Gooding, David: 4 - On to Perfection

So now let us take our Bibles in hand, shall we, and prepare ourselves for our meditation this evening by reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews and chapter five. We shall read beginning at verse eleven of chapter five down into chapter six. Of whom, in the context this refers to the king priest Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing. When by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God. And are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for full-grown men, even those who, by reason of youth, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Wherefore, let us cease to speak of the first principles of Christ and press on until perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptism and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away. It is impossible to renew them again until repentance. Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. The land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them who, for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God. But if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse whose end is to be burned. Now, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, so we thus speak. May God help us in our study to understand his word. Our study this evening, well, shall be beset by two practical difficulties. The first is that tonight's study will involve us more than others in some rigorous, detailed thinking. And the hour is late, and there are many lights in the chamber. And I cannot forget that in ancient times, when Paul held forth at length in an upper room lit by many oiled lights, a certain Eutychus, being borne down by sleep, succumbed and fell out of the window and was killed. So now, if you feel, in the course of these rigorous pursuits, a sort of a dreariness and a weariness and a drowsiness falling upon you, beware of that danger. And if to avoid it, you would find it wise to stand up instead of sitting down, do see, well, you have my full permission so to do. If, on the other hand, you like to sit down and listen with your eyes shut, I give you permission to do that. In my professional life, I often had to attend lectures late in the afternoon or evening. I found the strain of keeping my eyes open so tremendous, it took away from my energy for listening to what was being said. So I devised this technique of listening with my eyes shut, and I can recommend it to you. You're afraid to listen with your eyes shut, in case you should fall asleep altogether. There too I can help you, give in your name now at this moment, and when I see you falling completely asleep and beginning to snore, I will call out your name and rescue you from that awful state. More than that I couldn't possibly do for you. The second practical difficulty is of another type. It is that you may well feel, at least at the beginning of our study, that much of what is being said is irrelevant to you, that it doesn't help you personally in your practical life and experience. It happens so with the certain parts of the Word of God. What it will do for you, if you are prepared to work hard, is to make you a Christian with sympathetic hearts, able to help, to teach, to pastor, to guide, and to strengthen certain types of people that you will sooner or later come across. We mustn't be selfish in our reading of the Word of God, must we? So often we come, and what we're looking for is something for me, for, for my enjoyment, for my immediate profit. And if it doesn't come out that way at once, we get tired of the study. We are called upon to follow our blessed Lord and to think also of others and their needs. And though the scripture tonight may not immediately meet our need, let me assure you at once there are thousands, if not millions, on the face of this globe who will desperately need to hear the things that we shall be discussing this evening. And if God were to bless us with a ministry to those people, we should then praise God for all eternity for our study here this evening. The topic of our study, therefore, is the vigorous challenge of God's word that we shall press on to perfection. Our first task, of course, is to ask what God's word means by the word perfection, when it exhorts us now to press on toward perfection. Now, we probably are more familiar with the writings of our dear brother Paul than we are the writers of the Hebrews. At least many people tell me that they find Hebrews a very difficult book. They are more at home with Paul's writing. And in a famous passage, it's Philippians chapter three it is, Paul likewise talks about this matter of pressing on to perfection. Let me read you what he says. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal and to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. What Paul is talking about by perfection there is Christian maturity, not, of course, sinless perfection. The Bible nowhere holds out any promise to us as believers that we shall, before the Lord comes, be able to attain to a state where we never sin again. Never sinning again is a state that we shall not reach until the Lord comes and take us home to glory, and we are made perfectly like him. What Paul is talking about, however, is pressing on to spiritual maturity. When we first receive the Savior, we are born again, as Peter reminds us, and we are like babies, and as babies, Peter says, we are to desire earnestly the sincere milk of the word. I have often observed the enormous self-centeredness of babies, haven't you? Doesn't matter what guests are present, if baby needs his milk, he's going to have his milk, and if mother doesn't give it his milk forthwith, it will shrink the place down and refuse to shut up, uh, embarrassing mother galore. Never mind, mother, it's got to have its milk, it's going to have its milk, and it has to have it, have it it does. You'll see that is nature, isn't it? It's got to have it. For a baby, there's almost only one thing in life it must have milk, for it's got to grow. And if there's any young believers here and you so long for your milk, I give you full permission to treat your heads off to your elders. You must have, tell them that, the milk of the word and be fed with food convenient for you, because your desperate need as spiritual youngsters is to grow. That is important. Be born again of the Spirit of God, to be a babe in the family of God, a baby in the family of God, and not to grow. That is a sad design. We are to grow up into the full stature of the measure of the Son of God. We have to be companions of the Son of God for the whole of eternity. We have to join him in his reign over the whole universe. Christ is not proposing to surround himself with administrators in eternity that are babies that have not grown up. We have a desperate need and an urgency beyond all else to grow up, and we do that by desiring the sincereness of the word. So now we hear Paul saying in this chapter that he was justified. That's how he began. He cast away trust in his own righteousness, that he might receive the righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And he was justified, and he had peace with God. He was born again, member of the family of God. He didn't leave it there. We'll hear him now say, brethren, I don't count myself yet to have attained. I've not yet got to full spiritual maturity, but I press on, on towards perfection, in the sense of on towards spiritual adulthood. That is very important. I couldn't stress it too much. Peter talks to us in his first epistle, his second epistle, chapter one. He says, now you have been born again, made partakers of the divine nature, but now by all means use every energy you have of mind and body and soul to add to your faith the Christian virtues to grow up, for thus shall be ministered to you richly the entrance into the eternal kingdom. See, this world is temporary. This is the world where change is possible. It's not going to last forever. There is an eternal world, and the fact is that how we behave and what we do in this world as believers is going to affect our status in the next. If you add these things to your faith, says Peter, thus doing, you'll not stumble, so shall be ministered to you an abundant entrance into the kingdom, the eternal kingdom. Do you notice that Peter makes a difference between just entering the eternal kingdom and having that entrance ministered to you abundantly, richly. Peter puts the emphasis on the adverb, not just an entrance ministered, but the entrance ministered to you richly, abundantly. All believers will enter the eternal kingdom, and the conditions and preparations are spelled out clearly in Holy Scripture. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that is, in the blood of the Lamb, that they might have right to the tree of life and ca- enter through the gates of the city. All believers shall enter solely on the ground of the redeeming blood of Christ. In that sense, all are equal. But whereas all will enter, some will have the entrance ministered to them richly. You say, what is the difference between just entering and having the entrance ministered rich? Well, I don't know whether you in these distant parts of this world, you think it's the center of the world, don't you? So let me correct myself. Here at the center of the world, um, whether you ever have birthday parties or Christmas parties and things. Some people do, some don't. Well, I ask you to imagine this Christmas party, you see. And present at the Christmas party is, uh, hmm, 11 months old, year perhaps, thirteen-month-old. months old. He's sitting in his high chair. And then there's a boy, he's about, uh, nine, you'll see. And then there's a sweet young thing of seventeen. and then there's mum and dad. Now you are to get the point. They're all at the party, and they're all enjoying it immensely. The ele- eleven-month-old is sitting in his high chair near the table. He's managed to get hold of a big soup spoon. He's dipped it in the cream, and he's pouring it all over his head. He's having a marvelous time, enjoying it immensely, does he? From seven o'clock, mum takes him, uh, up to bed and puts him to sleep. He enjoys it immensely. He's not conscious of having missed anything. Nine-year-old isn't putting us the cream over his head. He's sitting on the floor. He got an electronic machine thing. His dad is down there playing with it. Dad is enjoying it more than he is, but never mind. Dads are like that. And, uh, he's also, uh, he's having a whale of a time with this, uh, uh, great, marvelous electronic wonder. Uh, now and again, uh, eleven months old tears over the edge of his high chair and looks. Mystery to him. You see anything in it? Prefers clean. Why? Because he hasn't grown, that's why. You have to grow up considerably to understand the mysteries of that electronic affair. He doesn't know what is missing, of course. Well, then there's sweet seventeen. She, of course, isn't putting the cream all over her head, of course not. But she isn't sitting on the floor either, playing trains or whatever it is. She is sitting on a large sofa, at the other end of which there's a gallant, handsome young gentleman. They're talking. A nine-year-old on the carpet, he can't make out how anybody in their right mind would sit on the sofa just talking to anybody, when they could be sitting on the floor playing trains, you'll see. He hasn't a ghost of a notion what's going on in that conversation. Why not? Well, he hasn't grown up, that's why. So he doesn't know what he's missing. Higher form of life, he'll discover, but he doesn't know what is, what he's missing. He's enjoying himself as a fool. It's a dead content. Mum and Dad are there. They love to see the little cat in the high chair enjoying himself, and his nibs on the floor with Dad. And the sweet seventeen actually recalls years ago for them when certain things like that happened to them. They're beyond that now. They have interests and things that even the sweet seventeen-year-old isn't aware of. Simple illustration. While all believers will enter the eternal kingdom, the eternal kingdom isn't just like a big auditorium or something. It isn't just a place. It is an experience. And the measure of our experience and our potential and our capacity to enjoy the wonders of eternity will depend on whether we have grown or not. And if that is so, you can understand the urgency in Peter's tongue and in his voice when he says, look, I, I want to remind you of this. And when I'm gone, you'll re- somebody will say, do you remember Peter? And you'll say, yes, I remember Peter, always harping on the same thing as dear old Peter, always shaking us by the shoulders and saying, oh dear, are you getting ready for eternity? Are you preparing yourself for the eternal kingdom? Are you making sure that you're adding to your faith so that when you enter, it will not just be entry, but an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom? Good old Peter. Because if it is true that our growth here will depend our capa- will, will determine our capacity to enjoy eternity. And obviously growing, pressing on to maturity is a number one necessity. So Peter and Paul are both talking about that kind of thing. When we come to the writer to the Hebrews, and we give some close attention to what he is saying, when he says, let us press on to perfection, he is talking about something rather different. Again, he's not talking about sinless perfection. He is talking, however, of leaving the babyhood of Judaism and reaching forward, crossing over into the adulthood of Christianity. That's what he is talking about. Not at two different stages of Christianity, babyhood in spiritual life in Christianity, followed by adulthood. He's talking about Judaism, which to him is the babyhood of, of religion, and moving over into Christianity, full-blown Christianity, which is adulthood, maturity. We can check that that is what he means if we care now to take our Bibles in hand once more, that saves any tendency of going to sleep, and look at how the word is used in subsequent chapters. Look, for instance, at chapter eleven, uh, seven if you will, and verse eleven. He says in verse eleven, now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people have received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Mel- uh, of Aaron? He's saying that the priesthood in Judaism of the order of Levi could not bring anybody to perfection. And he emphasizes that again in verse nineteen of chapter seven, as you see, he says, for the law made nothing perfect. Therefore, it had to be put aside. You'll see at once, he's not talking about two Christian priesthoods, one Christian priesthood which is a bit immature, and another Christian priesthood which is perfect. There aren't two Christian priesthoods. He's talking about the priesthood in Judaism, which belonged to the tribe of Levi, and he's talking about the Christ- pri- priesthood in Christianity, which is the priesthood of our Lord. The Levitical priesthood could not make you perfect. We shall see in what senses that was true. Christ can. That is the glory of his priesthood. And the writer is going to exhort these readers now that they take a great, what for them will be a great step, a very difficult step for many of them. They've grown up in Judaism with all its sacred memories and the family ties that wove them into Jewish society, with the synagogue and the temple being the very lifeblood of Judaism, with all the traditions that go around it. And he's going to invite them, urge them to leave their Judaism, because it could not make them perfect, and to step forward into full-blown Christianity. For them, that would be a difficult and very often a painful step. Or again, let's look at another verse, chapter eight and verse two. He talks about our Lord who has now sat down on the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. Again, chapter nine and verse eleven: But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, to the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not, that is to say, not of this creation. So the writer is talking about two tabernacles, but you'll see it once, won't you? He's not talking about two Christian tabernacles, the one Christian tabernacle being, uh, imperfect and the other one being the true tabernacle. There are not two Christian tabernacles. He's talking about the tabernacle in Judaism, which is a mere copy of things in the heavens, and served its purpose as a copy of things in the heavens for many centuries. That was imperfect. It wasn't the real thing. It was merely made with hands, a copy in shadow of heavenly things, not the true, that is the real thing. A mere copy. And he's contrasting that tabernacle in Judaism with the greater and more perfect tabernacle into which our blessed Lord has entered. Our Lord has entered not into some tabernacle of this creation made with hands, with bits of gold and silver and tapestry work, beautiful as that may have been. Oh, dear me, no. The Son of God, for his temple in which he ministers, will need something infinitely superior to that. He's not entered into a tabernacle made with hands. He's entered into heaven itself, now to appear in God, in the presence of God for us. And the glories and the wonder of that eternal tabernacle would defy and beggar our distance. We shall see it one day. Into that tabernacle our Lord has already entered, and in the wonder of his salvation, he's made it possible for us in spirit already to enter into the holiest of all, in that heavenly tabernacle. One day he shall take us there bodily. It is the great dwelling place of God that God has been designing from all eternity, in which the almighty ad- uh, infinite God is determined to have a tabernacle, a dwelling place inside his creation, such as God can come into his own creation to dwell in that tabernacle. Not a tabernacle made with hands, it is composed of Christ and all who have put their faith in him. The writer is in process of urging these Jews, brought up with that little tabernacle and temple, which in their eyes was so magnificent, its gold sparkling, its architecture wonderful. He's asking them now to be so bold as to leave it. Oh, leaving that for them would be like drawing out their eyeteeth out of their s- out of their gum. He's asking them to leave it. Come out to the great reality, which is the heavenly tabernacle of God. And again, we could look, if you like, to chapter ten verse one. Again, we're pursuing this idea, what does he mean by perfection? He says in chapter ten verse one, um for the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, they can never, with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw near. He's talking about the sacrifices. He began by talking about the priests and the priesthood. Then he turned to talking about the tabernacle, dwelling place of God. Now he talks about the sacrifices by which men draw near to God. And he says, you know, the law with all its shadows, pictures, its sacrifices could never make anybody perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Whereas the sacrifice of Christ can. Look at verse fourteen: For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Two lots of sacrifices then. But as you will see, it's not a question of two different sets of sacrifices within Christianity, and new converts start with the one set of sacrifices, and then when they've grown a bit, they go on to another set of sacrifices. Of course not. There are not two sets of sacrifices in Christianity. Talking about the sacrifices in Judaism and contrasting them with the sacrifice of Christ. And he points out that Judaism's sacrifices could not make you perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Whereas the glorious fact is that the sacrifice of Christ makes you perfect. By one offering, he has perfected them that are sanctified. The writer once more is urging his readers, brought up in Judaism as they were, urging them now to take this bold step and to leave those ancient sacrifices, as well as the temple and the priesthood, to take the step and cross over with deliberation to the great sacrifice of Christ, put their trust in that, and that only. That's what he means, therefore, when he urges these people in those terms, let us press on to perfection. And perhaps you're, uh, uh, trying to say, well, thank you very much, Mr. Preacher, can we go home now? Because you see, that's very interesting, but we never were Jews, you see. So if that's what it means, pressing on to perfection to leave Judaism, well, we never were in it, so we've no need, thank you very much, to leave Judaism. And is the perfection Christian what Christ has done for us in the gospel? Yes, we've already got that, so why not just sing another hymn and go home? Why do we need to bother with all the small types in those long chapters seven, eight, nine, and uh ten? Well, perhaps you don't need to do it for yourself. But as I said at the beginning, God calls us not always to be absolutely self-centered. I'm all right if I enjoy it, but if it doesn't, uh, fill me with joy and I don't enjoy it, I'm not into it. God calls us to be witnesses and preachers, teachers and pastors who turn to help other people. And I assure you there are millions of people on the face of the earth, and they're not just Jews either, that are in desperate need of hearing this particular message and the glorious facts on which it is founded. Learn it, young folks, if you can. Learn it, older folks who already haven't get hold of it, so that when you come alongside someone who needs this message, you'll know how to present it to them. It will require a certain amount of argument. There are those who tell you that you shouldn't argue with anybody. What they mean is you shouldn't, uh, get into a quarrel. Argue you should. Our Lord was constantly arguing, and so was Paul. We need to be expert, don't we? In helping such folks by knowing what scriptures to tell them and what explanations to give them, that we might see them pass from babyhood to full Christian gospel. You say, who are these people? Are you talking about Jews? Well, yes, if you like, Jews. Orthodox Jews in particular would need to hear this or find them very tough customers. They'll find this very difficult to learn. They won't like you for it, but if you have a concern for them and have opportunity, yes, they need to hear it. And if you're going to convince them, you'll need not just the New Testament, will you? Only Jews. You'll need to know your Old Testament. You'll notice how the writer argues when he's saying, look here, the Old Testament priesthood has come to its end. You know, there's another one. Who did you just say what I'm saying? We have to give up the priesthood of Aaron. Who? God himself commanded it. You blasphemer telling us that what God commanded we've got to give up. Who do you think you are? You heard the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram when they rebelled against Aaron, their high priest, what God did to them? God opened the earth and swallowed the lot of them there and then. And you have the audacity to tell us we've got to give up Aaron's priesthood, new great high priest, and all his robes, and have it some other priest. Your Jesus, who, you say your Jesus is a priest. That is not. Priesthood in Israel is for people of the tribe of Levi, and your Jesus is of the tribe of Judah. What are you talking about? How do you answer that one? No good quoting the New Testament there, is it not, to an Orthodox Jew? For me to know your Old Testament and use the argument that this writer uses from the Old Testament. More of that in a minute. You say we don't meet many Jews anyway here in, in, in, in, uh, in Chicago. Well, okay. It's not just Jews who need to hear it, is it? The fact is that in the second and third centuries of the Christian era, little by little, the Christian churches went back from Christianity, back into the forms of Judaism. Listen to what the great scholar FJA Hort had to say on the topic. This is Professor J- FJA Hort in one of his books. He says the whole of church history is full of beliefs, practices, institutions, and the like, which rest on misconceptions of the true nature of the gospel dispensation, and are in effect a falling back after the coming of Christ to a state of things which his coming was intended to supersede. A return, as Saint Paul would have said, to the weak and beggarly elements. That's not some narrow-minded little sectarian, that's J. A. Hawks, professor in the University of Cambridge, pointing out what is the clear fact, if you care to read church history, that in the second and third centuries there happened a disastrous thing. People began to read their Old Testament, that was good. They were Christians, but they were reading their Old Testament. They found out in the Old Testament there was a very interesting form of priesthood. There was, first of all, the high priest with his special robes and vestments, they looked ever so pretty. And then there were ordinary priests, you see. And then there were Levites that were, uh, lesser priests. Well, they weren't priests at all, really, but lesser clerics in holy orders. And they said, look at that. Now, what do you think? Now, wouldn't that be good and nice if we had that in the Christian church? Wouldn't that look lovely? And so that's what they did. They appointed a high priest, the Summus Pacardos, as the Pope is still called today. And they dressed him up in vestments. Oh, it looked so gorgeous. And they had the high priest, and then they had the ordinary priest, and then they had the deacons, weren't quite yet priests. And then, as in Israel, they divided the people of God into priests on the one hand, ordained priests, and then the laity on the other. And the ordained priests were thought to be nearer God somehow. Only they could handle the sacraments. What a disaster it was, wasn't it? Wasn't based on the New Testament. In the New Testament, all are priests, and all have immediate access to the presence of God. In the New Testament, there is no such thing as a division between priesthood and laity. But there are, in the second and third centuries, as Professor Hort points out, Christendom lapsed into it until it became general throughout the whole of Christendom, and in some quarters persists to this very day. And not only priesthood. They, uh, notice in the Old Testament that the priests in the tabernacle, they had an altar, and they offered real sacrifices on it. They thought that was marvelous, so they had an idea, and so they built altars in the church, in the building where the believers met, and they took the bread and wine that our Lord had given us as emblems by which we should remember him, and turned it into a sacrifice, which they now, in that with great ritual, offered as a sacrifice on the altar. Its implications are a denial, of course, of the plain straightforward statement of Holy Scripture, that now in Christ there is no more offering of sacrifices for sin. But it became general, and in many quarters is practiced still. And then they observed the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament. They said, isn't that interesting, you see? And they noticed how it had two divisions. There was the holy place, and then from side to side of the building there was a big veil, and in the temple a wall, and it had a door in the, uh, in the temple, it had a door in the middle with a veil. In the tabernacle, it was one big curtain, which divided the place, as Hebrews chapter nine points out, into the first division, which is the holy place, and then the behind the screen, behind the veil, the holiest of all. Now, into the first division, the priests were allowed to go, not the people, if you please, they had to stand outside completely. Eh, the priests went into the first division. Into the second, no one went, except the high priest once a year. The reason was that their sacrifices, as we shall later see, were not adequate, and therefore God could not welcome the people into his immediate presence. And you know, when they read that, they said, wouldn't it be nice? We will create a holy atmosphere if we did our churches like that. Well, if you come through Europe at least and visit the historic churches, you'll find that many of them are precisely like that. That halfway along the church, or two-thirds of the way along, is an altar range, perhaps a rood screen that screens off the altar at the back, which is the most holy place on the nave of the church in which the ordinary people can stand or sit. What a disaster that was to us. And what a sad effect it has upon the people to this day. Some years ago, somewhere about nineteen sixty two, I was in Vancouver. And at that time, I was aware that I would soon have to go to Russia. And, uh, I was staying with some friends, and they had some friends who were Greeks, business friends. And these Greeks had a daughter, and as daughters will, the daughter was getting married, you see. And my friends were invited by their friends to attend the wedding, and they attended it. It was held, of course, in the Greek Orthodox Church. So they pointed this church out to me as a spanking new church in Vancouver, and I said to them, could you use your good offices to get me permission to look around the church and somebody to take me round? I wanted to see if in the modern world, the Orthodox, Greek Orthodox Church still had certain features which it used to have in ancient Greece, the old world Greece, you see, and whether it would be the same when I visited Russia, whether it would be the same in the Orthodox churches. So I went, and the dear priest graciously came and greeted me and took me around the churches. Well, I know an odd word of Greek now and again, and so, uh, you know, I pointed to the icons and the pictures of the saints, and I said, is that Saint so and so? Yeah, that's him. And who is that there? That was some saint, somebody else. They had beautiful paintings, don't they, of all the saints and saints galore, martyrs and what have you. And then, of course, stretching right across the church was a wall, three doors in it. The center door is the door of the king, so-called. It stood open. I said to him at last, I said, that the, whatever that is down there, that wall, I said, what is that? What's inside there? Ah, he said, now inside there, that's the real holy place, he said. No one is allowed in there but me and my assistant. Anyone that went in there would be put out. I'm the only one allowed in there, he said. That's the holiest of all in there. It's like they had it, he said, in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle. Well, I said, well, now you mention it, so it is. I can see that. It's just like they had it in the Old Testament. Well, of course, yes, yes, yes, yes, I say, well, yes, frankly that. Well, I say, what do you fellows make of the fact, you know, that, uh, the gospels tell us, don't they? And I read somewhere that, uh, when our Lord died on the cross and said it is finished, God rent the veil of the tabernacle from top to bottom. And the epistle, is it the Hebrews or something, says that now we have boldness to enter through the veil into the holiest of all. What do you chaps make of that? He said that's how they had it in the Old Testament, and we're going to have it that way. End of conversation and walk off. That is not a fabric for joking. If you've never seen it, it would break your heart to see it. Old babushkas, men and women, trying to find God, coming to these kind of churches, standing, very few of them have any seats, standing three hours while the liturgy is said. The door in the middle, the door of the king is open sometimes, and the priests are inside there, manipulating the sacrifice on the altar, which is inside there, out of view. People are just allowed a sight within. They mustn't go in. That's the holiest of all. Only the priests allowed in there. The people must stand outside. Oh, what emotions fill the heart when you see it. Dear folks standing outside, never have known to know, never allowed to know, that in Christ the veil has been done away. We have immediate access already into the holiest of all. It'd break your heart, wouldn't it? Here they are back in Judaism. It'd break your heart too and cause you not a little indignation to see the big priest lauding it over the people. They want to come to God, they have to come through the priest, and all too often they have to pay him a hefty sum of money for his service. Oh, my dear brethren, the young folks, would you ever be a missionary to some people, to those kind of people? You'll need to know this. You'll need to know these chapters backwards and forwards and inside out, and what the truth is. If we're going to lead those dear folks into the liberty and the glory and the perfection of full-blown Christianity. Worth it, wouldn't it, to spend a lot of hard time thinking hard, learning our Old Testament, not just content to enjoy ourselves and say it's nothing to do with me, I was never in that kind of thing, but learning it so that we may help folks to lead them on into the riches that are in Christ. Let us think, therefore, just for a few moments of our Lord's superiority in these three areas: his priesthood, his sacrifices, and his tabernacle, the heavenly tabernacle. The writer indicates, of course, that he realizes it's going to be a difficult business. The end of chapter five, he tells the people that he really would like to talk to them about this King Melchizedek, this out of date. And you couldn't have both. You either had Christ as your great high priest, and less left the Levitical priesthood, or you kept on the Levitical priesthood and his high priest, and you didn't have Christ. I hadn't dawned on it first, and God is kind. He doesn't force people beyond their abilities, does he? And now, perhaps, they began to see what it might mean. And if they learned about this new priest after the order of Melchizedek, and that Jesus was that new priest, would that mean they had to leave their Jewish high priesthood and the whole system of priesthood? Well, yes, eventually it would mean that. Oh, all but the cost of it. The cost in terms of family rupture, and all the social, social ambiance of Judaism. They become slow of hearing. They didn't want to hear, because of its possible implications. And you will find it's not only Jews, nor Orthodox Russians either. The people that have been brought up in sacramental churches and are reaching out after the Savior, and perhaps have trusted him, yet find it very difficult to face the fact that a sacramental priesthood is not according to the New Testament. The offering of the Mass upon the altar is a direct contradiction of the New Testament. But I find it very difficult. You understand them, don't you? Can't you feel for them? How will you, um, help them? Say, well, why not leave them as they are? What, what does it matter? That is precisely the danger. You see, Judaism, old Judaism was good. It was, as chapter six calls, the elementary thing. But the writer is saying, let's now cease to speak of the first principles of the Messiah and press on unto perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance and dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms and of laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Let's leave those things. They were the mere ABCs taught in Old Testament about the coming Messiah. What we need to do now is to push on to full-blown Christianity, and this we will do if God permits, at the right time. The danger? That these folks that have professed faith in Christ, now they saw the difficulties, would try to console themselves by saying, righto, we're not going back into the world, I mean, we're not going to become atheists, we're not going to become Hindus or Buddhists, we're just going to stay where we are. Judaism was all right, didn't Solomon go to the temple, and then didn't David go to the, go to the tabernacle, and Isaiah? Well, why can't we just stay there, you see? Why do we need to take these further steps into Christianity? There's the danger. Christ had never come. Let them stay there. But now that the reality has come. To just keep hold of the symbols and the shadows and refuse to go on with the reality, that is perilous and disaster. A little boy plays with his toy airplane in the bath. Okay. May even be learning certain things about real airplanes. Yeah, they had wings. They got jet engines and things. It's sad to see that child at thirty three refusing to go on to be an airline pilot and content to play with plastic model airplanes in the bath, wouldn't it? You say, well, let him alone, he's doing no harm. In Saba, the people who should be going on into the realities of God, the real priesthood of Christ, the real tabernacle, the real sacrifice. Saying, no, we're not, we're not prepared for that. We just keep back with the shadows, the old sacramental things. That's more comfortable. But once people have enli- been enlightened, says chapter six, they're no longer in ignorance. Once they've been enlightened by the Holy Spirit. They know Jesus is the Son of God. Then for them to go back, instead of embracing him to the full, and to go back. That is serious indeed. But people, the writer says, you'll never get them to change their minds again, possible to renew them, to repent. So wherein is the superiority? Well, first of all, uh, uh, chapter seven argues that Melchizedek the great priest was far superior even to Aaron's priests. You know, if you read ancient literature written by Jews, particularly Jews from the diaspora abroad, say Egypt, like old Pseudo-Aristias, don't bother about his name, uh, he wrote about, uh, the tourists who went to Jerusalem and saw the priest, the high priest, in all his robes as he came out on the great day of atonement before the people. Oh, he describes him as absolutely magnificent, so magnificent he nearly swooned at the excitement and the wonder of seeing his priest in all his vestments. Some people can be childish, can't they? Just to see a man in marvelous vestments. Oh, that melts into wonder. Dear, dear, dear, dear, dear. How will you cure people from that? Being absorbed with mere outward, uh, ceremonial vestments and incenses and things and funny music? Eh, how will you we- wean them away from that too? I will point to the superior glories of Christ as a way to do it. Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, says the writer, Psalm um one hundred and ten. Who is this Melchizedek? He was such a great and glorious figure that even Abraham, patriarch and ancestor of the Hebrew race, bowed down before him and gave him tithes. He was superior even to Abraham, and since Abraham was the forefather of the Levites and all the high priests and priests in Judaism, if Abraham, their ancestor, greater than they, bowed down before Melchizedek, how much greater was Melchizedek than Abraham and all the other priests? Our blessed Lord is priest after the order of Melchizedek. How do you know he was meant to supplant Aaron's priesthood? Well, Aaron was appointed, and the record is found in Exodus and Leviticus. They come at the beginning of the Bible, don't they? Ah, but where does Psalms? Ooh, Psalms comes right on in the Bible later on. Yes, and it's at the Psalms where God says, of the Messiah, thou art, uh, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Infinitely great. Oh, when one fixes one's eyes on the blessed Lord Jesus, he's entered in, he's sat down at the right hand of God, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, says the psalmist. Come, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Exciting stuff, that isn't it? When the priesthood, the high priest Aaron went into the holiest of all, the Day of Atonement, there he found a, he found a m- m- a picture throne, so to speak, the throne of God, the ark, the cherubim on it. He came in once a year, stood in front of it. I tell you what, he never dared sit on it. And he said, wait a minute, Lord, getting a bit tired here after all this day's performances. Let me go hitch on the end of the ark and sit down a minute. Very suggestion and thought would be triple blasphemy. Or for a man to sit on the throne of God, even though it was only a model throne. Never. Listen to what God says about the great high priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm one hundred and ten one: come sit at my right hand. Oh, what a marvel. The priest that represents you, my dear fellow Christian, is not entered into any earthly tabernacle made with hands. He's entered into the presence of God. He sits on the very throne of Almighty God. After that, you wouldn't be impressed by a little priest dressed up in colorful bits of linen, would you? And this high priest, when he was appointed, he was appointed with an oath. The Lord swear thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And the writer points that out. That's quoted in the Old Testament, you see. The Lord's, I have sworn thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now he says, your Aaron, when he was appointed, God didn't swear any oaths, did he? When he appointed the blessed Lord Jesus as high priest after the order of Melchizedek, God swore an oath to make it absolutely sure that he is God's appointed. Why is that important? Well, the writer explains in chapter seven. the fact that he's been appointed by an oath is this, that, uh, by so much also has Jesus become the guarantor of a better covenant. See what that means? We are related to God in the terms of the new covenant, and God there promises, I will write my law on their hearts and on their minds will I write them. And God intends that that covenant be fulfilled. By his spirit, he writes his laws on the hearts of those who trust Christ, giving them his Holy Spirit to perform this great thing. And he's determined to see that it shall be brought to its fulfillment till the day arrives when we never sin again. What certainty can we have that this whole project of the new covenant will be fulfilled? One day, the writing of his laws on your heart will be absolutely complete, and the writing will be, uh, uh, equal with your performance. What, what, what guarantee have you got? And God says to you, my dear child, you wonder if it will ever be fulfilled, this covenant that I have made with you, will it be absolutely fulfilled and completed? Yes, my dear child. How can I be sure? Well, I have appointed the Lord Jesus as your high priest, and to guarantee it to your heart, I swore an oath on a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and my dear son has been appointed guarantor that the whole project will be fulfilled. You know, suppose I were to get a scheme in my head. I would like to buy, uh, fifty acres of ground and build a, a tremendous property on it, and it would cost, uh, about twenty twenty five m- millions or billions, and, and I work it all out that I could get some, uh-huh, I could, um, get a marvelous income from this Ten years down the line when the thing is complete. I need to go to the bank and ask for twenty million. Hm. I go to the bank and I say, I like, uh, you would lend me twenty million. So say, oh yes, he said, yes, and what is your project? Well, this is my project. It's a good project, isn't it? You manage, you see, you can see how that will be a profit, yes. And what do you want to borrow? I want to borrow twenty million. Yes. Have you any collateral? I said, what's that? Well, have you got any possessions that are worth anything? Well, I said, I- I got, uh, I got, uh, twenty five pounds in the building society. Yeah, no. Good. Uh, I mean, we've got to guarantee, you see, that this project is going to be successful, you see. We want you to put something as a guarantee. Do you not have any collateral stuff? I see, yes. Well, have you got anybody that's prepared to go guarantor? Well, you say there's my grandfather. You say, how old is he? Well, he's still working. He's getting a good wage every week. How old is he? Well, he's seventy six. He'd be dead by the time your project... I'm not that good at that anyway. No, no, it's a very good project, he says, but you see, we bankers, we would require a guarantee that the thing is going to be fulfilled and going to be a success. You're proposing to be in heaven? With the laws of God written on your heart such that you do them? That's a nice scheme, that, isn't it? Can't but admire the scheme. You any guarantee it will be done? Who's your guarantor? Well, you haven't got capital enough of resource to do it anyway, have you? Oh, what a marvelous priest this is. God has appointed him with an oath and made him stand as the guarantor that all the scheme of the new covenant shall be fulfilled, and fulfilled in you who trust him. Oh, that's worth a hallelujah, that is, you know, even at ten past eight at night. Yeah. And those Jewish priests, nice chaps, they tried to take an interest in you sometimes, sometimes they didn't, you'll see. And if you found one you could confide in him and felt he was very helpful, perhaps the next time you came, he wasn't there because he died. You got some upstart straight out of college who knew nothing. Okay. Ha. No, that won't happen with Christ. He has an unchangeable priesthood, and because he ever lives, to make intercession, able to save to the uttermost. Glorious, isn't it? And you know these earthly priests, they come with all their menagerie and manipulations and their holy water and their incense and their good advice, and as they come and stand by your bedside and they give you the last rites, and then they say, you're on your own now. You know, pass over to the great eternity. You're on your own, they say. They can't come with you, can they? And the great journey from this life to the next. Oh, thank God for our high priest. He ever lives. When you come to pass, if that's his will, and he doesn't come and take you bodily home to heaven before you die, when you come to pass through the valley of the shadow, he'll be there to greet you, and my Savior smile will be the first to welcome me. When you walk through the shadow, the valley of the shadow will be with you, and will take you by the hand and introduce you to the Father. Oh, what a wonder it is to know a high priest like that. And oh, the sorrow to see thousands groveling in the poverty of mere human priests dressed up in bright clothes, pretending that they can do what they can't possibly do. And then, of course, there is the tabernacle, isn't there? My friend in in my my assist- my my helper in the church in Vancouver, with his big wall across the church. Only I can come in there, says he. The people have to stand outside, riveting upon their consciences, that of course you can't be sure that you'll ever be in heaven. You've got to wait and see. Oh, what a wretched thing it is. The heart would bleed for folks, wouldn't it? The glory of the, uh, the, uh, of the great sacrifice of Christ is this, that he has made the way through the veil. We're exhorted to come boldly to the firm of grace and have boldness to enter through the veil into the holiest. How? Well, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ. Our bodies bathed with pure water, that is the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And having a great high priest, our Lord, to stand and welcome us and conduct us in, let us draw near in full assurance of faith. I have been holding Bible studies with Catholic friends of mine. They don't like it when I say I'm sure of heaven, so sometimes I exaggerate a little thing, you see, just to get the point home. I say, I don't know about you, you say I can't be sure of heaven, but that's, that sounds funny to me because I've been there today. Oh, what do you mean you've been there today? Of course you haven't, don't look so silly. Of course I have. It says here, let us come boldly, for Christ has made an entrance into the holiest of all. Let us come boldly along this way through the veil, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. In spirit, my dear brothers and sisters, already sitting on that seat, raise your heart and spirit to God upon his throne, and through Christ you can draw near to the very throne of God and come to the very mercy seat. Come to. You've done it today, surely. Do it every day of your life. How would anybody convince you, when you've been into the presence of God like that, that you can't be sure you'll be in heaven? Oh, what a gospel ours is. Wouldn't you be impatient to go and preach it? And finally, the sacrifice of Christ. Why couldn't the Israelites go into the temple, into the holiest of all? Well, the Bible explains. You'll see their sacrifices weren't good enough. For in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance of sins made every year. On the Day of Atonement, the nation gathered outside, the sacrifices were offered, the blood was shed, the priest took it into the holiest of all, and he came out, and the people were forgiven, up to the present. Then they sinned the next year, and so the whole rigmarole had to be gone over again, and their sins had to be brought up before the court of God, and they had to be condemned, and then a sacrifice had to be offered, uh, to cover them. And that went on every year, so that every year the whole matter of the sin and the guilt and the punishment was raised again. The result was that they never did have a conscience that was made perfect. Oh, they were forgiven. David wrote a psalm about it. All the blessedness of the man whose sins are forgiven. Marvelous stuff. But he hadn't a conscience made perfect. You say, how do you know? Because he kept on offering sacrifices. That's how you know. And Hebrews ten says that if you find somebody that's constantly offering a sacrifice to get forgiveness, you can be sure of this, his conscience is not yet made perfect. Because if his conscience had been made perfect, he would never offer another sacrifice to gain forgiveness. Do you know what? If you'd have gone to King David, I've often thought about it. If you could get on a magic carpet thumper and go backwards in history and arrive at the palace of King David and say, we've come from New Zealand, well, he'd let you in then. And, uh, you'll see, aha, and you said to His Majesty, Your Majesty, that marvelous lyric you've just written, you'll see. He said, which one is that? Well, we like it immensely. Uh, that number thirty two. you'll see. That's the one that says, all the blessedness of the man whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are covered, to whom the Lord will not impute unrighteousness. Your majesty, we'd like that. Uh, we know what you mean, what it means, you know. We've had that experience ourselves. I would like to make a suggestion, please. Would you bring your harp, because you're good at harps, and I will go into the, into the tabernacle and, and into the holiest of all, into the presence of God, and you play your harp and we'll sing the words. You suppose David would have said. What are you talking about? Going to the holiest of all. Well, you're simple to get mad, your majesty, aren't you? Isn't that what you say in this lyric? Well, yeah, but you can't go into the holiest of all. No. He hadn't a conscience made perfect. There are millions of people like it. You ask them, they believe that Christ is the savior. Yes. If you were to die tonight, would you be in heaven? They don't know. Do you know forgiveness? Well, up to the present, we hope. And you'll see that they don't have a conscience made perfect because they'll bring a sacrifice and offer it on the altar. Join with their priest in offering the blood and and body of Christ, they'll tell you, on the altar, whatever for, to get forgiveness of sins. But they haven't got forgiveness of sins, and they're trying to get forgiveness of sins. And then they'll offer it for the dead, that they may be released from their torments. Carrying on offering sacrifices. What a disaster it is. What a darkness. Oh, if only they knew the realities of God and his love and his mercy and the glory of the sacrifice of Christ. For Christ, it is said, by one sacrifice, by one offering, he is perfected forever, them that are sanctified. Oh, shout hallelujah in your heart. Perfected forever. Yes, if you want assurance of that, says the the writer, the Holy Spirit will give you assurance, because this is the way the Holy Spirit speaks in the New Covenant. He finally says, their sins and iniquities will I never remember again. That doesn't mean that God forgets that we're sinners. God will never forget that we're sinners. We were sinners, nor will you, actually. When you get home to heaven and you hear the choir saying, worthy is the lamb that was slain, you won't find yourself saying, what do they mean, slain? Slain for who? Will you? You'll never forget that you were sinners, and the Blessed Lord died for you. What does it mean then that God will not remember your sins again? Well, that's an old term drawn from the palaces of the ancient kings. The kings among their officers had a man called a recorder or a remembrancer. His job was to write down everybody's misdeeds in a book, and then from time to time, if the king couldn't sleep or something and he woke up, he'd call for the remembranceer, bring the book, and they'd open the book, and the records would be read, and the king would look at it and say, now this chap here that did this terrible crime, has he been punished yet? No. Well, go ahead now, go now and punish him and hang him on the tree. That is called bringing the sins to remembrance. That is opening the book of record, finding the guilty, then issuing the sentence to be executed. That's what God says he'll never do again. He'll never rake up those sins and the guilt of them and pronounce the sentence of judgment and command it to be executed. For for believer, that is already past. He that hears my word comes not into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life. Marvelous, isn't it? And so the debt being paid, says the Holy Spirit, there's no more offering for sin. It doesn't mean there's no more sacrifice. Of course there's no more sacrifice, but there's no more process of offering. You don't have to go through the process of offering sacrifice to get forgiveness of sin, because it's been paid. I don't know about you, do you have mortgages here in, in, in, in New Zealand? You know, when young folks, they buy a house and it costs more than they'd like, and they've got to pay a mortgage. You know how it is. Whew. A month is coming up, end of the month, whenever it is, you've got to pay this mortgage. Where you're going to get the money from. You scrape here and you scrape there, and at last you get the mortgage amount that, and you go and pay it. Oh, you feel marvelous. The next day, and the day after, and the week after, perhaps two weeks after, and then, well, it's coming round again. You've got to pay. So you go again. At the end of that month, you pay. And as it goes on all through the weary years, always having to repeat the payment, repeat the payment, repeat the payment. And at last it comes to the last payment, marvelous, paid on the dot. You say to the manager, I'll never be here again. Never pay again. Ah, but the next month comes round, and you get that uneasy feeling. And you say to your husband, hubby, um, you know, I think about the mortgage. And he says, yes, but we paid it off. Yeah, I know, but yeah, just to make sure. I mean, we don't want suddenly to find out we still owe something, do we? So should we not go now once more and and pay, pay again? Is that what you find yourself doing? I certainly don't. When the last thing is paid, never go near the place again. That's that, finished, thank the Lord. No more payment of mortgage. And that's how God says, with the sacrifice of his son, by one sacrifice is perfected forever, them that are sanctified. There is no more paying. There is no more offering for sin. Oh, shout hallelujah. You know it. Feel like saying to you what the Lord said to the apostles. Kings and prophets have desired to see and to know what you see and know, and never saw it. Not King David himself saw it, never went into the holiest of all. He's seen it now, God bless him, he's in glory, but he didn't see it then, and you see it. Shall we not have compassion on the millions who try to trust Christ and think they have Christianity, and all they have is a Judaizing form of it, which allows them no final joy, forgiveness, freedom, and access to God. God give us the grace and compassion that in order to help them, not just ourselves, we may make ourselves masters of that part of God's book, so that when and if opportunity arise- rises, we may help others into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank thee for the immeasurable riches of thy word, and how we bless thee that, undeserving as we are, thou hast revealed these things to us day that even prophets and seers desired to see and did not see. We thank thee for this vast treasure. And now we pray, Lord, that we shall be given grace to have compassion for others who need it, that we not keep this to ourselves, but by thy grace be led to those who need to hear these things, and give us wisdom and tact and knowledge of thy word, that graciously and kindly and with compassion yet firmness, we may lead them from out their Judaistic sacramental systems out into the glorious liberty of thy salvation in Christ. So pass us now with thy blessing. We ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.