CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 10
In chapter 9 we have the perfection of the work; in chapter 10, the perfection of the worshippers. It is in accordance with the perfection of the work that just a touch is given showing how all things will be brought into blessing. All things are purified, all needed, and now all is clear for us to go in. Reconciliation is moral. Purification has to do with defilement. Reconciliation has to do with enmity. All the baptised are in the house (in christendom), but the great point here is that we are in company with Him. We have to do with heavenly things in company with the Lord, and the way is made clear right up to God.
[p. 113] The danger signal is down; we can go in. Christianity is a faith system; purification has already come for faith. Christ has gone into heavenly places, and I am in association with Him who is there.
In Ephesians we are seen seated in heavenly places. In Hebrews we have the right to go in; but it does not say that we go in. It is thus very elementary, not going so far as John 4, worshipping the Father. It is not a company worshipping, but having a right to go in. Morally, we are in, because we are in the Lord’s presence. The presence of the Lord makes the ‘place of worship’. In the assembly we are distinctly on heavenly ground.
“Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me”; only in the assembly it is more a collective thing. When the sanctuary is referred to, we must bring in the collective thing. The one enjoying the Lord’s presence is morally, in. There is a great difference between having the Lord in my own room, and having Him in the assembly. In our own room we learn what the Lord is to us in our circumstances. In the assembly we learn what the church is to Him. In the assembly we learn His mind, His interests. It was there the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work”. His interests are paramount. A man gets his gift in the assembly, as Timothy did, “by the laying on of hands”.
“Through the veil” and “into the holy of holies”, in chapter 10 are moral expressions. The heavenly things are brought down into the midst of us. We are not fit for Christ’s presence in the assembly, unless we are fit for the unclouded presence of God. Christ’s presence is the sanctuary. In chapter 9 He has gone into heaven itself. In chapter 10 the figure is changed into the “holy of holies”. His presence makes this - and then I say, I am always in His presence. I may not be in the enjoyment of it, but I am there, and if I am in His presence I am in the holiest of all, morally.
[p. 114] He brings us into the moral nature of the new place by His coming into our midst. If in His presence, in the assembly, we are outside the world and all that is connected with it.
The book of Acts is one of transition. Morally we have more amongst us than Israel had visibly. The Lord brings to us all the holy things of God. These Hebrews had never taken up their position. Hebrews is individual. “Assembling of ourselves together” is not so much the thought of the house as the synagogue - the house in a synagogue character. Assembling in Greek is a cognate word to synagogue. The house in Hebrews is not seen in its scope, which is, “there is neither Greek nor Jew”. We could not have the assembly simply on the same ground as Acts 2 now that all the truth has come out. We have lost the idea of the holiness of God’s house. The slightest disturbance in a church would, years ago, have been rebuked by a churchman. Have we got spiritually among us what Israel had visibly? I long to see “thy glory, as I have beheld thee in the sanctuary”, Psalm 63: 2.
In Hebrews faith carries you on in the race, you are not yet in heaven. Matthew 18: 20, “Gathered together unto my name”, took the place of the tabernacle. The tabernacle first, and afterwards the temple, was where the Lord put His name. He has gone into heaven, and comes into the midst where two or three are gathered together unto His name. The Lord comes to us. In Ephesians we are set where He is; in Hebrews He comes to where we are. By and by we go to be with Him bodily; meanwhile He comes to us. We draw nigh as a consecrated company, “sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience”. We do not go into heaven to worship in Ephesians, because we are looked at as seated there “in Christ”. The presence of Christ here makes it, morally, heaven. We could not have the house of God in heaven. It is set up on the earth. If the Lord be present you must [p. 115] be on heavenly ground to enjoy His presence. He is Lord of glory, and can be in ten thousand places at the same time. Morally, if Christ comes in He leaves nothing behind Him. We are in His house. He leaves nothing behind. He brings us to the Father. People say that He is only there by His Spirit, because they will not allow the majesty of the truth. When we come to remember the Lord, we are, as it were, in company with Him, looking upon Him on the earth in death. If His presence is not true to us here, we are not so well off as Israel.
Christ is in heaven - that is locality - but when He comes in, heavenly things are brought to us here. The assembly is on heavenly ground. The locality must be settled by where the people are. We must leave the wilderness to go into the sanctuary. There was not a pin of the sanctuary that was not heavenly. The rent veil is His flesh - His perfect flesh, rent that I might go in. Then nothing of my flesh can be allowed in.
In Ephesians I am elevated to where He is. In 2 Corinthians 3 I behold Him there, to become like Him. In Hebrews He is in the midst of the consecrated company. I enjoy the Lord of glory in His own circle. It is a heavenly Christ, and therefore must be on heavenly ground. There is title on our side; ministry on His side. There is danger of dropping down to a Romanist level and going to the Lord’s supper in order to get a new sense of what the Lord has done for me. We are set distinctly on the ground of His death. Thus the feast is eucharistic as well as one of remembrance. He appears in the presence of God for us. He secures everything for us. He will come out for us by and by. Meanwhile He comes into our midst. The veil was rent on earth. The assembly is heavenly. He leads the praises in the midst. There is positive infidelity as to the Lord’s presence in the midst.
[p. 116] Ques What is the difference between Great Priest and High Priest? - The High Priest was when there was more than one. Now there is only one, the “Great Priest”, and the Spirit of God uses that word to give Him the pre-eminence. I am always in the house, but the house is not always in function. When two or three are gathered together to His name, they get all the advantages of the house of God. They are in the house and get all the advantages of it. Only when gathered are they in function as an assembly. Gathering is an integral idea of the church.
Mr. D. has said that we ought to know when the Lord comes into our midst and when He goes out. For my part, I often feel that I know when He goes out, but cannot tell so easily when He comes in. When we leave the assembly we go back to our individuality, we are no longer in function. The fifth chapter of Revelation does not apply to our worship at all. If the Lord is in the midst, I communicate with Him and He with me by the Spirit. I there gather His mind for the present moment.
The thing is to ascertain the Lord’s pleasure, whether in giving out a hymn or anything else. You must take no kind of purpose with you into the assembly. You might go in with something on your mind, and get it turned round about when there. You must be free from it. The breaking of bread is not in heaven, but it is on heavenly ground. I am in the Lord’s presence, but we must get into the moral idea. A covenant has the same force as a disposition made by God Himself, which you have to accept; a testament is more in the shape of a will. The priesthood in chapter 4 is in respect of our weakness - here in chapter 10 it is more in connection with our worship.