But greater joy, because I am complete this time with my wife. You told me I should bring her, and I have done that. She has come. Hallelujah.
As brother has said already, we have been looking in the last two evenings into the Epistle to the Hebrews—a unique epistle, unlike any others. It says, “To the Hebrews,” but we are told in Hebrews 3:1, “holy brethren.” So we qualify, I trust. It is to us.
Shall we pray a moment?
Lord, You know it must be by Your Spirit—by Your Spirit upon me, by Your Spirit upon us—if this time is to prove profitable. O Lord, come through to us, we pray, and let us be in no doubt what You are saying, how sincere You are in what You say, and how You want us also to respond in a suitable manner, that You may not be disappointed and we may not fall short of that which You propose, that which You have planned, and that for which You have so generously provided.
Oh, we thank You, Lord. Speak to us for Your name’s sake, Lord. Amen.
Hebrews 3:1 says:
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.
It is recorded that when Queen Victoria was still only a little girl, she came to realize what her birth implied: that she was heir to the throne of England and that she would have her inheritance—that is, to sit there and to rule.
When she realized that as a little girl, she set aside all her dolls and all the other things, and devoted herself to preparation, that she might suitably occupy the throne to which her birth gave her right and which would be her inheritance.
That is what we are thinking about this morning. That is what is before us here in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The particular emphasis this morning is destiny. Our future should determine our behaviour.
Our future—our future, our destiny—must determine our present behaviour.
Two things may appear quite clearly in this Epistle to the Hebrews. We are not to neglect so great salvation. That comes, of course, in Hebrews 2:3:
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?
We are not to neglect so great salvation. But there is another thing: do not despise, and sell by any chance, your birthright. Birth carries a right, and the right to which our birth gives us is an eternal inheritance.
So do not despise, as did Esau, your birthright; or by any chance give it away, sell it away, bargain it for something less.
Now, dear ones, those of you who have been with us in the past two evenings, you will pardon me if I recap a little and bring up to date those of you who have not been with us.
The Epistle to the Hebrews, I have said, is unique—different from all the other epistles. One reason for saying that is this: there is no other epistle with so much Old Testament history packed into it.
There is no other epistle with so much of that history used for our warning, encouragement, and instruction. There is no other epistle which emphasizes the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ more than this.
There is no other epistle that tells us of the greatness of the one offering. This letter to the Hebrews mentions many, many offerings, but tells us so plainly that they have no comparison, neither do they accomplish that which He accomplished by one offering, once for all.
If you want reference for that, it is in Hebrews 10. Here the many offerings are mentioned, and the one in contrast is set to them.
In Hebrews 10:10 it says:
By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And Hebrews 10:12 says:
But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
You do not sit down until your work is finished, do you? Unless you have a sitting-down job, of course. You may have a sitting-down job, but those who do not have a sitting-down job sit down when their work is done. That is what is represented by our Lord sitting down: His work finished.
And in Hebrews 10:14:
For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Those who are sanctified are set apart for God.
Well now, we have come to four conclusions. This is recapping. First, the subject of this epistle is the world to come—the age to come. Not the present time, but that which we are anticipating may begin very soon. God grant it will: the age to come.
It says about that in Hebrews 2:5:
For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak.
There is the clue: the subject of this letter is the world to come, the age to come. We do not think enough about that. It is good to rejoice in all we have now, but, oh, what there is that lies beyond. Our inheritance is not here; it is in the age to come.
That is the subject of this epistle: the age to come. The age to come, of course, is our Lord’s millennial reign, when He shall come and rule in righteousness and peace, and fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God. Hallelujah.
So that is the subject. The theme is bringing many sons to glory—bringing many sons to the glory of the world to come.
Hebrews 2:10 says:
For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
What is the glory of the world to come? Surely, it is the throne of God and of the Lamb. I picked this up afresh just last night. The throne of the Lamb is going to be the focal point, the centre, the glory of the world to come.
You read about it in Revelation—that which was shown to John as things to come. It centres all around the Lamb: the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Lamb upon the throne, and not only that, others with Him.
Just for a moment, maybe digressing a little, but pick it up in Revelation 14. See what it says in Revelation 14:1:
And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
and they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchased out of the earth.
These are they that were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, to be the firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.
Somebody said they are all singing in heaven. That is so interesting; that is true. They sang a new song before the throne.
What a description—not only of the Lamb and His position, but of those who are with Him. No doubt about their identity, is there? It says, “Having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads.”
Remember, in Revelation 3:12, that is said of those who are addressed as overcoming. They shall have the name of the Father and the Son.
So here is a representative number—I do not think limited to 144,000—a representative number with Him.
Remember that in Hebrews 12:22-23 we read about those on Mount Zion. Who are they? See what it says:
But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
You—holy brethren—have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn ones.
Do we belong there? We saw there were two churches referred to in Hebrews: the church in the wilderness, which failed, and the church of the firstborn ones. Their history is used to provoke us, lest we also should fail.
We are thinking about the subject: the world to come; the theme: bringing many sons to glory, the glory of the world to come; and to whom this epistle is directed. To whom is the Apostle speaking? Holy brethren.
Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. That indicates it is not to those who are outside the brethren, the family; it is to those who have made a start and made some progress in Christian experience—holy brethren.
That is not the end, though. Holiness is not the end. It is only a preparation for the future. Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. If we fit in there, then listen, because it is the Apostle of our confession Who is speaking to us.
See what it says next:
Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
The Apostle of this epistle is the Son. He is the One Who speaks here throughout, from the beginning to the end.
See how it begins. God formerly spoke by many and by different means, but Hebrews 1:2 says:
Hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son.
God’s final Speaker. It is always quite solemn, is it not, when there is a final speech? Most people get tuned up for the final speech. They may not pay much attention if there are any other speeches that come before.
Here is the final Speaker. The Apostle of this epistle is the Son. What are we told in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4, three times?
To-day if ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts.
Harden not your hearts. Why? Because birth, which carries a right and puts a wonderful future before us, does not make everything sure.
You cannot be unborn, but you can miss the career that was planned for you from before your birth. You know how parents think: “Well, we are going to have a baby.” We are going to have our firstborn one—or two firstborn knocking around here, I have seen.
We think, “Well, we are going to have a baby,” and when the baby arrives, we make all kinds of plans. We think not only what we shall put on him or on her, but where we will find a school that is suitable, because education is important.
We do not want our children to be dull and unintelligent, unable to grasp or grip the situations that they will face, or the career that they will have to fulfil. So we think about the education of our children, and we hope, too, that they will pass their exams. They will not be at the bottom of the standard; they will pass their exams.
Well, that is why God created the world: this world, to provide a school—not just for the children, His children—but to train and prepare sons, the many sons He plans to bring to glory.
Wonderful, is it not? We are in God’s school. We are in God’s school, where we may pass our exams and attain unto that to which we have been called by the good news, the gospel—or may fail, may fall short.
The message of the book is important. The subject is the world to come. The theme is bringing many sons to the glory of the world to come. Those to whom this message, this epistle, is addressed are you and I: holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.
But what is the message? The message, of course, may be put very briefly, as I have already suggested. In Hebrews 4:1, what does it say?
Let us fear therefore, lest, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
How dreadful—the possible possibility that we should seem to have come short, missed the mark, not attained unto.
When the Apostle Paul prayed with those Ephesians, and for the church in Ephesus in Acts 20, what was his burden? See Acts 20:32:
And now I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
The apostle was concerned about that because he had seen God’s eternal purpose—not just for the individual believer, but for the church of His dear Son attaining maturity, growing up.
That is mentioned in Hebrews 6:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection.
Not laying again the foundation. The foundation is important, but do not just be about the foundation. There is purpose in the foundation. The foundation is to provide a structure, a house.
Sometimes you may pass—I do not think you see it here in this country so much, not in our country either, in England—but in the East you see many places where the foundation is laid, but there is no superstructure.
Well, it may mean money has run out, or may mean that somebody has died and the job cannot be finished. But here, it is not neglecting the foundation; it is having a foundation firmly laid. That is the finished work of our Lord Jesus Himself—the foundation. We move on. We must move on to maturity.
We were noticing last night how here the Apostle, our Lord Himself, reminds us of the tragic history of a nation that fell short. These verses that some find difficult in Hebrews 6, verse 4:
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
and then fell away…
They had been enlightened. They had seen; they had been told; their eyes had been opened as to God’s purpose. It was true of Israel. He said, “I will give you that land. I will bring you into that land.” The land of promise—that was their inheritance. That was that to which their birth had given them right.
They were enlightened as to the purpose of their salvation from Egypt. It was to enter the land.
They had tasted the heavenly gift. They had drunk the water of life from the rock, and Paul tells us that Rock was Christ—typically enjoying the gift of life.
They had been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament tells us the Holy Spirit was there upon their leaders, anointing them, and there in the nation, guiding them, leading them. They were partakers of the Holy Spirit.
They tasted the good word of God. Moses said, “What nation has the word of God so near them as you have?” What a privileged nation they were, that they tasted the good word of God.
So much so that they said, “All that God has said we will do.” They tasted it was good, though they discovered afterwards they could not do just what they thought they could about it. However, they tasted the good word of God.
And the powers of the age to come. That is our privilege too: that today the Holy Spirit’s activity is bringing within our range, within our experience, that which is more than natural—that which is supernatural.
The supernatural gifts which He has distributed to the members of His body—we have experience of the supernatural. But yet it says here, “then have fallen away.”
These things were true of a nation, and these early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews are using that nation’s history, that nation’s failure, to warn us, to lift us, to encourage us, and to keep before us that which is so vital if we are to continue steadfastly in the faith from the first day until now.
Birth, birthright, blessing—they are here in this epistle. Remember, Esau is mentioned and helps us, because some people find it difficult, and they may quarrel or discuss or argue as to whether a soul can be lost.
We can lose some degree or experience of our salvation, but we cannot be unborn once we are born. Let us be settled on this. There is a great salvation. We are meant to enjoy its full extent or dimension, but we can fall short of that.
Do you not agree? Is it not right? It is not losing our souls. People say, “Once saved, always saved,” and if you say, “Well, I am not sure about that—once saved, always saved,” you see, you can have a wonderful escape or exodus from the old, like they did from Egypt, and yet the heart is not altogether separated from Egypt.
Circumstances may arise when you step back, or you lose hold of some experience which you had at the beginning. You have not lost the life; you have lost the experience of the so-great salvation.
This is a very important differentiation between salvation and regeneration. Regeneration is not the same as salvation.
Salvation I came to understand very helpfully from Brother Nee’s book, Love Not the World. Have you read it? How many have read Love Not the World?
Well, he gives a very clear exposition of the world and the meaning of the word “saved”: saved from the world, saved from the flesh, saved from the devil, saved from sin.
But you can backslide, cannot you? Cannot you backslide? Is that not our grief? That sometimes, after we have made perhaps a dramatic entrance into the new life, we slip back. We lose experience of what we had tasted, but that has not meant that we were unborn.
See, Esau could never be other than a son of Jacob—sorry, the son of Isaac. He could never be other than the son of Isaac. But his tragedy was that he despised his birthright, and therefore he sold it and lost the blessing.
That is the tragedy. See what it says there in Hebrews 12 about Esau. We had better read from Hebrews 12:14-17:
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord:
looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled;
lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright.
For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind in his father, though he sought it diligently with tears.
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification, or holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Do not try to alter that, because that is very clear, is it not? Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord.
But holy brethren are partakers of a heavenly calling and have a future, if only they do not turn back, fall away, or lose hold.
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. Oh, how wonderful—the grace of God. What is the grace of God? The grace of God is this: that He puts within our reach the unimaginable, the unspeakable, the indefinable, the supernatural. Everything that is of Christ, the grace of God puts within our reach.
How easily we allow some bitterness, or some jealousy, or some other disagreement to come in—some other trivial thing to occupy the mind or poison our spirit.
That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Oh, fancy. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing—when he desired to inherit the blessing—he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.
The message of this book, this precious epistle to you and to me, is: beware. Take warning. Realize that our career is not certain. The call, there is no doubt, is certain. God’s call is irrevocable. He does not change His mind.
In this epistle, you see, the Lord wants people to really believe He means what He says. He says such extraordinary things, so far beyond our comprehension, that we say, “Hmm, I wonder if that is right.” Well, He wants us to believe what He says, taking Him at His word.
Somebody said to me one day—a bank manager—“I wish I had faith like you have.” So I thought, “Well, what is my faith anyway?” My faith is to take God at His word. That is all.
When God took Abram out under the open heaven and said, “Look up. See all the stars. Your seed is going to be as numerous as that,” what does it say?
He believed God. He believed God. It does not say he believed in God; he believed God. He took God at His word. God wants to be taken at His word.
Here in Hebrews 6 He shows us that so plainly. How? By adding an oath—adding an oath to it.
See what it says in Hebrews 6:13:
For when God made promise to Abraham, since He could swear by none greater, He sware by Himself,
saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed with an oath.
The heirs—listen to that—the heirs of the promise. He wants us to believe what He says.
You know what the Apostle John said:
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.
You tell somebody else that: we should be called the children of God, and such we are. Such we are.
But Paul adds to that: if children, then heirs—yes, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Birth gives us a right of birthright. Children of God are heirs, heirs of God.
How do you get the inheritance? Well, you have got to wait for the benefactor to die, have you not? If your dad is rich and you know that you are in his will, you are going to have something from his estate. You do not get it until he dies. So you wait for him to die; you get it after he dies.
Well, we are told that in Hebrews here: on the death of the testator, we can receive our inheritance. Well, our Benefactor, our blessed Lord, has died, has He not? So there is the inheritance assured to us.
Now what? We have to exercise ourselves to apprehend it, to go forward into it, and to see that our present behaviour and conduct are fitting to our future career.
I used to wonder why Hebrews 11 came in this epistle. When I began to study Hebrews, I thought, “Well, this is a bit of an interruption, going through all these people that are mentioned in Hebrews 11.” It seemed to be an interruption. Not at all. It is pressing the point. It is applying the truth.
Here, all who are mentioned by name, and the many who are not mentioned by name, are behaving as they behave because they have a future. They have a calling, a high calling. They have an inheritance. They are going for it, and they are not allowing anything to set them aside or to hinder them in it.
Hebrews 11:1 says:
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
God has spoken. God has spoken. God has set His purpose before us. God has, by His good word, called us to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ—the glory of the world to come. God has spoken. Faith says, “Hmm, yes.”
Hebrews 11 speaks to me when I do not just say, “Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith,” but see how faith expresses itself. Taking God at His word, believing what He says, determines my attitude, my behaviour, my diligent pursuit of that which will qualify and prepare me for His will, His purpose, the glory of the world to come.
What a lovely list of people we have. We are prone to think of the first lot: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joseph, and so on. But I want to read a few verses after that here this morning.
Hebrews 11:32 says:
And what shall I more say? For the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets:
who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens.
Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Oh, is there a good and a better resurrection? Why did these women endure such torture? Why are they recorded here in this way? Because they had the future, the glory of the world to come, before them.
What they suffered—and people have suffered. But you remember what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:16-17:
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
We shall reign with Him, if we are prepared to suffer. If we are prepared, in spite of everything that could discourage us or set us aside, to keep the inheritance in view and not sacrifice it or forfeit it for something less, something secondary.
Wonderful women are mentioned here. Wonderful men are mentioned here. But do not just think about their faith. Yes, their faith, of course, may be the central theme, but their faith was taking God at His word.
They died in faith. See what it says in Hebrews 11:13:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.
And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city.
The New Jerusalem—the central focal point, the location in the world to come, where there is the throne of the Lamb and the thrones of those who will sit with Him.
Amen. Hallelujah.
Are you going to be turned aside by some trivial little thing? Are you going to be stumbled in your following after Him by something that is not worth consideration? Are you going to become so self-centred and self-occupied as to allow Satan to trick you, or the world to ensnare you?
You know, dear brothers and sisters, today is a day when the world is overtaking us subtly, cruelly, wickedly. That which we perhaps have enjoyed in some measure—emancipation from the things that are around us, a deliverance from the world, the flesh, and the devil—we are losing it gradually.
Death is creeping up on us. Death is creeping up on the church. It was death that disqualified the priesthood of Aaron. But, oh, thank God, the priesthood is taken up in Him Who is after the order of Melchizedek, not touched by birth or death—our Lord Himself.
How easily, how tragically, we allow very unreasonable considerations, things, to overtake us—to blunt the edge of our spiritual affection and love for Him.
Fall away. Fall away. That is so much in this letter, both in word and example, of those who fell away.
It does not mean that they no longer have life. If you are born of God, you are God’s child. But you may not attain to the throne, the throne of the Lamb, to sit with Him in the age to come.
You do not lose your life. He will never say, “You are not Mine,” but He will say, “Sorry, your seat is occupied by someone who has done better.”
We have got to see that our testimony, if it has been good, if it is good—as it should be, and usually is, at the beginning—we have got to see that we do not fall behind in our testimony.
You see, we have an example, an illustration, of that danger in the ten virgins. They are all virgins, but five let their testimony lapse, as figured by the lamp, or the oil in the lamp.
They had oil originally; they had experience, typically, of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, but their testimony had lapsed. There are so many, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, who had begun in the Spirit but do not continue in the Spirit.
That is a very real warning, a very sad event, if it should be true of any one of us.
So let us, brothers and sisters, keep our future in view. Make sure not only that we are born of God and have the life of God, but be aware that that birth has a right—a birthright.
The birthright is to the throne: heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ. But that can be missed; that can be forfeited.
It does not mean we will not go to heaven. It does not mean that we will not be in the age to come. But it does mean that we may not fulfil all His desire, or attain unto that to which really He has predestinated us.
Knowing that we would be His, He said, “You are going to be My son.” We are sons potentially. We are sons more literally when we grow up, when we are mature, when our judgments are right and our decisions are in line with our Lord’s wisdom.
Do not let us fall away. Do not let us be satisfied with the second best.
When I was in the army in the last World War, I was at one time in a barrack room, and the beds were side by side, side by side. A very nice young man was in the next bed to mine. We did not have any curtains; there was no privacy, so we could all see one another and talk to one another.
One day this young man said, “I think my life’s good enough. What is wrong with it?”
So I said, “Well, you know, in the English language, we have three adjectives of degree, and then there is this superlative.” I did not know grammar much, but I learned that after I left school.
Good, better, best—excellent, superlative. So I said, “You say your life is good enough. Which is it of these? Is it good? Is it better? Is it best? Is it superlative? Excellent?”
The Lord wants to bring us, as His sons potentially, to excellence. That was the Apostle Paul’s burden for some to whom he wrote: a spiritual excellence, because that is our qualification for the future privilege to which we are called.
Keep your destiny in mind. Keep it in view. Do not be distracted day by day. Be aware—be aware of your destiny, God’s appointed future for you in His grace.
Do not disappoint Him. Do not be disappointed as Esau, who too late—or Israel, who too late—fell away and did not enter in.
Oh Lord, please forgive. Please forgive that there is chaff with the corn, but please, Lord, do not let the good seed be lost.
Do not let us fail to hear, in the midst of all the words, what You have been saying. Please write upon our spirit, by Your Spirit, that which You want us to hear, and that message which is from You today.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.