There are some words in the Letter to the Hebrews about which I feel led to speak to you this morning.
They are in Hebrews 3:1 and 3:14:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.
For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
We have been seeing in this wonderful letter the transition from the Israel of the earth to the new Israel of heaven.
This morning, we are going to concentrate upon one aspect of this: the superiority of the heavenly Israel to the earthly.
It was as though the writer said to himself, “The time has come for someone to let these people know how superior is that which has come in with this dispensation.”
This final movement of God in the history of this world is greater than anything before. The writer set himself to show the people of his day that God meant it for more than them. God meant it for His people for all time.
Who wrote this letter? No one knows. Many names have been mentioned. Some have been very certain about it, and then someone else has come along and upset that certainty.
Some have been very sure that Paul wrote this. Others have very nearly proved that Paul did not write it.
Others have said that it was Apollos, because he was a man mighty in the Scriptures. So it was said of him, and it certainly did require a man mighty in the Scriptures to write this book.
Barnabas? Well, Barnabas knew all about the Levitical system of the Old Testament, so he would be a good one to write the book.
As for Paul, of course, he was the perfect master of both Judaism and Christianity. It needed such a man to write this book.
If Stephen had not been martyred, I would have chosen him, because I think in his last great discourse you have all the substance of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Well, we cannot say. You wonder why I take time to talk like this, and I have a reason.
This letter is something that, really, only the Holy Spirit could write. It required all that knowledge of the Word to set down what is in this book.
The fact is that it needed someone who knew all about Israel and all about Christ to write this book. Now, the very reason is that the message of this book is the wonderful superiority of Christ to all that has been before.
I am touching on very old and well-worn ground when I remind you of the place that the word better has in this letter.
That word better occurs more often in this letter than in all the rest of the New Testament put together.
Here is a study for beginners in Bible study: get out your box of coloured pencils. Choose a good colour that you think is suitable to better, and underline that word through this letter.
You will find that you have it occurring many times, and always in very instructive connections. I am just going to run through them.
Then, in Hebrews 1:4 and Hebrews 8:6, you have the words more excellent. The phrase “by so much” also occurs. Well, that word itself is a key to the letter. Everything here is better than it has ever been before.
We can come back with that to our own key words: “Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,” called to something so much better than has ever been in the history of this world.
Now, just again, let us remind ourselves why this letter was written. In the first place, it was written to save these Christians from spiritual arrest.
For various reasons, they were being tempted to draw back. You remember that those words occur in a warning:
But my righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.
It is a terrible thing to get into a place where the Lord has no pleasure in us—to lose the pleasure of the Lord. This letter was written to prevent these Christians from getting into such a position.
Some were inclined simply to stand still and not go on any further, so that their spiritual life would be arrested, so that they would no longer go on and grow.
There can be standing-still Christians. As it was, so it is now. Nothing of the future is governing them.
So, to save them from going back and from standing still, this letter was written. But we have already pointed out that there was another reason.
It was written to carry these Christians through a time of great trouble which was coming.
It was evidently written very shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. Perhaps the writer saw the signs of that coming. Whether he saw those signs or not, the Holy Spirit saw what was coming.
He knew that a great time of testing was coming to these Christians, and all that they had trusted in on this earth was going to be shaken.
So the Holy Spirit, who knew all about that, led this writer to write this letter. It was intended, therefore, to be a strength to them and salvation in a time of trouble.
The method of ministering help to them was to show again the greatness of the Lord Jesus, the greatness of the heavenly calling, and how great a thing it is to be partakers of Christ and of the heavenly Christ.
And so the writer sets out to bring the Lord Jesus into view in His superiority to all who had gone before.
But in doing so, he does another thing. This is a very interesting thing that is in this letter. He says that down through the past ages there have been men who have had great difficulties, discouragements, and trials.
He speaks about Abraham. Now Abraham, indeed, had a difficult life.
There was the difficulty of the postponed promise. God’s promises did not seem to be in the way of fulfilment. God was taking such a long time to fulfil His word.
We all know something about that difficulty. We are in a hurry, and God is not. God seems to have all time to play with; we have no time. Our trouble is, “Oh, if only the Lord would hurry up.” I suppose our prayers are so often marked by one word: “Lord, hasten it.”
Now, if any man knew about having to be patient, it was Abraham.
There was, then, the difficulty of unfulfilled promises. Sometimes Abraham just broke down under that.
On one occasion, he left the land of promise and found himself in still greater trouble, and had to tell a lie to get out of it. It was a very real testing that man was to Abraham.
I think there are signs that Abraham’s wife was not always in sympathy with him. When they were both old, and the Lord said that they should have a son, it says that Sarah in her tent laughed.
The Lord was angry, and Abraham had to rebuke her. Well, we must have full sympathy with Sarah. She was hard put to it by the way in which the Lord was taking her husband.
She was not always able to see as her husband saw, and to feel just as he felt. Perhaps, for that reason, Abraham had a certain measure of spiritual loneliness in his life.
Then what about that young man Lot? He certainly did not share Abraham’s vision. His vision was all on this earth; his ambitions were all for the present.
You know well the story of Lot and where he settled, and what a thorn he was in the side of Abraham. I suppose I could add other things to the very painful story. Abraham’s was not an easy life.
You know, the New Testament says that Abraham rejoiced. Why did he rejoice? Why did he rejoice in tribulation?
Jesus Himself tells us why:
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day;
And he saw it, and was glad.
In some way, Abraham had seen the Lord Jesus, had seen the day of the Lord Jesus, and that got him through all his troubles. He rejoiced because he saw the Lord Jesus and the day of Christ.
There is more in this Letter to the Hebrews about what Abraham saw. He had seen a heavenly country and was looking for it. He had seen a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham had seen the day of Jesus Christ. You remember that this writer says, “We are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem.” Abraham had seen that.
Seeing the Lord Jesus, he was able to go on. He rejoiced in a long life of trial.
What about Moses? Well, we could make up a long story of the troubles of Moses. He had to carry a very heavy burden.
There was a time when Moses lost heart. He said to the Lord, “All these people, they are too much for me. They are too great a burden; I cannot carry them.”
Very often Moses had to go back to the Lord like that and say, “You have asked me to do something that is more than I can do.”
Through forty long, weary years, Moses had very many trials. But we have this word:
He endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Who was the One whom he was seeing? Notice what this Letter to the Hebrews says.
When Moses saw his own Hebrew brethren, he decided that he was going to take sides with them. And you know what he did. Then this letter tells us something:
Choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
The reproach of Christ! Well, did Moses know about Christ? Somehow he had seen Christ. He saw that these Hebrew people were called in relation to Christ.
He endured, seeing Him who is invisible.
This is a point at which our minds have got to get adjusted. Perhaps we have got the idea that when Jesus came into this world, that was the beginning of Him.
But the Word of God makes it perfectly clear that Jesus Christ was present in the days of Abraham and Moses. Indeed, the Word says He was present in the creation of the world.
By Him all things were created, says the Scripture. He was there all the time. He was the One who was appearing again and again, and they did not recognize Him.
He appeared to Abraham. He appeared to Moses. He appeared to Joshua. He appeared to Gideon. Yes, the same Christ was there all the time.
He did not just begin when He was born in Bethlehem. He only came then into this world in human form.
You think that is exaggerating? Well, let us come to our Letter to the Hebrews.
Hebrews 13:8:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever.
I left out one little word: Jesus Christ is the same. He is yesterday. He is today. He is tomorrow.
Yesterday was the day of the old dispensation. When this writer wrote this letter, today was the day in which he lived. It was the new dispensation that had just begun.
Today is the period between Christ going back to heaven and His coming again. That is the day.
We have seen already how that phrase is quoted three times in this letter. It is brought over from yesterday to today:
To-day if ye shall hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts.
That is a message for this dispensation. Tomorrow is forever, and it is going to be the same Jesus Christ.
So the writer of this letter is saying that Jesus Christ was back there in yesterday. He was in the past dispensations—the same Jesus Christ that we know today—and He will be the same Jesus Christ forever.
Now, if you turn again to the beginning of this Letter to the Hebrews, do you notice how many quotations from the Old Testament are in that chapter?
We cannot stay to look at them. The Old Testament is used here a very great deal, and the quotations are things concerning Christ.
So that, in the first place, it is quite clear that He was in the Old Testament. He was being spoken about there. He was present in the minds of the writers of the Old Testament.
There are quotations from David. Jesus Christ was very much in the mind of David:
Thou art my Son;
This day have I begotten thee.
David first wrote that, and there is much more like this. The quotations from the Old Testament are there in many places at the beginning of this letter, which simply shows that Jesus Christ was present in the thoughts of the writers.
Jesus Christ is brought over from yesterday to today. This writer is simply saying that the Jesus Christ of the prophets and the men of old is this One today of whom I am writing.
The whole letter takes up all that about Christ and brings it over here into the present. It is the same Jesus Christ.
But now we have begun to see the superiority of this today over yesterday. We have only touched one thing, and that is the thing this writer set out to do: to show that, to get through trouble and testing, you need to have a large conception of the Lord Jesus.
If we are going to get through to the end in victory, then it will depend upon what kind of a Christ our Christ is to us.
The writer realized that these Christians were finding the way rather long and difficult. The most testing thing in spiritual life was their need of patience.
Ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.
And so, at the end of the letter, he says:
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
What is the real strength of patience? It is so easy to say to people, “Now, be patient. Do not be in a hurry. Things will turn out all right.” I am afraid that when people talk to me like that, I never feel so much better.
But this writer did not just say to these Christians, “Now be patient.” He did say, “Let us run with patience the race,” for it calls for a lot of patience.
But the thing that will keep your patience strong is this:
Looking unto Jesus.
If we look at ourselves, sooner or later we shall give up the race. If we look at other people, there are a lot of people who will make us give up the race. If we look around us at the world, then we shall lose our patience.
I like the true translation. Some versions say, “Looking unto Jesus.” Well, that is all right, but the real version is, “Looking up unto Jesus.”
You must take your eyes off yourself. You must train yourself in the habit of refusing to look at yourself.
Every time you are tempted to look at yourself, you will have to say, “No. No, I shut my eyes.”
You must not have your eyes on those Christians who are disappointing Christians. You must remember that the very best Christians are only human after all.
It is a very dangerous thing to think of any man or woman as being infallible.
You know, Paul owed a very great deal to Barnabas. It was Barnabas who went off to find Paul. It was Barnabas who brought him back.
When even the apostles saw Paul coming, I think some of them had other things to do. They were all suspicious of this man, and they drew back.
Barnabas took him by the hand. He said, “Do not be afraid, brothers. He has met our Lord Jesus. He is now a partaker of Jesus Christ. Here is one with us.”
It was Barnabas who brought Paul to Antioch. Antioch was in great need at that time. They needed a very strong minister, and Barnabas said, “I know the man.”
He brought him to Antioch and introduced him to his life ministry.
It says of Barnabas that he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. I think Paul put him on a high pedestal.
Then that day—that terrible day—came when Barnabas fell off his pedestal. You know of the division between the Jewish and Gentile Christians.
The new order of Christ demanded that they should all be one, that they should eat together and drink together. Peter had learned that lesson at the house of Cornelius.
But then that day came when this whole question of eating and drinking arose—Jews and Gentiles meeting at the same table. It was a very strong dispute, a very critical day.
Then it says they sent down certain from Jerusalem. James came down, and Peter withdrew from the table.
He was afraid of James. He was afraid of those others from Jerusalem. And so he withdrew.
And so strong was the contention that even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation.
Just think of it. “I never believed that Barnabas would do a thing like this. I thought Barnabas was far above anything like this.”
Surely it was a very great blow to Paul’s confidence in men. If he had continued to keep his eyes on Barnabas, no one knows what would have happened.
Then he had to look off from Barnabas to Jesus. We are always having to do that. In many ways and situations, we have to take our eyes off and look unto Jesus.
I think there is a very real touch of Paul in this letter: looking off unto Jesus. My own opinion is that whoever wrote this letter, Paul had a good hand in it. His influence is everywhere in this letter.
That is a very typical lesson for us to learn. Again and again, we have to do that in our Christian life.
If we get our eyes upon anything but the Lord Jesus, we may just go to pieces.
I have all respect for God’s saints. I am not saying that you have got to eye every servant of God with suspicion, always saying, “Well, of course, he is not perfect, you know.”
No. Give honour to whom honour is due. But never build your faith upon any man, however good he may be.
As for ourselves, I think perhaps we are more often tempted to look at ourselves than at anything else. This is one of our real Christian exercises: we have continually to remove our eyes from ourselves.
Everything to do with ourselves—there is nothing more discouraging, and there is nothing more misleading, than ourselves. Our own judgments are all wrong. Our own ideas are all wrong. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts.
We must take our eyes off ourselves, but not look out into space, not to be vacant, but look up unto Jesus.
And you know how the sentence is finished:
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Did you start this thing? Are you a Christian because you decided to be a Christian? Now, the Lord help you if that is so.
No, He started this thing. Are you not glad that you can say, “The Lord found me”? It was the Lord who put His hand on me.
It is very true:
Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.
He was the author of our faith. And it says He is the finisher. He will finish it.
I have so often said that when we get to heaven, we shall be full of wonder that we did get there. In our experiences in this life, we sometimes feel like that.
When we arrived here last week, I said to my wife, “Well, we are here.” And when I said that, that meant a lot. You knew all the history of the past year.
But that is a very small thing. When we all get to glory, we shall just look at one another and say, “Well, we are here.”
That is a wonderful story. How we got here, I do not know. A thousand times I thought I would never get there. I had given up all hope. But we are here because Jesus is the finisher.
In the day of your despair, in the day of your difficulties, look up unto Jesus.
He has said:
Where I am, there shall also my servant be.
And if it takes a thousand miracles, He will work them to get us there. You believe it. Take hold of it with both hands, and trust Him to bring you right through to the glory.
Well, that is one of the great things in this letter: bringing many sons unto glory. That means you, and that means me.