- Righteousness
by Faith
- 1895 General Conference
Sermons
- by A. T. Jones
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- Sermon 25
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That we may have the subject, or rather the
particular point of it, clearly before us, I will repeat a few
expressions in the passages with which we closed last night's
lesson:
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- At the marriage of Cana, Jesus began the
work of breaking down the exclusiveness which existed among the
Jews.
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- Their religion was a yoke of bondage.
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- The miracle at the feast pointed directly
toward the breaking down of the prejudices of the Jews.
- Jesus was a Jew, yet he mingled freely
with the Samaritans, setting at naught the customs and bigotry
of his nation. He had already begun to break down the partition
wall between Jew and Gentile and to preach salvation to the world.
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- Of the disciples at Samaria it says:
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- They had felt that in order to prove themselves
loyal to their nationality, it was incumbent upon them to cherish
enmity toward the Samaritans. They were filled with wonder at
the conduct of Jesus, who was breaking down the wall of separation
between the Jew and Samaritans and openly setting aside the teachings
of the scribes and Pharisees....During the two days while they
shared the Lord's ministry in Samaria, fidelity to Christ kept
their prejudices under control. They would not fail to show reverence
to him; but in heart they were unreconciled. Yet it was a lesson
essential for them to learn.
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- Jesus did not come into the world to lessen
the dignity of the law but to exalt it. The Jews had perverted
it by their prejudices and misconceptions. Their meaningless
exactions and requirements had become a by-word among the people
of other nations. Especially was the Sabbath hedged in by all
manner of senseless restrictions. It could not then be called
a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honorable, for the scribes
and Pharisees had made its observance a galling yoke. A Jew was
not allowed to light a fire upon the Sabbath, or even to light
a candle on that day. The views of the people were so narrow
that they had become slaves to their own useless regulations.
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- The Sabbath, instead of being the blessing
it was designed to be, had become a curse through the added requirements
of the Jews.
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- The Jewish leaders were filled with spiritual
pride. Their desire for the glorification of self manifested
itself even in the service of the sanctuary.
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- As repeated calamities and persecutions
came upon them from their heathen enemies, the Jews returned
to the strict observance of all the outward forms enjoined by
the sacred law. Not satisfied with this, they made burdensome
additions to these ceremonies. Their pride and bigotry led them
to the narrowest interpretation of the requirements of God. As
time passed, they gradually hedged themselves in with the traditions
and customs of their ancestors, till they regarded the requirements
originating from men as possessing all the sanctity of the original
law. This confidence in themselves and their own regulations,
with its attendant prejudices against all other nations, caused
them to resist the Spirit of God.
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- Now a few more short quotations:
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- In all His lessons, Jesus presented to
men the worthlessness of merely ceremonial obedience....The Jews
had become earthly and they did not discern spiritual things.
And so when Christ set before them the very truths that were
the soul of all their service, they, looking only at the external,
accused him of seeking to overthrow it....He knew that they would
use these works of mercy as strong arguments to affect the minds
of the masses, who had all their lives been bound by the Jewish
restrictions and exactions. Nevertheless He was not prevented
by this knowledge from breaking down the senseless wall of superstition
that barricaded the Sabbath.
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- His act of mercy did honor to the day,
while those who complained of Him were by their many useless
rites and ceremonies themselves dishonoring the Sabbath.
- The Jews accused Christ of trampling upon
the Sabbath, when He was only seeking to restore it to its original
character. The interpretations given to the law by the rabbis,
all their minute and burdensome exactions, were turning away
the Sabbath from its true object, and giving to the world a false
conception of the divine law and of the character of God. Their
teachings virtually represented God as giving laws which it was
impossible for the Jews, much less for any other people, to obey.
Thus in their earthliness, separated from God in spirit while
professedly serving him, they were doing just the work that Satan
desired them to do--taking a course to impeach the character
of God and cause the people to view him as a tyrant; to think
that the observance of the Sabbath, as God required it, made
man hard-hearted, unsympathetic and cruel.
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- Christ did not come to set aside what
the patriarchs and prophets had spoken; for He Himself had spoken
through these representative men. He Himself was the originator
of all truth. Every jewel of truth came from Christ. But those
priceless gems had been placed in false settings. Their precious
light had been made to minister to error. Men had taken them
to adorn tradition and superstition. Jesus came to take them
out of the false settings of error and to put them into the framework
of truth.
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- What could more fully express the thought
of the "form of godliness without the power," than
do those people and their services in that day? Can you imagine?
Every one of these statements is simply another way of stating
the truth that they had a "form of godliness without the
power." Now we are in a time in the world's history when
that same thing--"the form of godliness without the power"--is
cursing the world. And the same truths that were written in the
Scriptures against that thing in that day, are the light and
truth of Jesus Christ against that thing in this day. The same
thing that saved the people from the form of godliness without
the power in that day--the same thing that saved the people from
the senseless round of forms and ceremonies, of ceremonialism
and the ceremonial law, which is simply ceremonialism--the same
thing that saved the people from that in that day is to save
the people from that in this day.
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- What saved the people from this thing
in that day? "He is our peace, who hath made both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances [contained in ceremonies, contained in
forms without the power]; for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace." It was an absolute surrender
to Jesus Christ of every interest in the universe and thus finding
in Him the destruction of the enmity in that day that saved people
from ceremonialism, and nothing short of that will save people
from ceremonialism in this day. Nothing short of that will save
Seventh-day Adventists from ceremonialism and from following
the same track of the old ceremonial law.
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- [Professor Prescott: I would like to know
if we get the thought clearly, because it all seems to center
right there. Are we to understand that thought, that Jesus Christ
did at that time really abolish not simply that ceremonial law,
but that he did a great deal more than that; that He abolished
ceremonial law everywhere and always, no matter how expressed.]
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- Yes, sir. That is the point exactly.
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- We will come at that in another way. What
was the cause of all this? What was the cause of that separation
between Jews and Gentiles? What was the cause of their having
a form of godliness without the power? What was the matter with
the disciples with Jesus at Samaria? Enmity. Enmity, sin, self.
But enmity, sin, self, is all self. It was the putting of self
in the place of God that not only perverted God's appointed services
and forms of service, but added to these a whole mountain of
ceremonies and additions of their own, as we have read. What
was the object of it all? What were they doing all this for?
To be saved; to be righteous. But there is no form or ceremony
that even God himself appointed that can save a man. That is
where they missed it. That is where thousands of people still
miss it. And that is the "form of godliness without the
power" and that is ceremonialism, and if you will receive
it, that is the ceremonial law, that was abolished by the abolishing
in His flesh of the enmity and so breaking down the middle wall
of partition.
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- It was the lack of the presence of Jesus
Christ in the heart by living faith that caused them to put their
trust in these other things for salvation. Not having Christ
for salvation, they did these other things, that by these they
might be righteous. And thus they took the means which God had
appointed for other purposes--they took the ten commandments,
they took circumcision, they took sacrifices and offerings, and
burnt offerings, and offerings for sin. They took all these,
which God had given for another purpose and used them to obtain
salvation by them, used them to obtain righteousness by the performance
of them.
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- But they could not find righteousness
by the doing of these things. They could not find peace. They
could not find satisfaction of heart, because it is not there.
It was all of themselves. Therefore, in order to be certain of
it, they had to draw out these things which God had appointed
and the things which He had said into ten thousand hair-splitting
and casuistic distinctions so that they could be so certain to
come directly to the exact line that they could be sure that
they had the righteousness they were after. Yet all these things
did not satisfy. They did not find peace of heart yet, and consequently
they had to add a great many things of their own invention and
all these were their own invention anyhow. It was all ceremonialism
from beginning to end, and it was all done that by these they
might become righteous.
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- But nothing but faith in Jesus Christ
can make a man righteous, and nothing but that can keep him righteous.
But they did not have that. They did not have Him abiding in
the heart by living faith so that His virtue itself would shine
out in the life through these things that God had appointed,
which Christ Himself appointed for that purpose. And therefore
when they attempted by these things--simply the expression of
their own selves working out thus--to obtain righteousness they
missed real righteousness, and thus that self in them built up
this that the testimony calls so often "middle wall,"
"a wall of partition," "senseless exactions,"
"hedging about"--using the expressions over and over
again in almost every conceivable way.
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- What caused that wall to be built up?
Did God build it up? No. Who did build it up? They themselves.
And what was it in them that was the foundation of the whole
thing? Self. And that self, as we have studied so often, is enmity
against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. And we read that the disciples "felt that in order
to prove themselves loyal to their nationality, it was incumbent
upon them to cherish enmity toward the Samaritans." To acquire
it? O, no, but to cherish it, to hold fast to it.
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- Then as that enmity, which is simply the
expression of self, is that which caused all this wall to be
built up, when Jesus Christ wanted to break down the wall and
destroy it, annihilate it, what was the only way effectually
to do it? Is it the way to break down a wall, a building, to
begin at the top, and take off a layer of stone here and another
there or to begin in the middle and take out a stone here and
another there? No. If you want to break down the whole thing,
you take away the foundation and the thing is done. The wall
is destroyed, the building is torn down.
- Jesus Christ wanted to abolish that whole
thing. He wanted to break down that wall absolutely and leave
it in ruins. Therefore, He struck at the foundation of the thing.
And as the spring, the foundation, of the whole senseless wall
was this enmity, Jesus broke down the wall by "having abolished
in Himself in his flesh the enmity" and along with that
"even the law of commandments contained in ordinances."
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- [Mr. Gilbert: That word "righteousness"
itself has become perverted, so that now the meaning of the word
"righteousness" is a man that gives alms; that is,
a man that gives a certain amount of alms has obtained righteousness.]
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- Brother Gilbert, who is a born Hebrew,
and a Jew indeed now, says that that same idea still prevails
among the Jews. That the word "righteousness" and the
idea of righteousness itself, has been perverted and that now
it means simply that which they receive as the consequence of
that which they have done, in giving alms, or whatsoever it may
be, in the way of right doing. It is all righteousness by works,
righteousness by deeds, without Jesus Christ. It is all ceremonialism.
and it is just as bad for Seventh-day Adventists today as for
any Pharisee in Judea eighteen hundred years ago. All have it
who have the profession of Christianity without Christ, who have
the form of godliness without the power. It is only the fruit
of the enmity, that is all.
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- Whenever, wherever, you have the enmity,
you will have ceremonialism. You cannot get rid of the thing
without getting rid of the enmity, and as certainly as that enmity
is there, it will show itself. In some places it shows itself
in what is called a color line. In other places it shows itself
in national lines--a German line, a Scandinavian line, etc.,
etc.--so that when fully developed, there would be as many lines
in the Third Angel's Message as there are nationalities and colors
on the earth. but in Jesus Christ no such thing can ever be.
And if we are not in Jesus Christ, we are not in the Third Angel's
Message.
- In Jesus Christ the enmity is abolished
and consequently in Him there is no color line. There is no Scandinavian
line. There is no German line, nor any other kind of line. There
is neither white nor black, neither Germans, nor French nor Scandinavians
nor English nor anything else but just Jesus Christ manifest
upon all and through all and in you all. But we will never find
that out--even Seventh-day Adventists will not certainly find
it out--until that enmity is abolished by a living faith in Jesus
Christ that surrenders the will to Him, to receive that living,
divine image of which we heard in Brother Prescott's lesson tonight.
That is where we are, and this is present truth today and for
Seventh-day Adventists as well as for other people. O, it is
still the same cry, "Come out of her, my people, that ye
be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues,
for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered
her iniquities."
- Here is another word right upon that.
It tells the whole story on both sides:
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- At that time the Israelites had come to
regard the sacrificial service as having in itself virtue to
atone for sin, and thus had lost sight of Christ, to whom it
pointed. God would teach them that all their services were as
valueless in themselves as that serpent of brass, but were, like
that, to lead their minds to Christ, the great sin-offering.
Whether for the healing of their wounds or the pardon of sin,
they could do nothing for themselves but to manifest their faith
in the remedy which God had provided. They were to look and live.
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- Now see the present truth:
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- There are thousands in the Christian age
who have fallen into an error similar to that of the Jewish people.
They feel that they must depend on their obedience to the law
of God to recommend them to his favor.
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- Who have fallen into that similar error
with the Jews? Those who feel that they must depend upon their
obedience to the law of God to recommend them to His favor. Is
that you? Have you ever seen anybody like that any time in your
life? Thank God that He has broken down the middle wall of partition.
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- The nature and importance of faith have
been lost sight of, and this is why it is so hard for many to
believe in Christ as their personal Saviour.
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- It is that same determined drawing of
that enmity that will not let go until it is crucified, dead,
and buried with Jesus Christ--it is that that draws and draws--"O,
I must do something. I am not good enough for God to like me.
He is not good enough to care for one as bad as I. I must do
something to pave the way. I must do something to break down
the barriers that are between Him and me and make myself good
enough so that He can take favorable notice of me. And therefore
I must and I will keep the ten commandments. I will sign a contract
and enter into a bargain to do it." And then you try to
do it as hard as you can.
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- Here is a passage from Farrar's Life of
Paul, page 40, that I will read:
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- The Jewish priests had imagined and had
directed that if a man did not feel inclined to do this or that,
he should force himself to do it by a direct vow.
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- Precisely. And so if you do not have it
in your heart to do it, why, you must do it anyhow, because it
is right and you want to do right, and so we will sign the covenant,
take a vow, "O, well, now I have signed the covenant, of
course I must do it. I have no pleasure in it. It is a galling
yoke. But I have signed the covenant and I must keep the pledge
of course." That is ceremonialism. And it springs from the
enmity which is self.
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- There are thousands in the Christian age
who have fallen into an error similar to that of the Jewish people.
They feel that they must depend on their obedience to the law
of God to recommend them to his favor. The nature and importance
of faith have been lost sight of and this is why it is so hard
for many to believe in Christ as their personal Saviour.
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- And when Christ is believed in as your
personal Saviour, when true faith lives and reigns in your heart,
you need no vows to force yourself to do this or that. No, but
the heart will always gladly exclaim, "I delight to do thy
will, O my God, yea thy law is within my heart."
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- But Jesus Christ has broken down that
middle wall of partition. He has abolished in His flesh that
enmity that would fight against faith and keep man away from
God. He has abolished that enmity that would keep man away from
Christ, that would put something else, everything else, in place
of Christ and that causes men to depend upon anything and everything
under the sun for salvation--everything but Jesus Christ--whereas,
nothing, nothing under the sun, in heaven or earth, nor anywhere
else, can save, but simply Jesus Christ and faith in Him. That
is the only thing that saves. And if any one expects to be saved
by what he calls faith in Christ and something else, it is still
the same old ceremonialism. It is still the working of the enmity.
Men are not saved by faith in Christ and something else.
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- Some may think that is too strong and
perhaps I would better read the rest of that sentence:
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- When they are bidden to look to Jesus
by faith and believe that without any good works of their own
He saves them, solely through the merits of his atoning sacrifice,
many are ready to doubt the question. They exclaim with Nicodemus,
"How can these things be?"
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- Yet nothing is more plainly taught in
the Scriptures. Than Christ "there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts
4:12. Man has nothing to present as an atonement, nothing to
render to divine justice, on which the law has not a claim. If
he were able to obey the law perfectly from this time forward,
this could not atone for past transgressions.
- The law claims from man entire obedience
through the whole period of his life. Hence it is impossible
for him by future obedience to atone for even one sin. And without
the grace of Christ to renew the heart, we cannot render obedience
to the law of God. Our hearts are by nature evil and how, then,
can they bring forth that which is good? "Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job 14:4. All
that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and
sin. Therefore he who is trying to reach heaven by his own works
in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. True, man
cannot be saved in disobedience, but his works should not be
of himself. Christ must work in him to will and to do of His
own good pleasure. If man could save himself by his own works,
he might have something in himself in which to rejoice. But it
is only through the grace of Christ that we can receive power
to perform a righteous act.
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- Many err in thinking that repentance is
of such value as to atone for sin, but this cannot be. Repentance
can in no sense be accepted as atonement. And, furthermore, even
repentance cannot possibly be exercised without the influence
of the Spirit of God. Grace must be imparted, the atoning sacrifice
must avail for man, before he can repent.
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- The apostle Peter declared concerning
Christ, "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be
a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins." Acts 5:31. Repentance comes from Christ
just as truly as does pardon. The sinner cannot take the first
step in repentance without the help of Christ. Those whom God
pardons, He first makes penitent.
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- Nothing, nothing, nothing but faith in
Jesus Christ and in Him alone--nothing but that saves the soul
and nothing but that keeps the soul saved.
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- The great trouble with the Jews from the
beginning unto the end was in having the Lord so far away that
even the things which God had given to signify His perfect nearness
were taken and used as the tokens of His being far away. Sacrifices,
offerings, the tabernacle, the temple, its services, all those
things were used by the Jewish teachers and the great mass of
the people in such a way that all that these services meant to
them was that they pointed to Christ away off yonder somewhere.
It was understood that these things meant the Messiah, but it
was the Messiah afar off. And they must make themselves good
so as to bring Him near, and these things were looked to as having
virtue in themselves and so as able to give righteousness.
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- I am not certain whether Seventh-day Adventists
have got beyond the idea of those things back there, that they
signified Christ afar off. I am not saying now that Seventh-day
Adventists think that Christ is now away off. But I am afraid
that they have not gotten away from the idea, when they look
at the sanctuary and its services, the sacrifices and offerings,
that that was intended to teach them of Christ away off yonder
somewhere. So it is said that these things all pointed to Christ.
These things did all point to Christ, that is the truth. But
it was Christ near and not far off. God intended that all these
things should point to Christ living in their hearts, not 1800
years away, not as far off as heaven is from the earth, but pointing
to Christ in their living experience from day to day. When we
get fast hold of that idea and then study the sanctuary, the
sacrifices, the offerings, in short, the gospel as it is in Leviticus--then
we shall see that that meant Christ a living, present Saviour
to them day by day and we shall also see that He is that to us
today also.
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- There is gospel, there is Christian experience,
for us today in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy, in Genesis, in Exodus,
and in the whole Bible. But when we read those passages and say
that those sacrifices and offerings all pointed to Christ afar
off from the Jews and expect that the Jews were to look through
these services away off yonder to Christ to come sometime--when
we read those scriptures and look at them that way, then we are
reading those scriptures precisely as the Jews did and we are
standing precisely where they did at that time in those scriptures.
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- That will never do. No. We are not to
look at the sanctuary with its furniture and paraphernalia standing
as God placed it, with God's presence therein, and think that
signified to them that they were to learn by it that God dwelt
only in the sanctuary in heaven. When we look at it that way,
then we are ready to think that that is about as near as He is
to us, because that is as near as we have had Him come to them.
For if we look at it for them in that way, then if we had been
there in their places, how would we have looked at it for ourselves?
In the same way, and this shows that had we been there we would
have been precisely as they were.
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- The tendency is, even with us, to read
of the sanctuary and its services and God dwelling in the sanctuary
and the text, "Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among
them," and say, Yes, God dwelt among them in the sanctuary
and that pointed to the sanctuary that is in heaven and the time
is coming when God will dwell with His people again, for He says
of the new earth, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with
men, and God will dwell with them and be their God and they shall
be his people." So when the new earth comes God is going
to dwell with His people again. But where is God now? That is
what we want to know. What matters it to me that He is going
to dwell with His people on the new earth? What matters all this,
if He does not dwell with me now? For if He cannot dwell with
me now, it is certain that He never can dwell with me on the
new earth nor anywhere else, for He has no chance. What I want
to know and what every soul needs to know is, Does He dwell with
me now? If we put Him away back yonder in the days of the Jews
and then put Him away off on the new earth, what does that do
for us now? How does that give Him to men now? In that way, how
is He with us now? That is what we need constantly to study.
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- Now, you can see that there is a great
deal more in that system of ceremonialism than simply a little
passing thing that disturbed the Jews a little while and then
vanished. For human nature is still and ever bothered with it
as certainly as the devil lives, as certainly as the enmity is
in the human heart. That mind which is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be--just as certainly as that is in
the world and as long as it is in the world, just so long the
world will be cursed with ceremonialism. And as long as there
is any of that in my heart, I shall be in danger of being cursed
with ceremonialism.
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- What we are to do is to find such deliverance
in Jesus Christ, such absolute victory and exaltation at the
right hand of God in heaven, in Him, that that enmity should
be completely annihilated in us in Him. Then we shall be free
from ceremonialism; then we shall be free from traditions and
men's commandments, and men making themselves a conscience for
us. Men say, "You must do this or you cannot be saved. You
have got to do that or you cannot be saved." No, no. Believe
in Jesus Christ or you cannot be saved. Have true faith in Jesus
Christ and you are saved.
- It is the same battle that was fought
out in Paul's day and work. He was preaching Jesus Christ alone
for salvation. But certain Pharisees "who believed"
followed him around, saying "O, yes, it's all well enough
to believe in Jesus Christ, but there is something else. You
have got to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses or you cannot
be saved." That contest lasted for years and against it
all Paul fought all the way. He would not compromise a hair's
breadth at any point. "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing." "Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye are fallen from grace." Nothing, nothing
but Christ and faith in Him! Well, they took it to the council
at last, and there the Spirit of God decided that Christ and
not ceremonialism is the way of salvation. That is the whole
story. One was an attempt to fasten ceremonialism upon Christianity
or rather in the place of Christianity; the other was the living
principle of Jesus Christ by living faith, actuating the life
and the heart of those who believe in Him.
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- There is a vast difference between ceremonialism
and principle. Jesus Christ wants us to find Him so fully and
so personally that the living principles of the truth of God,
as they are in Jesus Christ, shall be our guide and that those
living principles shining in the life of the man by the glory
of Jesus Christ shall be our guide at every point, and we shall
know what to do at the time. Then we do not need any resolutions
or vows to force ourselves to do this, that, or the other. That
is the difference between ceremonialism and the principle of
the living presence of Christ in the heart. One is all formalism
and outward service, without Christ; and the other is all in
Christ and Christ all and in all.
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- Let us look again at the things the Jews
were doing back there at the temple services, the sacrifices
and the offerings that you may see this a little more fully yet.
I know and so do you that the sanctuary, the temple, was a representation
of the sanctuary which is in heaven, that the sacrifices were
representations of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the priesthood
and its service were representations of the priesthood of Christ.
In all these things God would teach them and us too of Himself
as He is revealed in Christ. There was a sanctuary first and
there was the temple built in place of the sanctuary. There was
the temple standing on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And from that,
God taught them that yonder is the true temple on Mount Zion
in the heavenly Jerusalem. God dwelt in this temple on Mount
Zion in Jerusalem, in Palestine, and by that He showed them that
He dwelt yonder in the heavenly temple in Mount Zion, in the
heavenly Jerusalem.
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- And He said also--and this was true in
both places and from both sides--"Thus saith the high and
lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell
in the high and holy place." Anywhere else? "With him
also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." When? We
are reading away back yonder. When did He dwell "with him
also that is of a contrite and humble spirit," as well as
"in the high and holy place?" Did He do this seven
hundred years before Christ, when Isaiah spoke? Yes. But did
the Lord begin only then to dwell with him that is of a humble
and contrite spirit, as well as in the high and holy place on
Mount Zion? No.
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- A thousand years before Christ, when David
spoke, did He do it then? Yes. But had He only begun it then?
No. He always, eternally, dwells in both places--with the humble
and contrite as well as on high.
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- Well, then, did not God, in that temple
on the earth, teach them not only how He dwelt in that heavenly
country, but how he dwelt in the temple of the heart also? Most
assuredly. There was the earthly Mount Zion right before their
eyes, representative of the heavenly Zion, which God would have
right before their eyes of faith. There upon Mt. Zion, the high
and lofty place in the earthly Jerusalem, was the temple and
God dwelling in the temple. And in this God would show that He
dwelt not only there but also in the temple of the heart, the
sanctuary of the soul, of Him that is of a contrite and humble
spirit. And in putting His temple among sinful men and dwelling
therein Himself, He was showing also how He would Himself dwell
in the temple of Christ's body, among sinful men and in sinful
flesh.
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- There too was a priesthood of the earthly
temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. There was a priesthood of
the sanctuary at Shiloh in the wilderness. That, it is true,
represented the priesthood of Christ, but did that represent
any priesthood of Christ before A. D. 1? Shall we say that that
represented a priesthood of Christ that was afar off? No. That
priesthood in Jerusalem, in the sanctuary in the wilderness,
represented a priesthood that was already in existence after
the order of Melchizedek? Thou shalt be a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek? No, No. "Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek." Was not Melchizedek a priest
in the days of Abraham? and is not the priesthood of Christ forever
after the order of Melchizedek?
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- Do you not see, then, that this whole
system of services given to Israel was to teach them the presence
of the Christ then and there for the present salvation of their
souls and not for the salvation of their souls eighteen hundred
years or two thousand years or four thousand years away? Surely,
surely, it is so.
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- O, it has always been Satan's deception
and has always been the working of his power to get men, all
men, to think that Christ is as far away as it is possible to
put Him. The farther away men put Christ, even those who profess
to believe in Him, the better the devil is satisfied. And then
he will stir up the enmity that is in the natural heart and set
it to work in building up ceremonialism and putting this in the
place of Christ.
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- There was also circumcision. Was that
a sign of something that was coming away off yonder? No. It was
a sign of the righteousness of God which they obtained by faith
and which was there present in them who believed and when they
believed. It was that to Abraham, and God intended it to be that
to every man. But instead of this they had taken it and made
it a sign of righteousness by circumcision itself, by works itself.
Thus they left Christ all out and put circumcision in His place.
It was a sign of righteousness of faith. They did not have faith
and therefore they undertook to make it a sign of righteousness
by some other means and thus it became only a sign of selfishness.
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- God gave them His law--the ten commandments.
Was it that they might obtain righteousness by that? No, but
that it might witness to the righteousness which they obtained
by faith in Jesus Christ abiding in the heart. That is what the
ten commandments were for, just as they are today.
- So were not the sacrifices offered typical
of Christ? Yes. But it was typical of Christ present by faith.
Was not Christ right there? Was not Christ the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world? Was not Christ a gift of God there
before the world was? Then when he called on men from Adam unto
all--as long as the sacrifices were offered in that way--when
He taught them to offer those sacrifices, what was that but teaching
them that that was a token of their appreciation of the great
sacrifice that God had already made for them, and of which they
were enjoying the benefit by having that gift in the heart which
was Jesus Christ?
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- Well, we need not go any farther. That
is enough to illustrate it. Is it not plain, then, that everything
that God gave to them in that day was intended to teach them
concerning the personal, living Saviour, personally present with
them, if they had only received Him? And all they needed to do
to receive Him was to believe in Him. The gospel was preached
unto them. Heb. 4:2: "But the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of
it." How did they come short of it? How? By not seeing Christ
crucified present with themselves in the thing which they were
doing.
- Now when we read over those things and
study them, the sanctuary, for instance, and see only so many
boards, and so many sockets and so many curtains and all these
in type of something up yonder in heaven and that all there is
to it, and not see or know Christ in that in our own personal
experience, wherein are we different from them? I do not say
that is the way that it is done, but I say that if a person looks
at it now in that way, then where is the difference between Him
and the Jews of old?--There is none. Is Christ away off still?
No. He is "not far from every one of us." What is "not
far"? It does not say, He is not very far. No. It says,
"He is not far." And as certainly as you get a definition
of "not far," you have the word "near." He
is near to everybody, to us, and He always has been. He was also
near to them and He always was near. But by unbelief they could
not see Him near. And now, in all those services which He gave
them, as well as those which He has given us, He wants us all
to see the nearness of the living Christ dwelling in the heart
and shining in the daily life. That is what He wants us all to
see. And He wants us all to see it all. That is the way He wants
us to look at it.
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- Now another thing: What was it that caused
all that? What was it that caused them to put Christ afar off
and changed the sacred, living services of God into ceremonialism?
It was the "enmity." It was self, the enmity of self,
that caused it all. And that self expressed itself in unbelief,
because it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. That put a veil over their faces so that they could not see
to the end of that which was before their eyes.
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- They could not "look to the end of
that which is abolished." 2 Cor. 3:13. Not that this end
was so far off that they could not see from where they were,
clear down to the end of it; that is not the thought at all.
But they could not see the object of it. They could not see what
was the intent of it, with themselves, at that time. We are too
ready to give to that expression the thought that here was something
which pointed to something else away down yonder, and they could
not see from there clear down to the end of it. But that is all
wrong. No, those things which were before their eyes were intended
to point to something right close to them, and that was Christ
Himself personally present with them and within their hearts
at that time. That was the end of it. That was the object, the
aim, the purpose of it.
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- Therefore, through the enmity, this unbelief
which produced formality blinded their eyes and put a veil over
their faces so they could not see the meaning, the object, of
that which was abolished. Of course not, and as long as that
enmity is in the heart of a man even today, it produces unbelief
there and it puts a veil over his face so that he cannot see
to the end of these things that were abolished. He cannot see
that the object of these things was the living presence of Christ
in the temple of the heart day by day, as the service was going
on. It all means Christ and He is not far, the object, the end,
of all these things is right near, but they cannot see it. Why?
Let us read now that passage in the third chapter of second Corinthians,
beginning with the first verse:
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- Do we begin again to commend ourselves?
or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or
letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written
in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by
us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of the stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers
of the new testament, not of the letter--
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- Letter of what? Of "the new testament."
They had the letter of it, did they not? They had the letter
of the new and the old both, but all they had was the letter,
and was in the letter.
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- Who also hath made us able ministers...not
of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth.
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- What letter kills? Letter of what kills?
Letter of the New Testament, as well as any other letter. Here
is a book: There are some letters in it. Those are simply the
forms which express ideas. Those letters are not the ideas, they
are the forms that contain the ideas and convey those ideas to
us. Those things back there were the letter, the forms, that
contained the ideas, the spirit, and the grace of God. That is
true, but in it all they saw only the letter. Did they get the
idea, the grace, the spirit? No, they had only the form, the
letter, even as we read in Romans 2:20: "Which hast the
form of knowledge and of the truth." There is the law of
God. Take it there as a man sees it in letters, that is the form--the
perfect form, too--of knowledge and truth. Take it as it is in
Jesus Christ, and we have the thing itself, the complete idea
of it, and all the grace and the spirit of it.That you may see
this, I will read one of the finest expressions I have seen upon
that subject: "The righteousness of the law was presented
to the world in the character of Christ." In the letter
of the law we have the form of it. As man looks at it and sees
it as it is in tables of stone or on a leaf, he sees the form
of knowledge and truth, but in Christ we have the perfect substance
and idea itself. In the letter we have the perfect pattern, the
perfect form, of knowledge and truth; yet it is only the form.
In Christ we get the very substance and idea of knowledge and
of truth expressed in the words, the letters, which are the form
containing the truth. So then, while the letter killeth, "the
spirit giveth life." Thank the Lord!
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- But if the ministration of death, written
and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face.
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- Why was it necessary that he should put
a veil over his face? Was it to keep them from seeing it? Was
it to prevent their looking to the end of it? No. It was because
"their minds were blinded." Moses came down from the
mount with his face radiant with the glory of God. But their
sinfulness which was the consequence of their unbelief, which
was the consequence of the enmity, caused them to be afraid of
the bright, shining glory of God and they ran away. When Moses
discovered why they did not come near, he put a veil over his
face. And this veil was upon his face simply because of the veil
that was upon their hearts through unbelief. Do you see?
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- They could not see the object of that
glory upon Moses's face. Why? Because their minds were blinded.
But were their minds blinded only then and at that time? No.
"Until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away."
Where? When? "In the reading of the Old Testament,"
the veil is still there.
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- But O when the heart "shall turn
to the Lord, then the veil shall be taken away," because
in Christ is abolished the enmity that created the unbelief.
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- Their minds were blinded: for until this
day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the
Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto
this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
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