CHAPTERS 11 AND 12
[p. 117] CHAPTERS 11 AND 12
Now it is exhortation to run the race, and how to run it. Chapter 11 is a parenthesis. In chapter 6 the sin is refusing the Holy Spirit; in chapter 10 the sin is refusing the blood of Christ, and insulting the Spirit of grace (verse 29). We are brought to the highest point in chapter 10, and now the great point is the need of patience whilst running on to heaven.
Chapter 11 is introduced to show us the quality of faith. It is the stream of power in God’s people continued. Faith has antecedents. Faith is not a new thing. There is a stream of faith, and it is that which always marks the man who comes to God. He has faith. It is not here (chapter 11) examples of faith nor the definition of faith, but the traits of faith. If Abel had been in Noah’s place, he would have acted as Noah did. There is a certain gradation in it. As soon as Rahab the harlot is mentioned it stops. Faith has always been the principle animating the people of God. Faith has always lived in view of the world to come - of the invisible. It apprehended that God would have a world, and therefore it refused the present world. Each of these traits of faith looked on to the future. Faith counts on God, not on a promise only, but on God, “seeing him who is invisible”, and as a necessary consequence it will not be satisfied with anything that comes short of Him. In Hebrews they had not got to what was invisible, and they were going back from faith. The writer, in Hebrews, ignores the period of law and puts them in the line of the patriarchs. The wilderness is left out in chapter 11, because it was unbelief. When sin comes in, sight will no longer do. Individual faith came in after the fall.
Everything around Adam indicated favour; he was the very opposite to the prodigal starving. He had to believe God’s word, but he had not to believe that ‘God is’ - there was nothing to call it in question. Eve desired to act for herself in independence of God. Adam, with everything to appeal to sight, etc., of the goodness of God, acted against God.
Satan sought, as he always does, to weaken God’s word. Adam was not deceived, but took his place voluntarily with Eve (1 Timothy 2: 14). I do not think that Abel had a word at all, but the truth was apprehended by him, for he had to do with God; it was not a question of obeying a revelation. Abel was sensible of a distance, and in practice says, I dare not approach God in any other way than by death; and whilst Cain takes his own way and offers the fruit of a cursed earth, Abel says, as it were, The distance cannot be removed but by a victim bearing the judgment. When a man feels that he has to do with God, he recognises that he cannot have to do with Him according to sight. Plenty of people have faith in a word, but have not faith in the Person. If we had faith in God, we should believe everything He says. It is not a question of testimony, it is God, the word of God. A testimony would be a public thing. In the case of Noah, it was more a communication from God. Faith in God is the point here - warned of God, offered to God, etc. The soul is connected with God. He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him out.
Do we believe what He says, what He does, and that He is?
If we believe that He is, we have it all. Once a revelation is given to me, I am bound to receive it, otherwise I lose the blessing. It is of immense importance to say, My faith is in God; as a woman once said, If God had said that Jonah had swallowed the whale, I would have believed it. No matter what the circumstances, faith rises above all. If my eye is on the Lord, I am carried all the way to where He is; my eye is not on any particular passage, but on Him.
[p. 119] Others may have some traits of faith, but it is all exemplified in the Lord.
Two things come in, “Laying aside every weight” - that is outside, “And sin which so easily entangles us”, that is inside, the nature. It does not mean any particular sin, but sin in nature. The weight is something perhaps that people say there is no harm in, but the question is: Does it interfere with your race? Yes, it does. Well, then, lay it aside. Walking in the power of Christ it is laid aside. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood” is striving against sin. As you proceed you find the power of Christ to help you. In chapter 12 we have suffering for righteousness’ sake, but it is all turned to our benefit, so that we are partakers of His holiness; the discipline is to help us to partake of it. Christ surmounted everything and has reached the top (chapter 12: 2).
The simplicity of faith is that it counts upon God. It is said that a horse will never face a fence he cannot go over if left to himself. I say, if I have faith, I can go over. “By my God have I leaped over a wall”, Psalm 18: 29. According to the old order of dealing, a gap was made for you, but now you have to surmount it. He “set him on his own beast”.
Christ, after being the example, becomes the object to me. The chastening is all to help you to put away the sin. You have not gone the whole way yet - not yet resisted unto blood. Resisting unto blood refers to martyrdom - that one would rather die than sin. It was not Gethsemane in our Lord’s case, but the cross. A pilgrim is a man who is going somewhere. A stranger is a man who is away from his home. We are not to be like tourists, looking for the best accommodation. The world would not have Him. It was a wonderful thing for a Jew, whose prosperity had been in the world. Now, the signs of prosperity were just the opposite; it was adversity or affliction - a mark of affection. God’s grace is that He does not [p. 120] remove the stone before the wheel until the wheel comes up to the stone. You will always have your evening before the morning.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Do you say you have got some truth today? Well, you will have a good pummelling before you get it, for you must go through it before it is yours practically and in power. Discipline in this chapter is not so much for naughtiness, but to help you on in faith - that you may be partakers of His holiness. In 1 Corinthians 11 it is for failure. Chastening is in correction, prevention, and in order that we may bring forth more fruit; we are put through pressure in order to learn God’s pleasure, for I must either learn with God or with the devil.
There are times when a man is walking loosely, and the Lord may say, Let him alone, as you might put a horse to grass; but as soon as that man turns round let him look out. What tried Job was that God did not interfere for him when he was right. At last he was brought to own, I deserve nothing, and then God manifests His goodness. In the same way, with the Syrophenician woman, directly she says, I deserve nothing, Christ gives her her desire. The word restores, it is the real power for restoration. There is retribution for carelessness outside of all this. If I go out without my hat and catch cold, I deserve it. We must remember that the character of the discipline here is not restorative but progressive - helping us on the road.
There is a great deal of discipline that no one sees at all; and I think, when it is seen, that it is more for open failure, like Lot’s. In chapter 12 it is God’s side; the highest point is in verse 22 - what we come to, what is before us at the present moment. For faith, they are all there (verses 22 - 24).
Mount Zion, the centre of the earth; it is the principle of grace, in contrast with Sinai. Before [p. 121] mount Moriah was established (the temple), when the public testimony was gone, the ark was in mount Zion. It is remarkable what a place mount Zion has in the Psalms. A profane person is one who has given up the grace of God for this world.
What is the thing before us here? It is the whole thing, as it is at this moment. There are seven different things - the ‘ands’ make the difference. The earthly city is the city of the Great King. The heavenly Jerusalem is the city of the living God. The innumerable company of angels - the general assembly, the church of the first-born (”ones”, it should be). It was, so to speak, the church of the levites - they were taken in the place of the first-born. We are all firstborn, we are on that ground. The levites were taken in the place of the first-born. We are the church of the first-born characteristically - the church of the levites. Here, it is all of a priestly order. The levites were a gift to Aaron and his sons. Our outside service is levitical; inside, it is priestly. There are two aspects in which we are viewed here - one in connection with government, and the other as near His heart.
Why are they presented in two aspects?
Because you must have the seat of government. The object of His heart comes out in the church of the first-born. The city does not exactly belong to heaven, though it is heavenly, it comes out of heaven. We never leave our place in heaven. I think everybody will be on equal terms in heaven. Heaven is the Father’s house. The difference will be in the kingdom. The church of the first-born means the church, the body of Christ.
There is a touch of the apostle Paul’s hand here. He would not leave the description of the church in respect of kingdom glory alone, but puts it in its proper heavenly glory. He is writing to Jews, and we must remember this, hence we have - “registered in heaven”. This is our place. ‘First-born’ brings in our priestly as well as our levitical place; that it is “registered in heaven” is the great point.
“The spirits of just men made perfect”. We are coming down now. This is on the down line. The church is high up, alone, at the end of the up line. “Jesus, mediator” is in respect of all. “The blood of sprinkling” is the basis of all blessing, whether it be heavenly or earthly.
“And to God, judge of all”.
Why is He spoken of here as Judge?
Because He is, as such, in relation to everything. What we are connected with is the great idea, it is grace. Everything has to satisfy God’s eye. It is not so much judgment here as discrimination. “Our God is a consuming fire” - Israel’s God and our God. This must be taken in reference to verse 28. Although there is no more offering for sin, is God going to gloss over sin, and if you do not judge your sin, it will become your scourge. It is the holy character of God in His righteous judgment. If we have an altar we must remember we are where the fire is. Supposing a man uses his brain too much; he cuts a rod to beat himself, and perhaps has softening of the brain. We have not a sufficient sense of having an altar.