Well, it is good to see many people here tonight. We gather together to hear God’s Word.
The Lord has been faithful to us, sharing with us wonderful things. I am sure there were some illustrations that the young people alone understood. We all understand spinning around on the office chair, but with the lights of Battlestar Galactica, I do not know that I understood that one.
Our brother Stephen shared very precious things regarding faith, from the mind and wisdom of God. This is very precious. Our brother David did not disappoint us; he shared the heart of God, as he always does with us.
Tonight, I want to share something about the will of God as He chases after us to accomplish the purpose that He has for us in our lives.
I would like us to turn to a few portions in Hebrews, which I feel are needful for us to share tonight, to get a little wider context of this great event that is about to happen: the King is coming.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the world.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.
For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth,
much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised,
“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken,
as of created things,
so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken,
let us show gratitude,
by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
for our God is a consuming fire.
But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation,
for I have written to you briefly.
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 a 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.
Well, there is such a tremendous word, such strong exhortation. How we thank You, Lord, that You are such a God. You speak Your heart, You speak Your mind, You speak Your will.
We would bow before You tonight and again consecrate ourselves, asking that the Holy Spirit would quicken all of our hearts to be attentive to Your Word, that we may respond in a way pleasing to You in this yet little while that we live here on this earth.
O Lord, we pray, Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
We see here something obvious: these Hebrew Christians being written to were going through tribulation.
Do you think, if we knew we were under tribulation, we would listen to God and live by faith?
What would happen if, just supposing, this whole conference were transposed right now and you were citizens of Syria and Christians? You heard these messages: “The tribulation, the shaking, is here. Live by faith.”
You see what I am saying? If we understood the context of tribulation, do you think we would respond and live by faith?
These Hebrew Christians were obviously going through tribulation. In the past, they had suffered the seizure of their property. They had been reproached in many things.
We believe that this letter was written sometime probably just before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Although these were Jewish Christians—that is, Christians of a Hebrew background—and though many of them perhaps lived away from Jerusalem, out in Europe, Asia, and even Africa, every Jew was connected to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, it was a time of great shaking. The Jews called the period from A.D. 66 to A.D. 70 the time of the great revolt.
From A.D. 66 until Jerusalem and the temple were completely destroyed, there was chaos in Jerusalem. The Zealots had taken over the city.
In A.D. 66, one of the successors of Pontius Pilate decided to loot the silver out of the temple. The Zealots rose up and killed the whole Roman garrison in Jerusalem, believing that was the will of God. Even into the Antonia Palace, they wiped them out.
Up in Caesarea, there were a hundred thousand more Roman soldiers who marched down into Galilee, where the Zealots were staked out, and killed sixty thousand of them.
Those who survived fled to Jerusalem. So began a chaos in Jerusalem for four years, where parties fought against parties, false Christs proclaimed that they were the Christ, false prophets were raised up, and people battled people.
There was a supply of food that would have even outlasted the Roman attempt to take Jerusalem, but one of the parties burned all the food in protest. It was chaos. Thousands and thousands of Jews killed each other in Jerusalem.
Finally, when Titus came to do his deed in A.D. 70, as we know, more than a million Jews were slaughtered. They all came into Jerusalem. They all hid in Jerusalem. Those who survived from Galilee ran into Jerusalem or Masada, which is a whole other story.
I would say things were shaking. I would say there was tribulation, especially if you were attached to Jerusalem and attached to the people of God there in Jerusalem—to the Jews.
But strangely, we find that these Hebrew Christians, in the midst of this tribulation, were tempted to shrink back. They were letting their great salvation slip away.
It is an incredible thing. But what we see is that tribulation in itself does not produce righteousness. Tribulation has to be seen as something that God is using.
You remember the Lord Jesus there in Jerusalem itself was saying that in the last days, you shall go through great tribulation. You remember that Jesus spoke in John 16 and said to His disciples, “In the world you will have tribulation.”
You remember that Paul said to the young churches in the Galatian province, “Through much tribulation we enter the kingdom of God.”
Yet somehow, we seem to have a capacity as men to deny that we are in tribulation. We have fuzzy faith.
What do we do? “Is this tribulation? I do not know. It is not. What do you think?”
What do you think the Lord is doing right now? Do you think we are in a time of tribulation?
I know that some of you certainly feel that way on your jobs. I know some people in New York City who are now making bricks without straw. They do not have a boss; they have a taskmaster who is doubling their responsibility and not increasing their pay.
We know that many Christians are feeling, in these days, the reproach for their faith—laughed at, mocked, because we even believe in God or hold the Bible as a word of truth.
We know that many people are going through tribulation in the whole matter of family. Some people are vexed by the lack of morality. Some people are under pressure of finances. Some people are going through education, and in that education, they are being oppressed in many ways.
There are many tribulations upon us, but do we see what the Lord is doing?
Tribulation can make us bitter. Tribulation can make us back up. Or tribulation can make us live by faith. It depends how we see it.
What is the Lord doing? I think the letter of Hebrews tells us one thing for sure.
Whatever legitimate tribulations we might have outwardly—whatever pressures; you know, the Greek word for tribulation means crushing pressures—whatever legitimate tribulations we may have from the outside, there is an even greater pressing going on inside by the Lord.
The Lord is pressing us. Do you feel it?
Aside from whatever tribulations you may be going through—and thank God we live in a country where a lot of other people have it a lot worse than we have—do you feel this pressure from God? What is He doing? What is that inward pressure that He is working on us?
Why, it is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is pressing us into a place where Christ is all-sufficient. He is pressing us into Christ.
Is that a terrible thing for Him to do—to put pressure on us to come into Christ, to see Christ as our fullness, to see Christ as our life, and in that life to exercise faith during these last days?
This is what the Lord is doing. Even greater than your outward pressure, if you can sense it, the Holy Spirit is pressing us. Since the day we became Christians, we have entered into a heavenly calling, and the pressure is upward.
Many things in this world are trying to hold us down—those temptations our brothers spoke about this morning, which keep us away from our heavenly calling. We are partakers of a heavenly calling.
So the Holy Spirit is expending a lot of inward energy to press us into that holy calling. Do you feel it?
What are we doing here anyway for this whole weekend? The Lord wants us to come unto maturity, to press on to maturity, lay aside every weight, come into Christ, come into greater fullness, understand His ways, live in Him, and live in this faith that we are talking about.
The Lord is pressing us. Why? Here it is in Hebrews 10:37:
For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
There is a pressure of the Parousia. The Lord is coming.
To me, the Bible conveys that the closer the Lord comes in His Parousia, the more pressure there is and the more things are shaken. The enemy knows his time is short. All kinds of institutions get shaken—institutions, finances, things that have stood the test of the devil’s commission for years.
Things are being shaken because the Lord is coming. When He comes, things get shaken up. There is one reason for shaking going on.
But more than that, the Lord is saying it is time for us to lay aside those elementary things and press on to maturity, to the fullness of Christ, to sonship. The book of Hebrews is all about sonship.
What a mercy. We keep coming back to this book of Hebrews when we gather here year by year, because there are words in here that speak of this maturing pressure that the Lord is leading us into.
He wants us to come into something wonderful. All of these outward and inward pressures and tribulations are to lead us into Christ.
Christ is all. Christ is life. Christ is our goal. There is the victory.
This is the will of God, even our sanctification. All of this bears with it the reality that Christ is coming soon.
The Lord is looking for a robust bride. He is looking for a bride that has wisdom, faith, and righteousness. He is looking for a Shulamite who will chase after the Lord in the last days. He is looking for a bride of faith.
But these Hebrew Christians were saying, “Oh, could I have some milk, please? I do not think I can take this. Would you explain to me again the ABCs of the Christian life?”
Some were drawing back, or were in danger of drawing back. Here is a great mercy. What is the Lord doing today, even as He was doing back here when this wonderful prophet wrote this letter?
Many of these Hebrew Christians were mature. They were going on with the Lord. They were living in victorious faith. They were overcoming.
But do you know what the Lord is doing in this letter? He is sweeping again across this kingdom to gather all of His children into their inheritance before He comes back.
It is a word of exhortation upon us, so that none would be left behind. There are some who are pressing on, for sure. Not everybody is remarked in these words when these warnings are given. But He wants to sweep everyone in.
Everyone here tonight—if you are a young Christian, sixteen years old—you are already on a heavenly calling, and the Spirit is pressing you upward into all that your Author and Finisher, your High Priest and Apostle, can be to you.
Specifically in regard to faith, what is it that the Holy Spirit is pressing these Hebrew Christians into? What does it have to do with faith?
Here is what I would say: the letter to the Hebrews is an exhortation for these Hebrew Christians to hear the voice of the Son of God directly and personally.
These Hebrew Christians, even as we Christians who start out by faith in a living God and living faith, get deflected sometimes because we trust in human things. We trust in other voices.
These Hebrew Christians were listening to too many voices, and what that gives us in troubled times is fuzzy faith.
The Jews had relied on the word spoken by angels. Do you know the passage in Hebrews 2?
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast,
and every transgression received its just recompense of reward,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
This salvation was first spoken directly by the Lord, then by the apostles, and then confirmed by the Holy Spirit with signs, wonders, and gifts.
There is a word upon you. It is the last word. It is the word of Christ in these last days. All these former things, we have to get beyond and hear Christ alone—that one voice.
In the process of Christian maturity, we have to come to the place where we are not relying merely on other people’s beliefs, other people’s leadership, or other people’s hearing the Lord.
When we are young Christians, baby Christians, we need somebody to tend the lambs. But the goal is for the lambs to hear My voice as sheep. There must be some maturity going on.
If we are continually going back to first principles, and if we desire milk because we are untrained by the word of righteousness, then it comes to the crunch. These Hebrew Christians were coming to a crunch.
They were used to trusting the angels who mediated the law, according to Jewish tradition. They were used to listening to Moses. But a greater than Moses has now spoken.
They were used to listening to people who spoke from earth, but now there was a voice speaking from heaven. Would they hear this one voice?
Though the Lord has spoken in many portions and in many ways through many different prophets, in these last days He says, “Hear My Son.”
You individual Christians, hear My Son.
There is a kind of faith that is not a living faith because it does not have the substance of living faith. The substantiating of living faith is God.
But there is a faith in our institutions, in our beliefs, in our knowledge, and in our leaders. All of that was about to be shaken away from these Hebrew Christians.
They were going to lose their sacrificial system. They were going to lose their high priest. They were going to lose their yearly feasts. They were going to lose their prophets.
Were they ready? Here is the key: Listen to My Son.
Brothers and sisters, when we come to a day of shaking, God has blessed us in so many wonderful ways. But let me put it this way, in a way that I hope we never see.
What if your leaders, those teachers you have depended upon—or, for the teenagers, what if your parents—were suddenly cut off from you? Would you know what to do?
Can you hear the Lord? Can you hear His voice and respond with living faith? Or are you so dependent on somebody else that you do not know what to do?
In the end, our maturity comes down to every brother and sister being able to hear the voice of God. It is a very important issue.
The Holy Spirit is pressing these Hebrew Christians on this matter. You have to wrap it all up in Christ. You have to see that Christ is central. You cannot have all these other voices speaking to you; it is confusing you. It is causing fuzzy faith.
Listen to Him.
You remember what happened to Peter, James, and John up on the mount, when they saw Jesus transfigured and saw His glory. Then the voice came down.
Peter says, “This is a time when I heard from the Majestic Glory.” What did the Majestic Glory say to Peter as he stood there watching Jesus transfigured? The cloud rose. Elijah was gone. Moses was gone.
The Majestic Glory said:
This is My beloved Son; hear Him.
That is actually the key to the substantiating of faith: when we can hear the voice of God.
You know those simple Scriptures regarding faith. We will mention two here just to make a point. One is this:
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
This is simple faith. What does it mean? You hear the Word of God. You hear something in the Word of God, that seed of faith, and you hear it.
Then it says that if you will believe, you will be saved. You hear the gospel spoken. It is a promise made to you, and you hear that promise.
There is substance to this promise: “the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of something I cannot see.” I believe this promise. If I come to Jesus, I am going to be saved.
I just dropped that seed, that promise of the Word, because I heard the Word and it became rhema to me. I placed it in the ground, and I was born again. Wonderful.
We see how faith operates. We have to hear the Word and respond to the Word by faith. It is very simple, is it not?
We see an example in Hebrews 4 of a warning. The children of Israel had been here before. When they got to Kadesh-barnea, they received a promise from God saying, “Go in and take the promised land. I have given you this land.”
Hebrews 4 says:
Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest,
anyone may come short of it.
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they did;
but the word they heard did not profit them,
because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
He goes on and talks about entering into the rest. It comes by taking the Word and uniting it with faith. Here is the promise; you unite it with faith. This is simple faith. This is how we became saved.
But Hebrews is talking about a more substantial faith.
It is a faith that has endurance to it, a faith that can run the marathon, a faith that has patience until it gets there. This faith is a little deeper.
If people have not grown in the substantiating of their faith, they do not have the endurance of faith. They have momentary faith: they hear a promise, believe it, it happens, and they are blessed.
But now there is a substantial faith, a deeper faith, that takes believing and waiting for Him who is to come and will not tarry. There is a living by faith where endurance is involved.
When you go through the list of people in Hebrews 11, this is the faith He is actually talking about—not just that momentary faith: “I believe, bingo, I did it, it happened.”
No, Abraham did not happen like that. No, no, no. Moses did not happen that way. No, no, no. Enoch—no, no, no, no.
They walked and they walked, but they had something. What was it that they had? What is that deeper substantiation?
It begins by believing the Word, and then it matures to seeing Him who is invisible behind the Word.
When you see Him who is speaking the Word to you, it substantiates that faith. You are actually seeing Him who is invisible. You are seeing God.
Well, you are not seeing God—but look away unto Jesus. Are you actually going to see Jesus? Well, no, but you are.
When we have faith with greater substance to it—that is, we see the One making the promise behind it—we are able to endure and live with living faith as we wait for the Lord to fulfill His promise.
If He says, “Wait. Live by faith. I am coming back soon,” and you see the One who is unseen behind that promise, in one sense He has already come back to you. You already see the morning star. In one sense, you are already living in a place that is yet to be.
I do not want to get too crazy about that, because Brother Stephen will talk about the culmination and finality of faith tomorrow morning, God willing.
The Lord is pressing us to hear the voice of the Son of God speaking. But the Hebrew Christians, who should have left all that behind, were still holding on to those old voices. They were being hindered. Their faith was fuzzy.
“Do I hang on to Moses and still believe Jesus is the Messiah?” That will not work when the shaking comes.
These Hebrew Christians were being pressed by the Holy Spirit to take Christ as their full sufficiency.
Christ, the Lamb of God. No more lambs at the Passover. Christ is your Passover Lamb once for all. No more bloodshed for sins and trespasses. Christ shed His blood once for all. It is time to stand by Christ alone.
This is the challenge that was upon these Hebrew Christians. I think it is also a challenge for us.
The Lord is speaking to us. Will we hear this voice? The Lord wants us to exercise faith with greater substantiation.
We need to hear the Lord speaking. This is how our faith grows. When we hear the Lord, we obey what He says.
You remember how the writer of Hebrews says:
Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts.
Today, if you hear His voice—this is the key to faith.
So many people have a faith that is insubstantial. We were out the other day outside a school, where some younger people were witnessing, and I was just sitting out there watching what was going on.
I got into a conversation with one young man. He said, “Ah, faith is all the same. Some of you Christians believe that aliens came down and started something.” He was talking about Mormons. He said, “I think they are Mormons.”
There are all kinds of faith in mythology—insubstantial faith, ridiculous faith. But we are talking about faith with substance.
We have to hear His voice if we are going to live by faith in a day of shaking.
That is my simple burden. I want to carry it a little further here.
The Lord is not limited in any way in speaking. He spoke in many ways and many forms. He speaks in unusual places. He speaks through unusual vessels. He speaks through donkeys.
There is no limitation with God, who is sovereign. He can speak any way He wants, any time He wants—no limitation.
But there is limitation on the end of our hearing.
If we want to hear the voice of God, there is an environment in which He is speaking and we can hear Him clearly. The writer of Hebrews is pressing us in two matters concerning the environment that enables us to hear the Son of God when He speaks.
The first one is to be through the veil, in the holiest place.
Brothers and sisters, this limitation among Christians is a tragic thing today when you think about it. Revelation 2 and 3 say something that I think is very tragic.
Jesus Himself is speaking to His church, but many of the people cannot hear His voice.
What is wrong? At the end of every address, He has to say:
He who has an ear, let him hear.
What has happened to the hearing of the church? What has turned their faith into a trust in themselves? What has happened to Laodicea, that they think they can handle it without having to hear God anymore?
The Lord is calling the church to repentance. In this day, I believe it is tragic: many churches do not hear the voice of God.
There is a famine of the Word of God in the land. There are many human voices, many people saying many things, many radio shows, many books being put out—many things going on. But is the Lord speaking today? That is the issue we find in the church even today.
If we want to enter into that environment where the voice of the Son of God can be heard, let us look at the two passages where it talks about going into the holiest place.
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
and since we have a great High Priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.
Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our confession.For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here he is picturing something very beautiful from the Old Testament. Here is an Old Testament sinner, a child of Israel, a child of Abraham. He has sinned, and he feels that he needs mercy and grace.
He comes with an offering as a sacrifice for his sins. He comes to the outside of the temple, but he still needs mercy and grace.
Meanwhile, in the Holy of Holies, there is a throne. It is called the throne of mercy. If he could just get in there, he could receive mercy. He needs mercy. We need mercy.
But we are standing on the outside. As our brother said so well yesterday, here is the veil: it has been rent, but we are standing outside. We need mercy, we need grace, but we cannot go in.
Then the High Priest comes out and meets us and says, “I will take you in to meet the Father. By My blood, you can lay down that sacrifice you have in your arms. You do not need that anymore. I have paid the price. I have shed the blood.”
Jesus, the great High Priest, leads us into the throne of grace, where we receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.
What a beautiful picture this is from the Old Testament. He now is our High Priest, who takes us into God. There we hear the voice of God. Is that not wonderful?
God says mercy, and God says grace to us. However He speaks to us, it is merciful and graceful in the holiest place.
The Lord is saying in the book of Hebrews, in a unique and wonderful way, that the only place, if we want to hear the voice of God, is in the holiest place, within the veil—there with the Lord.
Christ in us. Hear the Lord in the holiest place. Have you heard the voice of God?
Jesus impressed upon His disciples in John 15, before He went to Calvary:
Abide in Me, and I in you.
If you do not abide in Me, then you will not bear fruit.
But if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you want.
There is that intimate relationship of the vine and the branches, of abiding that is meant to be our life.
That is where we are supposed to be. John, when he shares his wonderful letter, 1 John, shares out of a life that has been lived abiding in Him.
He says, “Do you want your joy to be full? Wherever you live in this world, you need to live in the holiest place, abiding in Him.”
Abiding in Him brings you an anointing that enables you to discern truth from error. Abiding in Him gives you a life in you which is greater than that which is in the world, and a victory over the world—even faith.
Brothers and sisters, when you read the story of men and women of God who have spoken the Word of God, who have done effectual and fruitful work for God, and who have lived for God as a true testimony, you find that they have a life in the holiest place.
They spend time with God, worshiping God, knowing God, and hearing His Word.
When we look in Hebrews 4 and see this great exhortation in verse 16—“Let us draw near with boldness to the throne of grace”—it comes right after Hebrews 4:12.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,
of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.And there is no creature hidden from His sight,
but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Then He invites us into the Holy of Holies. Here is what I take from this: all of us believe it is a wonderful biblical truth that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
But the place where the Word of God does that work is when you are in the holiest place with Him.
To spend time in the holy place with the Lord is to be searched: “Search me, try me, know my ways.” The Word of God comes in and begins to separate soul and spirit—what you did out of your flesh and what you did led by the Holy Spirit.
It begins to separate and clarify things in your life. The Word sanctifies us and separates us from the world.
As much as we believe Hebrews 4:12 is a wonderful Scripture, it does not work on us in a vital way except when we are in the presence of the Lord, in the holy place. This works upon us.
I am just finishing up reading a biography of A. W. Tozer. It was written a few years ago by a history professor, and it is a wonderful biography.
A. W. Tozer, if you do not know, was considered a great Christian prophet in the twentieth century. His works are insightful. He sees where the church needs to repent and calls the church to repent. His books are wonderful to read.
But more than those books that talk about the church’s need for repentance are his books that talk about our need to pursue God in the holiest place—the pursuit of the holy.
In reading the biography, I never saw it spelled out before: basically, A. W. Tozer spent from seven o’clock in the morning until noon every day of his life before God.
It is no wonder, when he spoke, that his words had such power. You say, “Well, of course, I have to go to work. I have to go to school. I cannot stay five hours in the presence of the Lord.”
Of course, Brother Tozer was a servant of God, and he took this time at great cost in order to spend this time with the Lord. Yet out of that holy place, he heard God speak, and he spoke God’s Word.
We say we want to hear God speak. Are you willing to go through the veil? Are you willing to pay the price? Are you willing to bear that cross, to spend that time, to hear the Lord speak?
In the holy place, probably the most continual exercise that you will do there is waiting.
It is not all dialogue. You talk to God; He talks to you. There is a lot of waiting, because actually we are not quite ready to hear something.
It was like when Moses went up to meet with God, and God did not show up for forty days. What did Moses do? “Uh, hello?” He waited.
But the Lord showed up, and he learned something deep from the Lord.
We all talk about manna in the morning. Do you get manna in the morning? You have to get it between five and seven in the morning, before the dew burns off.
“Oh, I do not know. I like my manna about noon with tea.”
Well, everybody has a different schedule, but the principle is this: if we do not spend time with the Lord in the holy place—between you and the Lord, in His Word, waiting and prayer—do we think we are really going to hear His voice and mature as Christians?
On the other side, if you find that environment and find a way to live with Him and abide in Him every day—as our brother David said, every day you just have today; today you need to do it—if you find a way of doing that, for however much time you can do it, and spend it with the Lord, you will have a substantial faith that can live by faith in a time of shaking.
He becomes real within—Christ within, the living Word. But you have to pay that price through the veil, not standing outside.
Many Christians are still standing around the brazen altar, praising God that Jesus’ sacrifice was for them on the brazen altar. All the time, the Spirit of God is saying in the book of Hebrews, “Come in, come in, come in.”
“No, no, no, no. I would rather stay out here and thank God for my salvation.”
Why do you not go in and meet God? Well, of course, that is why we need the High Priest—to help us get in and meet the Father.
There are many Christians who are strangely very afraid of the Father. They talk to Jesus all the time. I do not want to make too much of this differentiation and get you all twisted around.
But they appreciate Jesus. They love Jesus, and rightly so. Yet when you say, “The Father,” they say, “Yeah, I do not really know Him very well.”
If you have met the Lord, you have met the Father, but there is more to it than that. You need to get into the holy place and find out about the Father.
The Father is quite robust. His will is strong. His ways are love. Jesus said, “I have come so you can know the Father.”
In the holiest place, the Father sits on the throne of grace and distributes, with grace and mercy, all we need.
There is a second environment as well, which Hebrews speaks about: to follow Him outside the camp.
We are talking about people coming unto maturity, and maturity means following the Lord Jesus, following the Lamb wherever He goes.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest
as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood,
suffered outside the camp.So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
For we do not have a lasting city,
but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Just as truly as Christ in us speaks to us in the holy place, we also need to follow the Apostle of our faith wherever He goes.
It says, “Go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
This, of course, is a picture from the Old Testament. We all know what the camp was in the Old Testament. That is where the twelve tribes of Israel were ordered around the tabernacle—the tabernacle in the middle, with the fire and the cloud, and the twelve tribes ordered around. This was the camp.
The writer uses two illustrations out of the camp to speak about Jesus. The first is that on the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur, when they offered the blood in the Holy of Holies, they took those animals sacrificed for the blood and burned them outside the city.
The writer says, in the same way, when Jesus took His blood into the Holy of Holies in heaven so that we would be atoned by this blood, His body was dragged outside the gate, outside the city of Jerusalem, and there He was crucified.
Therefore, he says to these Jewish Christians, “Will you follow Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach?”
We understand the application to the Jewish Christians. Obviously, what he is saying is that Judaism is the camp. Jerusalem is the camp. The rituals, sacrifices, high priest, and whole system were a camp.
This camp, in the end, rejected Jesus, threw Him out, and crucified Him.
Where do you stand? Are you in that camp? Are you saying, “I am a Christian. I believe in the Messiah, but I also like Jerusalem”—Jerusalem, those who rejected the Messiah?
Or are you willing to go outside the camp and bear His reproach?
This was a deep challenge to these Hebrew Christians. They had to get their fingers off the last shreds of their trust in the old covenant in order to embrace Christ as the better covenant.
It was a very traumatic experience for them. But how does this apply to us? What does this mean—to follow Him, to go out to Him outside the camp?
First of all, we know that the camp is a temporary thing. These were tents pitched in this world—temporary.
The value of the camp was completely based on the fact that they were ordered by the tabernacle in the middle. The camp was ordered, and the tabernacle was in the middle.
This has an application to us because it means that the whole value of our gathering—who are we? We are the ecclesia, the church. What does ecclesia mean? We are the called-out ones.
We are called out to follow the Lord and to have Him order us as we assemble together.
The Lord is in the middle. The Lord orders all the tribes around, and the Lord is the light in the midst of the assembly. We follow Him wherever He goes. This is what the church is supposed to be like.
But as in the Old Testament, when the ark was taken from the tabernacle, what was left?
You remember when the ark was at Shiloh. Eli was the high priest, and they took the ark one day out to battle against the Philistines. The Philistines took the ark.
At that point, what is the value of the tabernacle without the ark in the middle of it? It is a tent, people doing sacrifices, people being religious, people shedding blood, people asking forgiveness, people praising God—and there is no ark.
When Solomon first became king, he went down to Gibeon, and there he sacrificed a thousand animals in front of the tabernacle, the old tabernacle that had now become a high place.
While he was down there, he saw a dream. He saw the Lord, spoke to the Lord, and got up the next day realizing, “I am sacrificing in the wrong place.” He went up to Jerusalem where the ark was, because that is where you go. You follow the ark wherever He is.
The problem has been historically that the Holy Spirit is pressing us to meet Him. That is the church, is it not? We gather around the Lord. He is the Head. He is the Orderer, the Head of the church.
But how long does it take us to set up a camp? How quickly can we set up a camp?
What is a camp? In the end, a camp is a man-made thing.
Which is easier: make a camp the way you like it, or order yourself around the Lord the way He likes it? Which is easier?
As soon as we decide to make our own camp, we can do it just like we want.
Even though I am an old guy, I like young people. I want a camp with young people in it. Ah, let us forget about the old people. I want a camp with good, juicy, loud electric music. I want a camp this way and that way. I want these kinds of preachers, and I want this kind of worship. I can set up a good camp.
But in the end—I speak as a fool—I may set up a camp, but is the Lord ordering it? Is the Lord there in the middle of it? Is the Lord the Head in that place?
Many camps are set up today. It is very easy to do that. But what does this mean: to go out to meet Him?
This is not a man-centered thing. We go out to the Lord, and we fellowship with Him. This is corporate, because when we go out to meet Him, there are others there.
The assembling, by its very nature, is temporary. As soon as we start to make it permanent—we have to be careful here, because some people are saying, “That is right; we need to rent and never buy a building.” No, that is not what I am saying.
We need to gather. We need some kind of order. We need worship. We need shelter over our heads. But these are all quite secondary.
If those things determine our gathering, then we are off. But if, to meet the Lord, we have these facilities, there is no problem.
The problem is what we are trusting in, where our hope is, where we are looking, and whose voice we are hearing.
When you read Revelation 2 and 3, I see all seven churches spoken to by the Lord. I do not see Him talking anywhere about setting up a cathedral for Me, a monument that will last for a thousand years, or a hierarchical system of men.
I do not see any of that. I see: “Hear My voice.”
Of course, He is building something. He is building an eternal city in the heavenlies.
Meanwhile on earth, if we follow the Lord wherever He goes, it means sometimes we have to break camp, and sometimes we have to pitch again. Whenever the cloud went up or the fire went up and started moving, everybody had to break camp.
We need to repent. We need to be broken up. We need to be repitched. We need to be reordered. It is a temporary thing.
If we would gather together and be His testimony, we have to go out to Him. It is usually outside the camp, because when a camp is made—maybe the camp started off as something God did, God came down, and the camp circled around—but after a while the camp stands opposed to the Lord.
When it becomes man-made, if you want to self-perpetuate a camp, it becomes man-made and eventually opposes the Lord.
But if you go wherever He wants and do whatever He wants, then we can meet with Him outside the camp. There is a great cost to that, is there not? Bearing His reproach.
I recently read some comments about A. B. Simpson. I do not know if you know who he is, but he was a wonderful man of God who ministered in New York City and started a great mission organization that sent missionaries all around the world.
When he came to New York in the 1880s, he was already an excellent preacher. They called him to a very high-class denominational church in New York City, about 1882. He came there, his sermons were excellent, and people filled the church within a year. It was one of those big Gothic stone churches in New York City.
But our brother started preaching the gospel. Between 1880 and 1910, more than four million immigrants came through New York City. He started preaching to the immigrants—the Italians, the Jews, the Germans, whoever was coming in at that time—and they were getting saved. They started coming to this church.
The church said, “No, no, no, we do not want these people.”
Brother A. B. Simpson said, “Well, I have got to follow the Lord outside the camp.” He left that beautiful building and started meeting in a pool hall, then in a Broadway theater, and then here and there.
He finally set up a church in the middle of Manhattan. It is still there, and now it is a pizza place. He just met in a simple building, a simple structure. But he determined that the Lord wanted him to preach the gospel, and those who would be saved needed to be gathered together.
He left all that reputation and became a preacher of the gospel in New York City. They had a tremendous revival there.
Something else happened to him. In the midst of his ministry, his body broke down in health. He became so weak that, frankly, he could minister for about a couple of months, then he had to go away for a couple of months to recuperate with entire rest.
By thirty-seven years old, the doctor said, “You need to leave the ministry.”
Long story short, he was up in Maine and heard some Pentecostals talking about healing. He believed it, and he got healed.
That man lived and worked an unbelievable schedule for the rest of his life, without illnesses falling upon him.
He is the one who wrote many songs we sing about believing that Jesus is not only the Savior and not only the Sanctifier, but He is the Healer, and He is coming back soon. Those were the four points that he would always preach.
When he got healed, he told the Lord, “Lord, if You heal me, I will proclaim the reality that Jesus heals wherever I go. I will try to bring other people who believe into this healing Jesus that I know.”
He said, “It is not the healing; it is Jesus who is the Healer.”
When he said that, he lost his whole reputation with all the denominational and prominent pastors. A lot of Pentecostals and a lot of strange people began gathering with him because of this stand he took.
But he said, “I will not compromise the truth.” It cost him his reputation, and it cost him his great position in New York City. But he decided he had to follow the Lord outside the camp.
On the other side, we know the famous story of our brother T. Austin-Sparks, who was a Baptist pastor. The Lord began to show him great and wondrous things about how tremendous Christ was—so all-sufficient and central to everything in God’s plan.
He began to see all of this, and he came into conflict with the church where he was pastor.
He said, “Lord, what should I do?” The Lord said, “I want you to stay there.”
The Lord obviously had some work He had to do on Brother Sparks. He stayed there, seeing this larger vision, and went around preaching on it. He preached where he was until the Lord finally one day said, “Okay, you can go.”
What I am trying to say is that I am not talking about changing fellowships every three years.
We can have a camp in our hearts. We are not talking about going around and looking at some group we were part of and saying, “Ah, it is a camp.”
No, no. The Lord is dealing with all of His children.
But here is the question: are you willing to go out to Him? That is the key. Are you willing to go out to Him who is Head, even if it is outside the camp?
Finally, picture Abraham. There he was. He saw Him who was unseen. He was looking for a city whose Builder and Maker was God. He was willing to leave everything to find that One whom he had seen when the Lord of glory appeared to him.
He followed that Lord, and his faith matured.
We have heard the story. I dare not use my notes; obviously David and Brother Stephen stole them. But the point is, Abraham is the one we see who had that substantiating faith.
After a while, where he started out looking for an inheritance and then looking for children, in the end he was looking for God. He got inheritance and children just thrown in.
God is a wonderful God, a marvelous God. I hope that you sense in your life that He is pressing us into Christ.
Christ. See Him. He is the focal point. He is the voice. Do not get blurry with all kinds of voices. Listen to Him.
This is Thy beloved Son.
Hear ye Him.
May the Lord help us, everyone here, to hear the voice of God and live by faith. Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You for Your precious Word. We thank You for the exhortation of Hebrews.
Lord, we want to be partakers of our heavenly calling. In these last days, the Son of God is He of whom You have spoken.
Lord, we want to come into a substantial faith, a mature faith that can endure the times of shaking. We know we need to know not only the promises, but we need to see Him who promises, in order to endure in this time and run the race.
Lord, increase our faith by helping us to see the One behind the promises and to see the purpose.
O Lord, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, that we may see Him and hear His voice.
Lead us, Lord, into the holiest, and lead us, Lord, as we follow You even outside the camp.
Lord, we are Your kingdom. You are our Lord. We want to be ordered around You and be found in that place where we can hear Your voice.
We know where You are, Lord, and You are the Head. You still speak to Your people, and we want to find ourselves in that place.
Lord, whatever the cost, whatever the despising, the shame, whatever the bearing of reproach, whatever the dealing of the Word of God in our lives, Lord, we want to grow up knowing the voice of the Son of God.
Do help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus’ precious name.