Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Like you read part of this 10th chapter and then also part of the 13th chapter, and I was thinking particularly of two things that are brought before us in the 10th chapter, our place inside the veil, and in the 13th chapter, our place outside the camp. I believe these things are very important for us to see, and they're brought out very clearly in these portions of God's Word.
Well, let's read from the first verse of Hebrews 10.
For the Law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
By most sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin? Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will.
Oh God, how about when he said sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin? Now what is not? Neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Once for all.
And every priest stand the daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Whereas the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now her remission of these is There is no more offering for sin.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw him here with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
For He is faithful that promise. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Well, in this chapter, as we can easily see, we have the truth of being inside the veil brought before us.
You know that that Tabernacle, we are told earlier, was a pattern of things in the heavens, and here we find the Spirit of God tells us how all these things have been fulfilled. Now the shadow has been fulfilled in the substance. The Lord Jesus has come, the work of redemption has been accomplished, and that which none in the Old Testament could enjoy is now to be the common and enjoyed portion of every believer.
A place of nearness that could never be known as long as the old Tabernacle in the temple were standing. That is, in the Old Testament God dwelled in the thick darkness. He didn't come out, He didn't make himself fully known. And this couldn't be until redemption was accomplished. The Lord Jesus said I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? That word straightened as we no doubt.
Always have not straight like a straight line, but STR AIT. It's an old English word means restricted, held in. And so the Lord Jesus was held in, so to speak. All that was in the heart of God could not be made known, could not be revealed, until redemption was accomplished. And how the Lord Jesus looked forward to that time when redemption being accomplished, there would no longer be a hindrance to all.
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Within God's heart, being made known, told out, and by the Holy Ghost, enjoyed in our.
Souls, that's why it tells us in the 12TH chapter of Hebrews as say that ye refuse not him that speaketh, or if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?
And that is, it's so important that we should realize, and that is the voice of a glorified Christ from heaven that brings us into the full blessedness of Christianity. I remember hearing our brother Brown made this comment.
He said when I was a young man and attending one of the systems of men, he said we studied the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and his ascension. And he said we stopped when we saw the cloud receive him out of their sight. But he said Christianity begins the other side of the cloud.
Well, you know, that's a blessed thing for us to realize now that is it wasn't until.
Lord Jesus was glorified at the right hand of God that the Holy Spirit comes down. Those precious revelations were given to Paul that lead us into the full fruit of that work that he has accomplished, and how blessed for us to be able to know and enjoy these things. This is what grieved the heart of Paul about these Hebrew believers. He said when for the time he ought to be teachers. You have need that one teach you again, what be the first principles?
The Articles of God.
And he said that they only have been feeding with milk, but they needed meat now.
How many dear Christians have truly touched the hand of Jesus garment in faith? They know Him as the one who died for their sins upon the cross. But the blessed truth of the church, the blessed truth of our present place of standing and acceptance in Christ, what true Christian worship is, they haven't entered into because they haven't enjoyed what is brought out in Paul's ministry, what he calls my gospel.
That precious unfolding of truth that has been made known to us.
Now, just as you're walking along the street and the sun is shining brightly in, a shadow comes up and sort of passes by. You realize that somebody's coming behind you. Look at the shadow you you might be able to tell possibly whether it's a man or a woman, but you're not just sure. It's very indistinct. But when the person passes and stands and looks you in the face, now the shadow isn't necessary anymore.
You have seen the person.
You know who that Shah who is that shadow it was that was right beside you, because you can now look into their face. And so it tells us that all the glory of God shines.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
So this chapter tells us the law having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. Now that is, he's addressing Hebrews here. It was hard for them to give up that which they had gone on with for years. The temple, its ritual, it robbed, its singing, its sacrifices.
All this appealed to them and to give this up.
And to come into the place of blessed liberty in Christianity was difficult for them. I don't suppose there's anyone here that's been brought up in Judaism. But dear friends, I must say that a great deal of what goes on in Christendom is but a carry over from Juliet.
It is really bringing into Christianity that which was originated in Judaism, so that we could say much of Christian worship today is really a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. And in that sense it applies to us now that it's hard for us to give up those things that appeal to the eyes and to the senses and to enter into the spiritual enjoyment of our place consequent upon.
Finished the work of Christ and a glorified man at the right hand of God.
And then he shows us that in all those sacrifices, the comers weren't made perfect. No one ever had a cleansed or a purged conscience.
How? That is, it was accepted to make an atonement, that is, an atonement comes from the Hebrew word to cover, and it was accepted for the time, in view of the time when those sacrifices which could never put away sin would then come to their end and fulfillment in the work of grace.
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And so this is what he is showing. Was it possible that the blood of bulls and goats should put away sin? No. Then why did God require them? Well, they were a shadow. They were a constant reminder to all those Israelites that sin, the penalty of sin, was death. The wages of sin is death. As they saw those countless number of animals die, how it reminded them over and over again of the seriousness of sin, and that nothing less than the.
Of a substitute, nothing less than the blood of another could put away sin before God. But as I say, it's interesting to notice that never.
All mention of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, does it ever speak to that, those sacrifices putting away sin? No, it speaks about them being accepted to make an atonement. Just like I might have a ton of dirt here and I put something over it and you can't see it, but it's not gone, is it? But if I took it away, then the covering has now been completed, so to speak is no necessity anymore to have something to cover it because.
That is put away and saw. How wonderful to know that in the finished work of the Lord Jesus, as it tells us in the end of the 9th chapter, He came to put away sin.
By the sacrifice of himself. What a marvelous thing to put it away, and so that blessed work of Christ.
Does not just accept it to make an atonement like those sacrifices of old, but as we often say in the atoning, work is done.
So now sin has been put away and this is what he is bringing before them in these verses, that there's no need that a remembrance should be made of sins every year. Because when the Lord Jesus did that blessed glorious work, it was once for all. And now the believer can rejoice to know that the sacrifice doesn't have to be repeated.
One lady who had accepted the Lord as their savior.
As she came to the gospel meeting and oh, she was so happy to know her sins were gone, but it wasn't very long after she began to be troubled again because she realized that she had sinned since she had been saved. And what about this? This really troubled her. And you know, there are many Christians just like that. While they don't go back to the sacrifices of Judaism, it's amazing how many Christians think that when they accept the Lord as their Savior, then all their.
They're gone and they have no idea about what is going to happen after that. So they try by all kinds of efforts to keep themselves safe, to establish some kind of standard of holiness or something after they're saved, because they don't really enter into the blessed fullness of the work of Christ.
Well, she was quite troubled and after about a month or so and she said to the brother who had been speaking, she said, I know all my past sins were gone when I accepted the Lord as my Savior. But she said, I'm afraid I've sinned since I've been saved. What about those? That's what troubles me. All the brothers said then I want to ask you a question.
How many of your sins were future when the Lord Jesus died?
Well, she said, I guess they were all a future. I hadn't even been born. That was right, wasn't it? Well, he said, I'll ask you a second question. Is the Lord Jesus going to die again?
No, she said. I don't think so. And the scripture says no. It says in that he died, he died on the same once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. But he said, If the Lord Jesus didn't settle a question of your sins of Calvary, they never will be settled.
No, dear friends, it's blessed for us to know that we can have that peace of knowing that God has been glorified in that once for all work, that blessed sacrifice that put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
So as it tells us in this fifth verse, it was not possible that they should put a ways to take away sins. But the Lord Jesus came into the world, and it says he said sacrifice and offering. Now what is not but a body? Hast thou prepared me? Perhaps you wondered why it says this sacrifice and offering, now what is not? And in the next verse, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure and doesn't.
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Scriptures say that these sacrifices were a sweet savour to God. Why does it tell us that he had no pleasure in them?
Well, you know, God had no pleasure in the death that sin had brought in all those countless number of animals that were slain on Jewish hills and offered upon their altars. And did God find pleasure in the fact that all those animals had to die? No, it was necessary. I thought He didn't find pleasure in it. But there was, they were all.
In view of the one and the only one.
Who could offer one sacrifice and put away sin? So when the Lord Jesus came into the world, he said a body. Hast thou prepared me? How marvelous.
This Blessed One took a body not.
Subject to death, like you and I have a body, and if the Lord doesn't come, the body is subject to death. Every one of us are getting older by the day and by the month and by the year. Yes, death is working in our bodies, whether we like to recognize it or not It's so.
Never saw the Lord Jesus.
He he saw no corruption.
When the time came that he was to leave this world, he dismissed his own spirit. Death had no claim over him.
He was capable of going through death, but he wasn't subject to death.
Blessed one, or the only one who had power over his spirit. It says in Ecclesiastes, there is no man that hath power over his spirit to retain his spirit. There's no discharge in that war. But there was one who had power over his spirit. And that one was not just an ordinary man. He was, he was a perfect man, but he was also gone.
The God man.
And so he said, a body hast thou prepared me?
And then tells us, will I come in the volume of the book. It is written to me to do thy will, O God. The whole history of man is doing his own well. But here was one who came to do the will of God.
And the will of God was your blessing and mine.
Someone has said that the heart of God and the will of God are the source of all our blessings. There's nothing comes to us that's good to our own wills. Our own wills get us into trouble.
We turned everyone to his own way. I thought it was his wealth that he came to do the will of God his Father, and his will was to do that well. And so He has fulfilled that on the cross of Calvary for our blessing.
And so he speaks of this again in the ninth verse. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second. Now that is the first covenant was conditional a man's obedience. He said this do, and thou shalt live. Was there any blessing to man on that ground?
Could anybody claim that he would fit himself for the holy presence of God under the first Covenant? Well, the First covenant said that if they kept it, they would live. If they didn't, the death and the curse were their penalty.
What did they earn?
And it says, by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
How could anyone get blessing on that ground?
So in the first covenant had to be set aside and.
Now God is going to make a new covenant for the House of Israel. He's going to bring them into blessing on a new ground. And it's not because they kept the law. It's because of the one who came to do his Father's will, and through that one and through that one only his blessing either for Israel or for ourselves. It's all through the one who did his Father's will. And what a what's the thing this is? He taketh away the 1St that he may establish.
That is, if any of us had to meet God according to the claims of the first covenant, we would just be under the curse. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For what is written cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the in the book of the law to do them.
But then it says Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And so there's going to be blessing for Israel, but now on the ground of the first covenant.
Now it'll be with us New Covenant, but that was just founded upon the death of Christ, the only ground of blessing for man.
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So it goes on to say in the 10th verse, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Here we see sanctification as to our position, what might be called positional sanctification now that is the work of Christ has set the believer apart. He's no longer under the law. He's no longer part of a judged world. He's been set apart. What a grand thing this is, to know that we have been set apart through the work of Christ.
In a practical way, we're exhorted.
That we might be sanctified practically, Paul said. I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body.
May be sanctified.
And so it tells us also in the prayer of the Lord Jesus in the 17th of John. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. That is, in a practical way, we should be set apart from this world. We shouldn't live as if we were part of it. It's under judgment. We shouldn't go on with all that which is going on, which is borrowed from Judaism because we're identified with another.
The one who has written again.
And in him there's a new creation.
So sanctified as to our position is a blessed reality. In a practical way, we exhorted that it might be so in our lives that we would practically be set apart.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man.
After he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.
There was one article of furniture that they didn't have in the Tabernacle.
There were no chairs.
There was no place for any of those priests to sit down. Why? Well, they were just continually offering sacrifices. There was no end to them. It had to continue and continue and continue. But the one who offered that one perfect sacrifice has gone up and.
Seated himself down at the right hand of God, and he's not going to rise up again to offer another sacrifice. When he rises up, it'll be in judgment.
He has seated himself down as the one.
Who has completed the work and.
So how lovely this is.
How many there are who think that they have to go on with something to fit themselves for God?
But here is here is this blessed truth brought before us this man.
Offered one sacrifice for sin forever sat down at the right hand of God, and the 14th verse for by one off and yet perfected forever them that are sanctified. Isn't it beautiful to notice those two words forever in the 12TH verse and in the 14th verse, the one who offered the sacrifice has now seated himself down at the right hand of God.
And because he is seated there and we are perfected.
Forever, just as his sacrifice has eternal efficacy in the presence of God.
So we, in our position before him, are perfected forever.
There's an advice that it doesn't say here, I want to ask them. You have perfect until you sin again by one offering you a perfected forever than that are sanctified. Such is the place into which the believers brought such as a standing. Surely we have every cause to rejoice.
Now that's why in the end of the 9th chapter after it's speaking.
Of him appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of of himself. And it says in the 28th verse.
Though Christ was once offered to bear the sins of man, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That is, He's not going to come again to settle a question of sin that's been settled forever settled.
Are they going to come again to bring our full salvation? Because we now have the salvation of our souls?
The Lord's coming, we'll have the salvation of our bodies. Now is our salvation mirror than when we believe.
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So he's coming without sin, but I see my precious Savior again. He's not going to raise the question of whether my sins have been settled or not.
No, that's so wonderfully complete that it says your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
My boss is going to come for my salvation now, that is to Take Me Out of this world of sin and sorrow, to get rid of the two things that are a hindrance down here, these bodies of humiliation and the fallen nature that's within them. We won't have either one in heaven.
Of all nature will not be in the glorified body, and these bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body. He's coming again without sin unto salvation. So we are perfected forever.
And then he tells us too the 15th verse, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that, he said before, well, I won't go into it here in detail, but the the new covenant has to do with the House of Israel.
But God hasn't yet made that new covenant with the House of Israel, even though they're going back to their land as a nation. I don't mean that there aren't Jews being saved, but as a nation they're going back in unbelief. They still are rejecting the One who came to bless them as a nation.
But God's gonna bless that nation and another.
Day and he's going to make a new covenant with them.
But before that time comes.
He has brought those of us who were saved into the blessing of that new covenant. Now that is, we are blessed on the.
Same ground as Israel will be blessed in a coming day. We have to remember this is addressed to the Hebrews and what he's telling us here, that we don't have to wait just like we had last night. The thief said, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. But it's as though the Lord said that we don't have to wait until the Kingdom.
You will be with me in paradise today. And so we don't have to wait till a new covenant is made with Israel. We are brought into a place of nearness and blessing through the work of Christ, even more wonderful and more blessed than Israel, but on the same ground. On the same ground.
While they're singing in heaven is thou art worthy, For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.
Every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And in the 7th of Revelation, where you have an earthly company, they wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The earthly company have the same ground and blessing as those who are inhabited.
So the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven now in his present period, is a witness to us, bringing us into the good of that blessed work that Christ has accomplished. And now he opens up this blessed truth we spoke of, of our possession inside the veil, something that the high priest, even in Israel could never enjoy with liberty once a year.
He went in with blood and insights.
The next year it had to be repeated again.
There was never any liberty or boldness.
And going into the presence of God, it was always a repeated thing.
And if he didn't go in exactly the right way, he might be smelting bed like Nadab and abide you were.
But how different now?
When the Lord Jesus died, when he shouted, it is finished for veiled the temple.
Was Raymond Twain from the top to the bottom?
God, why does it say from the top to the bottom? Well, because it wasn't. Mama did it. It was gone.
God's holy claims have been satisfied fully met.
And now, if we can put it in this way, and there are two blessed things, God comes out in all the riches of His grace. He no longer has to dwell in the thick darkness. He no longer has to hold back all that was in his heart. He comes out to bless, and we go in consequent upon what He has done in boldness.
Through that precious blood that now gives us access into the presence of God.
And so our place now before God is no longer at the distance. We're not like Israelites, but we have a place we can go inside the veil. And that's what that's where we worship as Christians.
We know that after the death of the Lord Jesus, it seems quite apparent that they sewed up the veil again and went on with the sacrifice.
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They didn't. They didn't enjoy that blessed place of nearness into which the believer has been brought.
And how how christened them Today, as so many of them are, they still don't enjoy the place of nearness that the believer has a right to enjoy. The whole idea of dividing people into what's called the clergy and the laity is nothing more than a denial of the present place of every believer as a priest. And some places they can't even have the remembrance of the Lord unless they have a humanly ordained.
Them to carry this on. Can't you see how the people are kept at a distance?
And only certain ones have a place of nearness. Well, that's the way it was in Israel.
Only certain ones, only the high priest, and then the Levites too, as priests had a place, and the sons of Aaron had a special place, but the people didn't have that near us. But in Christianity every believer is a priest, every believer has access into the very presence of God as a purged worshiper. And so it says, having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest.
That's the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. What is it that gives me this title of blood of Jesus?
What a blessed thing then, that every believer can come and sit down in the very presence of the Lord as a purged worshiper, and know that at this place of nearness is His through the work that Christ has accomplished. Isn't this something in which our hearts can rejoice? Isn't this wonderful to be inside the veil?
And then so it tells us here by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.
That's a new thing because, as we said, it was never so in Judaism and more. It's a living way.
Because, you know, only as we possess a new life can we really enjoy the presence of God.
Now, that's why many people, even though they're not born again, they can enjoy fine music, they can enjoy robes, they can enjoy a grand religious building. You had a neighbor who lived next door to us back in Ottawa, and he told us how he just loved to go into some of these beautiful cathedrals. He said they're just a sort of a religious feeling comes over you when you go into a building like that.
Well, that's just what man like.
They like that sort of feeling produced by external things.
But what true worship is that which is produced in the heart by the Spirit. And unless you're born again, you can enjoy a meeting where we worship in conscious nearness around the Lord. Now, how often a person will come in? Well, where is the organ? Where is the choir? Where is the preacher? They don't see that this place that we have been brought into is a place of nearness to the Lord.
And we worship in spirit and in truth.
So it tells us here it's a new way because Christianity is not an improvement on Judaism or an extension of Judaism. It's something new entirely.
And it's a new thing. And again I say you have to have a new life to enjoy.
They don't have to be born again to enjoy ritual and good singing, but you have to be born again to enjoy the presence of the Lord. It's the most uncomfortable thing to a person that hasn't been.
As it says here consecrated or if you have a margin in your Bible, you'll notice it says new made. He has made new for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh.
The Lord Jesus death was that which opened this up for us. There was no other way that we could be in such a place only through His death. And now we have this place in of nearness to Him.
I might say that the veil in the Tabernacle, and you remember it was blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen. Well, all those different colors bring before us the various glories of Christ.
Blue, the heavenly one, the purple the royal one, Scarlet, the one, the only one who had right to him and glory and the.
Find violin his perfect life. And then it was wrought with gold, the cherubim.
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All this brings before us the various glories of Christ. But what did that beautiful veil?
Really, Clay, to anyone who stood there and looked at it.
Practically sad that there's no entrance here.
There is no entrance here.
And So what did the perfect life of the Lord Jesus say to me? It condemned me.
Says you haven't measured up to this, you have fallen short. But when he died, I see a way opened up. Now it's through his day at the veil, that is to say, His flesh. He gave himself our poor hearts to win. Brethren, we're not saved by His perfect life, it's by His death. We're reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Christ died for our sins, and so the access was made through his death.
And so here it tells us.
Through the veil, that is to say is flashing, and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Here we have now the 21St verse, having an high priest fell to the House of God.
Now let me say here that the priesthood of Christ now is not to offer sacrifices. He made one, a perfect sacrifice. He was the priest and He was the offering both, and he has completed that. But he is my great high praise. What does it mean? There's a high priest out of the House of God all as we go through this world, there's so many things to test us and try us, and isn't it lovely?
The Lord Jesus, the one who died for us, is living up there to keep our souls in the enjoyment of Himself, to keep us in communion, and in every temptation and trial that we meet, we can look up and ask for grace to help in time of need.
We have a high priest over the House of God. We would never get through the wilderness journey if it wasn't for the grace and the health that he supplies. So he has gone in.
And we are now seen as accepted in Him. Our place is inside the veil and for all the help that we need, he's there.
As our High Priest, let us come boldly under the throne of grace.
We may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So now we have in the verses that follow the three things that characterize Christianity, faith and hope and love. In the 22nd verse, it's faith that is drawn here with a true heart and a full assurance of faith. Now that is, in what confidence can I come into the very presence of a Christ, holy God, into the very holiest of all? How can I do it?
Well, I just accept what God tells me.
By faith He tells me how that my sins are gone. He tells me the blood of Christ has cleansed me. He tells me that I'm accepted in the Beloved, and I come into his presence now with a full assurance of faith. The enemy says all but you failed all that I say. The word of Christ has fully glorified God has fully met my knee.
And in this blessed confidence I can come into the presence of God. I'm not speaking now of failure in the believer's life, because that isn't the thought here. What is being brought before us in this passage is rather the place that we're brought into through the work of Christ. When we have a family in John's Gospel, John's epistle, I should say, then we have provision made for failure in the believer's life. But here, where the grand theme is the fullness and blessedness of the.
Christ, why the believers standing is brought before us and it's unchangeable, perfected forever. So there I come into the very presence of God with a full assurance of faith, the heart sprinkled with a from an evil conscience. What is it that has removed sin from my conscience?
A blood of Christ.
And only has to be applied once. The hard sprinkle from an evil conscience.
And the body washed with pure water from Jesus side. There was the blood and there was the water.
And the precious blood of Christ has fully met all God's holy claims and put away sin.
And then the water is referred to as the washing of regeneration in Titus chapter 3. And so not only has have my sins been met in the presence of God, but I come into His presence as a new creature in Christ Jesus.
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My Lord said to the disciples, here it is washed. He does not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wet.
So let us remember this. The blood puts away sin before God in connection with all his holy claims against sin.
About the water rings before us now, that cleansing by which we are brought into the presence of God as new creatures in Christ Jesus.
And this is not and might say for those that perhaps are a little older, this is not the thought of the labor where the disciples had to launch, where the priest had to wash their feet and the Lord said that we needed to have our feet washed. That's not the thought here. This is that washing all over.
Which is once for all through the work of Christ.
So how blessed it is to know that this is our standing when we wash our feet. That has to do with our state. Now. That is has to do with the same thought as what we have in John's epistle where we have his advocacy and restoration when we have failed. But we're not restored to our standing. That is always the same. We're restored by confession to fellowship with God.
But the standing is ever the same, because it's bounded upon the blessed once for all the work of Christ.
So faith rests upon this.
I might say that in the 23rd verse the proper word in the new translation is hope. That is, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful at promise.
I mentioned that there was faith and hope and loss.
So here we have faith gives us this confidence to go into His presence. We hold fast the confession of our hope. What is our hope?
We're going to get through the journey. You know, there are a lot of temptations along the way. And we have made a confession of hope. We say that the Lord is going to bring us safely home. We have said that he's going to bring us through. Just like Israel when they cross the Red Sea. They sang. Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. We made a confession to the world.
Now that the Lord is going to bring us through.
Well, the enemy says, oh, but you're often unfaithful. But he is faithful.
He is faithful and would never get through if it wasn't for His faithfulness. It's His faithfulness on which we rest as the captain of our salvation. He's bringing many sons to glory.
And so we hold fast if it depended on us, if it said if you're faithful you can hold fast, well, then we might get discouraged by the way. But it says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he is faithful that.
Promise, and then the next is love, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of.
Has been guarding on another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Now there's that outflow of love that goes out to others. How important this is too. His love has won our hearts.
And now there is that outflow that goes out to others.
And we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brother. There's no love in your heart to the children of God.
I can't believe that you're a child of God. We're taught of God to love one another, but we are told here now in a practical way, to consider one another, to provoke unto love and the good work. May I just make this little practical remark for myself and for each one? Wouldn't it be lovely? Every time we thought of our brethren, we thought of it in this way. What can I do to encourage?
That believer to love and to.
Good works. What can I do to encourage in him that affection for the Lord gave us and those desires to walk to please him?
Wouldn't it be grand if we all have this occupation? What a difference there would be in our meetings if we always remembered this in a practical way and how often we provoke one another the wrong way.
Back another one many years ago, an older brother said to a a younger sister, she had just been married a short time and he said to her, do you provoke the Saints?
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She said I hope not, but he said you should.
Yeah, sure, I think you said the Scripture says have revoked to love and to good works. We often provoke them a long way, but here's the right way to provoke them. To provoke means to stir up, you know how to stir up our brethren the wrong way to get them upset and angry and troubled. But isn't it lovely to seek their good, to stir up those divine affections which God has implanted in the heart?
Well, now let's look just briefly at the 13th chapter. We see here what it is to be outside the.
Hebrews 13 verse 10 We have an altar where they have no right to eat, which served the Tabernacle, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
At a school for us, therefore unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we now 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 to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices.
Thought is well pleased.
Well, here we see our place outside the camp in the fulfillment of the type we have been now brought into, the very holiest of all as Purge worshippers.
But there is still existing in this world that which is patterned after Judaism, that which bears the character of that old thing which is but the shadow of good things to come. Now Scripture designates it as the camp. Now that sort of thing, how that is borrowed from Judaism. And so here was the Jewish believer. He now saw that all those types had been fulfilled in Christ.
He spiritually was inside the veil as a Purge worshiper, and he looked at the Tabernacle of the.
Temple and all that was going on. What was his place of relation to all that?
Well, he saw that, seeing it was all fulfilled in Christ. His place was outside of all that that was still going on.
And so it says we have an altar where they have no right to eat, which serves the Tabernacle.
That is, there were not the two things.
Now the Jewish believer.
Perhaps God and his patients have borne with them for a while.
Until they learn this less of truth, and we should be patient with one another too. But here we find that is seeking to, as it were, taken by the hand, and lead them out of all that system of things to a rejected Christ.
Because he shows them that back in the 16th of Leviticus on the Day of Atonement.
There was the animal whose blood was taken and brought in and sprinkled on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat, and by that God formed the basis by which He could go on with the guilty people. Now that was inside the veil.
But then the body of the animal was taken and it was burned outside the camp.
It was taken and there was a place outside the camp where the body would burn. He said, well, the Lord Jesus has fulfilled the tithe. He has entered into heaven by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He said that's our place of nearness. But he said there was also the other side of the site. There was a sacrifice made outside the whole, the whole Tabernacle and all that.
Where the body of that animal was burned and he said the Lord Jesus suffered outside the game. And he said if we're going to be identified with him, why we have to go outside too. And he makes it very clear here that if one type was fulfilled, that gave that.
Way of entrance into the presence of God. Then he said the other must also be fulfilled, and our place is to be identified with the one who suffered outside of Jerusalem. So he goes on to tell us here.
The 12TH verse Wherefore Jesus also and.
True sacrifice.
That He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him, without the camp there in His reproach. Well, this is a place of reproach.
Because for any Jew to leave behind all that ritual which was so dear to him and to his family, and to identify himself with a rejected Christ who was crucified outside of Jerusalem, that was a real reproach.
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And so with us today, if we seek to take our place as gathered to our rejected Christ, if we seek to take our place in simplicity gathered around him, apart from all that which is borrowed from the ritual of Judaism, we'll find the same reproach too. We'll not be understood, but it's a blessed place because it says, let us go for therefore unto him.
It's to a person we go.
It's to a person, I say, Not just to a position, but to a person, and that person is the one.
Who said in John chapter 12 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Now that is, and the next verse says this, he said, signifying what death he should die.
And that is Tony was telling his disciples before he went away, he said I'm going to be lifted up on the thrust. And he said that'll be the new gathering center.
That I'll draw all man unto me. The reason it says all man, it doesn't mean that every single person of Adam's race will be drawn to Christ, but it simply means it will be no longer the nation of Israel.
By Jew and Gentile both.
Brought into this place around the rejected Christ, because if you recall the occasion of Edith sometime in John 12, it was when some Greeks came up and wanted to see Jesus.
And the Lord said a corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die, where it would abide alone. And then he went on to tell him the cost of discipleship, and then tells them till the time's coming, when those Greeks can be gathered to me.
But they'll have to be gathered to me as a rejected one, the one lifted up, the one crucified, the one who died outside the gate of Jerusalem.
As well, this is a very Psalm verse to me. We have an order of they have no right to eat which serves a Tabernacle. But we can plainly see that God was no longer going to go on with the mixture of things. He had born with an impatience for many years, but He was no longer going to go on with that mixture.
As they were going to be in the path of his choosing, it must be.
Gathered to a rejected place, they could enjoy all the blessed holy liberty of being inside the veil, pitted for His holy presence as purged worshippers, that they could know the blessedness of faith and hope and love in all its preciousness.
But it would be a place that would be outside, around the person who had been rejected and crucified outside the city wall.
Don't tell us here how we know a continuing city. Have we seek time to come? This is very simple, because Jerusalem was the place where the Lord had put His name. Is there any place on earth that could be said? For now? Jerusalem is no longer the place, but it's a certain city. It's such and such a city. And that's now the.
There might be some people who say, well, it's Salt Lake City, people get all kinds of ideas, but it's not a city, it's a person that only gap.
If the person and as a blessed thing to be gathered to Christ.
Gathered around himself, for two or three are gathered together in my name.
Where am I in the midst of them? Well, I'm a Jew, might say. What sacrifice can Ioffer? I know if I went into the Tabernacle, if there was a sacrifice, if I go to the temple, I know the sacrifices that are required. What can Ioffer now?
That the sacrifice of Christ is complete. What sacrifice is there now?
Isn't this beautiful by Him? Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Here we do have a sacrifice. And what do we do as we gather around the Lord Jesus?
Why would just simply, if in communion with him, offer the sacrifice of praise?
Further, RF giving thanks to his name. It's not how well we can sing, but it's whether it's in spirit and in truth.
As the Lord said to that woman in the 4th of John, the hour cometh, and now is.
When the truth was that they shall worship in spirit, and worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. So we are now gathered to worship in spirit and in truth, and as we gather around the Lord Jesus to remember Him and His death, the only true worship about ascends.
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Is that which is produced in our hearts by the Spirit of God. Notice the absence here of anything connected with Judaism. There's no mention.
Of music there's no mention of.
Fine rules. There's no mention of a special building, but all a person.
And the heart overflowing in praise by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise, giving thanks to his name. And then there's another sacrifice.
In the 16th verse, but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Now that is when our hearts have really entered into these blessed things and enjoy them by then there's always an overflow, there's always a going out and.
Thinking the good and blessing of others.
Christianity would never make us selfish or self-centered. It would always enlarge our hearts.
Saw that we would seek to.
Shall I say reach out to others that they might be brought into blessing too so and to do good and to communicate or a privilege that we can do things now in the name of Christ.
Were gathered toward rejected Christ, but we also have a place in this world where the world ought to notice that there is that character that was seen in the Lord Jesus. He said he went about doing good.
There's always that character in his blessed pathway of entering in sympathy and love into the needs of others about him and embrace, seeking to meet their needs. Without ought to characterize us too. It is a sacrifice. It means we have to give up something sometimes so that we can be a help to others who are in need. And another verse says, as you have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
Especially for the household of faith. So we have a large sphere, we have good news of salvation, we have kind acts that we can show everywhere, and then we have a special responsibility to those who are the children of God. Well, what a blessed thing to see that Christianity is an entirely new thing.
It's not a patch on the old garment of Judaism.
It's an entirely new thing.
And it's a new and living way of worship. It's a place that not pleasing and acceptable to a man in the flesh because it's a place together to reject it from Christ. Well, May God by His Spirit make these things good to us, that we might have grace to walk in that path that He's marked out in His Word. There is a path for faith. There will be until the Lord Jesus comes.
And may we have grace to go on, and this with faith and faithfulness, until we hear the shout.