HEBREWS 10 (FOURTH READING)
[p. 78] HEBREWS 10 (FOURTH READING)
CAC We have been speaking of the privilege of going into the holiest as the place where we get intelligence in the mind of God. Then it would appear that it is to work out in the life of faith here. The holding of the confession of the hope would not be within the veil but outside.
Great confirmation and encouragement would be derived from approaching God in His secret place. One has thought of the encouragement and strength that was, no doubt, the result of being on the holy mount with Jesus. What a wonderful thing for the brethren, a testimony that left a lasting mark on them as we know from what Peter wrote in his old age!
Approach in the holiest is intended to qualify us for holding the confession of the hope without wavering.
Ques Do you gather strength in the holiest?
CAC Yes, we gather strength by becoming acquainted with what God has before Him. He brings it about by Christ. Then what we learn inside is a matter of hope; that is, everything that God has before Him for blessing His people is all future except in Christ. It is present in Christ but future as far as we are concerned; hence the prominence that is given to hope in this epistle. We are strengthened through going within the veil.
Ques Would you say that the more we know of entering the holiest the more we are in secret with the heart of God?
CAC Yes. J.B.S. used to say that entering the holiest corresponds with 2 Corinthians 3; beholding the glory of the Lord we are changed, transformed into correspondence with God. It is wonderful to be permitted to go into the sanctuary in a more wonderful way than the [p. 79] saints of old could go in, and to get intelligence there of what God is doing and in the light of that to hold fast the confession of hope. I think that confession comes out in a hostile scene where Jesus died. Confession largely consists in making much of the brethren.
Ques Would you explain that?
CAC We shall make much of the brethren if we have been in the holiest; we shall get a wonderful thought_ of them in the holiest. We shall find no failure or defect or blemish in the holiest. Wonderful thoughts are entertained of the brethren there! This gives you great interest in the brethren and you come out of the holiest filled with desire to encourage the brethren. We need to get away from all that we see with our eyes and get to that region where we see with spiritual vision. In the holiest there is nothing but what is divine; the thought of the blood is divine, and the thought of the glory is divine; there is no stain on the divine glory.
Ques Would not verse 24 support what you are saying as to the brethren?
CAC I thought so. The confession of hope lies in the fact that the brethren go on together and encourage one another in the light of what is within the veil.
Ques Would it be the same thought as enquiring in the temple?
CAC There is the thought of enquiring in the temple and getting intelligence in the sanctuary, whether as to the end of the wicked or in the way of God. His way is known in the sanctuary.
Ques Would holiness be God’s way of things?
CAC I thought so. That would give us capacity to encourage one another. It seems to me that the thought contemplated in the assembly being together is that we come together because of our interest in one another. Does not every one come to give? We come to encourage one [p. 80] another; it encourages the brethren to see one another at the meetings. Every sister might think, ‘It costs me something to get to the prayer meeting, but it encourages the brethren to see me there, so I will go!’ That is the principle. The brethren all need encouraging; there are many depressing influences around us. We forget sometimes that the brethren are a suffering, disciplined and sorrowing people; therefore the prophetic ministry that the Lord gives us is for encouragement, edification and consolation. I like the thought of that; there is something consoling about all prophetic ministry.
Rem What helps in our ways with our brethren is going within the veil; then we come out with changed thoughts and ideas.
CAC Yes. You do not want to come to the meetings with a depressed spirit; one who does so cannot encourage others. It is the man who has been comforted and encouraged that can encourage and comfort others. Going within the veil is what can give us the best comfort.
Ques Is this for sisters as well as brothers?
CAC Oh! yes. Sisters can go into the holiest as well as brothers, and come out and hold the confession of hope and be in the meetings with peaceful and happy countenances, which gives encouragement.
Ques Would the love of God within the veil affect us in coming out?
CAC Yes. If we are to see the brethren according to truth, we need to be educated for that. We look at them too often as in the flesh. The value of going into the holiest is that you view the brethren as represented there in the great Priest. What we are in the flesh does not enter into that at all; going into the holiest gives us power of abstraction from that. You think then of the meetings quite differently. What are the meetings? They are the spots [p. 81] here on this earth where everything precious to God is cherished.
Ques What is the difference between the holiest and the assembly?
CAC We learn to assemble together by being in the holiest. The illumination within the veil would help us to assemble together with wonderful thoughts of God, of Christ and of the brethren. So in coming together the divine thought is encouragement in view of testimony. Going into the holiest is a privilege that is available at any time.
Ques Is the holiest an individual experience?
CAC Yes, but the grace and virtue of it would come into the company. If one brother came into the assembly who had been in the holiest he would colour the whole meeting. J.B.S. said that the most spiritual person in a locality, whether brother or sister, gave character to that locality.
One was thinking of the setting of it here; we consider for one another in verse 24; we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together in verse 25 but encourage one another, and in verse 33 they not only suffered but became partakers with those who were passing through suffering. They were in sympathy with their suffering brethren. There is much suffering going on amongst us now in other lands. The saints assemble as in the light of the holiest.
Rem We often go to the meetings for what we can get, but we should keep this side in view.
CAC When we go to meetings for what we can get, sometimes we come away disappointed because they do not come up to our standard; but if we go to encourage one another we get all we need and more.
The hope is very distinctive; it brings the whole range of [p. 82] divine thoughts into view in their completeness. You look at the saints in the light of all that. It would help us much and we should be prepared to encourage one another.
It is an awful thing to forsake the assembling of ourselves together; it is not supposed in the scripture before us that any one would do that but an apostate.
We are on the ground of the faithfulness of God. He is faithful, He is going to put through to the finish every one of His thoughts in regard of His people. The present exercise as to meetings for ministry is the practical working out of that. Meetings for ministry are a necessity in the divine economy.
Ques Would you say more as to this?
CAC It is evident that 1 Corinthians 14 was never intended to be a dead letter. That scripture is a good word for us today; there is a tendency to let that means of edification drop out, “So much the more”, he says.
Assembling together is the point here, not gathering to the name of the Lord, but assembling together. The brethren assemble because of their interest in one another; here it is not the Lord that attracts you but the brethren, that you may encourage one another.
Ques Would you suggest that the meetings for ministry should become an exercise in our various localities?
CAC I think the Lord has raised the exercise and He does not intend it to fall to the ground. It will produce exercise — love and faith and exercise and prayer before God. It was for lack of these that this kind of meeting failed and became formal.
What comes out in this part of the epistle is that the just one lives by faith. God singles out ‘my just man’ as if there was only an odd one here and there (See note to Hebrews 10: 38).
Rem This epistle is not written to only [p. 83] one assembly.
CAC No, these principles are general. We go into the holiest and learn there God’s thoughts about His people, then we come out to encourage one another. There is a danger of people drifting off. It is a tremendous exercise if anyone leaves the brethren; what have we been doing? They should have realised that their life depended on being with us. We have lost a good many, and I think that the scripture in this epistle applies, “Make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned aside”, Hebrews 12: 13. Those that are lame are the ones we sometimes want to get rid of! We are to make straight paths that they might be healed. Their walk and ways may be wrong but what are we to do? Walk right ourselves and get them healed.
Of course I am not talking of wilful people. Nothing can be done with people who are wilful. At the beginning of christianity there was a company with all sorts of failure amongst them but they were walking together in the light of Christ, and if any one left them it was apostasy, and the principle still holds good.
The day of the Lord is coming and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. All that is of man is coming under judgment in that day.
Rem Malachi speaks of those who feared the Lord and spoke often one to another.
CAC That is the spirit of it. There should be great power of encouragement in the meetings.
Ques What leads to apostasy?
CAC It shews that there is no work of God in the soul at all. A man may join the christian company and have no work in his soul and then he gives it all up. No true believer could ever apostatise. “They shall never perish” (John 10: 28); that means that they will never apostatise. With the apostate there has never been any real link with the Lord. Judas was in great nearness to the Lord and [p. 84] engaged in His work, but he had no link with the Lord at all. Forsaking coming together means that. Professing christians who become adversaries are not true believers; they forsake the assembling together as in this chapter. But the principle of it is a solemn warning to us.
Rem Demas had forsaken the apostle.
CAC We are told that he left the apostle because he loved the present age. The last you hear of Demas is that he was moving from Paul. We should be exercised about these things. Thank God the saints are exercised.
It is wonderful how the saints are drawn together. Think of the numbers that assemble now for the ministry of the word! A great reason for such numbers assembling is the delight the saints have in the pleasure of being together and the Lord has pleasure in that too.
An old man was once asked why he came at great personal cost to the meetings when he could not hear a word. He replied, ‘The Lord likes to see me there and the brethren do too!’ Nothing pleases the Lord better than to see us drawn together in love. It is quite a feature of these last days that the saints are drawn together, whether it is for prayer or the reading of the word. What spiritual value there is in a company like this tonight! All here are loved by the Father and the Son — all are redeemed — what spiritual value there is in that! What a wonderful thing to sit down and speak together as those who have a living interest in these things! We are all so different and yet we can come together without a jarring note. The Lord encouraged those women who resorted to the riverside, and I think if there were only sisters in a meeting the Lord would send them a brother sometimes. I believe there is a peculiar pleasure in being in the company of the brethren even if we cannot speak a word.