OUR PRIEST IS IN HEAVEN
[p. 215] OUR PRIEST IS IN HEAVEN
Our subject this evening is, our Priest is in heaven. I must press upon you, beloved friends, that you will not comprehend the subjects which I am bringing before you unless you realise that Christ has been rejected here, and that the christian’s blessings are consequent on His exaltation to God’s right hand. In Matthew 22 there is a quotation from Psalm 110:
“The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand”. I want you to apprehend the gravity of this fact, that the Son of God has been rejected in the world, the scene where we are. The world was never so guilty, for God was never so fully revealed; and He was never so absolutely refused: “Now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father”: “they have no cloke for their sin”. If you do not apprehend the gravity of His rejection, you cannot take in, you cannot seize, the greatness of the blessings which have come out from God, consequent on Christ’s exaltation to His right hand. The mass of christians think of Christ as He was on the earth, and they speak of Him as Jesus; but Jesus is not on the earth; He once was. The pious sometimes speak of Him as King; He is not yet King, He was refused here.
The subject this evening is, that our Priest is in heaven; and the greater the subject the more it is perverted in christendom. It is not intentional, but the attempt to explain the word of God by the human mind has perverted it. The unfailing mark of a human interpretation of the word of God is that God’s side is omitted, the human mind cannot take it in. In christendom they have a priest or a minister between them and God. The human mind has the word of God as to the fact that there is a priest for the [p. 216] christian, but it has perverted it by placing the priest on man’s side. Nothing can be a greater perversion than the attempt to set up a priest on the earth. Among the more enlightened christians a clergyman cannot pronounce the blessing unless he is priested. Their priesthood is not of Christ, for if He were on earth, He would not be a priest. You have a Priest, but He is a Priest only in heaven; this must be accepted. You may ask, Must I be in heaven to know my Priest? You are not looked at as in heaven in the book of Hebrews; you are running to heaven, and your Priest is there and is not here. If you say, I do not understand it, you should be troubled at your state, that you are satisfied to be here without knowing Christ as your Priest. The first thing to see is that consequent on Christ’s rejection, He is our Priest in heaven. Though apparently the sun had gone down at noonday and there was no more hope, yet then God, in the boundlessness of His goodness, made known entirely new blessings, as we read, “Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings”.
The first point is that your Priest is not here; He is in heaven. If you do not accept this, you will not understand nor enjoy the blessing connected with this truth.
The book of Hebrews opens in an important way: God, having spoken by the prophets, now speaks by the Son. It is divine. In chapter 2 we read, “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same”. And in connection with this I will turn to verses 11 and 12. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”. Now you see that we are His brethren. We read in John 12, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone:
[p. 217] but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit”, or ‘many grains’, that is, a new order of man springs from Him. Adam was the earthly order. Christ is the heavenly order; hence, “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. The apostle is writing to Hebrews, who naturally would have said, Christ is of our stock: but no, we are His brethren, “all of one”. It is of immense blessing to apprehend this. Through grace you are brethren of Christ. Christ had no brethren before His death. True, we read of His brethren in the gospel, brethren according to the flesh. But He was alone - a beautiful, peculiar, unique Man in the sight of God. He had no fellow until He rose; when He died He removed that which was in the way, and now He is not ashamed to call us brethren; we are really of Him. You must start in the assurance of this grace. The tendency of the Hebrews, from education and Jewish feelings, was to settle down on the earth; hence the great object of the book is so to attract them to the Lord where He is, that they might be drawn away from the earth. I do not believe any one is drawn away from the earth unless he is attracted by a Person who is not here. It is plain that if your heart is taken up with a person who has gone to another place, you are drawn away from the place where you are to where he is. ‘Love enchants the spot where the loved one dwells’. Christ has gone away, but you are His brethren; He is not ashamed to call us brethren - “whosoever is born of God sinneth not”. I believe you get immense comfort from the fact that you are His brethren. In chapter 3, we read, “Holy brethren”. Turn now to chapter 3: 6: “But Christ as a son over his own house;” - that is, God’s house - “whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”. It is not only that we are His brethren, but we are His house, made partakers of Christ (verse 14). ‘Partakers’ is the same word as ‘fellows’ - really companions. We are His house, “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”; that is, if you do not deviate from your true place.
Turn now to the end of chapter 4, that you may apprehend the great blessing of a Priest in heaven. The Hebrews had not turned back, but they were in danger of being like their forefathers; not going to heaven, just as their forefathers had refused to go up to the land on the plea that they were not able to do so. Caleb tried to still the people in his day, and said, “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land”. Hence, in chapter 4 we read, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief”. The “rest” was really the rest of God. Now come out two great helps. The word of God is one, and Christ the Priest in heaven is the other. Of the latter we read: “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Now bear in mind that you are His brethren and His house - His companions. In Leviticus 16 we read that Aaron offered a bullock for himself and his house. So far the type has been fulfilled; the remainder, as to the congregation, has not been fulfilled as yet, because the Priest has not come out to bless the people. (See chapter 9: 23.) The subject is your infirmities, not your sins; weakness from any cause; the pressure of circumstances, or illness, or - the greatest of all - bereavement: still it is pressure; you are weak, and ready to droop under it. As I have said, there are two helps. First, the word of God exposes [p. 219] where you are, reveals your motives, whether you are making your weakness an excuse not to go on - engrossed with the pressure instead of with the rest of God. You are very ill, or sorrowful, or bereaved, or greatly oppressed by circumstances; now the word discloses all: “All things are naked and laid bare to his eyes with whom we have to do”. Then follows in verse 14: “Having therefore a great high priest” - mark the language - “who has passed through the heavens”, - as Aaron passed through the holy places - “Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”. Do not give up. Our Priest in heaven sympathises with us. He is outside of everything here, He has gone through every pressure. His sympathy is not the same kind of help that you read of in the Psalms, when God made a way in the sea, and the like, by His mighty hand; but here it is that you have a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ; you are brethren to Him, you are His house, and He was in the circumstances that we are in, and He knows what they are, and He sympathises with us in them; He bears us company in the pressure. Take the case of a person in bereavement: no pressure - severe illness or great pain - is equal to the agony of bereavement; there can be no alleviation of the blank, for no one can repair the blank but the one who has caused it. Now the marvellous grace is, though it be little understood, that the Lord uses the blank as the opportunity for making Himself known in the tenderest way. As you see with Mary, in John 11, He walked with her, and impressed her with the assurance, as He wept beside her, that if she had lost a brother she had found “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” in Himself, that she had really gained. You may think it impossible; but the Lord is so much to you that you are borne up and drawn to Him. The word ‘support’ will not fully express it; He who is made higher than the heavens bears you company.
The sense of His nearness as One above it all, but having passed through it, endears Him to you in a peculiar way. It is not that He removes the pressure, but He so supports you that you are so raised above it by His sympathy that instead of drooping under the pressure, you come boldly to the throne of grace. But I would press on you, and I trust the Lord will lead you to apprehend, that whatever the pressure is, the Lord would come to you and be such a solace and support to you, that He would be more endeared to you than ever before. When He relieves you, things are easier for you here, but when He bears you above the pressure, you will never forget it; He Himself becomes indispensable to you. This in a measure I dare say Ruth found in Naomi - a solace to her in the hour of her sorrow. The Lord can come close beside us in our sorrow, and share with us in it, and so lift us above the pressure to the height of Himself. May we all better understand His sympathy. Every one can speak of a mercy. But can you speak of being lifted above the pressure in company with the Lord who sympathises with you? You must bear in mind that the great object of the book of Hebrews is to make the Lord, who is not here, so dear to your heart that you will be drawn away from this place to Him, who has so endeared Himself to you that He is indispensable.
I turn now to chapter 10: 19 - 22: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”. The High Priest in chapter 4 comes down to your lowest point, under the deepest pressure,
“[p. 221] in all points tempted like as we are”, so that He is able to sympathise with you, to bind you to Himself. Now you are in company with Him, you are of His house. In the type, Aaron offered a bullock for himself and his house. We are, through grace, the consecrated company, and all can enter in a common fragrance into the holiest where He Himself is. In the holiest there was the golden censer, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat. If I were speaking to a gentile, I should speak of the Lord’s glory, of which the holiest was a type. Now you can draw near and be maintained by our great Priest in the brightest spot. You have the right to enter into the holiest in company with Himself.
In the close of chapter 10 you have the effect on you when your heart is drawn to a Person who is not here, but is in another place. You will long to get to the place where He is; as the Lord is endeared to you, so is the place where He is. Hence the Lord said to His disciples, “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know”. The Lord counted on their knowing. Is your heart attracted to the Lord? Where is He? In heaven. Then are you going on to heaven? Or are you trying to be comfortable on the earth, the place where He is not? Then be assured that you are not much drawn to Him. At the same time I quite admit a certain amount of comfort is necessary. I think a person is distracted when he is uncomfortable; but that is a different thing; the point is, Who is paramount with you? “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. Where is He? You can say, He is my Saviour. Yes, but I want you to be able to say, He is the One that meets me in the lowest condition in which I can be found; in my weakest moment He comes to me, when no other hand or heart could come near me, and assures me of the interest He takes in me, and so draws me to Himself that I am [p. 222] lifted out of it to have company with Himself. And I do not believe He lifts you out of it for anything else but to have company with Himself. If you know Christ in His priestly service, you are so drawn to Him that you can say, “We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”. And then you are set on leaving this place for the place where Christ is. It is not dying, it is simply as with Israel, they had to journey through the wilderness in order to possess the land, and through faith in God they could surmount every difficulty; so you are in faith to surmount every difficulty until you are with Christ where He is. Hence you read in chapter 12: 1, 2, “Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. It is a simple question: Are you set for Christ where He is? Would to God I had been more set for it! I should have had a happier course; one is very easily turned aside by something here; but if your heart is really fixed on Him, then nothing could divert you. I may illustrate my meaning by a dog’s fidelity in following its master; all the wit of your head would not divert the dog from following; you might beat it, or tempt it, but nothing would induce it to swerve. The right idea of following we get in the words of Ruth, “Whither thou goest, I will go”.
Now you will encounter difficulties; and you cannot surmount difficulties but by faith, and therefore you are looking off unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith; He has gone the road, and you are His brethren through divine grace, and He gives you of His grace, and you are looking out to where He is; you are [p. 223] running to Him. You have to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset you, because you are set for Him in another place; you have to contend with difficulties, and therefore you need patience; that is, you endure, you do not give in; for when your heart is truly drawn to Him, nothing will suit you nor satisfy you but Himself where He is.
In chapter 12 the importance of discipline is described. As I understand, the discipline here is not for failure, but to help you, even that you might be partakers of His holiness. Stephen’s suffering in testimony, God turns to good account for him, even to remove everything which would separate him from the Lord. As we read in 2 Corinthians 4, “We which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake”. There is a very great difference between discipline to help you and discipline to correct you. Jacob at Shechem was disciplined to correct him; he suffers greatly from the Shechemites. But he goes to Bethel - a very bright day; Rebekah’s nurse dies, and the place is called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping. This was discipline to help him; to clear away every thing unsuited to his bright position.
I turn for a little to chapter 12: 18, “Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched”, etc. You are not come to God in that way; you now have the right of entrance into His presence. Verses 22 - 24 go on: “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. It begins at the chief place on the earth, mount Zion; there will be a day when God will rule in mount Zion: “The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion”. “And unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (the word ‘and‘ distinguishes one part from another), and to the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly, and then to the highest thing of all, the church of the first-born, whose names are registered in heaven. The church of the first-born would be understood by the Jews better than by us, because the Levites were taken in place of the first-born of Israel. Then you descend until you come to the great fact here - “The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. I trust you see the greatness of your position. You are racing on to Christ in heaven; you have been drawn away from many an association here, interesting to man naturally, but you have come to something infinitely greater. Not only are you, once sinners, brought to God, but you have come to an immense range of present blessings.
In conclusion, one word on chapter 13. Here your true appearance on the earth is described in the simplest way. The first point is, “Let brotherly love continue”. You may think that is easy, but you will find this requires most grace; you can love saints who are going on well, but when they are in error and wilful, then we find how little we love them. Next, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers”; hospitality to christians, I suppose. And then, “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them”; then the domestic circle, “Marriage is honourable in all”. Then comes a very important mark, which often a christian lacks, and we all know how ready we are to fail as to it: “Be content with such things as ye have”. Who is content with such things as he has? A man in the world is nobody if he is not set on acquiring. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my [p. 225] helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. If you suffer from the pressure of circumstances, the Lord is your helper. A man might be in want for the Lord’s sake, though few are up to that; yet, if a man like Paul or John suffer for the Lord, be assured that they do not lose by it, they receive “manifold more” because of the Lord’s nearness to them. There is a universality about a person that no combination of circumstances can equal. In the garden of Eden it was things which were given; now it is a Person. And little as I know of it, I know this, that Christ can make up for the loss of everything; hence you are inside the veil on christian ground, and you are outside the camp bearing Christ’s reproach, unknown here. By Him you “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually”. “But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” - praising God and doing good.
I need not add more, but I trust each heart here may be more drawn to the Lord where He is, and thus more drawn from the earth where He is not, for His name’s sake.