WHAT BELIEVERS HAVE
Hebrews 4: 14-16; 8: 1, 2; 12: 22-25 (to “speaks”); 13: 10-15
I trust that these scriptures may be used, under the Lord’s hand, to encourage us as to what we have. It is very easy in difficult days to think of what we do not have, and ignore what we do have. We have a lot more than we think, dear brethren, but we are apt to magnify what we do not have. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God” (1 Cor 3: 16), they were not acting like it, it must have pulled them up. It is very sad to have great wealth and not be using it. The land that was promised to Israel was a land whose mountains were copper (see Deut 8: 9); there was great wealth in the land but it had to be dug. There was enough there to satisfy and keep them, but they went into captivity, they did not appreciate what they had. I say these things as an element of warning. If we do not appreciate what we have, we live below the dignity that should mark us as brethren of a glorified Christ, and may resort to beggarly principles, maybe even to biting and devouring one another. The enemy gets great advantage if he can dull our vision of what we have.
The woman in 2 Kings 4 had oil but she said that is all—we have only a small meeting, only a few to go on with, we have lost a great deal—she said there have been better days. The dispensation that we are in is going on to a glorious finish. That woman came and said, I have nothing in the house but a pot of oil. Is that your outlook? What Elisha said helped her to value what she had. It says that the oil stayed, and he said, Go and live on the rest. There is enough to keep us at the height of our heavenly calling. We have said this dispensation is going on to glory, the Scripture tells us that; the previous dispensation was inaugurated in glory, but this dispensation subsists in glory, subsists means it is going on. There is a very interesting footnote in the beginning of John, it speaks of “grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, the footnote says that its commencement supposes its continuance, see John 1: 17. The dispensation that we are in subsists in glory. It is the most wonderful of all dispensations. It is spoken of as the dispensation of God which is in faith—dispensation of God, not of man. When we look around, we think it is man’s time but this is the dispensation of God which is in faith; a dispensation when we can look on to finality, when we can be certain as to many things, be sure about our sins being forgiven. What a thought! It is a wonderful thing to enjoy, something that the saints of the previous dispensation hardly enjoyed because the sacrifice was repeated year after year. Maybe a sin was committed just after the day of atonement, and to come into liberty they had to wait another year. In this dispensation the matter of sin and sins is a matter which has been settled to God’s eternal glory and satisfaction. The blood of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the work at the cross, the great matters that have been established in Christ risen are the great foundation of this dispensation, in which through grace we have been called to have our part.
So I refer to these things that we have. We have been brought into a dispensation where matters are settled, where matters are established in the Man Christ Jesus. What a centre for our dispensation! The centre is in heaven, the centre is the Man who has gone into heaven. This book opens by God speaking in Son, no longer speaking in angels, not even in prophets, it says, “God ... at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son”, Heb 1: 2. The Son illumines the whole dispensation. The Person of Christ imparts His glory to the whole dispensation into which we have been brought, and it is going on, and continuing in His hands. Yes, there is breakdown; much failure has come in by men, but the whole point of these passages is what we have and where we have it, faith and hope are centred in this glorious Man. It speaks of Him in the book as “Apostle and High Priest of our confession”, Heb 3: 1. Not profession, as has been often noted, but “Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. I love to repeat what we have been taught about that—as Apostle He maintains the calling at its height. That was typified in Moses who brought the mind of God to the people, and it was all set out. In our day it is set out in Christ, the Apostle of our confession, the One in whom everything is Yea and Amen. He maintains the calling at its height. Yes, at the very last day of this dispensation there will be persons on this earth who are loyal to the rejected Christ. The dispensation will be maintained in persons, in suffering, through the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He holds the whole thing up; the truth has not gone, many may think it has, but the truth has not broken down. The matters that were brought in in the apostles’ teaching in the Acts are maintained still today. The Apostle of our confession maintains the calling at its height. Then the High Priest maintains the people at the height of the calling. There is no need to live below our dignity in worldly principles; there is no need to resort to man’s methods or man’s provision for our joy, or our life, it is all to be found in Christ.
That is what we come to here in the passage we have read in chapter 4, “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens”; this emphasises His deity. No other could pass through the heavens; the One who has done it is well known to us, Jesus the Son of God. He has passed through the heavens in the right of His Person. How sure things are in the hands of that blessed Man, a Man who has been well proved, tempted of the devil down here, has been into death, and has passed through the heavens. Finality was reached in Jesus having passed through the heavens, and that is where He is today. If we have One up there maintaining us, is there any need to live below the level of our calling? Do not let us give up the cardinal truths of Christianity; do not let us turn away from the light of one body; do not let us turn away from the light that has been vouchsafed to us as to Christ and as to the assembly. There is a High Priest there to support us at the true level of our calling, therefore “let us hold fast the confession”. We are asked to “hold fast”; let us hold fast with one hand in His and with our eye upon Him; hold fast as looking to heaven. The breakdown is all around us, the sorrows of the pathway felt, but let us hold fast what has come to us in the apostles’ teaching; hold fast the truth that we have been recovered to in these ministries that have come to us. The breakdown and the length of the journey have not wearied the Priest. As we see in this passage His grace is the same, it says, “For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities”. He sees the breakdown more than we do.
He sees the tests about employment, the recession that has come in. He sees the tests that these things bring into our lives and our circumstances. He sees the sorrows that we feel as seeking to maintain and hold fast the confession, but He is “able to sympathise with our infirmities”. At times you may feel like letting go, He knows. He said to Peter, “I have besought for thee that thy faith fail not”, Luke 22: 32. He knows that at times we feel it is almost too much. Maybe we sometimes feel there could be an easier path—let us hold fast the confession. The High Priest is there in all His grace able to sympathise with our infirmities. He knows our faith is weak; He knows that we have attempted at times to compromise. Let us hold fast the confession. He has been in the path and has felt sorrow as no other has felt it. He could say, “The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”, Rom 15: 3. O, what sorrows He felt! “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”, Lam 1: 12. That is the High Priest that we have, a Man who has been here and He has felt the awfulness of death upon His spirit. He felt it that Lazarus had fallen asleep, it says, “Jesus wept”, John 11: 35.
There is the High Priest, there is the One who is able to sympathise. There is not a sorrow in your life that He has not felt. You may think that there are no sorrows like what you are facing; that there is nobody that has been tried the way you have been tried; we all have these feelings. He has been through them all and He is able to sympathise, He knows our infirmities.
Who do you turn to in your sorrows? There is only one place to go and that is into your closet with Christ. “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”. These things are very real. What our lives have been bound up with may have been shattered, I urge you to go into the presence of Jesus to find a Priest who is able to sympathise. Do not even turn to your best friend, turn to Christ, it is between Him and you alone; be there alone with Christ the great High Priest. There is only One. There were high priests before but never a great High Priest. He has passed through the heavens, and all the grace that is in Him there is toward you in your circumstances. No matter is too simple, be it your work, be it family sorrows, be it local exercises, assembly sorrows, take them to Christ first. We tend to look to other sources, and there are other sources too, but I urge you, it says, “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”, knowing that He wants you, the door is always open; there is no need to make an appointment. The disciples thought that the children should not come to the Lord, but Jesus said, “Suffer little children to come to me”, Luke 18: 16. You young children take your matters to Jesus, He has an ear for your sorrows, He has an ear too for your joys. He has an ear for your exercises, and He has wonderful sympathy.
Now as to the throne of grace it says, “that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Mercy is what we do not deserve, nobody deserves mercy, but it is His disposition to give mercy. Maybe a failure has caused the sorrow; maybe you have been on a wrong path, or you have had wrong thoughts, or you have done wrong things, but as you repent you will find mercy. Mercy I think is what floods into a heart where sorrow and distance are felt, to assure you afresh of the love of Christ. Then it says you will find grace. That means you can go back into the circumstance with a reserve in your soul that enables you to stand. Grace is continuing, mercy meets the emergency; it comes in in all its wealth and fulness to put out the fire if you like, but then grace is there to supply the power to walk, and the power to stand.
It says in Hebrews 8 that we have a Priest who has sat down, “We have such a one high priest who has sat down”. The work He undertook as Man here has all been done. His work is finished, there is nothing else of that work to be done. We are not waiting for something to happen, save we are waiting to hear His shout, that is all we are waiting for. All that is to be done to carry through the dispensation has been done and it says he “has sat down”. That has never happened in a dispensation before, but the work has all been done. He “has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places”. It speaks not only of Christ as sustaining us, but of Him as having set on the great service of God, as “minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”. Can there be any breakdown of what He has established? I think it would encourage us that the service of God is to go on, though in felt weakness. He is Minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched. The conditions and environment of the service of God have been divinely prescribed. Some may go and set up a table and think they can have the service of God; it is not right. The area of the service of God has been divinely prescribed. In the Old Testament there was a place where God had set His Name, and if God had set His Name in Jerusalem there was no point in going and trying to serve God in some other city. It is a very solemn and sobering thing that we may disregard principles and go off and set up a table, that is not the service of God. It says, “minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”—note, “which the Lord has pitched”. The surroundings for the service of God are provided in an area which has been divinely prescribed, where the saints tread a separate path in view of the service of God going on, and it is going on. May we seek through grace to find our living and happy part in it—“the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched”, let us look to the prescription, let us attend to the prescription, what Paul has laid down. Paul speaks about that to the Corinthians; he could not praise them but he lays down certain prescription and details that need to be observed, and then we come into the gain of this holy place, and the Minister of the holy place.
What a blessed privilege it is on the first day of the week to know something of Christ leading His own. The Priest coming down to meet our needs is only one side of His service, perhaps the greatest part of the service of the Priest is to lead us into God. We think of the Priest sympathising, coming down to our circumstances, meeting our matters, but the great service of the Priest is to lead us in to God, that God’s Name may be praised by a triumphant praising people. May we prove something of the service of Christ like this, such a One High Priest. The work has been done as scripture says, “he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God”, Rom 6: 10. He is the great Minister of the holy places, leading us in to God, to have our part there in praise before Him who loved us before the world’s foundation.
In Hebrews 12 there is more than we have time to speak of, there is a wonderful list of things that we have come to, and we have come to them now. You will not find them in the world; you will not find them in man’s arrangements, but there is what Christians have come to now. It says, “ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God”. What a contrast to man’s cities! Man’s cities are very demanding. It says, “ye have come to mount Zion” where there is a great supply of mercy, grace and love. We have come to mount Zion, high above all that is here on the plain in man’s arrangements; it has been likened to coming to another country, where everything is provided. That is what we have come to. We have come to enjoy mercy, come to be formed by it. Then it says, “and to the city of the living God”; how fine it is to come into an area where God has His rest, and has made all the arrangements; it is the city of the living God. It is not a system of prayer books; not a system that is running out through man’s inadequacy; but it says, “to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem”. We have come to heavenly principles; we have come to heavenly arrangements. Then it says we have come to “myriads of angels”. These things are very real, dear brethren. Angels have been sent out for service on account of the heirs of salvation; it is something we can count on in our prayers, in the economic situations and in matters among governments; the angels serve in all these things. More than that, I think we can count on the angels helping us, it says we have come to myriads of them. The Lord says there were twelve legions of angels that He could have called upon. They are there, some of them are named, unseen, and yet I think it is very easy in your life to trace at times that angels have been there, there has been divine protection; myriads of them available on account of the heirs of salvation.
We have come also to the “universal gathering; and to the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”. We have come to have our part in a dignified company, the assembly of the firstborn. Paul says to the Corinthians, Do you not recognise yourselves, are you acting as a firstborn? Are you displaying the features of the Father? That is what the firstborn would do, he would be displaying the features of the Father,
Are you seeing that in your brother, each one of them, “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”? The assembly of the firstborn are all like Christ. He is the firstborn among many brethren. As having come to the assembly of the firstborn, we have come to a circle where His features are displayed; where there is respect for one another as belonging to Christ. There is a need for respect among us, dear brethren, a need for respecting what there is in one another, a need for displaying something of the dignity that we belong to the assembly of the firstborn. We would act quite differently from any other assembly of men. It says, “who are registered in heaven”; that is where they are registered, not in man’s registers, but registered in heaven.
So it would become us then that heavenly features are displayed in us. Jacob says to Joseph’s two sons, “and let my name be named upon them”, Gen 48: 16. What a family they came into! What a family we have been brought into, the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. May we recognise them, may we give them their due place, may we respect what there is of God’s features in them. They said that to Gideon, “As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the sons of a king”, Judg 8: 18. Is that how you look on your local brethren? Is that how you speak about them? They are God’s property, part of the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. Do not let us despise them. There may be other features there, but let us see them as they are registered in heaven. May we be exercised, as we enjoy our place as registered in heaven, to be displaying heavenly features, above the beggarly principles that mark the ways of men, or the assemblings of men. There should be something in all our local gatherings, that has this character of the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. The meetings do not proceed in any other power, save the power of divine grace that would flow from Christ in glory. Then it says, “and to God, judge of all”, we are not the judges but God. Let none of us judge anything before the time. Maybe some matters we do not understand, but God is the Judge of all. Abraham did not understand matters, he could not see how it would work out but said, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”, Gen 18: 25. Judgment largely is in God’s hands, the execution of it is His matter too. It gives restfulness to the spirit that we can leave matters with Him. Things can change very quickly when God acts. The dispensation has a rich history, we have come “to the spirits of just men made perfect”. We have come to the martyrs; think of what has been worked out in the martyrs in this dispensation. There have been men and women here, strengthened in divine grace, to stand for the Name of Christ, and give their lives for Him. They adorn the dispensation. It speaks of the appearings in 1 Corinthians 15, how Christ appeared to Cephas. He appeared to five hundred brethren at once, and to others; these things have all enriched the dispensation. We sometimes speak about a ‘man in Christ’ that Paul speaks of, and we reason. Can we have this experience? or is it only Paul? And so on, but it has enriched the dispensation. The experience of a ‘man in Christ’, he did not know whether he was in the body or out of it, but it is part of this dispensation that a man, Paul, proved what it was to be in Christ and to enjoy that blessed portion.
These things are all part of what we have come to, “the spirits of just men made perfect”. They have gone through, they have finished the race. The martyrs did not give up the truth, they did not scatter, they did not divide, they stood faithful to a rejected Lord that they loved. All that has enriched the dispensation. Now it is in our hands, it is our time. Let us find grace for seasonable help that we may stand in the joy of what we have been brought into through divine grace. The centre of all is a Man. A beloved saint of God said, We have not come to a circumference without a Centre. We have not come to doctrine without One in whom it is all established, we have come to Jesus. We have not come to regulations, but we have come “to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant”, the whole thing is in His hands. He has satisfied God about everything, and now He is there the Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. In a day to come He will write on the hearts of Israel, but today He is dispensing the new covenant. These things are true and test us. Are we enjoying them? On the other hand they are to encourage us that they are ours. The blood of sprinkling gives us assurance, “speaking better than Abel”. The warning is, “See that ye refuse not him that speaks”. Do not let us live, dear brethren, below the high calling to which we have been called.
In chapter 13 it says, “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle ... Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate: therefore let us go forth to him without the camp”. That is where it is all enjoyed. He suffered without the camp; He has led the way outside of all the confusion, that we may enjoy in Him, outside the camp, the blessedness of all that we have come into. I quote a remark that I have enjoyed immensely, ‘Outside the camp becomes inside the veil’, J N Darby, Collected Writings vol 34 p157. Let us go forth to Him, that Person, bearing His reproach, feeling the breakdown, feeling the sorrows, but let us go forth outside of it all, and what you find is Christ, then you are inside the veil. The world is shut out, the sorrows, the pressures are all shut out where Jesus is, inside the veil. It is where God is served, so it says, “let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God”. There is a great need for praise, and a great cause for it, as we find how richly we have been blessed. May we seek to enjoy that wonderful land that we have come to and prove the wealth that is ours in Christ and in the Spirit.
REDBRIDGE
16th January 1993