"HIS BRETHREN".
“HIS BRETHREN”.
Now I turn to Hebrews 2: 11 - “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. We
†Though being sons is the fulness of grace, we could not be sons but in being ‘of God,’ that is, new creation; yet many christians assume to know God as Father who do not see new creation.
[p. 390] have come not only to reconciliation, and that we have the Holy Spirit but we are in Christ; and now you must own that you are on entirely new ground. Next, and it is very important, we are His companions, His brethren. We are associated with Him who has been refused by this world, and is no longer here. I press this much, because here many christians have failed; they have assumed to be God’s people according to the grace which will be given to His earthly people. For instance, they appropriate such passages as those in Ezekiel 36: 25, 26. Many devout christians talk today of a clean heart. I do not look for a clean heart, but that the Spirit of God should keep my heart for Christ. God will hereafter have a people on the earth who will have the law written in their hearts; but that is not said of those who are the present companions of Christ. The root or origin of all the perversion in christendom is that Christ’s rejection on the earth has not been accepted. I have been in it myself; and I plainly see that all the religious systems abroad assume to honour Christ here, and ignore the fact that He has been rejected. If Christ has been rejected here, He is a great Priest in heaven, and those who are His are of His order. In the type the goat, as well as the bullock was burnt without the camp; man has been removed from the eye of God in the cross, and God can bring in any order He likes. Hence I insist that christians are not of the earthly order, but of the order of Christ - His brethren inside the veil:
‘In Him we stand, a heav’nly band,
Where He Himself is gone’. (12:2)
As we read, “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit” (John 12: 24); the “much fruit” is His brethren, we are of His order. And therefore in the epistle to the Hebrews we find that we are the consecrated [p. 391] company; we answer to the sons of Aaron; Aaron offered the bullock for himself and for his house. Aaron and his sons are a type of the church. If you apprehend your relationship to Christ you are of His order, companions of Him who has been rejected here, but has gone within the veil. “Where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest” (Hebrews 6: 20); and we are His brethren. When everything has failed in Israel, “the children which God has given” Him come out now for signs and wonders; and being rejected by man, He has sat down at the right hand of God. God cannot now sanction nor support anyone upon this earth but Christ. Why? Because as He was rejected here by man, God could not honour the man who rejected His Son. If you are not of Christ, do not expect God’s support. But you are of Him, you belong to Him who is not here, you are His companions. Therefore we read, “whose house are we”; we are inside the veil, in the holiest of all. I hope I have made it clear to you that we are His brethren.