OUR MOST HOLY FAITH
OUR MOST HOLY FAITH
Jude 20; Exodus 29:37-41; Exodus 29:45,46; Leviticus 6:14-17; Leviticus 6:24,25; Leviticus 6:29; Leviticus 7:1; Leviticus 7:6; John 17:9-21
I desire the help of the Lord, dear brethren, to say a little as to our most holy faith. Jude enjoins upon us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith. Surely this was in view of apostate conditions, which in his day were manifesting themselves in the world, and which in our day are almost full-blown, for this country and other countries which have been blessed with the truth of Christianity, are rapidly giving it up, and these are things, dear brethren, to which we cannot shut our eyes. It is in the presence of these conditions, that Jude urges the necessity for us to be building ourselves up on our most holy faith, and to be praying in the Holy Spirit, and thus to keep ourselves in the love of God. If we are kept in the love of God Christianity is a reality to us, and to be in the enjoyment of Christianity, what is involved in the knowledge of God, and of Christ, and of our portion among the brethren, is the surest preservative against being carried away by the tide of apostasy.
Now Jude speaks of himself as a bondman of Jesus Christ, and I believe the thought of bondman, whether it be of God or of Jesus Christ, is a most important one for us to take up. If you care to look it up, you will find that all the writers of epistles in the New Testament call themselves bondmen either of God or of Jesus Christ; Paul in Romans, Philippians, and Titus; Peter in his second epistle; James in his epistle; John in the book of Revelation, and also Jude, as we have said, have all taken up the position that they regard themselves as bondmen of God or of Jesus Christ, and that is not something to be merely taken up by those who are gifted. The epistle to the Romans would show us, that as the gospel of the grace of God is rightly apprehended in our souls, it results in each one of us holding himself, first as a bondman to righteousness, and finally as a bondman to God. That is of great importance, because it works out practically in our salvation from lawlessness. To be a bondman of God means that we recognise that we belong to Him in an absolute way, and that is what is to govern us. Not that there is anything servile about bondmanship, nor that there is anything degraded about it; far from it, for it has been made most glorious in a moral sense by the fact that He who was in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him a bondman’s form. So that bondmanship to God has been exalted gloriously in a moral sense, as being set out perfectly in Christ; and I need not say that after the Lord Jesus came and set out that idea of bondmanship to God, glorifying God in it, it was with the intention of wielding the mighty influence which He holds over the hearts of His people to secure a corresponding result with everyone of us. So that practically, in a world of evil, we may be delivered from lawlessness, as holding ourselves here under the claims of divine love in redemption and under the influence of Christ, to be for God’s will.
Then in the book of Revelation the thought of bondmen is greatly stressed, and I believe the idea of bondmen in that book is that if we hold ourselves as bondmen to God, we shall be preserved from every influence that would divert us in the testimony. That is, that whatever situation or test may arise, the question is, do we regard ourselves as bondmen of God? In Romans it is, I believe, to save us from the lawlessness that might tend to mark us ourselves, but in Revelation, I believe, it has in mind, while, of course, including the other thought, that we should take our place definitely in the testimony as belonging to God and be here for His rights and His testimony; though it may mean suffering, we shall have divine protection, divine recognition, and the support of the Lord. So Jude writes as a bondman. He had intended to write as to the common salvation, but felt compelled to turn aside from his original purpose because of the apostasy which was already showing itself, to urge upon the saints to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. The best way to contend for the faith is to be in it in power and enjoyment, so Jude urges upon us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith.
Now, I think perhaps the scriptures we have read in Exodus and Leviticus - not that one can touch on them in any detail - might serve to give some definite impression of certain features of our most holy faith. Exodus 29 gives us the term most holy connected with the altar. It says, “seven days shalt thou make atonement for the altar and hallow it; and the altar shall be most holy: whatever toucheth the altar shall be holy.” The altar speaks of our means of approach to God, and that, I need not say, is Christ. In Christianity we have continual access to God through Christ by the Holy Spirit, and God would have us recognise that there is no other means of approach. It must always be by Christ, and that of itself is sobering and sanctifying, for there is no taint of unholiness in Christ. As down here, the Holy One of God, He was conscious of it Himself. He said prophetically, as facing death, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The thought of the altar involves much, for none but Christ was equal to sustaining all that was placed upon the altar. If there was to be a presentation to God in the sacrifice of Christ of that which would glorify God in regard of sin, it needed that He should come forth in the greatness of His person, for no one else was able to sustain it, and I believe the altar would thus speak to us of the greatness of Christ. It is taken account of separately from that which is offered on it, see Matthew 23: 19. It was essential that He should come in, in order that by means of death there should be established a point of continual contact between God’s people and Himself. The principal thought of the altar is not in connection with sin, but rather in connection with the burnt offering, and it says, “This is what thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer between the two evenings.” That is very touching, dear brethren, because it suggests to us how God delights in our drawing near to Him and having to do with Him every morning and every evening.
In Numbers 28 we find that God lays down what He requires. It is what God looks for, not simply for our own good, but that He has something for His own satisfaction in that which His people present to Him; so there is in connection with the altar, and it is most holy, this suggestion of the morning lamb and the evening lamb. That is, God would have us draw near to Him by means of the altar, but in the value of that which has been offered upon the altar, in the continual sense of the offering of Christ, that He has devoted Himself according to God’s will to bringing in that which was wholly pleasing to Him. In another aspect of His death He removes all that was displeasing to Him, but in the burnt offering He establishes what is abidingly pleasing to God. We have to do with God in the abiding value and acceptance of what the burnt offering means to God. And so it was to be offered in the morning and “with the one lamb a tenth part of wheaten flour mingled with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin, and a drink offering, a fourth part of a hin of wine.” And so every approach on our part to God in the value of what Christ is, and has been, as the burnt-offering, will normally be accompanied by some ability to present to God our appreciation of what Jesus was as a Man here wholly delightful to God. If He was delightful in death, He was delightful to God in life, and that is what is suggested in the flour. Then there is the drink-offering too, suggestive, I believe, of Jesus having gone the whole length in self-abnegation to God, whatever it cost; the pouring out of the drink-offering suggests going the whole length, and in doing so affording holy stimulation to the heart of God. I believe it is to find an answer in us, for Paul contemplates in writing to the Philippians that he would willingly be poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of their faith. The Philippians had brought a gift to Paul at considerable cost to themselves, for they were poor, and Epaphroditus had nearly lost his life in bringing it, and he was so delighted in that free giving in them as the fruit of his labours, that he said if necessary he was prepared to go to the utmost length in subjection to God’s will, even to martyrdom, that they might be all the more stimulated to follow on similar lines. He therefore contemplated that he might be poured out as a libation in order to give completion to that which was so pleasing to God in them.
As I have said, the first impression that we get of the libation is in Christ, and every day, every morning, we must have to do with God by means of the altar, as identified with the burnt-offering offered on the altar. God does not contemplate, when it comes to the evening, that we should be any less in the sense of acceptance in our appreciation of Christ and of the pleasure God has in Him. He does not contemplate we should be any less in the appreciation of that in the evening than the morning. It abides unchangingly before God and the Spirit of God would remind us of it. If we think rightly of the altar we embrace it at least twice a day; indeed it really gives character to the whole day, the evening being equal to the morning. That is, God’s heart should be refreshed by the saints drawing near to Him in the liberty which the appreciation of Christ and His precious death involves. So we can understand that the altar is spoken of as most holy. This is a very simple matter, but a most precious one, and it is one of the items of our most holy faith in which we are to build ourselves up. The more we embrace this the more we shall be accustomed to having to do with God, and enabled to stand against the tide of apostasy which is shortly to sweep over the so-called Christian world. And so in verse 45, God says, “I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, who have brought them forth out of the land of Egypt to dwell in their midst: I am Jehovah their God.” As we avail ourselves of the altar and of our privilege of drawing near to God, we shall become established in the knowledge of God, for He delights to dwell among His people and be their God.
In Leviticus we come to further matters that are spoken of as most holy, and in chapter 6, verse 14, the expression is connected with the meat offering or oblation, and what is brought into prominence is not only the offering of the oblation to Jehovah, but also the eating of it on the part of the priests. There is the offering of it to Jehovah, so that God might have His portion in what the oblation speaks of, but also it is contemplated that the priests themselves should eat of it. Now, if one may speak for others, I believe this is a matter in which most of us will feel we are defective, for we live in days that are marked by much activity and rapidity and distraction of one kind and another, and Satan would make use of all these things to hinder us from taking time to feed our souls with things that are most holy. It is essential that we should learn how to feed on the food provided for the saints. Feeding, as far as I understand it, means dwelling with our minds on certain things presented to us objectively, so that the affections become fed, and it is specially important in relation to every presentation of Christ as the oblation. He was, as a Man down here, wholly according to God, and entirely different from the order of man that brought such displeasure to the heart of God. We can well understand God opening the heavens and saying, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight.” I would venture to suggest that we might well make it a matter of personal exercise and desire expressed to God, that He would open our eyes more and more to what it was that He found so delightful in Jesus. I mean that we should have ability to take account of the detailed perfections of Jesus as they appeared under God’s eye.
How much it meant to God to have One who was His equal, down here in flesh and blood, moving in the power of the Holy Spirit, all His movements perfect, ever considering for God, never a single movement for Himself, ever glorifying God. How little one is able to speak of it, and yet there is that which was under God’s eye as perfect, whether it was in the thirty years before he came out in public testimony or in the three and a half years of testimony. All was perfect. In the second chapter of Leviticus we get various details as to different ways in which the oblation might be presented. So we find fine flour mingled with oil and then fine flour anointed with oil; the one referring to the essentially holy character of the manhood of the Lord Jesus, apart altogether from what He was in testimony here, and the other referring to what He was here in testimony in the power of the anointing. These suggestions all speak of the way in which the perfections of Jesus were brought to light under the eye of God. So we are given ability, in reading the gospels, not only to see the import of what is written and its bearing upon the assembly, but also to see how the gospel writers by the Holy Spirit present to our eyes and hearts what Jesus was under God’s eye. As priests we are to feed upon it, in order that we may become more like Him, so that our approach to God may be such as will afford Him pleasure. It says in verse 17, “It shall not be baken with leaven; as their portion have I given it unto them of my offerings by fire; it is most holy; as the sin-offering, and as the trespass offering.”
Now that leads us to the sin offering and the trespass-offering, as to which I read a few verses at the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7. It is remarkable that in the book of Leviticus, in which so much, in the earlier part of it, deals with our ministering to the pleasure of God by drawing near to Him with offerings of various kinds, the sin offering and the trespass-offering come last. The burnt offering comes first, and then the meat offering or oblation, and then the peace offering and finally the sin offering and trespass offering. I suppose the trespass offering has reference to the infringement of the rights of God, and the sin offering has reference to what sins are as an affront to God’s holy nature. There is His nature which is outraged by every sin, and there are also His rights which are challenged by every sin, so the returning prodigal in Luke 15 says, “I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am no longer worthy to be called thy son.” Heaven is God’s throne, and is a question of the rights of God, and every sin is a sin against heaven;
that is, it is a challenge to the rights of God, for it is the assertion of the will of the creature in opposition to the will of the Creator. Every sin therefore is serious from that standpoint, it is rebellion against the rights of God, but then God being love, every sin is offensive to His nature. The returning prodigal says, “I have sinned ... before thee.” Think of the enormity of sinning against such a God! Sin is thus to be taken account of by us in no superficial way, but as involving this double aspect of seriousness. I believe the sin offering and the trespass offering view the matter from these two standpoints, but in each case it is spoken of as most holy. We need not enlarge upon it, dear brethren, in fact one has but little ability to speak of it, but how important it is, that we, as priests, should know what it is to eat the sin offering and also the trespass offering. It says, every male among the priests was to eat thereof and also in verse 26, “the priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it; in a holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting.” So it is contemplated that as priests we should feed upon the trespass offering and the sin offering. That is, that every failure on my part not only requires that I should confess it before God and be restored to communion in the abiding value of the blood of Christ, but that one should deepen in the appreciation of what it cost the Lord Jesus, and what it cost God, to put that sin away, and not only so, but we should deepen in the appreciation of the Holy One who alone could put it away by means of His own sacrifice. So the practical exercise connected with this is intended that there should be brought into activity what is priestly in myself. As having the Holy Spirit I am capable of what is priestly, and what is priestly should come into operation as I feed on what has been offered. And this works out in priestliness in regard of the failures of others, for if I see a brother sin a sin not unto death, I am to pray for him, and if anyone is taken in a fault, those who are spiritual are to restore such a one.
I have only touched on these things very briefly, but I am sure that you will appreciate that these are items of a most important character. All these exercises as passing through a world full of evil, are intended to develop in us the means whereby we build ourselves up on our most holy faith, and are kept in the sense of the love of God. There is nothing so precious to us as the love of God. God has given us the Holy Spirit not only to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts, but that we may avail ourselves of it and thus become expanded and formed by the reality of divine love known in our souls. As we do these things we shall present in the world that which will restrain the full development of evil. The mystery of lawlessness is already working, but there is He who restrains and that which restrains, and that includes the work of God in the souls of His people. They are able to bring in positively that which is pleasing to God, and thus to raise a banner against the developing evil, which will not develop completely until after the assembly is taken.
Well now in closing, I want to refer briefly to what we have in John 17, for while we do not get the expression most holy in that chapter, I think everyone will recognise that it presents to us things that are most holy. I had in mind especially the Father’s name, for the Lord refers to it in the chapter as a means by which the disciples were kept while He was with them, and the means by which they were to be kept after He was taken from them, and in speaking to His Father in relation to it He says, Holy Father. It is very touching to hear the Lord addressing His Father in this way, Holy Father, as standing in contrast to the world of evil in which His own were to be left in His absence. He says,
“Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou has given me, that they may be one as we.” It is very touching that the Lord presents Himself as a Man here, moving in the good of what the Father was to Him, all that the name of the Father meant to Him. So in a previous chapter He says to the disciples, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” A most touching thing that the Lord presents Himself as having remained in the joy of His Father’s love as having kept His Father’s commandments. So He presents things in a way that we can take up. In John’s epistle, the Father is presented to us as in contrast with the world. The young men are exhorted by John not to love the world, nor the things that are in the world, then he speaks of the things that are in the world as being the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Now it is possible to be apart from the world outwardly, and yet to be governed largely by the things of the world, but John says if anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The Lord prays that the Father would keep them in His name, not that He should take them out of the world, but that He should keep them out of evil, and He adds, “As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” If we may, as I believe we may, take this up humbly in the principle of it as applying to ourselves, that we are sent into the world in order to be here in the testimony. What a dignified position it places us in! And He says further, “I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth.” I understand that to mean that the Lord set Himself apart from this world by going to the Father, in order that we may learn in Him the place we have in the Father’s love. There is nothing so sanctifying as the sense of the Father’s love resting upon Christ and resting also upon us. The Lord would have us occupied with all that the Father and Son are to us.
I think we will all agree, however small our measure, that these are most holy things. We are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, and to keep ourselves in the love of God. May the Lord help us to do so, so that we may be preserved for His pleasure from the increasing tide of evil in this world.