HEBREWS 9 (THIRD READING)
HEBREWS 9 (THIRD READING)
CAC Our attention is called in this chapter to the fact that there is an order of things in which God is served. That could not be a passing thing; if there is a system that has grown old and aged and is disappearing, this contains an element that could not grow old or disappear. It is right that God should be served, not according to men’s thoughts but according to His own thoughts. Our service [p. 36] to God applies to the morning meeting and the meeting for prayer; those two refer particularly to the service of God. This afternoon we have come together to get light from God, having in view that we should be better fitted to serve God, so this chapter is all valuable instruction for us. What is contemplated here is the great sacrificial work on which the service is based; the writer had not time to speak in detail of the tabernacle for he had in mind to make much of the great sacrifice of Christ. Great thoughts are presented in the tabernacle that could not pass away because they are God’s thoughts and we come to the reality of them.
Ques Is the golden censer additional?
CAC The writer leaves out the golden altar and brings in the censer here, I suppose having in mind what was before him, namely, to magnify the work of Christ. It was not his thought to go into detail but to magnify the work of Christ; the censer is connected with that. Aaron went in with the incense before he took in the blood; the censer had a great place on the day of atonement and so it is mentioned here. The golden altar had no particular place on that day and so he leaves it out; the censer takes the place of the golden altar. In Revelation we see the golden altar and the Lord as Angel-Priest giving efficacy to the prayers of the saints on earth, which is a beautiful touch as to His service, for if He serves the saints of the remnant thus, He will not serve the saints of the assembly less! We may be sure of that! So that we can see that that throws light on His sanctuary service.
We do not get to God without the High Priest; His movements are the thing to consider. Every feature of glory shadowed forth in the tabernacle has its place now. The tabernacle sets forth, as J.N.D.’s note puts it, ‘the vast scene in which God’s glory is displayed in Christ’. What a wonderful thought that is! Every part of that system of revelation subsists in Him. What a comfort to [p. 37] think that every thought we have in reference to God comes from Christ; otherwise it would be a dark thought. As to response, all is in the Priest. We have to think how the Priest goes to God; that is how we go and we cannot go any other way. This is quite different from going to God as a poor sinner or as a poor saint! Our system subsists in glory; it is a glory-system and the moment we lose the sense of glory in our souls we are out of it! It is spoken of as subsisting in glory, “the surpassing glory” (2 Corinthians 3). Man’s approach to God cannot be improved upon; we should consider that. Nothing in the universe can add anything to man’s approach to God. The Lord when He brings us together on Lord’s day morning would occupy our thoughts with Himself — “This is my body”, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” — it is Himself. We want to learn the majesty of what He is Himself and not let our thoughts wander, but give ourselves to consider what there is in the loaf and the cup; there is enough in it to last more than a thousand years! He would occupy us first with how He came out; the loaf and the cup have to do with that. We dwell on a lot of beautiful and true things but they may not be what the Lord is calling attention to. The more we set everything else aside and give ourselves up to what the Lord is saying, the more powerful the occasion would become. He would support that. Afterwards we get to the side of approach, but we must think first of the loaf and the cup. He says, ‘I want you to think of that’. We should be concerned with what the Lord would impress us with; we want to give our hearts to that and not be diverted to the one hundred and one things which may be good and true but are not what the Lord would impress us with at the present moment; then we should get on.
As the assembly is convened the Lord does not act apart from vessels available. It would be through some brother that the Lord would direct our hearts into the right channel.
[p. 38] If the Lord has something to say to His saints He would use a vessel through whom to say it. I should like to be that vessel, particularly in reference to the loaf and cup. The assembly is composed of intelligent persons. If we do not understand the terms on which God is with us, we shall not have any liberty with Him. What comes within our compass is what we commit ourselves wholly to. We give ourselves, spirit, soul and body to it.
The first tabernacle was particularly in relation to Israel, because we have the table with the twelve loaves on it shewing that Israel is in view. But then there is the candlestick thought and the table thought carried on in christianity; these thoughts have not lapsed, but we have something additional — the holiest.
A great thing before the mind of the writer is the wonderful character of the offering, that it should be understood, and that the Lord enters the holy of holies by His own blood; that is what He wants us to think of in this chapter. All divine things are not equally important and we have to distinguish between the lesser and the more important. There is nothing more important than that we should understand that Christ has entered the holy of holies in the power of His own blood. It indicates that a Man has entered the most holy spot in the universe — the holiest! There cannot be anything holier, and a Man has entered it. This is not a question of God coming out to us, but of how man is to go to God. How wonderful to think that there is only one measure for us by which we approach God; it is not one measure for one and another for another, but only one measure and that is Christ! How has He gone? On the ground on which I can go in, on the ground on which each of us can go in, the ground of His own death. He has gone to God in a new way which was never possible until after He died. He never went to God in the days of His flesh in this way; He was never on that ground with [p. 39] God before. The very ground on which He is with God is the ground on which we can be with God — apart from sin or flesh or anything that would bring shame on the holiest. We adorn the place; every saint who reaches the holiest is an adornment to the place.
Ques How is this possible?
CAC It stands in relation to what is collective. One individual is hardly equal to the service of God; he would have to say ‘I’. ‘I’ has no place in the service of God. We say ‘we’, and in principle that includes all saints. When we say ‘we’ on Lord’s day morning how big is that ‘we’? It ought in our minds and affections to include all saints, the sanctified company; we include all in our minds; we think of the whole sanctified company and it includes many sons, not just the handful in any room locally.
John 17 is the High Priest at the golden altar linking up all those the Father has given Him with Himself. This thought of approach to God is very important; the Spirit of God would lead us to dismiss from our thoughts anything less than this. No one enters the holiest except in priestly condition, hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, bodies washed with pure water. Think of a little company of saints and the Lord able to look round and see all taking in the thought of the loaf and cup, all turning in adoration to Him as the Mediator and the Head! He would be free to say, ‘Come with me, I will take you somewhere’. He has something most elevated in His mind. The best morning meeting we ever had is not so good as what the Lord has in mind for us.
What a joy for God to have received Him! He has not only gone in, but been received, and received up in glory. The way He has been received is the pattern of how we are received if we go with Him. There is no other way of approach to God but with Christ. If I do not go in the company of Christ I do not go at all. Let us all take that in.
[p. 40] God must be approached according to His own glory and who could do this but Christ?
How wonderful if we shed everything else from our spirits when we come together! We have been occupied with a thousand things in daily and domestic life and alas! often with what pertains to our own foolish hearts; but we must shed all that off. I may be a nice or a nasty man, but I must shed it all off; a nice man is no better than a nasty! We go in to God in the company of Christ, as acceptable to God as He is; we are on the ground of Christ’s death. God never questions the power of the ground on which we can be with Him. Our hearts may question it but God never will. This would set our hearts free; every brother’s and sister’s heart would be set free.
Ques What is the idea of the power of the blood?
CAC We can say of the Lord that He acquired new value in which to be in the presence of God, not value connected with His Person but connected with His work which was not there until He did the work. What ground can I have but His blood? Christ and His brethren are on common ground in the presence of God — “His own blood”. All eternity will never add anything to the value of the blood. We shall never be better with God than we are when we enter the holiest. The blessed God Himself has laid out and provided the conditions, and the moment we get there we realise it could not be otherwise; nothing less will do for God than Christ and the value of His blood. The sinner begins with Christ and His blood, and the oldest and most mature saint cannot get beyond it. It is elementary and yet profound. We can shed off our spirits all connected with the flesh and our natural condition and come into God’s presence in spotless white garments! It is wonderful!