THE MEANS BY WHICH WE ARE KEPT
[p. 26] THE MEANS BY WHICH WE ARE KEPT
Hebrews 4: 11 - 16; 1 John 2: 1 - 5; Numbers 16: 48; Numbers 17: 1 - 13
My purpose is to bring before you two thoughts, that is the word of God and the priesthood of Christ in their practical value to us, for there is no doubt that we are kept by their means down here. If we were not kept, undoubtedly we should turn away. We are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”. Divine things would lose their power in our souls and the world and the flesh would prove too strong for us. There used to be taught the doctrine of final perseverance. That may be all well. It is a good thing to keep on to the end, but final perseverance is not enough, it depends too much on human effort, and, as against all that we have to meet, human effort is not enough; we are kept, and every christian is conscious of being kept, and I am conscious that if I were not kept I should not continue in the faith.
Now, what God uses are the two things spoken of in the latter part of Hebrews 4, that is, the word of God and the priesthood of Christ. I want to bring before you the practical bearing of each to every one of us. In 1 John 2, we get the thought of His word, “Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected”. Then it adds, “hereby know we that we are in him”; priesthood is available to us because we are in Him. If we were not in Him, it would not be so. In the epistle to the Hebrews Christ is presented to us in a twofold light, that is, as apostle and as high priest, fulfilling the type of Moses and Aaron. In the calling and profession of Israel, Moses was the apostle and Aaron the high priest. God did not let Moses be both, but He chose a brother of Moses, the next distinguished man — Aaron — to be high priest, and there were the two, the apostle and the high priest. Now, both offices are combined in Christ. When [p. 27] they were distinct, the high priest was not equal to the apostle; Aaron was not equal to Moses. Aaron broke down sadly in making the golden calf; and Moses was faithful in all God’s house. When we come to the antitype, to Christ, the priest is equal to the apostle, for both offices are combined in one person; that is the truth in the epistle to the Hebrews.
In regard to the apostle, the point is that God speaks by him; on the other hand the idea of priest is that he represents the people before God. This was true in the case of Aaron. In the passage I read in Numbers we read that he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stayed. He made intercession on behalf of the people. Now, in regard to the apostle, whatever God speaks by him has reference to all men. Christ is Apostle, and what God speaks by Him has reference to all men, but I could not say that Christ is high priest for all men. God has set forth Jesus to be a mercy-seat through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness toward all. God addresses Himself now to all men. He “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”, but the application of priesthood is more limited; Christ represents us in the presence of God. I could not say that Christ is high priest for all, for He is priest for those who are in Him. I think priesthood is near akin to the truth in Romans 7, we are “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. The One to whom we are married is priest on our behalf in the presence of God, and we get the good of His priesthood.
I will speak first in regard to the word of God. What I understand by the word of Christ in 1 John 2 is the revelation of God. We get the word of Christ put in contrast to the word of Moses in the gospel of John. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”, it goes on to say. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. The word [p. 28] of Christ is the declaration of God, and hence it says “Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected”.
Now in Hebrews 4: 11 - 13, we have the admonition, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do”. Here we get the word of God, that is the revelation of Himself. I take it that in the highest sense Christ is the word of God, but the word of God is in the believer by the Spirit. The word of God is presented as testimony to all men, but in the believer the word of God is living. I do not understand the word of God to be living except in the believer. When it comes into contact with man prepared for it by the work of God, that is, born again, then the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Nothing can be more vitally important to us than the word of God in us, because it is the revelation of God in His mind in regard to us, and therefore the effect is to put everything in place in us, and you cannot get things put in place in any one except by the word of God. To begin with, the word of God makes God known to us in His grace, and, therefore, God has a right in regard to us that we should be here for His will. Then the word of God makes Christ known to us as Head, so that we should be guided by Christ who is wisdom to us. You get that thought in the last verses of 1 Corinthians 1, “who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. Christ is to us wisdom, that we should be guided by Him. My point is that when the word of God is living in the believer, the effect is that everything is regulated by it; then there is [p. 29] the apprehension of every relationship which God has established, and we seek to walk according to the mind of God; hence one can understand the expression we have in John’s epistle, “in him verily is the love of God perfected”, that is that everything is put in place in the heart of the believer by the word of God, and the love of God is perfected there; so if the word of God regulates everything in me I love God, and I love Christ, and I love fellow christians, and I love my wife and my children, and am in that way faithful in every relationship in which God has been pleased to put me. That is a very great point.
I venture to say in any man’s mind in whom the word of God is not, things are more or less in confusion. There is something which has not a proper place with that man; for it is the revelation of God and of His mind that puts everything in order in the heart of man.
There is another effect of the word of God; it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart; you will find you will be often put sorely to the proof by the word of God. I can understand it because we are surrounded by many things which are subtle. Very often there is a tendency to give undue importance to something which is not of great importance. That is why the apostle says at the end of John’s epistle, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”. A child may be an idol or a house or furniture or a business. If they come in to maintain any sort of supremacy in the heart and to displace what is due to God they become idols and we are admonished to keep ourselves from idols. We are to look to it that everything is regulated by the word of God, and what is not according to God is detected by His word. If a man is getting on in business there is a danger of business becoming an idol to him. If a man gets his family too much before him there is a danger of his family becoming an idol to him. Idols may be found in every direction, and they are detected by the word of God. It will detect in you all that is contrary to God and His will, and the point is so to [p. 30] give heed to it as that everything in us may be regulated according to God’s mind. I believe that to be a point of primary importance. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow”. It makes a subtle distinction, “and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do”. The word of God would be ineffective in us except by the Spirit of God. He maintains the word in its power in us, and the word of God is the eye of God upon us, so that we walk here under His eye. I think we ought to be prepared for that, to be conscious as far as one can be, that we do not cherish anything which would contravene any obligation under which God has seen fit to place us.
I pass on to speak of the other means. It says, “Seeing then, that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession”. It is evident that the object of priesthood is that we may hold fast our profession. The Spirit of God assumes that we may and will be exposed to one thing and another down here which will test us, and in spite of all, we are to hold fast our profession. I will give you an instance. Peter professed Christ, but under pressure he denied Christ, and yet in spite of his failure Peter was to hold fast his profession, and to that end the Lord prayed for him, and the intercession of the Lord on behalf of Peter was efficacious. Now, the same thing holds good in regard to us. It has been said that the object of priesthood is that we should not sin; I am speaking of sin in the extreme way, which is turning away from Christ; that is sin in Hebrews. The word of God would not make so much of sin in the detail of life. It is a wonderful thing that we are in Christ; we are represented in the presence of God; we have a great high priest that is passed through the heavens. Where do you think the [p. 31] high priest has gone to? He has gone in to represent His people in the presence of God, just as Aaron bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his shoulders and his heart, so Christ has gone in to God to represent His people before God. We in England think it might be a great matter to be represented at Court. A hackneyed expression is, ‘A friend at Court’, but the christian is represented at Court, he has a Friend at Court, who has passed through the heavens, gone right in to God to represent His people there. We were speaking some time ago of the great gain of being married to Him that we might bring forth fruit unto God; if it be true that we are in Him by the Spirit, His Word is in us, and He is our High Priest. He has gone into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, and as I said before, you have a representative in the very highest place. Every christian has the right to claim Christ as his representative. But in the world I might have a representative at Court in some great person who would patronise me but had never entered into the circumstances, difficulties and trials to which I am exposed. That might very likely be; a man in comparatively humble position might have a friend at Court, but it is unlikely that friend could enter into the circumstances which surround the humble man in the world. Now in regard to Christ it says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. The fact is, that great as is our representative, and He could not be greater, because He is Jesus the Son of God, He has been in the very humble circumstances in which we are found here; hence He can sympathise with our infirmities having been exposed to the very trials to which we are. You will find the Lord when here continually suffering; it says, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”. He healed people of every kind of sickness and infirmity, but He was Himself suffering all the time. We find the Lord weeping at the grave of Lazarus in [p. 32] seeing the power that death had over the spirit of man. He entered into the circumstances in which we are found, hence when you think of Christ at the right hand of God you think of One who is capable of sympathising with our infirmities. Infirmities are not exactly sins. If you have a sick relative, a sick mother, or a sick child, or a sick husband, you come into infirmity; you feel yourself weak. Then when people find themselves in adverse circumstances in the world infirmity comes out; and I might speak in regard to other things, for we are exposed in the world to tribulation; the Lord said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation”, but He who is now at the right hand of God is not exposed to these things, but He has passed through them, and gained experience of the circumstances in which we are, and hence we have a high priest at the right hand of God who can sympathise with our infirmities.
A strong word is used in regard of the Lord, He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. I have thought that every miracle the Lord did was a trial to Him. If you had power to work a miracle it would not be a trial to you. When He put His hand on the leper and healed him, it was a trial to Him, because He felt what the leper was under; so too when He raised the dead. He had power to do it, but He felt what it was for man to be under the pressure of death. So too He entered into the humble circumstances in which we are found that He might be able to sympathise with us, while we are still exposed to trial. So that he can sympathise with our infirmities. Now, at the right hand of God, in spite of the greatness of His position and of Himself, His heart can be sympathetic with His people down here. If I am a husband, my heart is sympathetic with my wife. Every true husband is. We are said to be married to another, to Him that is raised from the dead, so the heart of Christ is sympathetic with those who are in Him, and that is an immense point. The practical bearing of it comes out in the admonition that follows, “Let us therefore come [p. 33] boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. This means that there is some point in the universe where grace is on the throne. I think one’s own heart has to find where that is. Grace is in the ascendant, it is on the throne. We find in the Old Testament the thought of the throne of iniquity. That is, there will be a point in the world where iniquity will be on the throne; but there is a point in the universe where grace is on the throne. As the apostle says in Romans 5, “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign”, and grace is reigning. Now we need not to search about for it, but to have the truth in the heart; when that is the case you have not much difficulty in finding the throne of grace. It is largely connected with the position of Christ at the right hand of God, interceding there for us. The throne of grace subsists and I come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That is the proof of the sympathy and intercession of Christ at the right hand of God. You do not get turned away from the throne of grace. You do not get your petitions rejected. Your petition may not be answered at the moment and in the way you expect, and the reason is that God is wiser than we are; but in coming to the throne of grace you are not rejected but obtain mercy, that is consideration of your weakness and of the circumstances in which you are, and find “grace to help in time of need”.
May God give us to know the value of the two things; the word of God, which is the practical link with Christ, and the intercession of Christ, which is the proof and evidence of the love which He has to us, so that we hold fast our profession.