WORSHIP, TESTIMONY, AND SERVICE
[p. 26] WORSHIP, TESTIMONY, AND SERVICE
Hebrews 10: 19; Hebrews 12: 1 - 4; Hebrews 13: 10 - 14
In these three scriptures the Lord is presented to us in three different ways, and I take them in their order. The first as connected with worship, the second with the race, and the third more with service, going outside the religious thing on earth.
First, in chapter 10 we have “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”. In the preceding chapter we read “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”.
The great point in Hebrews is to connect us while on earth with heaven. There are two things you have to learn practically; one is, that you have to break with the man that is here, and with the place where he is; and the other, that you have to do with a Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in another place, in heaven where He is. He is not here, for if He were on earth He would not be a Priest, and it is clear that He is a Priest and that He appears in the presence of God for us. It is true we do not get union with Christ in Hebrews, but the apostle pre-supposes it. Let us go back to the Acts of the Apostles and see how the truth is developed there.
At the end of Acts 7 Christ in glory offering to return is refused, not only was He crucified, but now in glory He is refused. They had said “This is the heir; come let us kill him”. but here they are refusing Him from glory; and, moreover, it is the religious council who refuse Him in the person of Stephen. It is as if the twelve judges of the land were solemnly to decide “We will not have this man to reign over us”, for it was not the mob who decided against Stephen, all the power and dignity of the nation decided against him. And then a new and distinct energy of the Spirit of God comes out. Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit looks up steadfastly into heaven and sees the glory of God and Jesus. Now this is what you must practically learn in order to be able to run the race; for, if you have not your place with Christ where He is, you cannot run for Him here. Many try to run, and fail, because they have not, so to speak, the mettle, the ability to run, but when you know it you can run — you can be a witness, you are as a giant refreshed with wine, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. There must be strength and condition in order to run the race here, and you must get that first; in fact, you must be a worshipper before you can be a racer or a witness, just as Hebrews 10 comes before Hebrews 12. In Acts 7 we see how it comes out. The doctrine of union with Christ is held by many who are not consciously associated with Him. The real hindrance is that they are still linked to the earth, for a wife, though united to her husband, would lose his associations if she were not in the same place as her husband. The thing I have to learn is that we are not only united to Christ, but we are united to Him in the place where He is.
This is to me the grand significance of the Lord’s word to Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”, in a word, where I shall be! She had said, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. And the Lord meets her, and says ‘I will tell you where I will be, and you go and tell my brethren, those who are now of the same stock as myself’. He is bringing us into that wonderful relationship with [p. 28] God which He Himself has. He never had brethren before, for “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. — many of the same order.
Though the Lord is gone away, He not only imparts to me what my condition requires, but also shares with me through the Spirit His position in heaven. In John 20 it is the inauguration, the beginning of the creation of God, and it is entirely new. He does not wait for the six days of the week before all will be finished. It is now, the first day of the week. All is coming forth in the sublime grandeur of the new Man, who has broken the power of death, and now will introduce His beloved ones on earth into the knowledge of what He can do for them in their condition, and share with them His condition in heaven.
Man has committed two great crimes. One is, that he has given up confidence in God for self-reliance, dependence on his own powers; that was the beginning of evil. The serpent in the garden of Eden assailed the word of God. He said to Eve, It is better to trust to yourself than the word of God, and she put forth her hand and took the fruit. Self-reliance is preferred to confidence in God. Sin entered, and death by sin; but Christ is risen out from the dead, and become in resurrection the Head of a new creation. Man is lost, but God sent His own Son into the world, “made of a woman, made under the law ... that we might receive the adoption of sons;” and He was refused by them. Now this is the second crime. God gave man a law, and the Jew said “by our law he ought to die”. God gave man a sword, now in the hands of the Roman power; the Jew said “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death”, so they handed Him over to the gentiles to [p. 29] put Him to death, so that both the law of God and the sword were used against Him.
Now there is not one of you who will not own that he is guilty of the first crime. But what about the other crime, — that you are connected with the man on the earth that refused Christ a place here? God, in His wonderful, unaccountable mercy, comes out in grace to forgive you your sins, setting forth His own Son to be a propitiation through faith in His blood; and, more, He says, as it were, ‘You would not give Him a place on earth, but I will turn even that to your benefit, and you shall share with Him His place in heaven’. You cannot accept the place in heaven and not suffer from His rejection here.
Thus, through grace, there are two great facts; one, I have done with the man on earth that ruined me, and I am united to the Man in heaven — my Saviour. Just think of the thief on the cross getting hold of that Man. You remember his prayer; “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” The Lord replies, I will take you into My place now. “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise” What could the thief do? If he looked back he could only say, I have been a thief, now I am powerless, nailed to this gibbet, and the future is judgment. But by faith he sees the One who had done nothing amiss. Faith is that moral power which diverts you from the ruined thing, and occupies you with that which satisfies the holiness of God. The ruin in the garden of Eden is reversed at the cross. There, man was in the most wonderful earthly circumstances, but Satan comes in and induces him to prefer self-reliance to the word of God. Then, in the most deplorable circumstances, the Son of God comes here to win back the wretched heart of the thief. “This man hath done nothing amiss”, It is a wonderful thing for a poor sinner to see by faith a Man [p. 30] who is thoroughly holy. Well, I want to get away not only from the man on whose account Christ died, but from the place where He was put to death. In Acts 7, Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit looked up steadfastly into heaven and he saw the glory of God and Jesus. That indicates that it is all over here, and, when it is so, I have nowhere to look but to heaven. As Elijah said to Elisha, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so”. There is no power now without this, for all is gone here, and all help must come from heaven. Again, if my heart has been won by Christ, I want to be with Him where He is. As in John 14, the Lord is going away, and it will be all trouble and nothing here to comfort the heart of the one who belongs to Christ; but faith follows Him, and the Holy Spirit comes down to comfort us.
Every saint is troubled here, and some are praying to God to change their circumstances, others that they may be resigned in them, but in neither case are they comforted, because neither have found out the comfort, which is independent of all circumstances; they have not found out the value of the words, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”.
Directly I speak of faith, I have done with visible things. The moment the Lord was ascended, the place was prepared.
First and foremost the Lord says, I will prepare you for the race, for you will have a sore time of it here. So Stephen looks up and then is able to come forth and run his course here: a faithful witness, he is perfectly superior to his circumstances, and moreover, able to act in them. He hands over his own spirit to the Lord, and then prays for his murderers. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep”. Nothing can be more marvellous.
[p. 31] Hebrews 10 describes the manner and the place of blessing. “Boldness to enter into the holiest”, When we come to the race, it is “patience” not “boldness”. Now I ask you where is the Lord Jesus Christ? He has entered into heaven itself. The tabernacle was given to Israel for the wilderness, but what is given to us for the wilderness is heaven, and therefore we read, “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself”. We are united to Him there. This is elementary but it is an immense fact, and one which determines your whole course on earth. You are to walk here according to the fashion of the Man, your Saviour, who has won your heart and has drawn you right away from the place where man is, by carrying your heart up with Him to heaven, there to learn divine associations. You are greater than the psalmist in the sanctuary. Outside he could not understand anything; but, when he goes in, his words are “then understood I their end”. Everything is different. There you see the Lord at the head of everything.
The first thing God told Moses to make was the ark of the covenant, to be set in the holiest, but the Jew never reached it. The high priest went in once a year, but because of failure did not wear the garments of glory and beauty. But now the saint is an emancipated person, able to enter into that most magnificent scene, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, through the veil, that is, His flesh; and you have all the activities of His heart to sustain you in that incomparable scene.
The ark of the covenant is the very first thing presented to a sinner. The word “propitiation”, in Romans 3: 25, is the mercy seat. It is the first thing with God, but the last thing man can get to; Jesus brings it about so that it is our first enjoyment. Now, most people are like Jews expecting something [p. 32] from heaven, and the measure of their comfort is their experience. They use the figure of a ladder reaching up to heaven, and hence they can never be sure of it until they get to the top. They like to sing —
‘Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o’er’.
But really the ladder comes from heaven, you are heavenly on the first round of it. Where are you now? “Boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”, and he adds, “by a new and living way”. I know it is all right, because He who came from God has gone back again, having finished the work given Him to do — so that He who measured my distance is the One who is the measure of my nearness. It is not only that I am saved by the blood. Every saint is saved by His blood, but all that is connected with man is entirely set aside, so that you have exclusively to do with Christ in the holiest. You start with another Man and that where He is in the holiest of all. He came to bear what was on us: now, through grace, you are connected with the Man who “hath done nothing amiss”. You start with a spotless Man.
Nothing preserves you like knowing the fact that Christ is in the Holiest of all. When you get near Him, the secrets of your heart are made manifest. I would you had a deeper sense of the holiness of God. The woman of Samaria said, He “told me all things that ever I did”. Nothing gives you more the sense of what God is, than that He discovers what you have been trying to hide from yourself, and if you are near Him He will. He is light, and that is light which doth make manifest.
But young believers say, “If you ask us to give up the world, what do you give us in return?” Well, I offer you the most perfect delight, that ever was [p. 33] known to the heart, in that scene where God’s love is made known to you in its delight, where He says “Let us eat, and be merry”. I would the saints knew more what divine joy is, for then they would find it incomparably superior to any other.
Before touching on the race, I go back to the Acts of the apostles to mark the history. If Christ has been refused on earth, what is the next step? In chapter 8 Philip is sent down from Samaria to Gaza, which is desert. It is not now the queen of Sheba coming to Solomon, it is the servant of God sent to a eunuch — one reduced in circumstances and condition — returning from Jerusalem. The scripture which he read was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer ... his life is taken from the earth”. That is the point. Philip began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. In the beginning of Mark’s gospel the grace of Jesus reaching out to the need of man is presented. He is evangelised to us then in chapter 2. He says “The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days”. No language could be plainer. The Lord had cast out the unclean spirit; He had subdued fever, cleansed the leper, and healed the palsied man. Levi follows as the witness of all His power, and now He adds, “When the bridegroom shall be taken ... then shall they fast”. I want you to see that if you have to do with the Lord in the scene where He is you have to walk in a scene where He is not, and there you must fast. That brings us to the race, and what comforts my heart in it is having to do with Him where He is. Supposing you had a room which contained everything to satisfy your heart, would you not like to go to that room? Well, that is the holiest where He sustains you.
It is not merely “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”. That only states that the supply is equal to the demand, but there is much more, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures”, and again, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee”. Nothing there but praise. The next verse is “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well: the rain also filleth the pools”. The valley of Baca is a different place from the house of God. Are you acquainted with it? Are you dwelling in the house? That is the place for the heart!
In Hebrews 12 we find what the race is, You have the race-course in the place where your Saviour is not, and you have a resting-place for your spirit and heart where your Saviour is. Settle those two points and see how they will work. It will not do for you to be merely in the racing-field. The posts mark off the race-course and I want you to be in it, for I believe many are on the racing-ground and not in the race-course. Faith is the steed, so to speak, the power, the only power by which you can run. When Abraham was called out he had to break away from the things that would have most influenced him, his country, his kindred, and his father’s house. So it is with us practically. What is nearest to us binds us most, and must be cut first. This was the call, he must depend on the word of God only. A dog follows his master by the scent; if he loses it he has no clue as to where his master has gone. Thus the word of God is the only guide to faith. Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he went”.
He was come into “the land that I will show thee”. It is an immense principle, that now all is faith. To be in the happiest conceivable circumstances will not keep you in the course. There are two posts, and the race can only be run within them; one is what is on your back; and the other is what is in your heart; the [p. 35] one is outside, and the other inside. You must lay aside “every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us”. I ask you, Are you running with patience the race that is set before you? Have you fellowship with His sufferings? Supposing I had a dearly loved friend in America, but when I go there I find he is gone, would I not like to walk in the very place where he was, and have only the same friends? Now, the blessed Lord made a path all through this scene. You cannot conceive any circumstances of need that a man could be in, with which He did not make Himself familiar. He was a Nazarite from His youth. He entered not into the joys of man, yet He “teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight”. Do you consider “Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself?” Have you “resisted unto blood, striving against sin?” “The sin which doth so easily beset us” is not any particular sin; it is yourself, what is inside. The great effort of Satan is to induce you to allow some earthly thing to turn your attention from Christ where He is. If your hearts were happy in Christ outside this scene, you would not want anything of earth. “The bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast”. Are you going to promote enjoyment here? We “ought always to pray, and not to faint”. Prayer is the expression of dependence, but I don’t believe there is any real prayer without fasting, and the absence of it is the secret of the little we gain from prayer. Some one will say, “What do you mean by fasting; are you not getting legal?” Not at all, but my heart is so happy with the One that is in the brightness of the Father’s presence, that, while I have to walk here, where He is not, I refuse to give countenance or encouragement to that for which Christ died. “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin”, Would you minister to the flesh? You have to be here as Christ was, you have to look off unto a Person “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame”.
He went through the greatest suffering to maintain the truth of God upon earth. Such a path must be yours if you are actually maintaining that to which God has called you, but if you don’t know the joy you cannot do it, you are not as a strong man rejoicing to run a race. There is an array of witnesses in chapter 11, “of whom the world was not worthy”. They were maintaining the truth of God, cost them what it might. “Ye ... took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance”. I am speaking now of what would practically be the effect of the race. It is going on in faith, no matter what it costs, for the truth of God must be maintained. I see people checked and hindered in the path of faith by different things. One time it may be attractions, and another time afflictions; but, whatever it is, it turns you from the race, and hinders you from walking as He walked on earth.
There were two things in the wilderness (Exodus 16 and 17 comprise the wilderness journey), one, the manna; and the other, that they had to overcome Amalek. To acquire the Man that is not here and to fight Amalek here — take that as the principle or rule of your daily course. Well, I begin the day with the sense that the Bridegroom has been taken away and there is nothing for me here, and I learn that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for me, whatever may come. You cannot store up experience, because you never get a chance of the same thing again.
I am far from objecting to reading and prayer in the morning, but gathering the manna is more, it is [p. 37] the sense in your soul, as you start for the day that you have that which is adequate for all the exigencies of the day. Look at the Syrophenician woman. The power is Christ. You get power over the evil in the presence of God. You take the place of nobody, and you get the crumbs, abundance of blessing.
The manna was to be gathered for the day’s use before the sun was up. Your heart should be stored with the sufficiency of Christ for everything you will have to meet through the day, before the demands are made on you; as I might say you have not to go to the baker’s shop to buy a loaf, you have it in the cupboard. There is where prayer comes in. If I am looking to Him, I am not trusting to myself at all, and I find there is nothing at all here for me. Saints pray for this and that, and then say they have not got what they asked for, and yet they never fasted, never really renounced self-dependence. I see people who will not deny themselves in the smallest trifle. You may say you were very happy in the meetings, but you did not go home to race, or you would say there is nothing here for me at all. I must leave off what would hinder me. I must get rid of what is in me. That is the race-course, and if you are not within the two posts you cannot be a racer. Nine people out of ten are suffering from disappointments because they want to linger here, and if I ask, “What is the matter?” “Oh, my servant went away, things went wrong with me”. “So you expected things would go right, did you?” If you had been racing you would have said, “I don’t expect anything here, it is a desert”. The Lord took His disciples apart with Him into a desert place and said, “I can feed you here, and more, I am superior to every power of evil here. I will walk on the water”, and the man of faith says “I will walk there too, keeping my eye on Jesus. Jesus’ power cannot do anything inferior to Himself”. But, as soon as Peter [p. 38] gets taken up with the evil around, he is afraid, and, beginning to sink, cries, “Lord, save me”.
It is the most wonderful experience a man can pass through to know how the Lord sustains him in the midst of all that is trying. “I laid me down and slept; I awaked;” and I was not afraid to awake, “for the Lord sustained me”. Some people are afraid to awake, afraid to face their circumstances. It is not only that He has travelled all the road, but I have His life, His own grace on every thorn and every rose. If I don’t do a thing as the Lord Jesus Christ would have done it, I have to judge myself. How different the saints would be! Instead of being pressed down with weights on their backs, they would be in ‘light marching order’. Their testimony would be, I expect nothing here, I only want to get on to be more like Christ, that I may finish my course with joy. There is an immense joy along the road. As you represent Him here, His joy will be fulfilled in you, and, through chastening, you will he made partaker of the holiness of God. Besides, you are not come to the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, but to mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
You are come to a most wondrous display, not looking at the earth to see how the ten kingdoms will he formed, it is not about Gog and Magog you are thinking. As a racer you are come to mount Zion and all that wondrous group, you are a worshipper in the holiest of all, at home in the serenity of God’s presence. As a racer, you are sustained by Christ, feeding on the manna, as He was here on earth. You set Him forth where He is not, and you resist Amalek. But people say, ‘You have nothing to enjoy, you refuse the beautiful things in the world, you shut out the wonderful developments of science, and the like’. Surely we can say, It is a mistake; we are come to mount Zion, and to the [p. 39] most wonderful array of scenes, like oriental gardens from one circle of beauty to another. What God has prepared for them that love Him surpasses everything here. You cannot seek for enjoyment on the earth, whence the Bridegroom is taken. It would be contemptible to say to a friend, I will seek you in your bright circumstances, but I will shun you in your dark ones. A true friend says the very contrary. May we each be able to say, I know the Lord in heaven where He is, and I follow Him in His path on earth. I maintain what is true of the Man who is not here in the place where He is not; man cast Him out and may cast me out too, because I study to be like Him and unlike the man who cast Him out: and, the more I am consciously with Him where He is, the more I am practically like Him when He was on the earth; and, the more I know of the latter, the more I seek to enjoy the former.
My last subject, chapter 13, is in connection with service. I must go outside the camp, — religious system on the earth. Christ is gone into the holiest of all. Now, you have an altar of which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, you are to go forth unto Jesus outside the camp, for you are with Him inside the veil, and just as much as much as you are morally in the one place you will be practically in the other. The difference between Hebrews 10 and 12 is that chapter 10 is in relation to God. I am brought into God’s own circumstances, the beauty of the Lord. In chapter 12, you are running to what is in relation to yourself. Mount Zion &c., is all in relation to man. You receive a kingdom which cannot be moved. In chapter 13 you have nothing set up nor organised as an earthly system. “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come”, We suffer reproach for following Christ, but we offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to [p. 40] His name. What a finish! The Lord lead us to know how blessed it is to follow in that path, a path in which I am dependent on God, but a path all the more blessed, because in it I have to do with Him.