Lord Jesus Christ, we seek Thy face.
It is written: “The light of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.”
O Thou who didst forfeit, for that one terrible moment, the countenance of Thy Father, in order that we might never come there; that we might be received and abide in the light of the countenance of God.
Do this morning bring us into that very blessed inheritance through Thy Cross: the face, the countenance, the towardness, the unforesakenness of our God.
May this indeed be a time within the veil, when we dwell in the light of the countenance—the face of the Lord Jesus Christ—in all that great and wonderful meaning.
We now seek Thy face as we wait on Thee. Show us Thy face, Lord, for Thy Name’s sake. Amen.
In this final hour of this particular ministry, it is necessary to seek special grace to gather up and concentrate all that has been said throughout this week.
And I think—perhaps I should say, I feel—that the leading of the Lord is to do this with one part of this Letter to the Hebrews before us. As the letter is drawing to a close, we reach that part which is marked as Hebrews 12.
It is in verses 25 to 28—not all of them:
See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.
But if they escaped not when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from Him that warneth from heaven;
Whose voice then shook the earth:
But now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and awe.
A kingdom which cannot be shaken.
The significance, then, as we have been trying to see and show, is the significance of this so-called Letter to the Hebrews for the present time. “Yet once more”—that is, in this dispensation which has come in with Christ—the shaking: firstly, of the earthly things; and then the shaking of the heavenly side of things.
The earthly, I think, had a special reference to what was just about to happen in old, traditional, historic Judaism.
This letter was probably—I cannot be positive about it, because all the expositors and scholars are divided about who wrote it, when it was written, and to whom it was written exactly. You need not worry about that. But I am fairly sure that it was related to what the Holy Spirit knew was about to take place in historic Judaism and after Israel.
The probability is that this letter was written in the year 69. And you know what happened in the year 70.
If that is true, it was a very short distance from the writing of this letter to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was so utter, so terrible.
Some of you, especially, will have read Josephus. If you have read the section on the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem, it is one of the most terrible things you can read in history.
It took place in the year 70, and everything in that Jerusalem was devastated and desolated. The Jews were scattered, as Peter says, throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and everywhere else.
The earthly was suddenly shaken—not only shaken, but brought down and devastated. From that it has not yet recovered. There is no temple. There is no integrated Israel on the earth.
Well, that is the earthly side. This is the prophecy, as you know, taken out of the Old Testament, that this would happen.
It is interesting—very interesting, significant, and instructive—to go back to the setting of that prophecy, which we are not going to do, to see its setting in the history of Israel and the conditions that were arising in the time of Haggai.
The prophecy is taken up and brought right over here so many years later, and applied to the situation reached in this letter to the Hebrews at that crisis time.
The shaking of the earth applies particularly to the shaking of the old Jerusalem, the old Israel. We say that, and leave it. But that is only half of the statement.
“Yet once more will I shake not only the earth, but the heaven also.”
In the light of what we have been saying this week, morning and evening—in the light of all this, and of this letter in its full content—we are surely right in saying that Christianity, which is the other side, if you like, the heavenly side, is going to be subjected also to such a shaking.
Maybe we will not be far wrong if we say it has begun. It is on. It is proceeding. It is spreading.
You may feel it has not reached your country yet. Well, if you are talking of merely material things and outward economies, there may be symptoms of it; but spiritually, it is worldwide: the shaking of Christianity, the shaking of what we may call the heavenly side of things, as different from historic earthly Israel.
But the point is that there is a universal shaking to take place in the economy of God, in the sovereign ordering of God—a universal shaking.
What for? Here it says, in order that there shall be nothing left but what God Himself has established.
Note that little phrase: “as of things which have been made.” Who made them? Man-made things.
Things which God has made and established are the things which will ultimately remain, and the shaking is for that.
Now, this letter is a comprehensive comparison and contrast, or discrimination, between the passing and the permanent; between the temporal and the spiritual; between the earthly and the heavenly.
That is the Letter to the Hebrews. That is what we have been emphasizing all the way through: the “not” any longer—“Ye are not come unto”—but “ye are come unto.”
Two great comprehensive orders, economies, sovereignties—whatever you may call them. This whole letter has to do, on the one side, with the things which are transient and not abiding; and, on the other side, with the things which are permanent and remain.
The things which cannot be shaken shall remain. This is the comparison and contrast, or discrimination, made by this letter as a whole.
Here, as a kind of parenthesis, let me put this. It is important for us to remember that this letter was written to a people who, for a long period, had held the position of the people whom God had taken out of the world unto Himself.
It shows that it is possible for such a people to miss the way. It is possible for such a people to make their position an earthly one—just an earthly one—or to make that position earth-bound.
And that is the point of this letter: not to Israel only, but to Christians. This is the on-high calling letter, is it not? This is the heavenly side. This is the new Israel, which God has taken out of the world unto Himself and for Himself.
But through and through this letter runs this reminder: that a people who were like that for so long, taken out to God, did in the end miss the object, miss the way, and did not arrive.
Hebrews 3 is all on that. They did not enter in. They perished in the wilderness.
There is a terrible battle between what ought to be said and what time allows to be said. Oh, do not dismiss Hebrews 3. I must put it in.
There you have the people who failed to enter in, who perished in the wilderness. You see, they could not enter in because of unbelief. That is Hebrews 3.
But Hebrews 4 opens, and you are not far into it before you have this:
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit.
I am not going out on that. But the point is that, in the wilderness where they perished, it was because they did not discriminate between soul and spirit.
They did not understand the doctrine, of course, but they lived in their souls. That is the self-life: the self-direction of everything—how this affects us, what we are going to get out of this, what this means in our interests.
The self-life is the soul-life. The spirit is not that. Spirit is unto God; it is the God-life.
That cleavage was not made in the wilderness. Although they had come out by such a mighty work of God, had become God’s people, and were separated unto Him, they persisted in what we now call, in New Testament language, the soul-life.
There was no discrimination, no clear cut between—as of a two-edged sword cutting both ways—between the self-life and the life of the spirit.
They perished in the wilderness. And you tell me that that is not a possibility for Christians. That is the point of the letter, you see.
Do not dismiss Hebrews 3 and 4 as simply mechanical divisions and pass right on. Ask: Why did they perish in the wilderness? Why did they not enter in? Why?
Well, here we are. There was not this clear cut between self and the Lord, between soul and spirit.
It is a matter about which you have heard too much, I think. There is too much talk about that just now; it has become a very fascinating subject. You never capture people more quickly mentally than when you begin to talk about soul and spirit. It is a very interesting mental subject, is it not? Most fashionable.
I am coming to a place where I want to talk about the things and not the names, the meaning and not the language or terminology. However, that is by the way.
What I was saying is this: this letter was addressed to a people who, for a long time, had held the position of a people separated unto God, but who eventually missed the way and lost the inheritance—the meaning of their separation.
Why? We come back again: the earth side, the earth-bound Judaism. And God said, “I will shake that. I will shake that earth-boundness, and I will shake it so devastatingly that there will be no temple, no Jerusalem, and no headquarters for the nation at all.”
The whole thing will be smashed. I will shake that aside. And He did, and has done; and it has gone on all these centuries.
But He does not stop there. The letter goes over to the other side: “I am going to shake this other thing too—this Christianity.”
It came in from heaven, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But the hearts of men have done with Christianity what they did with Judaism: brought it down to earth, made it earth-bound, made it carnal.
The Lord, foreseeing that, prophesied, “I will shake that also.” Christianity as a merely earthly system will go into the melting pot. It will go into the fire. Only that which is really, truly heavenly and of the Spirit of God will survive and come out.
You see the force of this letter.
Hence—and here, dear friends, another week is required—if you go through this letter, you will find that it is divided along two lines: the line of precaution, or warning, and the line of resolution.
Now, a little Bible study for you—not here. Go through and note the nine times in which the word lest occurs.
“Let us fear therefore, lest, haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.”
Nine times that word lest is used through the letter. Trace it and see its context: lest for this reason, lest for that reason. Perhaps I will touch on just an illustrative piece in each section.
Then, ten times—nine times lest, precaution; ten times—you have “let us.” “Let us,” ten times.
Connected with that phrase, “let us,” is an admonition to resolution. Be resolved. You cannot take anything for granted about this. You are not going to get there by drift.
That is the first lest, you see: lest by any means you drift past. Drift past—that is the real language. You drift.
The picture behind it is a very simple one, but very clear in its implication. I used to be a yachtsman in Scotland.
We would go out on our day sail, but the most anxious moment—the most tense moment—was when we came back to pick up our moorings.
If the tide was flowing strongly, with the current and the wind, there were our moorings. You had to take off your power, take down your sails, and get your head towards the moorings.
Then everybody: one with a boat hook up in the bow, someone lying down flat on the deck with outstretched hands to get hold of that mooring and grab it and hold it.
Because the tide, or the current flowing, would even pull you into the sea if you did not hold tight. The tenseness, the peril, was that you would miss it and drift past it—and there were the rocks over there.
Drift past, miss, and drift—carried by the tide, or the current, or the wind. Oh, there is a tense moment. You have got it and held on, and are able to pull the boat up on the moorings and make fast.
Ah, we have reached home. All right now; there is indoor life.
There is the picture here which is actually used: lest we drift past. Drift, drift, drift. Lest. Caution. Warning.
All this is presented. But oh, what an all it is: this fullness and finality in Christ brought in with Hebrews 1 and 2, and all that is in this letter—the great inheritance, the tremendous all. And the first warning is: you could drift.
You could drift. You will be carried past and carried away by the current, by the present breeze.
Paul puts it in other words, in another way: “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight and cunning craftiness of men.” It is the same thing.
So that is an illustration of the lests, and I say there are nine of them. That is why I say one needs another week. But there they are: lest, lest we drift.
Alongside of that is the exhortation: “Let us hold fast. Let us lay hold. Let us go on.”
I am just going to put another fragment in, because I think it is illuminating and may have a point of application: “lest, being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, we are subverted.”
The deceitfulness of sin—have you ever thought about that? What is the deceitfulness of sin?
The word sin is a comprehensive word. Do not narrow it down to one of its meanings. Sin has many aspects. It works in many ways. You can call this sin, and that sin, and something else sin—a thousand things, yes—but they are only aspects of the one thing.
What is the meaning of the word sin in the Bible? Missing the mark. Missing the mark.
You may miss it because of this or that, for many reasons; but in the end it amounts to this: you have missed the mark.
Sin, comprehensively, is missing the mark. The deceitfulness of sin is to subvert you from the mark.
What for? “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling.” You have missed the mark. The deceitfulness is to subvert.
What do you mean by that deceitfulness? Well, for me at the moment, for this purpose this morning, it is policy in the place of principle.
There is nothing more subverting, more spiritually injurious, than policy—being politic.
Oh, how I have seen tragedies in the lives of godly men, servants of the Lord, on this very thing. More than one man has been brought face to face with God’s full purpose—oh, perfectly—but he had a position in the Christian world.
And this full purpose required a lot of adjustment as to position, adjustment as to relationships.
“If I do that, my large door of opportunity for the Lord will be closed. If I do that, I will lose my influence for the Lord. If I take that way, maybe I shall be involved in so much that, you know, will mean loss for the Lord.”
Someone is responsible for an organization. Somehow or other, it has got to get support.
“If I take such a line as has been indicated, I will lose my financial support.” That is policy—being politic—alongside of what God has indicated.
The issue is: Will I trust the Lord to look after what is of Him? I am no longer interested in anything that is not of the Lord; but if it is of Him, can I trust the Lord to look after that while I obey Him and go His indicated way?
Or shall I hold on to my place of opportunity, open doors, and influences for the Lord, and take this other course? Do you see what I mean? The deceitfulness of missing the mark.
I have seen more than one tragedy that, after years, became manifest to everybody: that man had missed the way. That man was meant for something more, something else. The Lord meant something for that man, but policy came in.
He argued for his policy that it was in the interests of the Lord. That is the deceitfulness of sin.
This letter says that you can be subverted by the deceitfulness of sin: policy instead of principle.
So here we come back. Hebrews, the Letter to the Hebrews, is a statement of what is abiding and permanent over against what is passing and transient.
And does not that matter? Surely it does, supremely: the shakable and the unshakable.
The New Testament comprises twenty-six books. You would like to have twenty-seven; you can, but say twenty-six.
Most of them were written to combat some form of a universal effort to destroy what had come in with Jesus Christ.
Would you like me to repeat this? It is a big mouthful, I know. Most of the New Testament was written to combat some form of a universal effort to destroy what had come in with Jesus Christ.
Got it now? That is the statement—very comprehensive. You have got to break it up and apply it to each book of the New Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and on: this is written to combat something. Will you take that as a key? Are we not in a conflict in Matthew? Is not the Lord Jesus in a conflict in Mark, and Luke, and John?
It is an atmosphere of conflict, of antagonism. Is that true?
So you go on with the letters. Here is some form, in each one, of this universal effort to destroy what had come in with Jesus Christ.
The New Testament is a comprehensive countering of a many-sided attempt to subvert the Church and pervert the meaning of God’s Son.
In that statement, you have your New Testament and its real meaning. Do try to get hold of it in that way.
Now, the chief point of attack in this comprehensive, universal effort—the chief point of attack has always been, and still is, the measure of Jesus Christ.
The measure of Christ.
We must, in the first place, keep Him out altogether. Give Him no foothold. That is the battle of the ages. As soon as you bring Jesus Christ into a vicinity, trouble arises; conflict begins. You must keep Him out.
Oh, look how it was with Paul as he went from city to city. He was hardly there, hardly had said anything.
I do not know how much he had said in Philippi. What he had said, he said to just a little handful, we do not know exactly how many, by the riverside outside the city.
He went into the city not preaching, as far as we know; not raising issues, as far as we know. But the devil knew.
The devil had possession of that damsel, that spirit-medium woman. How subtle: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you the way of salvation”—the devil preaching the gospel.
It looks as though the very devil himself is glorifying the Lord Jesus. Oh, there is something very subtle here as to the issue.
But the point is that, from the unseen world, where the real intelligence of the significance of Christ is recognized and possessed, there is this conflict wherever that which is representative of Christ, or that which is Christ in effect, arrives.
Trouble arises at once. Keep Him out. Keep Him out. And if He has got in, drive Him out. Do everything to drive out what is of Jesus Christ, if He has got anywhere at all.
But that is not all: to subvert those who are His embodiment; to deceive, to turn aside, to bring in false teaching and false Christian ideology.
That which is other in its essence—not essentially Christ—something put on to Christ: Christ plus. Christ plus.
The many things which are being imposed upon Christianity may be well-meaning, but they are not the essence of Christ.
That is the point of attack: in some way, either to prevent, to force out, or to limit the measure of Christ.
You know, dear friends—or you ought to know—that it is the measure of Christ which is the governing thing. Not only that Christ has got in, no; but the measure of Christ.
That is Ephesians, is it not? The ultimate thing is the measure of Christ.
The measure of Christ.
When you use that word measure, you are always transported to Ezekiel, are you not? The end of Ezekiel—what is it? It is the temple.
I am not putting any interpretation on that. Whether that is going to be literal, with all the Old Testament sacrifices restored, you can have your own interpretation about that. I am not touching that.
But what I have there is that, when that temple does come into view, it is a heavenly conception. The heavenly messenger has his measuring reed, and takes the prophet round and round—round about, in and out.
How detailed, how meticulously detailed it is. Every fragment, every iota, is given a measurement.
It is according to this measure, this heavenly measuring reed or line. It is measured by that. Its place is only by reason of its having that measure.
Now, whether you like the interpretation or not, I believe that stands right at the heart of the Letter to the Ephesians and the New Testament.
Answer this Letter to the Hebrews spiritually: we have come unto a new Jerusalem. We have come to the dwelling of the Most High God. We are come unto Zion.
We have come to that which Ezekiel saw spiritually: a spiritual temple.
We have come now to that which, in every detail, is measured according to Christ. Is this Christ? How much of Christ is there?
“According to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”—that is the beginning of Hebrews, is it not, as well as Ephesians?
And so the chief point of attack is always to take something of Christ away, to divert from Christ, to put something in the place of the very essence—the essential Christ.
Anyhow, anyhow, anyhow—anything, so long as the end of it is less of Christ: not so much of Christ, not more of Christ.
It has to do, then, with the Lordship of Christ in everything. Lordship of Christ.
It is easy to sing, “Crown Him Lord of all.” Lovely idea, beautiful thought, wonderful thing. But you see what it means.
Not only the thing as a whole—this wonderful temple, this sanctuary—but to the last detail in the whole heavenly order: the last detail, Christ.
In your life and mine, He is the decision. He is the controlling principle. This is the kingdom.
Christian phraseology needs redeeming and revising. We talk about the kingdom, the King, the work of the kingdom, the spread of the kingdom.
I say these words—kingdom, church, and all the others—need redeeming. They need revision.
What is the kingdom? Well, in the original language it is quite clear, but we have missed it by some other mentality. The kingdom of God is the sovereign rule of God.
The sovereign rule of God. That is the meaning of it.
And here it is brought down to a detail. It is not just some comprehensive conception of the kingdom. No; it is where I go today, what I do today, what the Lord would have of me today. That is the kingdom of God.
A kingdom which cannot be shaken is of that kind—where it is all Christ.
Hence the necessity for making known the ground upon which security rests: “cannot be shaken.” The ground on which security rests.
Security is, of course, a very live thing today, a very lively concern, is it not, in this world of security, security?
Your Metropolitan Insurance—an immense organization—has this one word: security. You know what I mean.
But remember: whereon this world’s security is grounded, there is nothing eternally secure but what is established by God. And that is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
That is the positive side of the New Testament always.
And so I am going to conclude by reminding you of the nine and the ten.
Why nine precautions? Why, nine times, “Beware, lest”? How precautionary the Lord is, even with His best servants, His most used servants.
If they are really under His sovereign government, what precautions He takes. Do you remember? Had He ever a greater servant than the apostle? Was there ever a servant more used than he?
I venture to say, in the annals of eternity, that man stands very high in preciousness for the Lord.
“Lest by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations I should be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.”
“I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” And He said—not, “No”; the Lord is always positive—“My grace is sufficient for thee.”
But the precaution of the Lord was to keep a most used and valuable servant from deviation, from the awful snare of pride—even in holy things, the things of God and heaven. Spiritual pride is the worst kind of pride.
Pride, pride—the devastation of pride. “Lest I should be exalted overmuch.”
God’s precaution: lest, lest. And here you have these nine lests. Look at them, friends. Go through them, not just as an interesting Bible study, but look at the peril associated with each lest. Take it to heart.
This book has this running right through from beginning to end: lest, lest, lest. Be on your guard. Watch.
Is this of that kind which abides forever—indestructible and unshakable? Is it Christ?
Be utterly committed. That is where the other side comes in: “Let us.”
“Let us,” ten times. If you sum it all up, it amounts to this: be unreservedly and utterly committed. Committed.
I think that means something more than becoming a Christian. Many who are still children of God, genuinely born again, are not utterly committed.
Not utterly committed. There are some other interests. They have got one foot, or even a toe, in the world still—something which is an alternative to utterness.
But the exhortation here, ten times mentioned—“Let us, let us”—is this: because of this peril, let us.
The great “let us” of Hebrews 6:1: “Let us go on.” Do not drift. Do not leave yourself to the mercy of the present current, the tide, the wind.
There is nothing that will keep us safer than being positive.
I like that translation of the phrase. You know, our English is, “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” And I think it is Moffatt who has translated it: “Maintain the spiritual glow.”
Always a safeguard. There is nothing more safeguarding than being positive.
Remember David on the housetop? Tragedy, catastrophe, calamity in David’s life, leaving its scar on him. Why? Being on the housetop when he ought to have been in the battle—reclining when he ought to have been going.
Israel dallied in the wilderness for forty years instead of getting on with it—going.
“Let us go on unto full growth,” not laying again the foundation, but let us go on. Go on.
So often weariness, tiredness, discouragement, despondency, perplexity, and disappointment make us say, “I have had enough.” They take the initiative out of us. We are inclined to sit down.
Again and again in our spiritual history, we have to gird up the loins of our mind: “No, this will not do. This will not do. This is a cul-de-sac. I get down here, and there is no way through. The only way is to come out of it and go on.”
Beware of your cul-de-sacs, your backwaters, your no-thoroughfares. Keep on the high road, the main thoroughfare.
In this sense, if you like, you can be marching to Zion.
Whether the doctrine is right or not, have the spirit of it. You will sing again in that hymn, “And walk the golden streets.”
How we carried on that! The Bible says there are no streets in the New Jerusalem. There is only one: a street of gold.
All of God is in the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. Only one thing: a golden street. You are not going to choose your locality there.
You are going to be put on to the Lord’s highway. You see the figurativeness of it.
All of God, a golden street, and only one. We will have to learn how to live together, shall we?
But the point—the integrating, uniting thing—is, “Let us go on unto full growth.”
If we are all of that mind, we shall not be caught by these subverting things, these alternatives, these substitutes, these impositions.
Is this going to mean really and truly an increase of Christ, a greater fullness of Christ? Or is it some interesting thing, some fascinating thing, something that is going to be for the moment, for the time being, and then presently fade out, leaving me high and dry?
That is what happens to so many of these things. Yes, just for a time. You can see history strewn with the wreck of things which at one time seemed to be the thing, the ultimacy.
The only thing that is the thing is the increase of Jesus Christ. The test of everything is the increase of Jesus Christ.
The universal challenge, contest, test, is on that.
I have said enough. I close there.
Pray, I trust you will do, that this will not be a subject of comment, a mere theme, morning by morning. May the Lord make the challenge of it.
“Yet once more will I shake not the earth only.” The shaking has begun. It has begun.
Christianity has entered the great fire. What is going to remain? Not the things that are made, not the earth-bound things of Christianity.
That kingdom, that something which cannot be shaken. Zion, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, cannot be shaken—that is the Old Testament idea.
But here it is: it is what is really and truly spiritual and heavenly that is in us, and that we are in.
It is that, to use our first word of these meetings, to which we are coming. The Lord help us.
Lord, with the indelible pen of the Spirit of the living God, write the terms of the new covenant on our hearts, the fleshly tablets of our hearts—indelibly so.
May it not pass with a week, with a ministry, with a gathering of people, however blessed and joyous all this may be.
But may the Lord’s own intention, revealed to us, abide in our hearts. Continually check us up, arbitrating between the two courses, the options, the alternatives.
Always bring us back to this: Does this mean more of Christ?
Lord, so help us. We ask it with thanksgiving, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.