, I cannot tell you anything on your standing; you must come on to mine. Many think they can get information about the things of God; but, as He did to Moses, He still says, " Draw near';" you must get to my level before I can speak with you. God's thought is to get us where we can learn of Him undisturbedly. Where does He write Christ on our hearts? Anywhere? Not at all! In glory. Many try to get acquaintance with the great things of God, who have never been experimentally through Hebrews, and this does great damage to souls. It is like the prodigal son looking in through the window, instead of going in at the door. We are to walk through the length and breadth of the land; and how am I to walk through unless I am in?
Verses 11-14. Now the conscience is purged. Can you say, I have stood before God, and there was not one single thing, one single blemish of any kind, upon me? It is not that He is just to me, but that I am just before Him. God has no more claim on me. Some commentators have said that the prodigal son kept his rags on under the best robe, so that he might look at them sometimes to keep him humble. You may smile *at the idea, but, nevertheless, a great many act on it. That is not what God has done. He has entirely moved Adam out of the way; and the soul never gets perfect liberty until it sees every shred of the old clothes gone, and nothing but Christ left. God said, " The end of all flesh is come before me." For a moment it was fulfilled in the deluge; for a moment everything was either dead or covered; and now, again, God sees no flesh before him: every one is either covered by the death of Christ, or lost. What would be the most incomparable blessing that could be conferred on us? Would it not be to get rid of the flesh? And God has got rid of it in Christ. There is no sense of deliverance until you get to Christ in glory; and you never get near Him unless you see His death.
Verses 15-17. This is the statement of the doctrine. We do not receive property until the testator is dead; so in the case of our Lord: death was not only for the redemption of the saints, but it also opened the way to the inheritance. You see, the moment the wrong end is cleared away, everything is fair with God. That is what He said to Cain: we will be on terms; there is no enmity in me; if you will clear everything away, there is nothing on my side. It is the same in the thief on the cross: everything that offends against God is taken out of the way, and then all is thrown open. In Exodus the blood was shed, and then, in a moment, they saw " the body of heaven in its clearness." The saying is, " I can forgive, but I cannot forget." That is not at all God's way; He says: Remove the offending thing out of my way, and everything is open to you. The prodigal son was in favor in a moment, as if he had never done anything wrong. There is no enmity on the part of God. I take a long time to be reconciled to God, and so I cannot believe He can so quickly be to me; therefore it says, " Be ye reconciled to God." The soul gets clear about the value of the blood long before it gets the thought that it is in perfect favor; it is a long time before you get to " in Christ." Every believer has it "through Christ;" but it is " in Christ." You do not get " in Christ " until the sixth chapter of Romans, and then it is " in " for the first time; before that it is " through."
Such souls are in Adam still, though I doubt not they are converted. But I say to them, change your ground; for " there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." The Galatians are properly Romans who have gone back from the eighth chapter. Romans brings saints out of the law; in Galatians they go back to it. So the apostle says, Of whom I travail in birth now; for I am not quite sure that Christ is in you. Every man in Christ is a new creation.
The word " eternal " is so often repeated in Heb. 9, because the first tabernacle was not eternal; this is; it is forever and ever.
Verses 18-22. If I understand Ex. 24, it was not the priest alone who did it all, which makes it still more interesting. We are seen coming up under cover of the blood with Him, everything thrown open to us.
Verses 23-27. The way into the holiest was " not made manifest;" while the pattern was standing the original was not opened. It was not that the tabernacle itself was defiled, but it was sprinkled to get a defiled people into it. The original is purified to get us in; it is all opened to us, and it cannot be defiled by our going in. There are no wicked spirits in Hebrews as you find in Ephesians. Hebrews is only our right to go in; the wicked spirits are inside; we must be in before we can meet them. You can hardly say that it is heaven itself, but the whole creation is defiled, as you often hear people say, feeling how everything is spoiled.
The holy place is the Jewish place. The holiest will not be visible during the millennium. Christ brought us in as His own house, and He brought in also the Jew; He brought in the heavenly company and also the earthly. The heavenly will be entitled to the holiest, and the earthly to the holy place. Christ has opened the way, so that I am as much cleansed for heaven as for earth; indeed, heaven is far the more certain of the two to you; you can " read your title " to heaven far more clearly than to earth. Why? Because the light is clearer there. A very small thing interrupts the soul-turns it aside. There is nothing we ought to desire more than to be in circumstances, in surroundings, pleasing to the Lord. It is a poor thing, indeed, if I do not seek to know the Lord in circumstances that are pleasing to Him, in surroundings that suit Him.
I often wonder evangelists do not bring more out the thought that the prominent thing that God had in His mind was never carried out until the death of Christ-the mercy seat. God says: The thing I told you to make first, not one of you has ever reached; but my Son has come out, and He is made the way. The
thought of God is to have man without a cloud in the brightest spot; and therefore when man w as found perfectly incapable, He says: I know what you most want, and what you want most I will give you first. I have no doubt the holiest was thrown open the first day; but, Aaron's sons bringing in strange fire, it was all closed up; after which comes the command to drink no wine. Wine is acting from impulse. Giving out a hymn because it is " on your heart," for instance, is impulse. I am not an individual when I come into the assembly; I am really a member of the body, under the government of Christ the Head.
Verse 28. There will be no question of sin at all then. Sin is not taken away yet, as we well know. This is future. He has taken away my sins, for how can I have sins if I be in Christ? But sin is in the world. The work is done which will put it away, but the full result is still future.
Hebrews 10
Verses 1, 2. That is the place we are brought into. There is no more conscience of sins, not sin. I can come into God's presence without a single thing being laid to my charge. It is not whether you continue on, but whether you have ever been on this ground. Many hesitate at making such a statement; but I believe they hesitate because they have never realized the fact of what the work of Christ has done for the believer. You may have a bad conscience, but I cannot admit that you have a bad one until you have a purged one. You may be merely legal. What do you judge your "bad" by? Is it by the law or by Christ? Many a man would have a bad conscience, but the question is, what does he judge it by? Many a one shelters himself under " I am a failing person." Do not tell me of failure or of what you are, until you have got into His presence without a single thing displeasing to Him. " But I may go back?" Well, we will answer that afterward; settle it first that you have got in this once; that you have, like Jonathan, got title to a place at the king's table. Psa. 32, which speaks of no imputation of sin with God, is the Psalm where there is the deepest distress, because the soul will not confess. The great principle of divine grace is, that where I am most detected, there I am best protected. The Lord says, I will protect you; and " if the Son make you free, ye are free indeed."
Verse 3. This is exactly what is done in Christendom; there is reference made to sins every day, because they do not know a Savior in the holiest. There is a premium for the soul on getting higher; if you were to go up, you would see yourself perfectly clear in the sight of God; you would see not only the sins, but the sin gone. I never yet heard a man talking of his sins when he was out of them. If a man say to me that he is so worldly, I am ready to answer, so you are. Your confessing failure shows that you have a conscience, but do you drop the thing that you fail in? When you first got into the holiest you dropped everything; why not now? You have something in your right hand that you will not give up. If a man be really confessing in private, he will not want to confess in public. I am not speaking of confession for the assembly, but of a man's own private confessions. I repudiate this flesh of mine in God's presence as a wretched, vile thing; there can be no good conscience if I do not. But many souls are harping on their sins instead of abandoning them; saying, " I am so weak," and refusing all the time to abandon their weakness. There is never an excuse for weakness: I take pleasure in weakness, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. But in nine cases out of ten it is not weakness at all but perverseness. If a man be really repentant he is praising the Savior; he has got on to the other side.
Verses 4-9. " The first," that is the offerings. Verse 10. This is the great point: it is "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ." He comes forth and takes a body; and, when He offers that body, all is removed that barred me from the presence of God. God has separated us now to the same standing as Christ. Christ has come down from God and measured my distance, and placed me in the measure of His nearness. Verses 11-13. This is actually the period we are in. Verse 14. The professing church in the present day knows nothing whatever of this; it has dropped into ritualism. Verses 15-18. Supposing a person say, I have failed now; what will become of me? I answer: Still, you cannot get out of the place; you cannot get out of belonging to Christ's house, out of being one of the family. Wesleyans say you can fall away. They make the new creation less than the old; whereas the new is infinitely, incomparably, beyond the old. Besides which they try to change the old into the new. Verses 19-23. Verse 19 ought not to be divided from 20; it is all one sentence; it is not two ways; it is only one. The door is wide open; I look in; I have a right to go in, and, if you once enter, you ought never to go out again; the veil is taken away, and you have boldness, and the more you realize, the more you have boldness. It is the fullest efficacy of the faith. It does not mean what we commonly call " full assurance." It -is the full weight of faith. It is not that you are assured of the faith, but it is what the faith gives you-what you derive from the faith. And it is not that you are to have your hearts sprinkled, but that they are. We draw near with a true heart: I have not taken this standing without the full verity of it in my soul. I am perfectly suited to the place, and have title to be in it. There is not a speck upon me, not a thing to offend against God; the body is fit for the Lord. You cannot lose your standing, the footing you have got; further on it comes to not giving up your birthright; God chose to quicken your soul; take care you do not give it up. It has not to be done when you come in; all was set right before. It is a difficult thing to explain practically; the blood is on the mercy seat for every believer, but each one has to have it upon himself also. It is only by the Holy Ghost I can come in. There is only the flesh and the spirit here, so there is not a word about the oil. You are brought in as priests before God; the blood is not only on the mercy seat, but it is on you. The blood is for the weakest believer, but besides that, at the consecration of the priest, it was sprinkled on him. The flesh is over; I am left entirely to the things of the Spirit; entirely in the power of the oil. We are fellows of the Holy Ghost.
Verses 24, 25. How- long ago is it since they saw the day approaching? 1800 years ago. We know He is due; that is the thing; we are sure He is coming. We do not judge of the day by events; we know that it is due. When the Revelation was given there was nothing to hinder. It is now just as we say of a train, "it is due." So if the Lord were due some time ago, how much more now? The world takes up the question in a contrary way to the professing church, but both arrive at the same conclusion: the professing church says: " My Lord delayeth his coming;" the world, " Where is the promise" of it? " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," is that we are not to drop out of Christianity; not to fall back to Jewish standing.
Verses 26-31. These people with all their talk were never converted at all. They had been sanctified by the blood of the covenant, by the position they had taken as professing Christians. They had taken this place and never answered to it. Baptism has to do with the old man; the Lord's supper, with the new. God has got a house on earth in the midst of all the confusion; and the moment you take your place in that house, you take the position of present administrative forgiveness. And I believe God deals with all who take that place. He treats professing Christians very much as if they were all true believers; he deals with them on the ground that they themselves take. There is no question as to their being in the-house of God. Every churchman has an idea that there is something in being within the walls; they take off their hats when they go in; they think everything of the house. On the other hand the dissenters look for membership; they know nothing about the house, and are pitched out somewhere without one, whilst ritualism makes everything of it.
Giving up in that day would have been going back to be a Jew; in the 'present day, it would be apostacy from Christ. The Holy Ghost was acting in the place they were in, and they refused that place. Scripture does not say there is no hope for such persons, but in the place they have got to there is none.
The church is looked at in two aspects: the house and the body. While the wise woman keeps the house everything is in beautiful order; but you can easily see, if she be indolent and negligent, to what a state things will come. It is not that she ceases to be the wife, the bride, but that she is not caring for the house. If she had been always true to her place, there would have been no disorder. When Christ comes he takes away the bride, and leaves the house here. Satan has collected it together, so it is called " the synagogue of Satan," and then it becomes the great whore. The pope is not the man of sin: he exalts himself in all that is called God, not "above all," as we read in Thessalonians.
Verses 32-37. There they really suffered for their Christianity. The time was getting long, and the test of patience is whether you can endure. So here we come to another word: we have boldness to go up, but we have patience to go along the road. It is very interesting the way the coming of the Lord is brought in here. It is the rest that is for us in chapter iv., whilst we work; here the coming of the Lord is the thing that is for patience.
Verses 38, 39. We get a very important principle here. Every person's progress is in accordance with what it costs him. I find a man who has to walk ten miles to a meeting is ten times as fresh as the man who lives next door. If it cost you anything it brings out the virtue of Christ which enables you to do it. It is a great fact that any person is a leader now, not so much through what he knows as through what he suffers.
Hebrews 11
These are all men of God, and their lives set forth what they did by faith. There is what I may call a gradation in their histories, a successional virtue brought out in them. First we have justifying faith in Abel. Then Enoch's faith ending with translation into life. Noah's faith takes him safe through judgment. Abraham has separating faith; and so on, till we culminate at a very interesting point, which proves to me that the apostle Paul was the author of the epistle; it is internal evidence to it, as we say: "Rahab perished not, and what more can I say?" We have got the Gentile into the land, we have got as far as we can go. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, and the great thing with him is to show that a Gentile is there. A worldly person in herself, he says, I have placed. her on the same ground as the people of God. It is the only touch of the Gentile that he gives in the epistle.
It is not the varieties of the faith that is brought before us; it is that in these specimens we learn that faith is the cure for everything. If you have faith you can do anything; it only wants the thing to call it out. A different need only calls forth a different phase of it. There are four phases of the moon, but every one knows it is the same moon. Abraham is a man of faith, and he dies a stranger in the land; whilst Moses goes there in triumph. And it is a different thing to the gift of faith; the gift of faith has to do with service; but this is common to all. If a gift be not used for God's glory, but for man's service, it loses its character. Gifts of ministry may be misapplied. Gift belongs to the assembly; and not only to the assembly, but
Christ's gift is for Christ's benefit in his saints.
In this " cloud of witnesses" it is all earthly associations. If you ask what is faith, I answer, here are specimens of what faith can do. It is not the thing proposed to faith that is the difficulty, but it is, if you count on God you can do the greatest thing just as easily as a small one. You cannot in yourself do a small thing a bit better than a large one. Faith is that I count upon what I do not see; if I can see it, it is not faith. As has been said often, a thing that you have been praying about will look less likely than at any time just as it is going to be accomplished. As they say, " the darkest hour is the hour before dawn."
Eve lost faith the moment " she saw." People say what is the harm of a beautiful -view? None, I say, unless it influence you. Look at Paul in the shipwreck: the master says, go on; all the passengers say, go on; but Paul says, I would not. But then there was a third thing: the south wind blew softly; that was Providence. But no, says Paul, I will not look at Providence. If I look for wind, I shall not get it; but if I am going with God, I shall find Providence fall in with me. Sad to say we know so little of faith; that is the reason we are influenced so much by what we see.
Hebrews 12
Verses 1-4. The weight is something outside; the sin that besets is something inside. The weight is not properly a sin; neither is the sin what people call their " besetting sin:" it is the whole principle of sin in you. Some things are much more easily recognized as sins than others are. It is not only Amalek that we have to meet, but Balaam, too. The Israelites got the victory over Amalek, but they were borne down with Balaam. Nothing does so much harm as the social element; so the wise woman says, " Forsake the foolish, and live; " just the opposite to Balaam, who says, Come into our company. Worldly society is intolerable to the true soul; the world cannot do you any good, and it does do you much harm; whereas, the company of the Lord's people should always be agreeable to you; for, though there may be failure in them, yet there is always Christ in them also. The more I walk with God, the more I draw out what is of Christ in you. Supposing you were all diamonds, and I brought a light into the room, how you would all shine! The difference between a piece of glass and a diamond is, that the glass lets the light through, but the diamond absorbs It. Christians should be all diamonds.
Well, what is a weight? Anything that hinders me; for instance, music. If I find it a snare, I throw it aside, just as I would a cloak that was in my way, if I were running a race. Whatever hinders a man from running, is a weight, for this is the race.
Paul was pressing on to the goal. I believe he saw it at his conversion. He saw the mark then, and he ran on to it ever after. If you say you cannot see your goal, I say, you cannot go to it then; and, what is more, you cannot race until you can worship. Worship is, that I am in spirit in my Father's house; racing is, that I am going home to it.
The race here is, in principle, the same as in 1 Cor. 9; only there the apostle is talking more of the way he has trained or disciplined himself for the race, rather than of the race itself. The point of that passage is, " Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." You must be a self-denying person. That is laying aside the weight. It is always so: after knowledge comes temperance. For every bit of divine knowledge that I get, I grow more temperate, more self-denying; I want less than I used; I give myself less gratification than I used. One can excuse a person who knows but little in a great many things; but we lay aside everything that we may go on; and the more we get on, the more we have to bear. The cross was the greatest trial, the greatest suffering, that could possibly be brought out. It is not redemption here; it is the martyr side of it only that is looked at. I need not say it is the same cross. But, just as if a horse can go over a six-barred gate it can go over a two, so, if you can bear the cross, you can bear anything. As to what he says of being a " castaway," it is, that he was writing to those who made much of their gifts. He says, if I stood upon my gift, I might be cast away; I do not go upon that ground at all. The believer can be subjected to very severe judicial treatment here; and that comes out in the chapter we are on. God says, I do not see you in the flesh at all; so you come into the holiest; but the flesh is in you, and, if you do not judge it, I must tear it from you; and that is where chastening comes in.
The Lord is always put first in everything; as it says in John, " When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them." It was " for the joy that was set before him." We can understand something of that joy; the martyrs had it at the stake; Stephen, no doubt, was full of it when he was going to the Lord. And we have not yet died; we have not all been martyrs yet.
Verses 5-11. It is extremely interesting how he brings in chastening here; not at all as we think, for we generally think chastening to be something very much out of the way, but the very pelting of the stones on Stephen was freeing him from the flesh, and setting him forever in the presence of God. And so persecutions and troubles here, they set us free from the flesh. Chastisement is too often connected in our minds with punishment; it is not so much that as correction. It is martyrdom, if you like; not retiring to have a happy evening to our days.' You are to lose the flesh; there must be the cross; so it is " mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;" there is something that must be got rid of; the flesh must be torn out of us in one way or another. It may come to special sins, but it is the whole thing that you have to get rid of. Thus we never can say we have got beyond the need of discipline. The chastening in 1 Cor. 11 is confined wholly to the body, because the believer has been eating and drinking unworthily. Here in Hebrews it is much wider. It is not simply punishing: He corrects you for something that would hinder you from running the race. Jonah might have said, why should you have let me get into all this trouble and affliction? Well, I gave you full instruction; it was because you would not bow to the word, and therefore you got the blow, If Paul had not had the flesh, he would not have needed the thorn; it was preventive. To Laodicea it is, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." God always speaks before He chastens. The Father's chastening has to do with everything; " If ye call on the Father, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."
Chastening may have to come upon you for failure; still, wonderful grace! if you be exercised thereby, you get all the good of it, just as if you had been walking righteously. In three ways my body is dealt with; first, governmentally, that is on account of my forefathers. I may have a sickly body because of the wickedness of my grandfather. In this the Lord gives me His sympathy. Secondly, on account of my own failure. In this I have exercise of heart and conscience. And thirdly "for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death." That is a distinct honor; a decoration won in the Lord's service. I think the persecution of the present day is the opposition of believers. A man who is faithful will have very few friends. The more exclusively you are set for Christ the fewer friends you will have; every one will be shy of you. The character of the present day is, be good friends with every one.
Verses 12-14. Go on steadily and follow peace and holiness, or more properly sanctification. Verses 15-17. Esau gave up his place in the inheritance. Verses 18-24. This is what we have come to. All this is what is connected with man. In chapter x. we get what we come to on God's side; here it is what is connected with our own side. It is everything as it now stands at this moment: it is not the future; it is not what you will come to. There are eight things mentioned; the " ands " separate and determine them.
Verses 25-29. He is going to shake everything. If we give it up now we shall have manifold more; if we hold to it, when everything is shaken we shall be shaken too.
Hebrews 13
The last chapter is exhortation, and takes up the visible ground, which is important for the Jew. We are visible, and we are now put into a visible place; we are put outside the camp. The camp is an orderly construction of religious arrangements; it is a settled state of things, with military precision, and sentinels to keep all from going outside it. And those who do have to pay the penalty of it which is our portion. Where is your address? " Outside the camp." Where are you to be found? " Outside the camp." And what are you doing there? I am praising God and serving man. We are a praising people; praising God. That is what people ought to find us doing. They cannot see us worshipping, but they ought to hear us praising. And is that all? We are serving man too. There must be nothing contrary to the altar about us. The altar is the figure for worship; " we have an altar; " we have gone inside there; we are invisible there; but here we, become visible; we are found. outside the camp-outside everything that has regulation. Then have you disorder? I hope not; the Lord keeps order. But the moment you make anything ordered and settled it is in the camp.
When a convert came out of Judaism, he had no place but the church to go to; but the difficulty that we have to contend. with is, that there are a dozen places. But, go where I may, I cannot leave Christendom; I cannot leave the house of God. It may be a very large house; but, as has been often said, let me get into some little clean corner of it; into some attic; some upper room. There may be a house in which dancing is going on in one of the rooms; but I can keep in another.
At the time the epistle was written " the camp " applied to Judaism; but there is the principle of it to this day. Ask people where they get the word. " priest;" they must go back to Judaism for it. Wherever I find Judaism, there I find. the camp, and wherever I find Judaism, I stand clear of it. I am de pendent on God's Spirit alone for arrangement. If I have a case to deal with to-day, I cannot deal with it by a case that has already been dealt with; I must have God's guidance for that special thing.
The camp and the house are not the same thing. The camp is peculiar arrangements that are going on in one part of the house. It is a thing that never ought to have been in the house; they brought it in, but it has no right there. However, we are in the house, and we cannot deny our family; we have to bear the shame of it. When the captives returned from Babylon, there was a nice handful of them; but where were all the others? Those who came back had to bear the weakness and the shame of the defection of the rest. And as it was then God's house, though in a state of dilapidation and ruin-" they break down the carved work with axes and hammers, they have cast fire into thy sanctuary "—so it is still His house. Well, and what are you doing? I am keeping things as straight as I can in the clean corner. (J. B. S.)
THE inward revelation of divine favor-makes the path of sorrow full of sweetness.
(J. N. D.)