PRESENT ENJOYMENT
Hebrews 7: 24,25; 8: 1,2; 10: 19-25, 35-39
I often read passages of scripture such as we have in Isaiah and think there are wonderful times ahead. So there are. What a time it will be when things are put right, when the Lord has His place and famines cease, when peace is extended like a river (there are some beautiful expressions in that book) and you think what a time it will be. But I think, dear brethren, that time has come. We do ourselves a great disservice through putting things off; the most of what is to be enjoyed is to be enjoyed today because of the place that Jesus fills. There are wonderful blessings, joys, eternal things, to be enjoyed today because of the place that Jesus has. I sometimes think, as a Jew would think, that it would be a wonderful thing if Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon were all alive at one time. What an administration it would have been! Think of all these men filling their offices at one time; the Jew would have some longing for that maybe. But it would be far short, beloved, of the administration that flows from Jesus. There was imperfection in all these men but in the administration that flows from Jesus in the place of glory that He fills, what eternal joys are to be known now. You may say, Today, with all the breakdown? Yes, whatever it is, whatever pressures press in on you, they are eternally met in Jesus, the One who loves us. It says He “loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood”, Rev 1: 5. What an incentive to have confidence in Jesus, that He took up your sinful history and mine. What an incentive to trust Him! Whatever state of soul you may be in, you are never worse than when you were in your sins, and He took up your case then and He will take it up now.
What a Man to have on your side! What a Person to trust about your path!—Jesus, a divine Person, come into manhood to be the object of our affections, to be the object of the Father’s affections. Think of a divine Person coming into manhood; He came, beloved: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, 1 Tim 1: 15. He came into the world; it was His own action, His own desire, you may say. He came into the world, the world of men, where men were pleasing themselves, where men were active in the pursuit of their own interests and their own sins, He came into that world “to save sinners”. Christ Jesus, that glorious Man, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. O, beloved, what a Person to trust, that He would come into the world to save sinners. He could have spoken; he did for creation—“he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Ps 33: 9—but He came into the world to save sinners. He came into manhood’s condition, came into the form and likeness of a man to save sinners. I trust that there are none here troubled about their sins. If there is we would long to continue on this theme, that He came into the world to save sinners. O, beloved, that meant all. That was what he embraced in His attitude in coming, that He would save all men. The gospel is preached to all, God’s attitude is proclaimed to all men, because Christ Jesus came to save sinners. O, what a mission, what a task to undertake, a divine Person coming so low! You may say, Surely a man in his sins was not to be touched, lepers were not to be touched; but here was One, a divine Person, who took up man’s case and came into the world to save sinners. I trust we all trust Him about the matter of our sins. One of the most glorious things of this dispensation is that our sins are met for all eternity. No one need ever be troubled about them again; they may trouble you—I trust you will get help about that as we proceed—but no one need ever be troubled again about their sins. He, beloved, has met that question to God’s glory, to God’s eternal satisfaction. As we sing sometimes—
My sins—O the bliss of this glorious thought –
My sins—not in part, but the whole -
Were borne on the cross, and are gone evermore
(Hymn 238)
O beloved what a fact! What a joy to have in our souls that they are gone evermore! Why? Because of the One who came in to take up our case, because of the One in whose hands the administration is, spoken of in this scripture here as the Son. There is much reason for you to love Him; what reason there is to have confidence in Him, if He has taken up the matter of your sins and mine!
But here in this scripture it says the Father loves Him. You wonder at this verse coming in almost abruptly: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, It is said early in the gospel; it brings out the perfection and beauty of His Person. You may have said it should have waited until He had made atonement, you may have understood it better had it come at the close of the gospel, but here it is early, the verse is almost interjected: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. The Father’s confidence in Him brings out who He was, and He brought it out in manhood. That would be conveyed in the verse. Things, beloved, are sustained in this dispensation by Jesus, the Son. Think of things being sustained by the Son, superseding, as I said, every other dispensation, every other administration. “The Father loves the Son”: we would all like to know more of the delight the Father found in Him. It certainly was not about the sin question; that must have entered into it but it was not only that. What delight that the heavens were opened upon Him! We do not get the mount of transfiguration in this gospel, but maybe it is here. You hardly need that incident in John, every page is full of it: “The Father loves the Son”. It is commended to us all that our confidence too may be in Him. The Father has placed things in His hand. It is beautiful that the next chapter is concerning a woman, a person in her sins. It shows how the administration is working. As I said, He came into the world of men and here we have things given into His hand and the first thing He does is to adjust a woman’s affections. I believe it would show us how the Son is working, the administration that He is operating; it is not yet putting things right publicly, causing the physical wilderness to break out and be fruitful, but He is working in persons, He is working in souls to bring them into life, to bring them from an area of despondency and despair into an area of life and joy and liberty. That is how the Son is working today, and He would seek to bring you, He would seek to sustain you, in the joy of the place that He fills. Think of persons being given into the hands of the Son; think of yourself, beloved, subject of the work of God, placed in the care of the Son. That is what the Father has done. The Father has not left us to our own charges; the God who purposed to bless us before time began has, in time, placed us in the care of the Son, for He “has given all things to be in his hand”. That includes believers. Would you like your affairs anywhere else? I know we often take them elsewhere, we often think we can deal with our affairs better ourselves to our sorrow and grief; but think of your affairs, think of you, being placed in the hands of the Son. His attitude toward you never changes:
Lord, on the throne Thy love’s the same
As once upon Thy cross of shame (Hymn 15)
There is always something to revert back to in your soul history as you think about Jesus. Whatever has come into our lives, there is always something to revert back to and that is your transaction with the Saviour about your sins. And He is to be trusted about that, He is to be trusted about everything. He remains the same, He remains unchanged in His love toward you. Indeed He has gone into heaven, it says in Hebrews 9: 24, “to appear before the face of God for us”. The Lord in His movements would seek to transfer our interests from earth to heaven. That is where He has gone, “into heaven itself, now” (a fine word that) “to appear before the face of God for us”. It shows that things are to be enjoyed today. That word ‘today’ comes into Hebrews as well, this day when there is breakdown and sorrow. It says, “Today if ye will hear his voice”, chap 3: 7.
Well, beloved, things are placed in the hands of the Son. There is an idea of stability about that. I was thinking of that verse in Isaiah 33: 6; “he shall be the stability of thy times”. I think that has arrived for the believer. Stability is to come into our movements, our outlook, and the way we live here. There is certainly nothing stable around us, the world is more unstable than ever. But it says, “he shall be the stability of thy times”—not a thing, not a company, not anything else, but He, a Person, is to be the stability of our times. It is because He cannot break down, because the work that He has done stands for eternity, and the One who did the work remains in His blessedness and in His glory. He can never break down, “he shall be the stability of thy times”.
Well, in Hebrews it shows us how that works out, how things are sustained in Him where He is. It says, “he, because of his continuing for ever”. Think of that, that your blessing and mine depends on Him and His continuing for ever. How unstable things were before; if there was a good priest some life was injected into the system; but it says “he, because of his continuing for ever”. Beloved, there is never a moment when He is not alive to hear your cry, ready to hear your voice. He, because of his continuing for ever, has the priesthood unchangeable. “Whence also he is able to save completely those who approach by him to God”. That covers the matter of your initial sins, it covers all your life here, that “he is able to save completely”. What a Saviour that He is able! Moses was willing, Paul was willing, but here is the only One that is able and willing. O, what a Man for our trust! May we be helped to see that there is no other to be trusted. I think lessons in our lifetime have taught us that there is no other to be trusted like Him: “he is able to save completely”. You say, you do not know my case. He does, He knows it better than you. We make life very complex, at least I do, but “he is able to save completely”. Would that I believed more the simple words of Scripture. It does not say except such and such a case: “he is able to save completely those who approach by him to God”. Maybe you have not approached with your problem. Sometimes it is the last thing we do because of lack of confidence in Him. To revert again to that matter when your sins so pressed upon you, there was no one else to help you. Are you as anxious to turn to Him today about life’s problems? Maybe you have felt you are able to deal with your problems yourself; He is the only One who is able, “able to save completely those who approach by him to God”.
It is priesthood that would deliver us from anything that might ensnare us, that we might be serviceable to God. In chapter 8 it says, “We have such a one ... who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens”. He is the first one able to go in and sit down. Look through the Scriptures and see if ever a priest was able to go in and sit down. He was far too busy, there was so much to do in so little a time, he might have died very soon; but here is One who is able, He has gone in and He has sat down. Beloved, He has plenty of time for you. I would just like to convey that simple impression from the verse. Having sat down He has plenty of time to hear you if you will approach. It means that you may have to leave certain things; you may have to leave the company of your family and go into your own room and shut the door. Do it, approach. I think approach involves that you rise up and leave certain things, you shut the door on certain matters and draw near and you find that there is One in there who has sat down and He is ready today, at this very moment, to hear your case: “he is able to save completely”—able. Do not put it off to another day, do not wait till the glory, as we use that expression, but go in now, approach any time, leave certain things and draw near, and you will find He is ready to save you completely. A person who is saved completely is set up in triumph. What you find as you go in is that He has your name on His breast. What a thing to go in and find you have a place inside! You are troubled about all these things in the world, about all the circumstances in your path; then you go inside and see your name on His breast. What a change! Asaph was troubled but he went in and what a view he had!—see Ps 73. I think we all need a change of view. We are seeing breakdown and feeling sorrow, and we should feel these things, but you will never bear them rightly unless you go inside and see your name on His breast. The names are on His shoulder too but they are also on His breast—your name. A place is there that belongs to you; it will soon be actually enjoyed, but as you go in you get some foretaste of the actuality of it, you get the enjoyment of it now. The actuality of it will be in another body I know, but I think the foretaste of it is enjoyed as you go in. “We have such a one high priest”—“such a one”—One who is able to deal with everything; He has gone in and sat down and is ready to hear you as you draw near.
Well, as I have said, what a thing to go in and see your name! Have you ever done it? It is a practical thing, nothing fanciful; it is something that is real to the believer, to go in and find you have a place inside. It changes your ambition about the things of the world, it changes your desires about things here, as you find you have a place inside that belongs to you alone. Your name is always there, day or night, whether you are feeling happy or sad. The Lord said to the disciples “Rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, Luke 10: 20. Think of it always being there. It is because there is such a One there that is able to bear them. You say, Me in my sorrow, me in my state? Yes, there is such a One able to bear you up as you should be, He is able to bear you up as God has thought about you. That is how much the Father loved you that He put you in the care of Jesus. He did not in this sense put you under the protection of the British government, or anyone else, He put you under the care of Jesus—into the hands of His Son. And there you find that your name is on His breast. As you face exercises through the week, the disappointments at work or whatever it may be, what a thing to revert to, that your name is there, sustained on His breast and never to be removed. We need to go in and enjoy it. Asaph saw something there that changed his whole life. I ask you again, Have you ever done it? It is nothing fanciful, it is blessedly known by those who have.
I would encourage you to draw near. “Let us approach”: Paul uses that expression. He says we have boldness to enter in; because of the place that we have in there we have a title to be there. It says, “boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus”. There is boldness because of what He has done, and there is liberty because our names are written on His breast and on His shoulder. “Let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith”. It means that you draw near in the worth of Jesus. Whatever you may feel about yourself, it is not the Spirit that would make you feel bad; He would make you feel what Jesus has done for you, He would point you to what the Saviour has accomplished in shedding His blood for your sins and He would point you to the place you have in glory, your name written, indelibly inscribed on His breast. So it says, “Let us approach”, washed and sprinkled; that was all that anyone ever needed. He is taking up the other system and he says you can go right in past the laver, past all that was needed, the burnt-offering altar: all these things the Jew would understand, but for us it means that there is a Man in there with my name on His breast, therefore I have a right to go in at any time. I think someone said that, that he liked to go in at any time. It is open, beloved, because of the One who sustains things.
I am saying these things that we may not put them off to a day that is yet to come. The actuality will then be, but I think, as I said, we do ourselves a disservice by putting things off into too distant a time. They are for now. The Father has given things into the hands of the Son now, and Paul is saying that we should approach now, and what we find inside is that there is a place there that belongs to us. We have to come out, but as we come out we have to hold fast: “Let us hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering”. You do not need to come out to put everything right, He has done that for you; as you have been in there and seen your name on His breast things are settled for you. O, what a day it is, beloved, to be in today, when things are settled! Until this dispensation sin was never a settled matter, but in this dispensation things are settled because things are placed in the hands of the Son. That woman in John 4 became settled. She had been very unsettled, but before the Lord left her she was a very settled person; she says, “Come, see a man”. That is how persons would come out: they invite persons to come in. What a service to do to one another, as one and another gets down, to invite one another to come in! “Come, see a man”. You say, But my problems! Leave them, beloved, shut the door for the moment, come inside and see what Christ is sustaining, and you are included in what He is sustaining for the Father’s eternal joy. May it be your joy, too.
So he says, “Let us hold fast”; it is all you have to do. As you come out problems may beset you; “Let us hold fast”. To what? Hold fast to what you have seen inside. You get your own impressions, beloved; cultivate them, do not let them be easily taken away. I would encourage all to get impressed inside and do not let it be easily blown away. How ready the enemy is to snatch and to becloud them, but let these impressions remain in your heart; have confidence in the Spirit that he will sustain those impressions you have received of Jesus with your name inside, that you belong there where He is. Count on the Spirit that you might hold fast to that impression. “Let us hold fast”, it says, “unwavering”. You say, How can I do that? Well, I am thankful for these words in brackets: “he is faithful who has promised”. That scene where Jesus has gone for me is unassailable. Here I am assailed by many things, but “he is faithful who has promised”. Let us believe Him, beloved. Let us have confidence in the Spirit here to enable us to hold fast; let us trust Him in these matters and exercises. Jesus on high sustains us there with our names on His breast; another divine Person equal in Godhead glory is here that we might hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering. Let us trust Him, let us have no longer confidence in the flesh. Paul says in that beautiful verse: “we are the circumcision ... do not trust in flesh”; we “worship by the Spirit of God”, Phil 3: 3. What a description of a believer! May it be true increasingly of us, that we boast in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in flesh, and worship by the Spirit of God.
Then in verse 35 it says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense”. Do not treat things lightly, beloved. We mourn over some who seem to have cast away their confidence, some who have endured, as these earlier verses speak of, some who have borne much suffering. I can think of many who endured and were more faithful than I, stood out against trade unions, stood out about many things, suffered persecutions, and where are they? It may be in some measure they have cast away their confidence, been diverted as to their view. “Let us hold fast”. It reminds me of that shipwreck in Acts 27. They were not asked to build another boat, they just held on to whatever they could; some on bits of wood, some on one thing and another, they came safely to land. They held fast to some impression, some lifesaving word, and they came safe to land, not to build another boat, but to rejoice in the love that brought them all safe to land. “Cast not away”: it means that it is possible that divine things do not have the taste or the appeal for me they used to have. “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense”. Maybe divine things are not as appealing to me as they used to be, my confidence in the Spirit is not as great as it might be, I have trusted myself, maybe I have trusted other things. The world is full of other things to trust, means to work out things, but as we have said, the only One that is able is—Jesus, “able to save completely”. If we think of any of the world’s arrangements, they are all very narrow, they cater for one section or one thing or another, but “he is able to save completely”. O, what a Saviour He is! what a Man He is in glory, bearing you up at this very moment, bearing you there in the glory that is really yours. So he says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense. For ye have need of endurance”; he is writing to saints that were upset about many things like many of us, but “ye have need of endurance”.
Well, beloved, may we be helped not to cast away our confidence, but may the result of our speaking together be that our confidence is increased in the right Person, our confidence be in Him. It says here, “For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay”. Is that part of your confidence? ls that part of your hope, that “he that comes will come, and will not delay”? What a time it will be, as we have said, but let us not delay it. ln the meantime things are secured in Him; they are to be enjoyed, they are to be known to faith and they are not to be cast away, but our confidence in Him is to be increased. Paul seems to emphasise it: “yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay”. That is His attitude, beloved, the attitude of that One that we have been speaking about is that He is coming and will not delay, He will come to transfer us from enjoying things by the Spirit and in faith, to transform us into bodies like to His own body, where things will be in actuality. But it says that in the meantime “the just shall live by faith”.
Well, may we be encouraged not to treat these things lightly. The tendency to draw back is in all our souls and there is a very solemn word as to persons who draw back; “my soul does not take pleasure in him”—a sobering note, beloved, applying to persons that treat these things we have been speaking of lightly. What is established for faith in Jesus is to be enjoyed now. What a realm it is! May we be among those who are going on, that are trusting in Him, and may our confidence in Him at this time be increased, for His Name’s sake.
LONDON
15th January 1977