THE HEART DRAWN TO HEAVEN, FOR WITNESS HERE ON EARTH
[p. 90] THE HEART DRAWN TO HEAVEN, FOR WITNESS HERE ON EARTH
The epistle to the Hebrews has peculiar interest for us, because it was written to prevent the Jewish christians from settling on the earth. If you settle on the earth you must have an earthly system. This book is therefore of great service to us, who have been more or less connected with an earthly system, to detach us from it through grace, and to help us to recover lost ground.
Hebrews does not take you to heaven as Ephesians does; it does not treat of union, but it draws your heart away from earth to a Person in heaven. In Ephesians we have to go to a place to understand our relationship to a Person. Union is then known in the power of the Spirit. In Hebrews we are seen as the congregation of God - the consecrated company.
Christ has sat down at the right hand of God, having “purged our sins”; that is the first thing you must know in order to come to your place with God. If you are occupied with your sins, you have not yet found the place in which Christ’s work sets you in the presence of God. True, I must reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and I have to bear in my body the dying of Jesus; there must be death to everything that is set aside in the cross. But I start in the assembly of God with sins gone. The moment I introduce sins into the assembly I weaken the sense of His work that put me there. Many hymns are beautiful breathings, but are not fit for the assembly. The fact of His coming into our midst, puts us into the moral atmosphere of heaven. We have boldness to enter into the holiest [p. 91] by the blood of Jesus. This must have a great effect on us. May we know it more!
In chapter 2 we have, “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. The assembly is a new family altogether; none of the old things is there. The corn of wheat has died and brought forth many grains, all of its own order. This is the character that belongs to us as the congregation of God; we are of the same order as Christ. Therefore in chapter 3 we have, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus”. With a greater than Moses and a greater than Aaron, we come in as a company of priests. Christendom has lost all idea of the company of priests, as you get it in Hebrews. Christ is both the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Moses proclaimed the mind of God, Christ declares the Father’s name, and we go in with Him into the holiest as Aaron and his sons.
Now in chapter 4 we come to what is the great check in all our histories - the day of provocation. Happy is the man who has been able to rise above that day. Israel would not go up; they were intimidated by the report of the spies; they said, “We are not able to go up”. With them “God was not well pleased”. So it is with many now; it is not that they are not saved, but they are not racing to heaven. Every christian has been saved out of Egypt, but he is either set for Canaan where Christ is, like Caleb and Joshua, or he is looking back to Egypt. If by divine grace your purpose is to go on, you can say, The Lord delights in us and He will bring us in. We know now that the Lord does delight in us, and that in His own purpose He has brought us in. Caleb inherited the very place that frightened them all; Hebron, the city of the four giants, was his possession, and he was as fresh forty-five years after, as he was that day. But [p. 92] there is a day of provocation for every one of us, and if you have not passed and surmounted that test, you are not running the race.
In chapter 4 we have a great High Priest who is passed through the heavens; we approach the throne of grace with boldness. There is now no question of sins to settle, but we have infirmities. Well, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and is able to sympathise. May we look for His sympathy! I believe we only get this support in order to free us for the company of the Lord. He sympathises with me in order to bring me to this. This is the difference between the effect of getting relief, and getting His support. Mary in John 11 got support before she got relief. This is the divine order. We are all looking to be relieved, and often we are relieved; but His support is something that you can never forget. It does not merely make you resigned. Many say, I see it is the will of God and I submit; but when I have His support I am led in triumph. In John 11 the Lord walks beside Mary, makes her sensible that He fills the blank; He carries her heart from the sense of blank to Himself. He so supported her that her heart is occupied with the Supporter, and though she obtained relief in the restoration of her brother, she never lost the sense of the support she had in the company of the Lord, as He walked beside her at that moment. In the next chapter at the supper table with Him, her action astonishes everyone. The great charm about love is that it does something unprecedented, and perfectly suited to the moment.
Therefore the Lord says of her act, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached .. . this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her”. How did she learn what was suitable to do at that moment? By the support she had found in Him - by the way she had learned His sympathy in the time of her sorrow. I do not think that any servant can speak [p. 93] of it until he knows it, and can look back to the moment when that hand was reached down from the highest heaven, with the assurance to his heart, I know what you are passing through, take My hand. When you know that, you rise above the pressure to Himself; that is support which you never lose the sense of having known. The more the pressure, the more your heart is drawn out to the Person who had supported you through it, and you are in company with Himself.
Then in chapter 10: 19 we see how this is fulfilled to the company; we go inside as His companions. The blood that has saved us from our sins has opened up the way into the presence of God. It is the same High Priest who has been touched with the feeling of my infirmities whom I find in the holiest - inside the veil, a great Priest over the house of God. You have travelled with Him from the deepest pressure upon yourself, up to the spot of inconceivable glory and beauty - the holiest of all. Were you ever there? You come in with your body washed with pure water, it is only as priests - the consecrated company, that we are there, and there is only one way to come in, and that is through the veil. Many saints never go in; though they eat “the bread of his God”, they do not go inside (see Leviticus 21: 22, 23). A blemish unfitted one of “the seed of Aaron” from going in; that was external, now it is moral. I have infirmities, but He has so supported me that I have risen above them into company with Himself, so that I find my infirmities have really endeared Him to me the more, and I can go in with Him as one of the consecrated company. This is a wonderful moral journey. You cannot plead that you are too weak. Has not the Lord met your weakness? He has gone before and He leads you in company with Himself, from the lowest place among men to the highest spot with God. We thus see how acquaintance is formed, how the heart is attracted to [p. 94] Him, how the Person attracts me from this place to His own place.
Chapter 10: 34. They had begun very brightly but they had been checked. How many of us come to a great check and do not want to go up! I see great eagerness to get out of Egypt, but great slackness to get into Canaan. They despised the pleasant land. Many who stop thus, say, The Lord is coming, and they think nothing of the race. I never like to hear a man praying or singing about the Lord’s coming unless he is preparing for Him. The slothful servant prepared not himself. Are you prepared for Him? You ask the Lord to come. Are you really looking for Him? Do you trim your lamp and go forth to meet Him? I do not believe that anyone is truly looking for the coming of the Lord who is not walking in His pleasure here and who is not in spirit in His company now.
Chapter 11 is a parenthesis, showing what faith is. It has two qualities - power and patience. If there is faith there is power. “By my God have I leaped over a wall”. I have power and patience to run a race. Where am I going? I am going to where Christ is. There are difficulties in the road, but I look across to that mansion yonder. A Person is there to whom I am indebted for everything; I must get to Him. You may have said, My sorrow lies too deep for human sympathy. Well, what did you do? You told it all out to the One who is higher than the heavens, and your heart is so drawn to Him that you are going to leave everything to go to Him. That is the race. This chapter (chapter 11) shows me how I am set “on his own beast” (Luke 10: 34) in His own power. It is not here examples of faith but traits of faith. If Noah were in Abraham’s circumstances, his faith would act like Abraham’s and so on. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of faith. He is not here, I am looking off unto Him, I am going to Him; chapter 12: 2.
[p. 95] I know that He has gone the road before me. “When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice”. “Consider him .. . lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”. We are not to be upset by difficulties. “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small”. God’s discipline is to remove the obstacles to our progress; He does not roll away the stone from the wheel until we are up to the stone. “We who live are always delivered unto death”. God helps us by rolling in death. You turn out a horse to grass when you do not want to use him, but a useful horse is kept hard at work; all the time he is in favour he is kept in harness. The object of chastening is to make us “partakers of his holiness” - absolute holiness - immeasurable; it is a word only used twice in Scripture, and is in keeping with the passage in John 17: “for their sakes I sanctify myself”. It puts you clean outside of everything connected with this world, in company with God Himself. The more I think of it, instead of being reluctant to be on this road, the more I find what a wonderful road it is, and the more I long to be in the power that has borne Him there.
Chapter 13 is the appearance you should present here on earth. You are a witness, and this is your character. The angels ought to see christians like stars in the darkness of this world - as lights travelling through it, their Object completely outside it, detaching them from earth. The appearance which you show is that of the highest service - “brotherly love” - “perfect in every good work to do his will”. Inside you are praising God; outside you are doing good to man. You do not forget man while praising God. If you suffer for Christ you will reign with Him. Ruth owned the field she had gleaned in. May we know the Lord’s own ministry, to each of our souls, leading us to be witnesses to the heavenly One who has gone before, while running on to Him. If you have any weight,
[p. 96] throw it off. Even if it be a harmless thing, if it hinders you, let it go. We are not to be discomfited by obstacles; they only become the test of His power. The “proving of your faith” works endurance. We have to count it all joy when our faith is put to the test, and to go on with more endurance and better ability for every step of the path down here on earth. There are two things which the servant of God is called to - to be a minister and a witness. Witness and martyr is the same word. We have all to be witnesses. Nothing has such moral effect on our associates as our testimony.