I think it was about thirty years ago that I met Thornton Stern’s mother. She had been a missionary out in China, and she was living in Queens. On occasion, I would go in to visit and speak with the saints there in a very small group that gathered in a school.
I remember this dear sister. She would tell me stories about Watchman Nee, about life in China—the same stories every time I saw her.
But she always said something to me. She said, “Remember this: God has His best things for those who dare to stand the test. He has His other things for those who will not have His best.”
The three times or so I saw her before she went to be with the Lord, she said this to me each time. Well, it got in my heart in such a way that I went home and told Julia about it. Julia actually made me a little plaque—you know, the needlework kind of thing—with this saying on it.
God has His best things for the few who dare to stand the test.
He has His second choice for those who will not take His best.
Well, that was really something. Then, actually, last year, I was studying Hebrews, and I thought of these things I want to share on tonight. I Googled “God has His best things,” and sure enough, out popped a poem that a dear sister had written back in the early 1900s.
It had a second verse in the poem:
Some others make the highest choice,
But when by trials pressed,
They shrink, they yield, they shun the cross,
And so they lose His best.
And then, just to put my own little touch of confusion in it, I added that little chorus in the middle: “The good is the enemy of the best.”
Now, I would like us to sing. Try to learn this simple chorus. It has very much to do with what I want to share tonight. This is the way it goes:
God has His best things for the few
Who dare to stand the test.
He has His second choice for those
Who will not take His best.The good is the enemy of the best;
Without His best, there is no rest.
See how it goes, right? All right, let’s just do it. I think you can sing along.
God has His best things for the few
Who dare to stand the test.
He has His second choice for those
Who will not take His best.The good is the enemy of the best;
Without it, there is no rest.Some others make the highest choice,
But when by trials pressed,
They shrink, they yield, they shun the cross,
And so they lose His best.The good is the enemy of the best;
Without His best, there is no rest.
Let me talk to you tonight.
Lord, we thank You that we have the help, the sure and strong encouragement of the Word of God to enable us to stand by faith and so stand with You. We ask tonight that, again, You would refresh our bodies and minds as we take in more regarding all of Your plan for us.
We thank You for our time together. Make it precious by Your presence. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We are looking in the book of Hebrews. We want to look at some more verses tonight.
We began by sharing last night—I realize there are some people here who were not here last night—about this matter of the strong encouragement from this letter to the Hebrews.
I tried to paint the scenario of what these dear Hebrew Christians were going through. Just a few years before Jerusalem, their center and symbol, was destroyed, the Holy Spirit moved a brother to write this letter—whoever he was. I think it was Barnabas, as I shared last night.
But anyway, it was a brother who had strong encouragement that these Hebrew Christians could listen to, in order to deliver them from those things that were keeping them from pressing on to maturity. More than that, it would keep them from being devastated by that great shaking that came in 70 AD, when many Jews were killed in Jerusalem alone and their whole system was devastated.
We have this strong word of encouragement and exhortation. It is the Lord’s desire and the Lord’s way to offer strong exhortation to His people just before a strong shaking.
We were looking at various Scriptures in Hebrews last time. Now tonight, we want to continue reading some more Scriptures, because we could be left with the impression that these brothers and sisters being written to were not real brothers and sisters. Some have even made the case that they were Jews who needed to be saved.
But this can hardly be the case when you read this letter. They had been faithful in many ways. Let us look at a few passages that underscore the real faith of these dear saints in their early days.
In Hebrews 6, after that tremendous passage about falling away, the writer goes on to say in Hebrews 6:9:
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
There is no doubt about the fact that these are believers—and not only believers, but faithful believers. But the exhortation here is not just to be believers, but to go on unto maturity and gain your inheritance with perseverance.
Then we go to Hebrews 10. Again, we have that wonderful section before us of coming into the holy of holies by the new and living way. But immediately after that, we see again the situation of these dear saints. In Hebrews 10:26:
If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
And then finally, in Hebrews 13:22:
But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
Here we see strong encouragement. These saints are warned not to shrink back, for the righteous ones shall live by faith. There is a promise soon to be given to them and a reward soon to be gained, but now is not the time to shrink back and back up.
This is a strong word of exhortation, and it was obviously needed for a great shaking that was about to take place. God, in His mercy, wants to gain all of His children, and so He speaks from heaven even through this precious Word.
The fact of the matter is that this book of Hebrews is one that many Christians shrink back from, even today. We have our brother Steve sharing on Revelation—an unopened book for many Christians. Hebrews and Revelation are both strong books.
Hebrews is unique as a letter in that it is completely prophetic throughout. We know that the apostle Paul often gave the saints prophetic vision and exhortations, but there is usually a half-and-half quality in his letters. Hebrews, from beginning to end, is an exhortation, and it is unique in this way.
So many people shrink back. Do you shrink back from it?
Some Christians shrink back from Hebrews, as I remember myself doing as a young Christian, because there was too much Jewishness in it. If you take a walk through the book of Hebrews, you will notice that it is full of Old Testament passages—and not the clear ones that everybody knows, either. Some take a little thinking before you understand why the writer put them in there.
Then, in order to appreciate this letter, you have to know a little about the Levitical system: how the priests did things; the sacrifices; the furniture and the tabernacle; and the covenant under which they were living. It is a very Jewish book, and some people just say, “Well, it’s too Jewish for me,” and they leave it alone.
Some are reticent about this book because there is a sort of surface veil of holiness. There is holiness in this book, and when you get near it, you wonder, “Wow, this is tough.”
There is a lot of separation, a lot of discipline, a lot of consecration necessary here. There is a cost, a setting apart, and a maturity involved. There is something about it that seems way beyond me—something I had better stay away from.
It is a sort of veil, not realizing that when you get into it, you see how precious the Lord’s holiness is. But from the outside, it seems, as holiness often does, a bit severe.
In the end, our reticence and our own tendency to draw back—to shrink back—is because of the strong nature of these prophecies. There are five very strong exhortations, with both encouragement and warning.
These are five very strong passages—so strong that some people think one of them has to do with getting saved and perhaps losing your salvation. There is a big debate about that section in Hebrews 6 because it is such a strong warning.
We read that one in Hebrews 10 about going on willfully sinning, no longer sensing any forgiveness, the judgment of God upon you, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace. I mean, it is very, very strong stuff.
We might say, “Not for babes,” you know? Strong medicine, but needed for strong times.
But you see, there was a problem here. These Hebrew Christians were being shaken—and doubly shaken. Why? Because they were Christians, and they were being persecuted by their own people.
You can imagine what it would be like to be in a Jewish family and to be a believer in Jesus the Messiah. All those trips down to Jerusalem, all those sacrifices you were supposed to make, all those things with the shawl and the prayers and the reading backwards—you know, all that kind of stuff. And you say, “No, I’ll pass.”
There was tremendous pressure from the leaders of their synagogues and from the families themselves. They were going through a shaking because of their faith. We read that some of them had their property seized. This was not by the Roman government; this was by the Jewish authorities.
They suffered.
But if you are in the position we find in Hebrews 6, look at Hebrews 6:18. If I take it out of context just for a minute, you will understand the point:
So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
Those who have taken refuge. Now, if you are being persecuted, but you have taken refuge in the Lord as your complete hope, then this becomes a strong encouragement to you—a strong help, a strong aid—because you have already taken refuge completely in the Lord.
But that is why these Hebrew Christians were being doubly shaken: they were halfway through, but not all the way through. So they were on shaky ground.
Could you imagine the problems that would happen in your own spiritual life if we recognized that Jesus was the Lamb of God, but we also sacrificed a Passover lamb every year? There is something undermining in that.
To belong to the church—which is not a building, but a visible grouping together by God of various members in the body—and yet also to be involved in a synagogue or the temple; to understand that we have been saved by grace and yet try to keep the law—these are undermining kinds of things.
And this was going on in their lives. So the writer gives a very strong exhortation.
One commentary says that, in the book of Hebrews, Jesus makes a cord of whips and drives the Hebrew brethren out of the temple and into the fullness of Christ. So strong is the exhortation.
Well now, I do not know how accurate that is, but you understand the idea. It is strong. The point is this: we have got to come to the place where we deal with the fact that it is Jesus only from here on out.
Jesus, the all-sufficient One. Jesus, whose work was all-sufficient and adequate in every detail.
Until we come to Jesus only, we find ourselves on some kind of duplicitous ground that the enemy can take advantage of, and we find ourselves doubly shaken. The writer makes it clear throughout this letter that Jesus is the Lamb, Jesus is the house, Jesus is the sacrifice, Jesus is the new law, and Jesus is the priest. You do not need anyone else.
They are told not to shrink back, as we noticed in Hebrews 10, because very soon there would be deliverance. Indeed, these saints experienced that within a few years of this letter, when everything collapsed and the Romans came in and destroyed Palestine, as it was then known.
We can understand the strong exhortation to the Hebrew Christians. But here is our question tonight: Why is this letter in the Bible for us Gentiles? Does it have anything to say to us?
I do not think anybody here is offering lambs up on Passover. So how does this apply to us? Is this a book that touches our lives as well? Is it for us?
Well, it is exactly because, even for Christians, the good can be the enemy of the best.
That is what we see placed before us in this letter. These Hebrew Christians had attachments to outer things, which are called twice in this book “the shadows.”
Because they were attached to outward forms, rituals, and things that were shadows of that which was to come, they could not come into the bright light of the fullness of life in Christ. They remained behind. They were hindered from their maturity.
Look at this little passage in Hebrews 5. It is very precious. The writer is sharing things about the priesthood of Jesus, but he comes to Hebrews 5:11 and stops. Listen to why he stops:
Concerning Him we have much more to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
I hope you do not lose the point with all this about milk and meat, as it were. The point is this: the writer is writing about Jesus the High Priest, and he stops. He says, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to stop, because I already see you do not understand what I’m saying.”
Because of these things in your lives, and these shadows, you are not able to see all there is to Jesus. You are stopped at a point. You cannot see more of Jesus. You see this much, but you cannot see more.
That alone is reason enough for the Lord to shake out of us anything that holds us back from seeing more of Jesus. Can you imagine? “I’ve got much more to say.”
It does sound like Paul, doesn’t it? “Oh, I would love to share with you the wisdom of God, but you are babes. When I share the deeper things about Jesus, you start to yawn, get tired, and distracted. You do not seem to understand.”
Pressing on to maturity does not simply mean going into the deeper truths of the Word of God. It means entering into the reality of Jesus in a deeper way. As long as you remain shallow, you cannot take the heavier truth regarding who Jesus is. So he has to stop and exhort them.
This matter of living in the shadows is very deceiving because, after a while, you begin to think that the shadows are reality. If any of you remember Plato’s parable of the cave, the shadows were reality. We did not know the difference.
I just flew out here on a nice United jet plane, and I am awfully glad that the guy who was the pilot was not somebody who had done five hundred hours on a simulator. He had actually been up in the air. That helps.
But Christians in the shadows sometimes think that it is reality, and it is just shadows.
Hebrews teaches us a vital principle regarding maturity, and it is this: unless the cross works in our life, we naturally drift away from reality to outward form.
This applies to every Christian without fail. Unless the cross can do its shaking work, breaking away those things that encrust and form around us, we inevitably and naturally tend to move away from vital reality to an outward form.
The book of Hebrews speaks about our heavenly call, but how quickly our heavenly calling becomes an earthly calling.
The book of Hebrews speaks about spiritual things, but we can take spiritual things and wind them around a few times, and they become natural things. Or we overcome the spiritual things the Lord is speaking to us with a lot of knowledge and a lot of things heaped on top. The spiritual loses its place, and the natural—the mental—takes over instead of the spiritual.
Thank God, as Christians, we all start out just about ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent grace. But with time, and without the dealing of the faithful Lord and the Spirit, we begin to move into laws. We move from grace and set up laws, ways, forms, and modes.
We find ourselves not as free as we might have been before. That living way we entered into through Jesus Christ, into the holy of holies—that living way—becomes a tradition.
Even that precious house of God, that church that we know as the organism of the Lord’s body, can become a system. Just like this. As naturally as sparks fly upward, Christians tend to move from reality down into the shadows.
It is easier to live the Christian life when you can see things, although by faith we have to walk in things unseen. What becomes more important in our individual lives and in our assemblies’ lives: the things that are seen, the numbers and such outward things, or what is really going on?
My home church is in Flushing, Queens, and there is a large population of Chinese there. I think about 350 people are coming to our meeting on Sundays. So people are always asking me, “Gee, what’s going on there with all the 350 people?”
I say, “You know, the 350 people is not the spiritual reality of what is going on. We have a lot of people visiting, a lot of people coming to hear a message, who really have no idea what the Lord wants to do there. But you have a core of people.”
Now, if you want to ask what is going on among the core—those who come to the prayer meeting, who are vitally involved, who understand God’s purpose—that is a whole other story. But the outward thing is not necessarily the reality. We may be 350 people, but we may be in a lot of trouble spiritually.
You see what I am saying? We tend to look at outward things. They are a comfort to us, at least when things are going well. We become attached to these visible things. They start to mean more and more to us as we go on the way.
And it comes to the place where the good can even become an enemy of the best.
Isn’t the Lord good? He gives us good blessings. But far too many Christians affirm their lives and believe they are in the will of God because they have been made wealthy, because they are healthy, because they have a good career, or because they have a nice home.
These become the things that let us know we must be in the will of God. Very rarely do I hear somebody come up and say, “You know, I know I am in the will of God because nothing of the American dream is mine.”
“I am presently working at a car wash, living in a difficult situation, but the Lord has put it on my heart to go out and witness every day at five o’clock. I have the freedom to do that.”
Now, I think that guy may be on the right track, you see. But immediately, of course, his parents get all upset that he has gone to college and is working at a car wash. “This is not good. This cannot be the will of God.”
There is a lot more to it than that, but all I am saying is: do we not often say, “Wow, look how God is blessing them”? Yet many of them have gone away from the Lord. There is no spiritual life left with all the trinkets and things, blessings, health, and wealth.
But you try to touch something spiritual, and there is nothing. We may be depending in the shadows, perhaps, on outward things.
Then we become dependent on a good angel. Hebrews 1 is all about angels. Among the Jews in Judaism in the first century AD, there was a lot of angelology. It got to the place where they could not talk to God, so they found their favorite angel and expected him to help them all the time.
It is akin to the saints who put something on the dashboard when they drive, believing this saint is going to help them somehow—just that old statue. Well, they had their own favorite angels. Do not we Christians come down to being dependent on a good angel?
Now, I am going to use that in the interpretation of a human messenger.
I would love to see a fellowship where there is no good human messenger. All they have is just a regular boy. He has to step up and speak, and he is just kind of learning. Everybody is a little impatient because they have heard wonderful heavenly things, and now they are in their fellowship with some guy stumbling around trying to figure out what grace means.
After a while, we say, “You know what? Let’s depend on the good angel—the guy who can speak well. Let’s depend on him.”
Well, that sounds like a very easy thing to do. The next thing you know, dear brother, you are working hard on your job and you are not studying your Bible anymore because you are trusting the preacher.
The next thing you know, he is your feeder, your teacher, and your guide. You are not listening to the Spirit. You are just saying, “What a good message. The pastor told me to do such and such.”
We can trade a good angel for those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying.
Or we can have a good form of a meeting, right? A good form of worship. “You know what? We have got it down, so it works in just about an hour. We do not want to go over an hour; that would be extravagant. But we do not want to take less than an hour, so two more songs, please, and then we are finished.”
We have it all worked out. It is very convenient. Sometimes that is how a tradition gets going.
I remember back in the days of my denominational pastorate, we had it down. There were two songs, the offering, another song, then I spoke, another song, gave the invitation, and then we were out of there. That was posted on the board.
But a lot of our meetings could be posted right up on the board. We even know who is going to pray.
We can get into a good form of a meeting like that. It is predictable, and actually it is even convenient. But if we are not careful, we start going to these predictable meetings.
Some of you perhaps lived long enough ago that whatever assembly you go to now was very unpredictable when you got together. You just were not sure what was going to happen, so you really held on to the Lord. “Oh Lord, if You are not our Head, chaos is right around the corner.”
But sure enough, you got together and God’s grace was there. You did not quite know what to expect.
Well, we get down to the fact that we come to the place where we end up with a good God—very predictable, very loving, very self-affirming. He loves us all. We all know that.
Sometimes we do not even know what this living God is all about—the scary God talked about in the book of Hebrews.
Let us look at the passages, because the writer of Hebrews is trying to bring people back to the living God. He is the most wonderful, accepting, gracious, loving, patient God we have ever known. All of us have tasted of that.
Do you know He is also the most unpredictable, scary, intimidating, powerful, awesome God when He comes down? The record is clear: whenever God really came down, everybody collapsed—down on the ground, fainting, afraid to look, fearful for their lives. That is what happens when God really shows up.
You do not hear so many songs like that: “Come on down and do us in.” Maybe I should write that song. That would be good.
But let us look at these passages, because this is talking about the living God. Do we want a dead god who is in our image, or do we want the living God? We may not always be able to figure Him out, but I tell you what: He looks like Jesus, and He is full of righteousness, truth, holiness, and love.
You have got to add all four of those ingredients. Sometimes somebody comes up to me and says, “I do not understand it. How could there be that tragedy and the baby dies and everything? If God is a loving God, how can He do that?”
I say, “God is not a loving God.” That always throws them off.
I say, “God is a holy, righteous, truthful, loving God.” We are dealing with a God whose dimensions are greater than any man can figure out. So do not go blaming Him.
Anyway, let us get back to this. Hebrews 3:12:
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
Or Hebrews 9:14:
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
How wonderful. Hebrews 10:31:
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 12:22:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.
Oh, praise God. If this could just be our reality when we gather together: the living God is with us. This is the God who speaks. This is a God who is obeyed. God is very present, and His presence is manifest.
All these good things can rob us of that which is best.
How does Barnabas—or the writer of Hebrews—face this issue? He appreciates the subtlety of the problem. It is the problem of the good versus the best.
The Judaistic system, the law, the temple, and all of it was good. God set it in motion through revelation, even though it had gone sideways through tradition.
So he does not denigrate that which was the shadow. All he says is that when Jesus came, the shadow became obsolete. The good was good, but the best is here, and the good is not good anymore.
Do you want just the good, or do you want the best?
He lays it out before them. I am sure you have seen this before, but just in case somebody has not, he uses the word better all the time in reference to what happened when Jesus came.
In Hebrews 1:4, He is “much better than the angels.” All the angels were good, but Jesus is here. He is better than the angels. That is the simple argument.
In Hebrews 6:9:
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation.
In Hebrews 7:19:
For the Law made nothing perfect, and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Praise God—a better hope. And Hebrews 7:22 says:
So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
Then Hebrews 8:6:
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
We had good promises before. Now, with Jesus, they are all yea and amen. They are better promises. How wonderful.
Hebrews 9:23 speaks of “better sacrifices” than those given on earth.
In Hebrews 10:34, they accepted joyfully the seizure of their property, knowing that they had for themselves “a better possession and a lasting one.” We have a better inheritance now that we have Jesus.
Hebrews 11:4 says that by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. Actually, in the Greek, it is beyond better—it is a superior sacrifice.
Hebrews 11:16 says:
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Then Hebrews 11:35 speaks of those who were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain “a better resurrection.”
Hebrews 11:40 says that God had provided “something better for us,” that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
And Hebrews 12:24 speaks of Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and of sprinkled blood “which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”
How wonderful. The writer shows that Jesus is better in every way. Whatever was good before He came has been made obsolete.
In Hebrews 8:13, we find the basic principle:
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
He reveals the Lord Jesus as opening up the better way. He does not spend time wasting and arguing about their former way. He just says, “That was good. Now that the better has come, let go of those things and take hold of that which is better.”
Praise God, there are those who dare to take God’s best. We learn five lessons from those who are pressing on to maturity—those who dare for the best.
The best is when someone has moved beyond outward things to a Person: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s best. God does not do anything better than Jesus Christ.
Those who have come to this place of pursuing the best have found that they are able to move past just outward things and run after the reality of Jesus, who is the best. They are even willing to sacrifice and let go, as Paul says, to forget the things that are behind.
They press on to the best, the reality which is Christ. This applies in our lives even beyond such things as salvation: from the truth of salvation to the Savior Himself. Is He your possession? From sanctification to Jesus, the Sanctifier of your life.
It is moving into the personal reality behind all the outward things of our faith, our doctrines, and our life together. These are those who have found the best.
Once the best has been taken, the Lord will not allow His children to settle for less. It leads us into merciful unrest until we find His rest.
Once we have touched and seen the best, our God loves His Son so much, and loves us so much, that He will not let us get away with just the good. There begins in our lives a lifelong process of simplification until we have gained the Lord Jesus.
Oh, how the Lord has to deal in our lives. We are so ready to settle for less, perhaps. Some leave the good and go find another good. But once you have seen the best, He will not allow the other good to be good. The other good will not be as good as the previous good.
Some people say, “Oh, I see. I see the best. I want the best. I want the fellowship on the ground—that’s the best.” So they leave something that was good, but they just go to another good, and they are not satisfied.
Why? Why would the Lord allow us to be satisfied? He has other things if you do not want His best. Are you willing to settle?
He is very merciful to His children. There are many children who perhaps do not even know what the best is, and they have settled because they do not know any difference. Then there are those who decide, “No, I just want it simple. I just want it outward. I do not want to really pursue this.”
The Lord has things for them. So gracious is our Lord. But He does not want us to settle until we have found His rest.
The fact of the matter is—and it is distressing to us—we cannot, in ourselves, lay aside our attachments to outward things. There is something about our insecurity. We just have to have those outward things. We do not have it within ourselves.
Oh, merciful God, He has to remove them from us. He is so merciful in the way He does it. He takes something that was satisfactory to us, and He somehow drains the goodness out of it.
Until it is really tough, and we say, “But it is not satisfying.” Or we have a certain way, but it just lacks something. We have missed something. We have gotten diverted. We are going through some motions, but the life is not there. He drains it out.
Then, by the cross, He has us put it aside. So merciful. We could not do it. It is awfully hard for somebody to let go of something they think is good. The Lord just has to drain the good out of it until there is nothing to do but leave it aside.
Just leave it aside. How merciful is our God? Otherwise, we could never do it.
After He has drained the life out of it, we see, “Now I am stuck. I am in something that is good, but it is not good. I do not know how to get out of here.” Then the Lord just shakes us right out of it, and we are out.
Here is an interesting thing: we need outward form, do we not? We need outward form. We need a way.
We cannot say, “Okay, we are going to have worship, but no form.” It is impossible. “We are going to have a meeting, but we do not want a building.” You know what I am saying? You have got to have a way, a form, and some outward things.
But here is the deal: those outward things are simply there to express the best. It is the wine that should define the wineskin, not the wineskins defining where the wine can go.
Of course, we need outward things. Of course, we need a worship service. Of course, we need a prayer meeting. We do not just say, “We are going to have a meeting.” You need to pray, worship, and hear a message. There is a way; there is a procedure.
If you want to call it a tradition, that is okay. But let the tradition be subservient to the life of the Lord. That is the whole point.
Every once in a while, the Lord has to take those things that we have gotten accustomed to and shake them down good, or else they become that which we trust in.
The forms are tested to maintain their subservience to the Lord’s life. These forms are only meant to express the best. They are not the best. They are just expressions of the best.
The forms need to be tested because, if we are not careful, they become part of the foundation. As soon as a form becomes part of the foundation, then the shadows begin to creep in. The Lord keeps us alive.
The fifth and final lesson we learn from those pressing on to maturity is that those who have chosen the better way are kept in life and fullness.
It is not that they are wiser, smarter, or more faithful. It is just that if you say to our God, “We want the best,” then somehow He shakes us, keeps us in life, keeps us fresh, and keeps us refreshed.
I love to see saints—old saints—who are refreshed and fresh because they have laid hold of the best.
So old Mrs. Stern, she was a delight. Same old stories, the same motto—“God has His best things for the few”—shaking her finger at me, you know. Very intimidating woman.
She was fresh. Fresh. Just because she wanted the best. And the Lord does that.
Let me end tonight by saying that the whole book—every chapter in Hebrews—helps us define the better way. If you want to write something down, here we go. A statement for every chapter.
Every chapter in Hebrews helps define the better way.
Now, you understand that these phrases are in these chapters.
So we have the whole book speaking of the better way, and that whole better way is all in Christ and all He has prepared for us.
It is time for us as Christians, before the great shaking comes, to awake, O sleeper; rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Let us be those who have no more shadows, but find the better way. This is the way ahead for us. It is a way of faith, a way of discipline, a way of fullness, a way of loneliness, a way of rewards, a way of searching, a way of rest, and a face-to-face encounter with God’s best.
God has His best things for the few who dare to stand the test. May the Lord help us.
Oh, how we thank You, Lord, that You have made for us a better way. All the religions of man, and even the highest that we can imagine in Judaism, are just the shadows—that which was good, but has now passed away and become obsolete because You set forth Jesus as the better way.
Not only did He open up the better way for us, but He is the better way. We find that that better way is actually the best.
Oh Lord, encourage our hearts in these last days to press in and take refuge in the strong encouragements of this precious Word: that there is a way forward for us, no matter what goes on around us.
Shaking or no shaking, there is a way forward for those who would have Your best. We stand on that, Lord, and we thank You for this precious Word.
Oh Lord Jesus, be real to us in these days as we press unto You and anchor our souls beyond the veil. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.