"The Holiest of All" part LXXXIX

LET US DRAW NEAR.
Hebrews 10: 22. Wherefore, brethren, let us draw near.

Continuing on with the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10: 19 - 13: 25.
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

 In the NINTH SECTION 10: 19-25.
Of Life in the Holiest.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have studied the four great Blessings of the New worship, as the motives and encouragements for us to draw near. They are--- that the Holiest is Opened up, Boldness through the Blood, the New and Living Way (that changed Life that many seek, hunger and thrust for but don't find ), and the Great Priest over the House of God. And we have considered the four great marks of the true worshiper--- A True heart, Fulness of faith, The heart Sprinkled, and The body Cleansed. We now come to the four injunction which comes to us out of the Opened Sanctuary--- and especially to the first--- Let us draw near. Both in speaking of the entering in of Christ, and the power of His Blood in chapter 9, and in the exposition of our context, we have had abundant occasion to point out what is meant by this entering in, and what is needed for it. And yet it may be well to gather up all we have said, and in the very simplest way possible, once again, by the Grace of God, to throw open the door, and to help each honest-hearted child of God to enter in, and take his place for Life in the home that Father has prepared for him.


First of all I would say: Believe that a life in the Holiest of All, a life of continual abiding in God's presence, is most certainly your duty and within your power. As long as this appears a vague uncertainty, the study of our Epistle will be but in vain. Its whole teaching has been to prove that the wonderful Priesthood of Christ, in which He does everything in the Authority and power of an Endless Life, and is therefore able to save completely; that His having Opened a Way through the rent veil into the Holiest, and entered in with His Blood; that His sitting on the Throne in the Heavenly with all Authority and power, as Minister of the Sanctuary and Mediator of the New Covenant of God's Grace, paid the debt of this New Covenant with His Blood; that all this means nothing if it does not mean--- the Holiest is Open for us. We may, we must, and we can and will and do Now Live there through a Living and abiding faith, not of works of self efforts least we have opportunity to boast. What is the meaning of this summing up of all, Wherefore brethren, having Boldness to enter--- let us draw near, if a real entrance into and abode in the Holiest is not for us? No, beloved Christian child, do believe, it can be, receive its Truth. Let no thought of your past weakness and unfaithfulness (sin) hold you back. Begin to look at God, who has set the door open and calls you in; at the Blood that has prevailed over sin and death, and given you a Boldness that nothing can hinder; at Christ the Almighty and Most Loving High Priest, who is to bring you in and keep you in; receive it and believe: yes, such a Life is meant for me; it is possible; it is my duty; God calls me to it; and say, then, whether my mind would not dare my heart does desire and long to enter into this Blessed Rest, the home of God's Love.

The second step is, the total Surrender to Christ, by Him to be brought into this Life of abiding dependent intimacy with God. This Surrender requires an entire giving up of the life of nature and of self; an entire separation from the world and its spirit; an it Requires Acceptance of God's Will to command my Life, in all things, down to the very least. To some this Surrender comes as the being convicted of a number of things which they thought harmless, and which they now see to have been in the will of the flesh and of man (the fear of sin). To others it comes as a call to part with some single doubtful thing, or some sin against which they have hopelessly struggled. The Surrender of all becomes only possible when the soul sees how truly and entirely Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant of Grace, has undertaken for all, and engages to put His own delight in God's Law into the heart, to give the Will and the Strength and Ability to live in all God's Will. That faith gives the courage to place oneself before Christ and to say--- Lord, here am I, ready to be led by You in the New and Living Way of death to my will, and a New Life in God's Will alone: I give up all to You.

Then comes, accompanying this Surrender, the Trusting that Jesus does Now Accept and Undertake for all. The more general faith in His Total Authority and  power, which led to the Surrender, becomes a personal appropriation. I know that I cannot lift nor force myself into the Holiest, I trust Jesus, as my Almighty and Ever-living Priest on the Throne, even now, at this moment, to take me in within the veil, to take charge of me there, and enable me to walk up and down before the face of the Living God, and serve Him. However High and Impossible such a Life appears, I cannot doubt but that He who with His Blood Opened the Holiest for me will take me in; and that He who sits on the Throne as my great High Priest is able and Faithful to keep me in God's presence. Apart from any feeling or experience of a change I believe He takes me in, and I say: Thank Father God, I am in the Holiest. Let us draw near in fulness of confidence and trusting faith.

Then follows, the Life of faith in the Holiest, holding fast my confidence and the glorying of hope firm to the end. I believe Jesus takes me in to the fulfillment and the experience of all the New Covenant's Blessings, and makes me inherit all the promises. I look to Him day by day to seal my trust with the Holy Ghost sent from Heaven into my heart. The disciples, when their Lord ascended the Throne, kept waiting, praising, praying, till the Spirit came as the witness and the revealer within their hearts of the Glory of Jesus at the right hand of God. It was on the day of Pentecost that they truly entered within the veil, to which the Forerunner had drawn their longing hearts. The soul that gives itself over to a Life within the veil, in full Surrender and in simple trust, can count upon this most surely, that, in the Authority and power of the Eternal, the Pentecostal Spirit in the heart, His faith will become your experience, and the joy unspeakable be its abiding portion--- Wherefore, brethren, let us draw near.
 
1. Having Boldness to enter in is the summary of the doctrinal teaching of the first half of the Epistle; let us draw near, the summary of the Life and practice which the second half expounds.
2. The faith that appropriates the Blessing ---Jesus now takes me in and gives me my place and my life in the Father's presence, is but a beginning. Trust must now count upon the faith of the Holy Spirit, in His Pentecostal power, bringing the kingdom of Heaven to us, to make it a personal experience. Until this comes, trust must in patience wait till it obtains the Promise, in Accordance with the teaching we had: "Cast not away therefore your Boldness. For you have need of patience, that, having done the Will of God, you may receive the Promise."