Our Most Holy Faith
OUR MOST HOLY FAITH
I desire to speak of the way that we are to be preserved in a world of increasing evil. Jude has that in mind in writing; he was .diverted from his original purpose to write of the common salvation by reflecting on the tide of apostasy which was even then setting in, requiring that the saints should contend earnestly, as he says, for the faith once delivered to the saints. Then, as he closes his epistle, he says, as though it is a relief for him to turn to the saints from the conditions of corruption which were so prevalent, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God...”. He adds, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy”. That is what God is able to do; a most encouraging thing that we can lay hold of in our prayers for ourselves and for one another, that God is able to keep us even from stumbling, and not only so, but to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exultation. But there is our side of the matter: “building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God”. We must not expect to be preserved from stumbling unless we are exercised as to our side of it, and are prepared to follow the lines which Scripture indicates as the means of our preservation.
Jude refers to our “most holy faith”, and the passages in Exodus and Leviticus draw attention to certain features of the truth which are said to be “most holy”, in order to emphasise to us the thought of intense holiness. The language of the Lord on the cross, addressed to God, as given prophetically in Psalm 22, is: “Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel”. He was speaking of the thing absolutely: “Thou art holy”. There was no qualification to it, but when it is a question of our taking things up in a world of evil, in view of our own proneness to evil, there are certain things as to which the Spirit of God would impress us with their peculiar holiness, so the expression, “most holy” is used.
The tabernacle system is intended to convey that thought to us. It is most attractive, for the idea presented therein is that of God delighting to dwell among His people and to walk among them, and it actually obtains in the world among the saints today. Thank God for that. There are conditions provided among the saints in which God can dwell. He can find conditions suited to Himself, so that He may be among His people restfully and walk among them. Things are not static, but there is movement; there are always fresh accessions of light. In seeking these conditions for His own pleasure, God leaves it to us to provide them, as He said: “let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”, Exod 25: 8. I cannot go into all the details, but in chapter 29 the brazen altar, the altar of burnt offering is said to be “most holy”. The chapter deals with the consecration of the priests, but it involved the inauguration of this system in which God was to dwell among His people and be approached and served by them. So, in relation to the altar, certain things were to be continual, day by day. “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually”, v 38. Now I would press this matter of drawing near to God continually, day by day, and in the consciousness that our approach to Him is most holy. The brazen altar speaks of the inherent ability in our Lord Jesus to sustain infinite suffering that God might be glorified in regard to sin and might be able to have a people in relation to Himself in continual acceptance. The burnt offering signifies that every day we may have to do with God in the unchanging but ever fresh sense of the full measure of acceptance in which, through grace, we are set in Christ. There is nothing less than the acceptance of Christ, but, at the same time, we are reminded that, before that position could come to pass, the Lord Jesus had to sustain terrible suffering in order that sin should be judged according to God and this position of grace established for God’s glory and our blessing. So God was to be approached day by day continually; in the morning His people were to approach, and also in the evening; the same offering in the morning, the same offering in the evening, but, it says, “ it shall be an altar most holy”, v 37. As we are concerned to maintain this livingly, it will be a great preservative to us. It is to be as normal a matter to us, every day, as taking our food. Morning and evening there is to be this drawing near to God, on the one hand in the sense of the abiding acceptance of the burnt offering which the lamb typifies, and at the same time in the sense that it is the brazen altar, that sin has been judged unsparingly, and that our Lord Jesus Christ was the only One who could sustain the suffering which that entailed. Hence, if our approach to God is marked by the recognition of this, it will have a great effect upon us in maintaining a judgment of all evil.
Further, not only was there a lamb offered every morning, but “a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering, v 40. Each evening there was to be the same burnt offering, with its accompanying meat offering and drink offering. This indicates that, coupled with our approach to God in the acceptance of Christ through His death, there is a renewed appreciation every day of the holy character of the manhood of Jesus. How important that our souls should be continually renewed and increased in the sense of that, so different from the men who are around us in the world, so entirely opposite to the spirit which obtains in the world! It is contemplated that we are formed in the appreciation of Christ, in His holy humanity, so that we are able to present it to God as we draw near to Him in the acceptance of Christ.
Then there is the drink offering, which speaks of divine pleasure in these things. God is pleased with us as those drawing near to Him. If we draw near with that which speaks of the burnt offering, referring to the complete acceptance in which we stand in Christ, who so completely devoted Himself to God’s will and glory, I believe it involves that we ourselves are in some degree in correspondence with it. I am concerned, in my own degree, to be devoted to God’s holy will. We may feel that our measure is small, but we cannot rightly present to God what we profess to have in the way of appreciation of Christ without being in exercise to be in correspondence with it ourselves. Then it is a matter of “day by day continually”. How do we go through the day? Are we equal, at the close of the day, to bringing in the lamb and the meat offering and the drink offering? That is an exercise for us that we should be able to close the day as we began it.
In chapter 30 we have the altar of incense, the golden altar. That again is spoken of as “most holy”. These are features of our “most holy faith”, on which we are to build ourselves up, and, as doing so, we shall be preserved in a world of increasing evil. We need to be aware that the evil which abounds in the world will find its way amongst the saints unless we are watchful. That is one way in which Satan is continually attacking. If we are enjoying a measure of relief from what we had a year ago, Satan is attacking in another way. Satan is seeking, as there is evidence on every hand, to nullify God’s pleasure in His people by introducing what is current in the world in the way of corruption and defilement, and we need to be watchful ourselves. Our way of preservation is to build ourselves up on our most holy faith.
The altar of incense evidently refers to prayer, not so much in relation to our own needs, but in relation to the interests of God. There are scriptures which clearly indicate that the altar of incense is connected with this idea of prayer (see Luke 1; Rev 5: 8; 8: 3; Psalm 141: 2), but prayer in relation to divine interests, as I think can be gathered from verse 6: “And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee”. The testimony is in view, and prayer in relation to the testimony. It is a great thing to have some apprehension of Christ as the ark of the testimony. Is Christ apprehended as the One who is great enough to give character to the world to come for the pleasure of God? He has the will of God in His heart, and is great enough to bring in a world where all takes character from Him, so that God will have conditions which are delightful to Him. God, in introducing Christ, has brought Him in in testimony, and what was seen in Christ as a Man here is to fill the whole scene.
Then this altar is set in relation to the mercy seat. It is a great feature of the glory of Christ that He is the mercy seat. He has established, through His death, the right of God to show mercy, and the blessing of the world to come and eternity will all be based on the mercy of God. The mercy seat is the great basis of the glory of God, and every sphere of blessing which His love has in view will be founded on His rights in mercy, which are secured in Christ, the true mercy seat.
With these things before us at the present time we are to pray. “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations”. Again we have this matter of morning and evening. It is a continual matter, morning and evening, and as Aaron dressed the lamps and as he lit them, so that light from God might shine, it was to be supported by this burning of incense. The ministry from Christ in glory is to be supported by the continual prayers of the saints every morning and every evening. Therefore, it becomes the saints to pray unceasingly that God may give effect to the ministry of the Spirit, so that the end that He has in view in His people may be brought to pass.
I think we can see, dear brethren, that this is another most holy feature of our faith. It is most holy, for it is the altar of incense, and if we dedicate ourselves to these things it will go a long way towards our preservation. The constant drawing near to God will, of itself, preserve us from coming under the power of evil. “Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith”. The altar of incense is most holy and we are to see that it is used every morning and every evening.
In the passage in Leviticus again we have the thought of what is “most holy”; and here it refers to the meat offering itself. “And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire”. It is a question now of priestly food. A handful of the meat offering was to be offered to God and the rest of it was to be Aaron’s and his sons’, and to be eaten by the priests as a thing most holy.
The meat offering is a question of our apprehension, by the Spirit, of the unique, holy character of the manhood of Jesus; not His death, but His life, His personal characteristics in manhood. I believe these first three verses are a kind of outline of the chapter, and then the rest of the chapter goes into greater detail as to an oblation baken in an oven, in a pan, and so on, typifying different features of testing in which the excellence and perfections of Jesus came to light. But the first three verses give the general idea of the presentation to God of the meat offering, on the one hand, and then of the priests themselves feeding on it, on the other. The holy manhood of Jesus was entirely unique. The angel, speaking to Mary, said: “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. The manner of His birth was unique, for He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit, through the writer of the gospel, delights to dwell upon the moral excellences of the Man whom God had thus brought in. At thirty years of age the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the voice came from heaven saying: “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”. That referred to the thirty years which had elapsed. God had found His delight in all the detail of the life of Jesus. In the gospel itself we have very limited detail. We are told about His birth, and the sign in connection with it—a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger—suggestive of complete dependence upon God. What characterised Him at the age of twelve was subjection to the teachers and to His parents, at the same time cherishing His Father’s business in His heart. We are told also that He increased in wisdom and stature, but beyond that, in the gospel, we have no details, though in the Old Testament, by the Spirit, there are suggestions by which the details can be filled in. This passage in Leviticus is wonderful, and there are details in the Psalms too and in many other scriptures. Psalm 16 particularly delineates, by the Spirit, the unique character of the life of Jesus—a Psalm which is well worth our continual contemplation. It is priests’ food, the uniqueness of the manhood of Jesus, every verse delineating some feature of moral excellence. It starts with the words: “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust”, and leads up to, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades), neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption”. All that is to be food for the priests. It is most holy. It is there for us, and as we are developed in the ability thus to feed on the holy character of the manhood of Jesus, it will help to preserve us from the evil and corruption and lawlessness with which the world abounds. We are to draw near to God day by day continually, and· build up ourselves on our most holy faith. We are to feed upon priests’ food. These are the means which will preserve us. “Building up yourselves on your most holy faith ... keep yourselves in the love of God”. There will be no difficulty in keeping ourselves in the love of God if we are characterised by these features, and the love of God which is our portion in Christ Jesus our Lord will be enjoyed in the power of the Spirit.
I refer in closing to John 17. Although the words, “most holy”, do not actually occur in this scripture, we should all agree that the expression is appropriate here. The Lord, in speaking to His Father, places the disciples (and ourselves too) in a position the character of which is determined by His own. He says: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”. Then He says: “for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”. It is a question now of our hearts being attracted to Christ, where He is and as He is. He was deliberately going out of this world, by way of death, setting Himself apart from it, taking His place as Man in the Father’s presence, in order that there He might set forth the truth as to the Father’s thoughts about ourselves, so that we may learn what is our portion in Christ where He is. Lower down, He says: “that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me”. It is a wonderful thing to keep that before our hearts. Think of Christ, where He is, and the character of love which rests upon Him, the Father’s love resting there, undisturbed and in complete complacency, in order that the light of it might illuminate our own souls. He says: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”. He takes account of us as begotten of God, morally akin to Himself. “Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world”. So, after the Lord was risen, He came amongst His disciples and said to them: “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”, and then breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. They were to be in the world for God in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. In the principle of it, the Lord would help us to take up in our minds the same attitude, that we are not of the world but are sent into it by God to maintain the truth of God in this world. There are two great objects for which we are in the world: one to serve God, and the other to maintain His testimony, and so the Lord has set Himself apart that in Him, as He is, we may learn the truth as to our own calling and position in the favour of God. The more that has a place in our souls, the more we shall be preserved from the evil around. I need not say that the whole position where Christ is is most holy. There is no element of unholiness there. “And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”.
These are certain elements which belong to our most holy faith, on which we can well afford to build ourselves up. As we do so we shall be preserved from the evil.
CROYDON
6th December 1941
From Words of Grace and Comfort
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