"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLV

THE DANGER OF FALLING AWAY.
Hebrews 6: 4 - 8  For as touching those who were once enlightened, and tasted of the Heavenly Gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receive blessing from God: But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.

Continuing with The Third Warning
Hebrews 5:11 - 6: 20
Against Sloth, Standing Still and Apostasy

Let us press on to perfection. For as touching those who were once enlightened, and fall away, it is impossible to renew them again. The argument is one of unspeakable solemnity. It is in the Christian life as with all progress amid difficulties. In commerce, in study, in war, it is so often said: there is no safety but in advance. To stand still is to go back. To cease effort is to lose ground. To slacken the pace, before the goal is reached, is to lose the race. The only sure mark of our being True Christians, of our Loving Christ, is the deep longing and the steady effort to Know more of Him. Tens of thousands have proved that to be content with beginning well is but the first step on a backward course, that ends in losing all. The whole point of the argument from the case of those who fall away is--- Let us press on to perfection.

To realize its force we must specially note two things with regard to those who fall away: the height which they may have attained, and the irrecoverable depth into which they sink. As to the former, five expressions are used. They were once enlightened; tasted of the Heavenly Gift; were made partakers of the Holy Ghost; tasted the good Word of God; and the powers of the age to come. As to the latter, we are told: Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame: it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance.

The question which always at once suggests itself here has reference to the Scripture Truth of the perseverance of the saints, in which so many saints of God have found their strength and their joy. Our Lord Jesus spoke of His sheep (John 10: 28), "I give to them Eternal Life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, which has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Where He gives the Eternal Life to a soul, it is a Life that cannot be lost.

This is the Divine side of the Truth. Every Truth has two sides. The only way to apprehend the Truth fully is to look at each side as if it were the whole, and yield ourselves to its full force. There is a human side too. Scripture speaks most solemn words of warning in regard to the possibility of receiving the Grace of God in vain, of beginning well, and then falling away from Grace (2 Cor. 6:1; Gal. 5: 4). Our Lord spoke more than once of the man who receives the word with joy, but had no root in himself: he only believes for a while. In a time of revival, of mighty spiritual influences, as in Corinth and Galatia, many were mightily affected and even manifestly changed, who in after times proved that they never had been truly born again; they had not received Eternal Life. It is of such our text speaks. It is possible to have the emotions touched and the will affected without the heart being truly renewed. The Gifts of the Spirit may be received without His Graces. The joy of light in the mind may be mistaken for life in the soul. And so some, who were counted true believers by man, may fall away beyond hope of renewal.

And how, then, are we to know who truly have received Eternal Life? And what is the mark of its being no mere superficial or temporary change? There is no mark by which man can decide. The only sure sign that the perseverance of the saints will be ours is ---perseverance in sainthood, in Sanctification and Obedience. We are His House, we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast, firm to the end. My assurance of Salvation is not something I can carry with me as a railway ticket or a bank note, to be used, as occasion calls. No, God's seal to my soul is the Holy Spirit; it is in a life in the Spirit that my safety lies; it is when I am led by the Spirit that the Spirit bears witness with my spirit, and that I can cry Abba, Father (Rom. 8: 14-16). Jesus not only gives, but is Himself our life. My assurance of Salvation is alone to be found in the Living fellowship with the Living Jesus in Love and Obedience.

This is what we see in verses 7 and 8. The land which has drunk the rain, and brings forth herbs, Receives Blessing from God: if it bears thorns, it is rejected. The soul that is content with drinking in the rain, and only seeks its own happiness, without bearing fruit, has every reason to fear. It is in growth and fruitfulness, in the exercising the senses to discern good and evil, in pressing on to perfection, in following our Forerunner in the path in which He was perfected, by Obedience to God's Will, that we Know that we have Eternal Life.

The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Let each one of us yield to its (HIS) searching power.  Anything like sloth, and resting content in our beginnings, is unspeakably dangerous. Nothing will do but to give more abundant heed ---to give diligence to enter into the rest, and with our whole heart to press on to perfection.

1. Self-deception is a solemn possibility. Our only safeguard is God, the surrender to His searching Light, the Trust in His faithfulness, the giving up to His Will. At the footstool of the Throne no soul can perish.
2. To press on unto perfection is a command not meant for a select few, but for all, and specially the backward and feeble ones. Beware of any suggestion that would make you evade the force of this command and immediate obedience to it. Let your only answer be Yes, Lord. Open your eyes and heart to the state of all around you, who are slothful and at ease, lagging behind, and help them. By reason of the time you ought to be teachers.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLIV

LET US PRESS ON TO PERFECTION.
Hebrews 6: 1-3  Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles ( Leave the word of the beginning) of Christ, and press on to perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and cf faith toward God. Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.

Continuing with the The Warning
Against Sloth, Standing Still and Apostasy
Hebrews 5:11 - 6:20

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have seen how among the Hebrews there were two classes of Christians. They are to be found in every Christian Church --- some who, instead of growing up to be teachers and helpers of others, always remain babes, and have need that some one again teach them the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles ( Divine statements) of God. Others who are perfect or fully-grown men, who have had their spiritual senses exercised in discerning good and evil, and are able to receive the solid food of the Knowledge of the perfection of Christ and His Work. Let us listen as the word calls us to come out of all sloth and feebleness, and a standing still and to press on to the perfection Christ has come to reveal and impart to us by our receptivity.

First we hear what it is we are to give up. Let US leave the word of the beginning of Christ. In chapter 3:14 we were urged to hold fast the beginning firm to the end. These two expressions are not at variance. The beginning is the seed or first principle out of which the farther Divine Life must grow and expand into perfection. This beginning, as the root of all that is to come, must be held fast to the very end. But the beginning, as being only a commencement of something Better, must be left. It is a terrible misunderstanding of the words, " Hold fast to what you have," to imagine that we simply need to preserve with what we already have. By no means. We must realize that the Knowledge of Christ and the measure of Grace we receive at conversion ( our redemption ) cannot suffice for our farther development in the Divine Life. We need each day to learn more of Christ, to make new advances in Obedience, to gain larger experience of the power of the Heavenly Life. There can be no healthy life without growth and progress. We must leave the word of the beginning of Christ.


Not laying again the foundation. A builder, when he has laid his foundation, leaves working at it any more, and builds upon it. There are Christians who never get beyond the foundation, who never know what the house is for the sake of which alone the foundation is; that it is to be an habitation of God through the Spirit, and to dwell in the Love and the power of God. The writer mentions, in three pairs, six points which belong to the foundation Truths, in which the young beginner has to be instructed. Repentance from dead works and faith towards God: these are in very deed only the rudiments of the word of Christ. Then follow two points that have reference to the public confession of faith and the connection with the Church: the teaching of baptism and of the laying on of hands. And then two more, that relate to the future life: the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Without these elementary Truths one could hardly be a Christian: but the man who rests content with them, and cares not to know more, cannot be a Christian as God would have him, has reason to doubt whether he be a Christian at all.

Wherefore, let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ, and press on to perfection. It is not difficult to know what perfection here means. Perfect is that which corresponds to its ideal, which is as it should be, which answers to what its maker intended. No parent is content that his child should remain a babe; he educates it to be a full-grown man. God has set before us in His word the Life He actually means us to live, and He calls every true child of His to leave the beginnings, and press on to perfection, to press on to be all that He has promised to make us. More God would not have us seek; with less, we dare not be content, lest we deceive ourselves.

In Christ Jesus, and His life work on earth, we have the embodiment of that perfection, as it consists in a Life given up to Obedience to God's Will; the proof that it is possible for a true man to live a life that is well-pleasing to the Father; the promise that from His Throne in Heaven He will now impart and work in us. In suffering He yielded Himself to God to perfect Him. In suffering He learned obedience, and was made perfect, thereby to be the cause of Eternal Salvation to us. He is now, as the Son perfected forevermore, our High Priest, in Heaven working in us, in the power of the Heavenly Life, that perfection, through which as our Leader He Opened the path, the Way to Glory. Our perfection can be none other than Christ's: His perfection our model, His perfection our Life and strength (our pattern while on earth). God desires and can be satisfied with nothing in us but what He sees of His beloved Son, and His perfection (of  His sons) through Suffering and Obedience.

Wherefore, let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ, and press on to perfection. And this will we do if God permit. As if he says, The following chapters are to be the teaching of Christian perfection. We will with you press on, and help you on, by giving the solid food which is the nourishment and strength of the perfect: the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ, in the power of an Endless Life. His Glory and power as Mediator of the New Covenant, writing God's Law into our very heart, the infinite efficacy of the Blood as Opening the Holiest of All to us, and cleansing us to enter in and serve the Living God,--- these and such like Truths, revealing the perfection that Christ attained in His human life, and into which He lifts us in His Divine power, these constitute the solid food for the perfect. The perfection of Christ, as Truth revealed, becomes the perfection of the believer (who becomes a receptive one by His faith), as a life experienced, in those who count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Him our Lord.

1. Let us hold fast the distinction between foundation doctrine and perfection doctrine. There are Truths of the beginning of Christ, which we have had in the first half of the Epistle His divinity and humanity, His substitution, tasting death for all, and His entering into Heaven, as far as that was typified by Aaron. In the second half we have what is needed for the completion of the Christian life; the power of the Heavenly Life as it is secured in the Heavenly Priesthood and the Heavenly Sanctuary. Wherefore, let us press on to perfection.
2. Let us press on to perfection. Do take this as a distinct injunction of the God who speaks to us in His Son. Hear His voice, rest not content with the beginnings press on unto perfection, unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ.
3. Compare Paul (Phil. 3: 12-15): I press on, if so be I may apprehend that for which I also was apprehended of Christ Jesus. Forgetting the things which are behind, I press on toward the goal. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. Let us press on to perfection.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLIII

SOLID FOOD FOR THE PERFECT
Hebrews 5: 13 - 14  For every one that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of Righteousness; for he is a babe. But solid food is for perfect men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

Continuing with The Third Warning
Against Sloth and Apostasy

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have here the contrast between the two stages in the Christian life. Of the first we have already spoken. The second stage is that of manhood the full-grown, mature, perfect man. This does not, as in nature, come with years, but consists in the wholeheartedness with which the believer yields himself to be all for God. It is the perfect heart that makes the perfect man. The twenty years needed for a child to become a full-grown man are not the rule in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is indeed a riper maturity and a mellowness which comes with the experience of years. But even a young Christian can be of the perfect of whom our Epistle speaks, with a heart all athirst for the deeper and more spiritual Truth it is to teach, and a will that has indeed finally broken with sin, the world and counted all things loss for the perfect Knowledge of Christ Jesus.

The contrast is expressed in the words: The babe is without experience of the word of righteousness. He has not yielded himself to the discipline which the word demands and brings; he has not, in the struggle of practical obedience, had experience of what the Word can do to search and cleanse, to strengthen and bless. His religious life has been, as with a babe, the enjoyment of being fed. He is without real experience of the Word of Righteousness.

With the perfect, the full-grown men, it is the very opposite: by reason of use they have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Just as in nature the use of the limbs, with plenty of exercise for every sense and organ, is one of the surest conditions of a healthy growth, so with the Christian too. It is when the faculties God gives us in the Spiritual Life are put to the use He meant them for, and our spiritual senses are kept in full exercise, that we pass from feeble infancy to maturity. This exercise of the senses has special reference to that which we have been saved to a Life of Obedience and Holiness; it is to discern good and evil. The eye is exercised to see and know God's Way and Him who leads in it; the ear to hear His voice; the conscience to reject everything that is not well pleasing to God or even the slightest bite doubtful; the will to choose and do only what is His Will.

It is of the utmost consequence that we should note this well. The capacity for entering into the Deeper Truths to be unfolded does not depend on talent or study, on sagacity or genius, but on the tenderness with which the soul has exercised itself in daily life in discerning good and evil. The Redemption in Christ is to save us from sin, and bring us back to the perfect Obedience and unhindered fellowship of intimacy with God. It is as the desire not to sin becomes more intense; and the acceptance of Jesus as an indwelling deliverer from sin more entire or complete; and the surrender to the operation of God in working His Will in us more complete; that the spiritual teaching of our Epistle will be appreciated. It is a Holy Sensitiveness to the least sin, arising from the faithful use and exercise of the senses as far as there is Light, that is the spiritual sense or organ for Spiritual Truth, the mark of the perfect man. In the things of God a tender conscience and a surrendered will are more than the highest intellect.

Such are the perfect. The word means here just what it meant when used of Jesus a few verses previously. His Perfection came through Obedience. Ours comes in no other Way--- the exercise of the senses to discern good and evil. In temptations Jesus Himself was exercised to discern between good and evil: in the wilderness and the garden He had to fast and watch and pray, lest the lawful desire of His human nature might lead to sin: thus He was Perfected. And this is Christian perfection the fellowship of intimacy with Christ, through the indwelling Spirit, in His Obedience.

Solid food is for the perfect. And what is this solid food? The context leaves no doubt as to the answer. It is the Knowledge of Christ as Melchlzedek, as it is now to be expounded. To know Christ as Aaron, to believe in His atonement on earth, and in pardon through His Blood, this is often found with Christians who are content to remain mere babes, entirely slothful and stationary. But to Know Christ as Melchizedek in His Heavenly Priesthood, working in us in Authority the power of an Endless Life; as a Savior able to save completely; as the Minister of the Sanctuary, who has Opened the Holiest of All, and brings us in to dwell there; as the Mediator of the New and Better Covenant, who does actually fulfill its promise and write God's Law in Living power in our heart;--- this is the solid food for the perfect. The teaching in the word is open and free to all, but only those who have given themselves to be perfect, feel the need and hunger for it only they are capable of receiving and assimilating it; because it is only they who have in very deed determined to rest content with nothing less than all Christ can do for them, and to count all things loss for the possession of this Pearl of Great Price. All the outward teaching and knowledge of the words of the prophets and of Christ must give way to the inward speaking of Christ in the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is to souls who break through the husk, and hunger to feed on the kernel, on the very Life of God in Christ, who will become perfect in Christ Jesus.

1. These Hebrew Christians are reproved for not being perfect. It is not left to their choice whether they are to be eminent Christians. God expects each child of His to be as eminent In Grace and Piety as it is possible for Christ to make him.
2. Till we all attain unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: this ought to be our aim. The motive and the power to seek this we have in our Lord Jesus.
3. Let nothing satisfy us but living wholly for Christ; He is Worthy.

A special note here: We might add that our rituals, customs, programs, methods, creeds, doctrines, church affiliations and participation do nothing to advance the working of the Spirit of Christ within our heart to accomplish God's purposes and goal. We do need to heed the warnings given to the Hebrews believers.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLII

THE THIRD WARNING
Hebrew 5: 11 - 6: 20
Against Sloth, Standing Still, and Apostasy.

THE SIN of NOT MAKING PROGRESS in the CHRISTIAN LIFE
Hebrews 5:10 - 13 Jesus, Named of God a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing you have become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles ( beginnings ) of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.  For every one that partakes of milk is without  experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.


BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have here the commencement of the third of the five warnings to be found in the Epistle. The first was against indifference and neglect; the second against unbelief and disobedience; the third deals specially with the sloth that prevents all progress in the Christian life, renders the soul incapable of entering into the full meaning of Gospel Truth and Blessing, and often leads to an entire falling away. In the previous part of the Epistle, the author has been dealing with what he considers more elementary truths, the Divinity and humanity of the Savior, and His fitness as a merciful and faithful High Priest for the work He has to do for us. He is about to enter on the higher teaching he has to give us on the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ ( 7 - 10: 18 ), but feels that many of his readers are incapable of following or appreciating such Spiritual Truth. He feels it needful first to rouse them by words of earnest reproof and exhortation, because no teaching can profit where the heart is not wakened (stirred) up to hunger for it as its necessary food.

In the Christian Church, there are, alas, too many, of whom we would fain hope that they are believers, who are living in this state. They are content with the thought of pardon and the hope of Heaven; they rest in their orthodoxy, their attachment to the Church and its services, their correct deportment. But as to any strong desire for the deeper Truths of God's word--- they have no concept of what is meant, or why they should be needed. When our author speaks of the power of Jesus' Blood in Heaven, of the Opening of the Holiest of All, of our entering in to dwell there, and then of our going out to Him without the camp, the words find no response, because they meet no need of the soul. Let every reader listen earnestly to what God says of this state.

We have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, because you are become dull of hearing. The writer's complaint is not that they have not sufficient education or mental power to understand what he says. By no means. But Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. Spiritual Truth can only be received by the spiritual mind ( a receptive and properly stirred up heart ), by a heart that thirsts for God, and sacrifices this world for the Knowledge and enjoyment of the unseen One. They were content with their knowledge of the crucified Christ; the Heavenly Christ, and His power to draw them up out of the world, and to give Heaven into their hearts, had but little attraction.

He further says, By reason of the time you ought to be teachers. In the Christian life every one who makes real progress feels himself constrained to teach others. Christ's Love in the heart must overflow to those around. The Hebrews had been Christians so long that they ought to have been teachers. The very opposite of this, however, was the case. You have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God. So there are numbers of Christians whose Christian life consists very much in always learning. Sermons and books are a delight, but they never get beyond the stage of being fed; they know not what it is to feed others. There is no effort so to appropriate God's Word, as to be strong to impart it to others. Or there is no real longing for deliverance from the power of sin, and the great insensitivity to the fuller Knowledge of Jesus and His Heavenly power is wanting.

And you are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. Where there is no hunger for the solid food (the higher Truth of Christ's Heavenly Priesthood), or unwillingness to use what is received in helping others, the spiritual faculties are dwarfed and enfeebled, and the Christian never gets beyond the use of the milk meant for babes. In the Christian life, as in nature, there are two stages, the one of infancy or childhood, the other of manhood. In nature the growth out of the one into the other comes spontaneously. In Grace this is not so. It is possible for a Christian to remain in a sickly infancy all his life, always needing help, instead of being a help. The cause of this is sloth, reluctance to make the sacrifices needed for progress, unwillingness to forsake all and follow (to become a disciple of ) Jesus. And this again is very much owing to the fatal mistake that in religion our only thought Is to be of safety, that we may be content with some assurance of that is attained. Such a soul cares not for the Heavenly Blessedness of conformity to Jesus, of Living fellowship ( intimacy ) with God, and the Godlike privilege of bringing Life and Blessing to men.

It is one of the great needs of the teachers in the Church in our day that they should have a clear insight into the feeble and sickly state in which most Christians live, as well as into what constitutes a Healthy Life that goes on to perfection ( maturity in the knowledge of Christ and His High Priestly activities ). As they themselves enter into the full experience of the power of Christ's Priesthood, as the Holy Spirit imparts it in the heart, they will be able to reprove with authority, and effectually to help all upright souls into the full Salvation Christ has provided. God give His Church such teachers.( It is these teachers and leadership that is so missing from our churches and the systems of mans design.)

1. Have we not here the reason there Is so little earnest pursuit after Holiness? So little true consecration to living to bless others? So little of the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church? Let us plead with God to discover the evil and to visit His Church. Let us exhort one another daily, to rest content with nothing less than a whole-hearted enthusiastic devotion to Jesus.
2. In preparing to go on to the study of the inner Sanctuary in what is to follow ( 7 - 10), do let us consider it a settled thing, that unless we are really hungering after Righteousness, and longing for a very close fellowship (intimacy) with Jesus, our further study of the Epistle will do us very little good. Let us pray God to convince us of our sloth, our contentment with the beginnings of Grace, and to stir in us a burning thirst after Himself.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLI

THE HIGH PRIEST SAVING THE OBEDIENT.
Hebrews 5: 8 - 9  Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered;  And having been made perfect, He became to all them that obey Him, the cause of Eternal Salvation.

The Continuing of the Fourth Section
Hebrews 4: 14 - 5: 9
Jesus our High Priest More than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

The death of Jesus has its value and efficacy in obedience, ours as well as His. With Him obedience was God's great object in His suffering; the root and power of His perfection and His Glory; the real efficient cause of our Eternal Salvation. And with us, the necessity of obedience is no less absolute. With God and with Christ our restoration to obedience was the great aim of our Redemption. It is the only Way to that union or intimacy with God in which our happiness consists. Through it alone God can reveal His Life, Authority and power within us. Again I say: The death of Jesus has its value and efficacy in nothing but obedience, ours as well as His. "He learned obedience, and being perfected became to all them that obey Him the cause of Eternal Salvation." Our obedience is as indispensable as His. As little as He could work out Salvation without obedience, can we enjoy it. In us as much as in Him, obedience is the very essence of Salvation.

Let us try and grasp this. God is the Blessedness of the creature. When God is all to the creature, when He is allowed in humility and our total dependency to work all, and when all returns to Him in thanksgiving and service (The having of the mind of Christ ), nothing can prevent the fulness of God's Love and Joy entering and filling the creature. It has but one thing to do--- to turn its desire or will toward God, and give Him free scope, and nothing in Heaven or earth can prevent the Light and the Joy of God filling that soul. The Living or Authoritative center around which all the perfections of God cluster, the Living energy, power through which they all do their work, is the Will of God. The Will of God is the Life of the universe; it is what it is because God Wills it; His Will is the Living energy which maintains it in existence. The creature can have no more of God than he has of God's Will working in him. He (man) that would meet and find God must seek Him in His Will; union in intimacy with God's Will is a conjoined union with man and God. Therefore it was that the Lord Jesus, when He came to this world, always spoke of His having come to do one thing--- the Will of His Father. This alone could work our Redemption leading to our total Salvation. Sin had broken us away from the Will of God. In doing the Will of God He (Jesus) was to break the power of sin. He was to prove wherein the service of God and True Blessedness consist; He was to work out in Himself a new nature to be communicated, a New Way of Living to be followed; He was to show that the doing of God's perfect Will at any cost is Blessedness and Glory everlasting. It was because He did this, because He was obedient unto death, that God highly exalted Him. It was this disposition, His obedience, that made Him worthy and fit to sit with God on the Throne of Heaven. Union with the Will of God is union with God Himself, and must--- it cannot be otherwise--- bring to the Glory of God to those who would become son's of God.


And this is as True of us as of Him. It is to be feared that there are many Christians who seek salvation, and have no conception in what Salvation consists--- a being saved from their own will, and being restored to do the Will of God alone. They seek after Christ, and Trust in Him; but it is not the True Christ, but a Christ of whom they have framed in their own image. The True Christ is the incarnate Will of God, the incarnate obedience, who works in us what God wrought (made or finished ) in Him. Christ came as the Son, to impart to us the very same Life and disposition as animated (having God's Life alive in) Him on earth. Christ came to be a High Priest, to bring us to God in that very same Way of obedience and self-sacrifice in which He drew nigh to God. As Son and Priest, Christ is our Leader (Author) and Forerunner; it is only as we follow Him in His path on earth that we can hope to share His Glory in Heaven. "He learned obedience and became the cause of Eternal Salvation to them that obey Him". (Become a disciple or one disciplined in obedience a Christ-Like one.)

Let us beware that no wrong or one-sided views of what salvation by faith means lead us astray. There are some who think that Salvation by faith is all, and obedience is not so essential. This is a terrible mistake. In our justification there is indeed no thought of obedience in the past. God justifies the ungodly. But repentance is a true return to obedience. And without repentance there can be no True Faith. Justification, and the faith by which it comes, are only for the sake of obedience, as means to an end. They point us to Christ, and the Salvation which is to be found in union with, the being conjoined to Him. And He has no Salvation but for them that obey Him. Obedience, as the acceptance of His Will and Life, is our only capacity of receiving Salvation. This is the reason there is so much complaining that we cannot find and do not enjoy a full Salvation. We seek it in the wrong way. Jesus Himself said that the Father would give the Holy Spirit, that is, Salvation as it is perfected in Christ in Heaven, to them that obey Him. To such would He manifest Himself; with such would the Father and He dwell. The Salvation of Christ was wrought out entirely by obedience; this is its very essence and nature; it cannot be possessed or enjoyed but by obedience. Christ, who was perfected by obedience, is the cause of Salvation to none but them that obey Him.

God grant that the obedience of Jesus, with the humility in which it is rooted, may be seen of us to be the crowning beauty of His character, the True power of His Redemption, the bond of union in the intimacy and likeness between Him and His disciples, the True and Real Salvation, in the Salvation He gives to them that obey Him.

1. Salvation to obedience. Let us draw off our eyes and desires from the too exclusive thought of salvation as happiness, and fix them more upon that which is its reality--- obedience. Christ will see to it that a full Salvation comes to the obedient.
2. Let no wrong thoughts of our sinfulness and Inability secretly keep us back from the surrender to entire obedience. We are made partakers of Christ, of Himself, with the very Life and Spirit of obedience which constitutes Him the Savior. The Son of God came not only to teach and to claim, but to give and work obedience. Faith in this Lord Jesus may claim and will receive the Grace of obedience, will receive Himself.
3. Jesus personally learned and exercised obedience; personalty He communicates it in fellowship with Himself; it becomes a personal link with Himself to those who obey Him.

There are two or at most three words used that may need some meanings given as they caused me trouble:
1. animated: Lively, Living; to give Life to; vigorous; full of spirit; indicating animation; as an animated discourse.
2. wrought: influenced; prevailed on. His mind was wrought upon by Divine Grace.
3. efficacy: Authority with its accompanying Power to produce effects; production to the effect intended; as the efficacy of the Gospel in converting men from sin and death to Eternal Life.
The following definitions were taken from Webster's 1828  Dictionary.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XL

THE HIGH PRIEST, PERFECTED THROUGH OBEDIENCE.
Hebrews 5: 8 - 9 Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered;  And having been made perfect, He became to all them that obey Him, the cause of eternal salvation.

Continuing with the Fourth Section
Jesus Christ High Priest More than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

Our Lord Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Through this obedience He was made perfect, and became the cause of Eternal Salvation to all that obey Him. So He entered Heaven as our High Priest, a Son, perfected forevermore.

The word "perfect" is one of the keywords of the Epistle. It occurs thirteen times. Four times in regard to the Old Testament, which could make nothing perfect. The law and the Law made nothing perfect ( 8:19). Sacrifices that cannot (Genesis 2: 16..."the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"... or to keep eating of it....Genesis 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.....3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons......3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God......3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.....3:21  To Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.....God covered the sin now contained or housed in mans flesh by the blood and the skin of the animal, but man still held the consciousness of his shame and sin. The Law under the priesthood of Aaron could do nothing to remove this consciousness and its guilt.), as touching the conscience, make the worshiper perfect ( 9: 9). The law/Law can never make perfect them that draw nigh ( 10:1). That apart from us they should not be made perfect ( 11: 40). As great as is the difference between a promise and its fulfillment, or hope and the thing hoped for, between the shadow and substance, is the difference between the Old and New Testament. The Law made nothing perfect: it was only meant to point to something Better, to the perfection Jesus Christ was to bring. With the New Testament perfection would come. Three times the word is used of our Lord Jesus, who in Himself prepared and fashioned out the perfection He came to impart. It became God to make the Leader of our Salvation perfect through suffering ( 2: 11). He learned obedience, and being made perfect, became the cause (Author of Eternal Salvation) of Salvation ( 5: 9). Appointed High Priest; a Son perfected for evermore ( 7: 28). The perfection fashioned by Christ was that which was revealed in His own personal life. He came to restore to us the Life of God we had lost (Genesis 1: 26-27)--- a Life in the Will and Love of God. This alone is salvation. God perfected Him through suffering--- fashioned out in Him a perfect human character, in which the Divine Life was fully united with the human will. He learned obedience through suffering, and manifested perfectly the humility and submission and surrender to God, which is man's duty and blessedness to copy or do as well. So, when He had been perfected, He became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all who obey Him, because He now had that perfected human nature which He could communicate to them (the recipient one). And so He was appointed High Priest--- a Son, perfected forevermore. As Son of God, He was to take us up into the very Life of God; as High Priest, He is to lift us, in actual spiritual reality, into God's intimacy, fellowship, Will and presence; the Way in which He was perfected through obedience was the Living Way in which He is to lead us;--- as the Son, perfected through obedience, who had found and Opened and walked the path of obedience as the path to God, and would animate (give Life to) us with His own Spirit to do it too, He, the perfected One, can alone be our Salvation.

Then twice we have the word of what Christ has done for us. By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified ( 10: 14); the Leader (Author) and Perfecter (Finisher) of our faith ( 12: 2). Christ's perfecting us forever is nothing but His redeeming us by His one sacrifice into the perfect possession of Himself, the perfected One, as our life. His death is our death to sin, His resurrection as the perfected One is our Life, His Righteousness is ours, His Life ours; we are put in possession of all the perfection which the Father fashioned out in Him through suffering and obedience. And once of the spiritual sanctuary opened by Christ: The greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands ( 9: 11). And three times it is used in regard to Christian character: Solid food is for the perfect ( 5: 14); Let us press on to perfection (6:1 ); The God of Peace perfect ( In the Greek here the word used is not the same as in the other passages.)  you in every good thing ( 13: 21). The perfect for whom the solid food is, are those who are not content with the mere beginnings of the Christian life, but have given themselves wholly to accept (to receive willingly) and follow the perfected Master. These are they who press on to perfection--- nothing else than the perfection which Christ revealed, as God's claim on men, and as what He has won and made possible for them.

He learned obedience, and being perfected, became the cause of Eternal Salvation. The perfection of God is His Will. There is no perfection for man but in union with that Will. And there is no Way for attaining and proving the union with that Will but by obedience. Obedience to the good and perfect Will of God transforms the whole nature, and makes it capable of union with Him in Glory. Obedience to God's Will on earth is the Way to the Glory of God's Will in Heaven. The everlasting perfection of Heaven is nothing but the obedience of earth transfigured and glorified. Obedience is the seed, the power, the Life of Christ's perfection and ours.

We are approaching the threshold of the Holiest of All, as this Epistle is to open it up to us as the sphere of the Heavenly Priesthood of Him who was made after the order of Melchizedek. Ere we proceed thither let us learn this lesson well: The distinguishing mark of the earthly life of our High Priest; the source of His Heavenly Glory and His Eternal Salvation; the power of His atonement (redemption from) of our disobedience; the Opening of the Living Way in which we are to follow Him our Leader; the inner disposition and spirit of the Life He bestows;--- of all this, the secret is obedience. Through obedience He was perfected, His sacrifice was perfect, He perfected us forever, He carries us on to perfection (through the working out of our salvation).

1. When the perfect Heavenly Life of the Lord Jesus Christ comes down from Heaven into our hearts, it can assume no form but that which it had in Him, obedience.
2. God must be obeyed: In that one word you have the key to the life and death of Jesus, His sitting at God's right hand, His Priesthood, His dwelling in our hearts, as well as to the whole of the Gospel message,--- God must be obeyed.
3. Christ, the obedient One, who inaugurated for us the New Way of obedience unto death as the only Way to God. Is this the Christ you love and trust? Is this your delight in Him, that He now has delivered you from your disobedience, and makes you strong to live only to obey God and Him? Is Christ precious to you because the salvation He gives is a restoration to obedience?

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXIX

THE HIGH PRIEST LEARNING- OBEDIENCE.
Hebrews 5: 7 - 8  Who in the days of his flesh (Jesus), having offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, to Him (God the Father) that was able to save him out of death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

Continuing with the Section Four
Jesus our High Priest More than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY


We have already noticed with what persistence the writer has sought to impress upon us the intense reality of Christ's humanity--- His being made like unto His brethren, His partaking of flesh and blood in like manner as ourselves, His being tempted in all things like as we are. In the opening verses of our chapter he has again set before us the true High Priest Himself compassed with weaknesses. He now once more returns to the subject. In verse 6 he has already quoted the promise in regard to the order of Melchizedek, as the text of his farther teaching, but feels himself urged to interpose, and before repeating the quotation in verse 11, still more fully to unfold what the full meaning is of the blessed humiliation of the Son of God. He leads us in spirit down into Gethsemane, and speaks of the wondrous mystery of the agony there, as the last stage in the preparation and the perfecting of our High Priest for the work He came to do. Let us enter this Holy place with hearts bowed under a consciousness of our ignorance, but thirsting to know something more of the great mystery of Godliness, the Son of God become flesh for us.

Who in the days of His flesh. The word "flesh" points to human nature in the weakness which is the mark of its fallen state. When Jesus said to His disciples in that dark night, " Watch and pray; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," He spoke from personal experience. He had felt that it was not enough to have a right purpose, but that, unless the weakness of the flesh were upheld, or rather overcome, by power received in prayer from above, that weakness would so easily enter into temptation, and become sin. The days of His flesh, encompassed with its weaknesses, were to Him a terrible reality. It was not to yield to this that He watched and prayed.

Who in the days of His flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him that was able to save Him out of death, and having been heard for His godly fear, having gained the strength to surrender His will and fully accept the Father's Will, and the renewed assurance that He would be saved and raised out of it, though He was a Son,--- the form of the expression implies that no one would have expected from the Son of God what is now to be said,--- yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Gethsemane was the training-school where our High Priest, made like to us in all things, learned His last and most difficult lesson of obedience through what He suffered.

Though He was a Son. As the Son of God, come from Heaven, one would say that there could be no thought of His learning obedience. But so real was His emptying Himself of His Life in Glory, and so complete His entrance into all the conditions and likeness of our nature, that He did indeed need to learn obedience. This is of the very essence of the life of a reasonable creature, of man, that the life and the will he has received from God cannot be developed without the exercise of a self-determining power, without the voluntary giving up to God in all that He asks, even where it appears a sacrifice. The creature can only attain his perfection under a law of growth, of trial, and of development, in the overcoming of what is contrary to God's Will, and the assimilating of what that Will reveals. ( This is the key to unlocking the mysteries or secret things of God and our becoming heirs of God and joint- heirs with Christ Jesus to all that is promised the Son from Genesis through Revelation.)

Of Jesus it is written: The child grew, and waxed strong, becoming full of wisdom. What is true of His childhood is true of His maturer years. At each stage of life He had to meet temptation, and overcome it; out of each victory He came with His will strengthened, and His power over the weakness of the flesh, and the danger of yielding to its desire for earthly good, or its fear of temporal evil, increased. In Gethsemane His trial and His obedience reached their consummation.

He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Suffering is something unnatural, the fruit of sin. God has made us for joy. He created us not only with the capacity, but the power of happiness, so that every breath and every healthy movement should be enjoyment. It is natural to us, it was so to the Son of God, to fear and flee suffering. In this desire there is nothing sinful. It only becomes sinful where God would have us submit and suffer, and we refuse. This was the temptation of the power of darkness in Gethsemane for Jesus to refuse the cup. In His prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, Jesus maintained His allegiance to God's Will: in wrestlings and bloody sweat He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The deepest suffering taught Him the highest lesson of obedience: when He had yielded His will and His life, His obedience was complete, and He Himself was perfected forevermore. ( We are to allow Him our Leader to lead us through what He Himself suffered in our place on our behalf by faith that we become the heir of God and joint-heirs of Christ Jesus and gain the promised working of our salvation through trails, testings and tribulations. Our reward eternal Life. Through the acceptance of His Yoke to learn of or from Him. )

This is our High Priest. He knows what the weakness of the flesh is. He knows what it costs to conquer it, and how little we are able to do it. He Lives in Heaven, able to succor us; sympathizing with our weaknesses; bearing gently with the ignorant and erring; a High Priest on the Throne, that we may Boldly draw nigh to find Grace for timely help. He Lives in Heaven and in our heart, to impart to us His own Spirit of obedience, so that His Priesthood may bring us into the full enjoyment of all He Himself has and is. ( This is the abundant Life that all are seeking and at times demanding of God with out ever truly seeking God's Way or Will in the matter. )

1. Heard for His godly fear. How it becomes me then to pray In humble, Holy reverence, that I may pray in His Spirit, and be heard too for His godly fear. This was the very Spirit of His prayer and obedience.
2. He learned obedience through suffering. Learn to look upon and to welcome all suffering as God's message to teach obedience.
3. He learned obedience: This was the path ( the Way ) in which Christ was trained for His Priesthood. This is the Spirit and the power that filled Him for the Throne of Glory; the Spirit and the power which alone can lift us there as well; the Spirit and the power which our great High Priest can impart to us. Obedience is of the very essence of salvation. Whether we look at Christ being perfected personally, or at the merit that gave His death its value and saving redeeming power, or at the work wrought in us--- obedience, the entrance into the Will of God, is the very essence of our salvation.
4. He learned obedience. Jesus was obedience embodied, obedience incarnate. I have only as much of Jesus in me as I have of the Spirit of obedience.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXVIII

THE HIGH PRIEST, CALLED OF GOD.
Hebrews 5: 4-6  And no man takes the honor to himself, but when he Is called of God, even as was Aaron. So Christ also glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, but he that spoke to Him, You are my Son, This day have I have begotten You: As he said also in another place, You are a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Continuing the The Fourth Section
Hebrews 4:14 - 5: 10
Jesus Our High Priest more than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

A Priest sustains a twofold relationship--- to God and to man. Every high priest is appointed for men in things pertaining to God. We have just seen what the great characteristic is of his relation to men: he must himself be a man, like them and one with them, with a heart full of gentleness and sympathy for the very weakest. In his relation to God, our Epistle now proceeds to say, the chief requirement is that he should have his appointment from God. He must not take the honor to himself: he must be called of God. All this is proved to be true of Jesus.

The Truth that Jesus had His appointment from God was not only of importance to the Hebrews to convince them of the Divine and supreme right of Christianity; it is of equal interest to us, to give us an insight into that which constitutes the real Glory and power of our religion. Our faith needs to be fed and strengthened, and this can only be as we enter more deeply into the Divine origin and Nature of Redemption thru it to our Salvation.

No man takes the honor unto himself, but when he is called of God. It is God against whom we have sinned, in separation from whom we are fallen into the power of death. It is God we need; it is to Him and His Love the Way must be opened. It is God alone, who can say what that Way is, who is able to have it opened up. And this now is what gives the Gospel, and our faith in Christ, its Security and Sufficiency--- that it is all of God. Christ has been called of God to be High Priest. The very God who created us, against whom we sinned, gives His Son as our Redeemer. (Then to perfect our salvation within us.)

So Christ also glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He that spoke to Him, You are My Son, this day I have begotten You. As He said also in another place, You are a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here it is not merely the fact that Christ was called of God to be High Priest, but the ground upon which He was chosen, that we must specially notice. The two passages quoted teach us that it was as Son of God that He was appointed High Priest. This opens up to us the True Nature and Character of the Priesthood. It shows us that the Priesthood is rooted in the Sonship: the work of the Priesthood is to reveal and communicate the Blessed Life of Sonship. (The line or heirs of God or the sonship of God's family tree. So it is God who calls us through His Son into this relationship.)

As Son, Christ alone was Heir of all that God had. All the Life of the Father was in Him. God could have no union or fellowship with any creature but through His beloved Son, or as far as the life and spirit and image of the Son was seen in it. Therefore no one could be our High Priest but the Son of God. If our salvation was not to be a merely legal one--- external and, I may say, artificial--- but an entrance anew into the very Life of God, with the Restoration of the Divine Nature we had lost in paradise, it was the Son of God alone who could impart this to us. He had the Life of God to give; He was able to give it; He could only give it by taking us into Living intimacy and fellowship with Himself. The Priesthood of Christ is the God-devised channel through which the ever-Blessed Son could make us partakers of Himself, and with Himself of all the Life and Glory He has from and in the Father.

And this now is our confidence and safety that it was the Father who appointed the Son High Priest. It is the Love of the God against whom we had sinned that gave the Son. It is the Will and the Power of this God that ordained and worked out the great Salvation through Redemption. It is in God Himself our Salvation has its origin, its Authority, its Life, its power. It is God drawing nigh to communicate Himself to us in His Son and through His Son alone.

Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest: it was God gave Him this Glory. Just think what this means. God counts it an honor for His Son to be the Priest of bankrupt sinners. Jesus gave up His everlasting Glory for the sake of this New, which He now counts His Highest, Glory the honor of leading guilty men to God. Every cry of a penitent for mercy, every prayer of a ransomed soul for more Grace and nearer access to God, He counts these His Highest Honor, the proofs of a Glory He has received from His Father above the Glory of Sonship, or rather the opening up of the fulness of Glory which His Sonship contains.

O! you doubting troubled soul! Will you not now believe this: that Jesus counts it His Highest Honor to do His work in any needy one that turns to Him? The Son of God in His Glory counts His Priesthood His Highest Glory, as the power of making us partake as brethren with Him in the Life and Love of the Father. Do let Jesus now become your confidence. Be assured that nothing delights Jesus more than to do His work. Do you what God has done; glorify Him as your High Priest; and, as you learn to turn from yourself and all human help, to Trust the Son of God, He will prove to you what a great High Priest He is; He will, as Son, lead you into the Life and Love of the Father.

1. Could God have bestowed a more wondrous Grace upon us than this, to give His own Son as our High Priest? Could He have given us a surer ground of faith and hope than this, that the Son Is Priest? And shall we not Trust Him? And give Him the honor God has given Him?
2. What is needed Is that we occupy and exercise our faith In appropriating this blessed Truth: Jesus is the eternal Son, appointed by the Father as our Priest to introduce us Into His presence, and to keep us there. He was Himself so compassed with weaknesses and tried with temptations, that no Ignorance or weakness on our part can weary Him, or prevent Him doing His blessed work "IF" we will only Trust Him. Oh, let us worship and honor Him. Let us Trust Him. Let our faith claim all He is able and willing to do as our God-appointed High Priest.
3. Faith opens the heart through faith this Divine Being fills, pervades, the whole heart, dwells in it. He cannot bring us nigh to God except as He brings your heart nigh. He cannot  bring your heart nigh except as He dwells in it. He cannot dwell in it except as you believe it so. Oh, consider Jesus, until your whole heart is faith In Him and what He is in you.

(Special note is here given as we have for emphasis used italic writings in this section above within brackets.)

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXVII

THE HIGH PRIEST BEARING GENTLY WITH THE IGNORANT.
Hebrews  5: 1 - 3  For every earthly high, priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:  Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity ( weaknesses ); And by reason thereof is bound, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

Continuing with the Fourth Section
Hebrews 4: 14 - 5: 10
Jesus Our High Priest More then Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY


We know how much the Epistle has already revealed of the true humanity and sympathy of the Lord Jesus. In chapter 2 we read: It became God to perfect Him through suffering; Since the children are sharers of flesh and blood, He also in like manner partook of the same. It behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren. In that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor (aid, help) them that are tempted. And in chapter 4  we have just heard: We have not a high priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has in all things been tempted like as we are. And yet the Truth is counted of much importance, that once again our attention is directed to it. It is not enough that we have a general conviction of its Truth, but we need to have it taken up into our heart and life, until every thought of Jesus is interpenetrated by such a feeling of His sympathy, that all sense of weakness shall at once be met by the joyful consciousness that all is well, because Jesus is so very kind, and cares so Lovingly for all our feebleness and all our ignorance.

Let us listen once again vary closely to what the word teaches. Every earthly high priest being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Here we have the work of a high priest, and the first essential prerequisite for that work. His work is in things pertaining to God; he has charge of all that concerns the access to God, His worship and service, and has, for this, to offer gifts and sacrifices. And the requisite (necessity) is, he must be a man, because he is to act for men. And that for this great reason that he may be one who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that he himself also is compassed with weaknesses; and who by reason thereof is bound, as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins. At the root of the priestly office there is to be the sense of perfect oneness in weakness and need of help. In priestly action this is to manifest itself in sacrificing, as for the people, so for himself. And all this, that the priestly spirit may ever be kept alive for the comfort and confidence of all the needy and weary he must be one who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring. This then is the description of the condition of all earthly priests no matter the religion or religion system in which he is to function.

Glory be to God for the wondrous picture of what our Lord Jesus is. A priest must be God's representative with men. But he cannot be this, without being himself a man, himself encompassed with weaknesses, and so identified with, and representing men with God. This is why Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for a little while. The high priest is to offer as for the people, so for himself. Offering for himself was to be the bond of union with the people. Even so our Blessed Lord Jesus offered (see verse 7), prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, yes, in all that, offered Himself to God.  And all this, that He might win our hearts and confidence as one who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring. God has indeed done everything to assure us that, with such a High Priest, no ignorance or error need make us afraid of not finding the Way to Him and His Love. Jesus will care for us, He bears gently with the ignorant and erring.

Have we not, in our faith in the Priesthood of Christ, been too much in the habit of looking more at His earthly work than at His heart? Have we not too exclusively put the thought of our sins in the foreground, and not sufficiently realized that our weaknesses, our ignorance and errors that for these too a special provision has been made in Him who was made like us, and Himself encompassed with weaknesses, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring. Oh!, let us take in and avail ourselves to the full of the wondrous message: Jesus could not ascend the Throne as Priest, until He had first, in the school of personal experience, learned to sympathize and to bear gently (as with long sufferings and great patients ) with our feeblest. And let our weakness and ignorance henceforth, instead of discouraging and keeping us back, be the motive and the plea which lead us to come Boldly to Him for help, who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring. In the pursuit of Holiness our ignorance is often our greatest source of failure. We cannot fully understand what is taught of the Rest of God, and the power of faith, of dwelling within the veil or of Christ dwelling in our heart. Things appear too High for us, utterly beyond our reach. If we but Knew to Trust Jesus, not only as He who made propitiation for our sins, but as one who has been specially chosen and trained and prepared, and then elevated to the Throne of God, to be the Leader of the ignorant and erring, bearing gently with their every weakness! Let us this day afresh accept this Savior, as God has here revealed Him to us, and rejoice that all our ignorance need not be a barrier in the Way to God, because Jesus takes it into His care and keeping.

1. Oh! the trouble God has taken to win our hearts to Trust and confidence. Let us accept the revelation, and have our hearts so filled with the sympathy and gentleness of Jesus, that in every perplexity our first thought shall always be the certainty and the Blessedness of His compassion and help.
2. How many souls there are who mourn over their sins, and do not think that they are making their sins more and stronger by not going with all their ignorance and weakness Boldly to Jesus.
3. Do learn the lesson: the whole Priesthood of Jesus has but this one object, to lead us Boldly and joyfully to draw near to God, and live in fellowship/intimacy with Him. With this view Trust Jesus as definitely with your ignorance and weakness as with your sins.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXVI

LET US DRAW NEAR WITH BOLDNESS.
Hebrews 4: 16. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the Throne of Grace that we may receive mercy, and may find Grace to help us in time of need (timely help).

Continuing with the FOURTH SECTION
Hebrews 4:14 - 5: 10
Jesus our High Priest more than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

In the first two chapters the True Divinity and the real humanity of our Savior were set before us, as the very foundation of our faith and Life. In the two verses we have just been considering these two Truths are applied to the Priesthood of Christ. Having a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens; having an High Priest who is able to sympathize; let us draw near. The one work of the High Priest is to bring us near to God. The one object of revealing to us His person and work is to give us perfect confidence in drawing near. The measure of our nearness of access to God is the index of our Knowledge of Jesus.

Let us therefore, with such an High Priest, draw near with Boldness to the Throne of Grace. The word, draw near, is that used of the priests in the Old Testament. It is this one Truth the Epistle seeks to enforce, that we can actually, in spiritual reality, draw near to God, and Live in that nearness, in Living fellowship of intimacy with Him, all the day. The work of Christ, as our High Priest, is so perfect, and His Authority with power in Heaven so Divine, that He not only gives us the right and liberty to draw nigh, but by His Priestly action He does in very deed and Truth, so take possession of our inmost being and inward Life, and draw and bring us nigh, that our life can be Lived in God's presence.

Let us draw near. The expression occurs twice; here and 10: 22. The repetition is significant. In the second passage, after the deeper Truths of the True Sanctuary, and the rent veil, and the opening of the Holiest, have been expounded, it refers to the believer's entrance into the full Blessing of a Life spent in the Authority and power of Christ's Heavenly Priesthood, in the presence of God. Here, where all this teaching has not yet been given, it is applied more simply to prayer, to the drawing nigh to the Throne of Grace, in a sense which the feeblest believer can understand it. It is as we are faithful in the lesser, the tarrying before the Throne of Grace in prayer, that we shall find access to the greater the Life within the veil, in the full power of the Forerunner who has entered there for us.

Let us draw near, that we may receive mercy. This has reference to that compassion which we need when the sense of sin and guilt and unworthiness depress us. In drawing nigh to the Throne of Grace, to the mercy-seat, in prayer, we first receive mercy, we experience that God Pardons and Accepts and Loves. And we find Grace for timely help. This refers to that strengthening of the inner Life by which He, who was tempted in all things like as we, meets us and enables us to conquer temptation. Grace is the Divine strength working in us. "My Grace is sufficient for you; My power is made perfect in weakness." The Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of Grace."  The believing supplicant at the Throne of Grace not only receives mercy, the consciousness of acceptance and favor, but finds Grace, in that Spirit whose operation the Father always delights to bestow. And that Grace is for timely help, literally "well-timed help," just the special help we need at each moment. The infinite mercy of God's Love Resting in us, and the almighty Grace of His Spirit working in us, will ever be found at a Throne of Grace, if we but come Boldly, Trusting Jesus alone.

And now comes the chief word, "Let us therefore draw near with Boldness." We have already been taught to hold fast  our Boldness. We shall later on be warned, cast not away your boldness. And the summing up of the Epistle will tell us that the great fruit of Christ's redemption is that we have Boldness to enter in. It is the expression of the highest form of confidence, in the unhesitating assurance that there is nothing that can hinder, and in a conduct that corresponds to this conviction. It suggests the thought of our drawing nigh to God's Throne without fear, without doubt, with no other feeling but that of the childlike liberty which a child feels in speaking to its father.

This Boldness is what the Blood of Christ, in its infinite intrinsic worth, has Secured for us, and what His Heavenly Priesthood works and maintains in us. This Boldness is the natural and necessary result of the adoring and believing gaze fixed on our great High Priest upon the Throne. This Boldness is what the Holy Spirit works in us as the inward participation in Christ's entrance into the Father's presence. This Boldness is of the essence of a healthy Christ-Like Christian life. If there is one thing the Christian should care for and aim at, it is to maintain unbroken and unclouded the living conviction and practice of this drawing near with Boldness.

Let us, therefore, draw near with Boldness! Jesus the Son God is our High Priest. Our Boldness of access is not a state we produce in ourselves by meditation or effort. No, the Living, Loving High Priest, who is able to sympathize and gives Grace for timely help, He breathes and works this Boldness in the soul that is willing to lose itself in Him by Way of receptivity. Jesus, found and felt within our heart by faith, is our Boldness. As the Son, whose House we are, He will dwell within us, and by His Spirit's working, Himself will be our Boldness and our entrance to the Father. Let us, therefore, draw near with Boldness!

1. Do take hold of the thought that the whole teaching of the Epistle centers in this, that we should so be partakers of Christ and all He is, should so have Him as our High Priest, that we may with perfect boldness, with the most undoubting confidence enter into, and dwell in, and enjoy the Father's presence. It is in the heart that we partake of and have Christ; it is Christ, known as dwelling in the heart, that will make our boldness perfect.
2. Each time you pray, exercise this boldness. Let the measure of Jesus merit, yea more, let the measure of Jesus power to work in you and lead you on to God, be the measure of your boldness.
3. What tenderness of conscience, what care, what jealousy, what humility, this boldness will work, lest we allow anything for which our heart can condemn us, and we so lose our liberty before Cod. Then it will truly be our experience---
So near, so very near to God.
More near I cannot be.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXV

A HIGH PRIEST, ABLE TO SYMPATHIZE.
Hebrews 4:15  For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling ( Who is not able to sympathize with)  of our infirmities ( Weaknesses ); but one that has been tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

The Continuation of Section Four
Jesus Our High Priest more than Aaron

May God in His mercy give us a true insight into the Glory of what is offered us in these words --- even this, that our High Priest, whom we have in Heaven, is one who is able to sympathize with us, because He knows, from personal experience, exactly what we feel. Yes, that God might give us courage to draw nigh to Him, He has placed upon the Throne of Heaven one out of our own midst, of whom we can be certain that, because He Himself lived on earth as man, He under stands us perfectly, is prepared to have patience with our weaknesses, and to give us just the aid or help we need. It was to effect this that God sent His Son to become man, and as man perfected Him through suffering. That not one single feeble soul should be afraid to draw nigh to the Great God, or in drawing nigh should doubt as to whether God is not too Great and Holy to fully understand, or to bear with his weakness. Jesus, the tried, tested and tempted One, has been placed upon the Throne as our High Priest. God gives us a glimpse into the heart of our compassionate, sympathizing High Priest!

For we have not a High Priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses. The writer uses the two negatives to indicate how common the thought is which he wishes to combat. A rich king, who lives every day in luxury, can he, even though he hear of it, can he fully realize what it means for the poor sick man, from year to year, never to know where his daily bread is to come from? Not Hardly. And God, the Glorious and ever-blessed, can He truly feel what a poor sinner experiences in his daily struggle with the weaknesses and temptations of the flesh? God be praised! Jesus knows, and is able to sympathize, He is one who has been in all things tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

In all things! The thought of Jesus as a sympathizing High Priest, is ordinarily applied to those who are in circumstances of trials, testings and suffering. But the Truth has a far deeper meaning and application. It has special reference to the temptation which meets the soul in the desire to live wholly for God. Jesus suffered, being tempted: it was the temptation to refuse the Father's Will that caused His deepest suffering. As the believer, who seeks in all things to do the Will of God, understands this, the Truth of the sympathizing High Priest becomes doubly precious.

What is the ordinary experience of those who set themselves with their whole-heart to live for God? It happens very often that it is only then they begin to find out how sinful they are. They are continually disappointed in their purpose to obey God's Will. They feel deeply ashamed at the thought of how often, even in things that appear little and easy, they fail entirely in keeping a good conscience and in pleasing God. At times it is as if the more they hear of the Rest of God and the Life of Faith, the fainter the hope of attaining it becomes. At times they are ready to give up all in despair: a Life in the Rest of God is not for them.

What comfort and strength comes at such a time to a soul, when it sees that Jesus is able to sympathize and to succor (aid), because He has Himself been thus tempted. Or did it not become so dark in His soul, that He had to wrestle and to cry, "If it be possible?" and "Why have You forsaken Me?" He, too, had to Trust God in the dark. He, too, in the hour of death had to let go His spirit, and commit it, in the darkness of death, into God's keeping. He knows what it is to walk in our darkness and see no Light. And when a man feels utterly helpless and in despair, Jesus can sympathize with him; He was tempted in all things like as we are. If we would but Rest in the assurance that He understands it all, that He feels for us with a sympathy, in which the infinite Love of God and the tenderness of a fellow-sufferer are combined, and is able to succor (aid) him, we should soon reach the Rest of God. Trusting Jesus would bring us into that Rest.

Holy brethren! Partakers of a heavenly calling! Would you be strong to hold fast your confession, and know in full the authority with the power of your Redeemer God to save; listen to-day to the voice of the Holy Spirit: Jesus was in all things tempted just as you are. And why? That He might be able to help you. His being able to sympathize has no other purpose than that He should be able to scour (aid or help). Let the one word be the food of your faith; the other will be its fruit, your blessed experience. Just think of God giving His Son to come and pass through all the trials, tests and temptations that come to you, that He might be able to sympathize, and then lifting Him up to the Throne of Omnipotence that He might be able to succor, and say if you have not reason to Trust Him fully. And let the faith of the Blessed High Priest in His infinite and tender sympathy be the foundation of a friendship and a fellowship intimacy in which we are sure to experience that He is able to save completely.


1. Some time ago I asked a young lady who had come from Kesuiich, and spoke of her having been a happy Christian for years before, and having found such a wonderful change in her experience, how she would describe the difference between what she had known before and now enjoyed. Her answer was ready at once: "Oh, it is the personal friendship/intimacy of Jesus!"  And here is one of the gates that lead into this blessed friendship: He became a Man just that I might learn to Trust His gentle, sympathizing kindness.
2. Study well the three ables of this Epistle. Jesus able to sympathize, able to succor (aid or help), able to save completely. And claim all.
3. Tempted like as we are. He was made like to us in temptation, that we might become like Him in victory. This He will accomplish in us. Oh, let us consider Jesus, who suffered being tempted, who experienced what temptation is, who resisted and overcame it, and brought to nought the tempter, who now Lives as High Priest to succor the tempted and give the victory let us consider Jesus, the ever-present Deliverer: He will lead us in triumph through every foe, temptation of turning against God.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXIV

A GREAT HIGH PRIEST.
Hebrews 4:14. Having, then, (Therefore) a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

FOURTH SECTION
Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10.
Jesus our High Priest more than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

After his digression, in the warning to the Hebrews not like their fathers with Moses, to harden their hearts through unbelief, our writer returns to his argument. He had already twice used the words High Priest (2:16, 3:1), and is preparing the Way for what is the great object of the Epistle the exposition of the Heavenly Priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and the work He has by it accomplished for us (7 - 10:18). In this section (4:14 - 5:10) he first gives the general characteristics of that Priesthood, as typified by Aaron, and exhibited in our Lord's life here on earth. In chapters 1 and 2 he had laid the foundation of his structure in the Divinity and the humanity of our Savior: he here first speaks of Him in His greatness as a High Priest passed through the heavens, then in His sympathy and compassion, as having been tempted like as we are.

Having, therefore, a great High Priest. The therefore refers to the previous argument, in which Christ's greatness had been set forth, and in view of the dangers against which he had been warning, the readers had been urged to steadfastness in holding fast their confession (Faith life style). The force of the appeal lies in the word Having. We know the meaning of that word so well in earthly things. There is nothing that touches men so nearly as the sense of ownership of property. I have a father, I have money, I have a home what a world of interest is awakened in connection with such thoughts. And God's word comes here and says: You have, O! best and most wonderful of all possessions, You have a great High Priest. You own Him; He is yours, your very own, wholly yours. You may use Him with all He is and has. You can Trust Him for all you need, know and claim Him as indeed your great High Priest, to bring you to God. Let your whole walk be the proof that you live as one, having a great High Priest.

A great High Priest who has passed through the heavens. We have said more than once, and shall not weary of repeating it again, that one of the great lessons of our Epistle has been to teach us this: The Knowledge of the Greatness and Glory of Jesus is the secret of a strong and Holy Life. Its opening chapter was nothing but a revelation of His Divine nature and Glory. At the root of all it has to teach us of Christ's Priesthood and work, it wants us to see the adorable omnipotent Divinity of Christ. In that our faith is to find its strength, and the measure of its expectation. By that our conduct is to be guided. That is to be the mark of our life that we have a Savior who is God. A great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens. Later on we read (7:26): Such an High Priest became us, made Higher than the heavens. It is difficult for us to form any conception of what heaven is, so high, and bright, and full of Glory. But all the heavens we can think of were only the vestibule through which He passed into that which is behind, and above and beyond them all the Light that is inaccessible, the very Life and presence of God Himself. And the word calls us to follow our great High Priest in thought, and when thought fails, in faith and worship and love, into this Glory beyond and above all heavens, and, having Him as ours, to be sure that our Life can be the counter part of His, the proof of what a complete redemption He has wrought, the Living experience of what He has effected there.

A great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God. The name Jesus speaks of His humanity, and of His work as Savior from sin. This is the first work of the priest the cleansing, the putting away of sin. The name Son of God speaks of His Divinity, and His power with all authority as High Priest, ready to bring us to God, into the very Life and fellowship or intimacy with the Holy One. It is in His being Son/God speaks to us; it is to the perfect fellowship in intimacy and Blessedness of the ever-blessed One that our great High Priest that is passed through the heavens can, and does indeed, bring us.

Having, therefore, a great High Priest, let us hold fast our confession! He is (3: 1) the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The Knowledge of what He is and who He is is our strength to hold fast our confession. Twice the Hebrews had been told how much would depend on this (3: 6, 14). "We are His House, "if" we holdfast" "We are become partakers of Christ, "if" we holdfast." Our faith in Christ must be confessed. If we have Him as our great High Priest, He is worthy of it; our souls will delight in rendering Him this homage; without it, failure will speedily come; without it, the Grace of steadfastness, perseverance, cannot be maintained.

O! brethren, having a great High Priest, who is passed through the heavens, let us hold fast our confession. Let every thought of Jesus, in Heaven for us, urge us to live wholly for Him; in everything to confess Him as our Lord.

1. Ought it not to fill our hearts with worship and Trust, and Love without end, this wondrous mystery: the Son of God, become Man; the Son of Man, now God on the throne; that we might be helped,
2. Who has passed through the heavens! beyond all thought of space and place, into the mystery of the divine Glory and power. And why? That He might in divine power breathe that Heavenly Life into our hearts His whole Priesthood has, as its one great characteristic, Heavenliness. He communicates the purity, the power, the Life of Heaven to us. We live in Heaven with Him; He Lives with Heaven in us. With Him in our hearts we have the Kingdom of Heaven within us, in which Gods Will, is done, as in Heaven, so on earth. Let us believe it can most surely be.
3. After all the solemn warning about falling in the wilderness, coming short of the rest, see here your safety and strength--- Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a Heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus. Having Jesus, let us hold fast.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXIII

THE HEART-SEARCHING WORD OF GOD.
Hebrews 4: 12 -13 For the Word of God is Living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Continuing THE SECOND WARNING
Hebrews 3:7- 4:13.
Not to come short of the promised Rest.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

They have been earnest words with which the writer has been warning the Hebrews against unbelief and disobedience, hardening the heart and departing from God, and coming short of the promised rest. The solemn words of God's oath in Ps. 95: 11, I have sworn in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest, have been repeated more than once to urge all to give diligence lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. He is about to close his warning. He does so by reminding them of the power and authority of the Word of God as the Word of the omniscient One, of Him with whom we have to do, before whose eyes all things, our hearts and lives too, are naked and open. Let each student of this Epistle make a very personal application of the words. Let us take the oath of God concerning His Rest, and the command to labor that we may enter in, home in to our heart, and say whether we have indeed entered in. And if not, let us all the more yield ourselves to the Word to search and try us: it will without fail do its blessed work in us, and prepare us for following with profit the further teaching concerning our Lord Jesus.

For the Word of God is Living and Active. At times it may appear as if the word effects so little. The word is like seed: everything depends on the treatment it receives. Some receive the word with the understanding: there it cannot be quickened. The Word is meant for the heart, the will, the affections. The Word must be submitted to, must be lived, must be acted out, all through our receptivity. When this is done it will manifest its Living, quickening power. It is not we who have to make the word alive. When, in faith in the Life and power with authority, there is in the Word, the heart yields itself in humble submission and honest desire to its action, it will prove itself to be Life and power within us.

And sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. The first action of God's Word is to wound, to cut, to divide. In the soul the natural life has its seat; in the spirit the Spiritual and Divine. Sin has brought confusion and disorder; the spirit is under the mastery of the soul, the natural life. God's Word divides and separates; awakens the spirit to a sense of its destiny as the faculty for the unseen and eternal; brings the soul to a knowledge of itself as a captive to the power of sin. It cuts deep and sure, discovering the deep corruption of sin. As the knife of the surgeon, who seeks to heal, pierces even to the dividing of the joints and marrow, where it is needed, so the Word penetrates all; there is no part of the inner being to which it does not pass.

And quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is specially with the heart that God's Word deals. In chapter 3 we read of the hardened heart, the evil heart of unbelief, the erring heart. When the word heart occurs later in this Epistle we shall find everything changed; we shall read of a heart in which God's law is written, of a true heart, a heart sprinkled with the Blood, a heart established by Grace (8: 10, 10: 22, 13: 9). We have here the transition from the one to the other. God's appeal was, To-day, "if" you hear His voice, harden not your heart. The heart that will but yield itself to be searched by God's Word, to have its secret thoughts and intents discerned and judged by it, will be freed from its erring and unbelief, and quickened and cleansed, and made a living table on which the Word is written by God Himself. Oh! to know how needful it is, but also how blessed, to yield our hearts to the Judgment of the Word.

And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight. God's Word bears the character of God Himself. He is the all-knowing and all-pervading: nothing can hide itself from the Judgment of His Word. If we will not have it judge us now, it will condemn us hereafter. For all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Yes, the God with whom we have to do is He of whom we later read: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." And again: "Our God is a consuming fire." It is this God who now pleads with us to enter into His Rest.

Let each of us gladly yield ourselves to have to do with Him. If perhaps there be a secret consciousness that all is not right, that we are not giving diligence to enter into the Rest, Oh! Let us beware of setting such thoughts aside. It is the first swelling of the Living seed of the Word within us. Do not regard that thought as coming from thyself, or from man who brings you God's Word; it is God waking you out of sleep. Have to do with Him. Be willing that the Word should show you what is wrong. Be not afraid of its discovering or the uncovering to you your sin and wretchedness. The knife of the physician wounds to heal. The Light that shows you your sin and wrong will surely lead you out. The Word is Living and will give you Life.


1. God has spoken to us in His Son. This is the keynote of the Epistle. To-day, "if" you hear His voice, harden not your heart: this is the keynote of this long and solemn warning. Let us hearken, let us yield to the Word. As we deal with the word, so we deal with God. And so will God deal with us.
2. Judge of your life not by what your heart says, or the Church, or the so-called Christian world but by what the Word says. Let Him have His Way with you: it will greatly bless you.
3. All things are naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have, to do. Why, then, through indifference or discouragement, shut your eyes to them? Oh, lay everything open before God, the God with whom we have to do, whether we will or not.
4. The Word is Living and active. Have great faith in His power. Be sure that the Holy Spirit, that the Living Word, that God Himself works in it. The Word ever points to the Living God, who is present in it, and makes it a Living Word, in the heart that is seeking for Life and for God.

"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXXII

GIVE DILIGENCE TO ENTER INTO THE REST.
Hebrews 4: 11 Let us, therefore, give all diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience.

Continuing THE SECOND WARNING. Hebrews 3: 7- 4:13.
Not to come short of the promised Rest.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

Our Epistle is intensely practical. How it detains and holds us fast in hope of persuading us not to be content with the knowledge or the admiration of its teaching, but personally to listen to the message it brings from God by the Holy Ghost, and indeed do the thing God would have us do--- enter into His Rest. Let us give all diligence to enter into that rest.

Let us give all diligence. The word means, to make all haste, be in earnest, put your whole heart into it, see that you do it; enter into the rest. That no man fall after the same example of disobedience. The danger is imminent the loss will be terrible. God has sworn in His wrath that unless we Hearken and Obey, we shall not enter His Rest.  Let us give all diligence to enter in. All the wonderful teaching the Epistle contains farther on, as to the Holiest that is opened for us as the place where God wants to receive us into His Rest and live, as to the great High Priest who has opened the Way and entered in and Lives as our Joshua to bring us in, will profit us nothing, unless there be the earnest desire, the willing readiness, the firm resolve, to enter in. It is this disposition alone that can fit a man spiritually to apprehend (by receptivity) the Heavenly mysteries the Epistle opens up.

And surely it ought not to be needful to press the motives that should urge us to obedience. Ought not the one motive to suffice? The unspeakable privilege God offers me in opening to me the entrance into His own Rest. No words can express the inconceivable greatness of the gift. God speaks to me in His Son as one who was created in His image, capable of fellowship/intimacy with Himself; as one whom He has redeemed out of the awful captivity of sin and death, because He longs to have me Living with Him in His Love. As one for whom He has made it possible to live the outer life in the flesh, with the inner Life in Christ, lifted up, kept safe in the Holiest of All, in God's own Rest, Oh! Can it be that anyone believes this and does not respond? No, let each heart say, Blessed be God, into this rest would I enter, here would I dwell.

We are so accustomed to the wilderness life of stumbling and sinning, we have so learned to take the words God speaks of that life ( 3:10), " They do always err in their heart," as descriptive of what must be daily Christian experience, that we hardly count it a practical possibility to enter into the rest. And even when the desire has been awakened, the path appears so dark and unknown, and so narrow (Matthew 7:14). Let me for the sake of such once again gather up what has been said as to the Way to enter in: it may be God, of His great mercy, may help some to take the step. The instructions need be very simple.

First, settle it in your mind, believe with your whole heart that there is such a rest, and that To-day. It is God's Rest, in which He Lives; into which Jesus, as your Joshua, has entered. It is your rest, prepared for you; your land of promise ( not the land of Canaan or Israel as some teach but rather the Spiritual Land of promise ); the spiritual state of Life which is as surely yours as Jesus is; into which Jesus will bring you, and where He will keep you. It is the rest in which you can live every hour, free from care and anxiety, free from weariness and wanderings, always resting in the rest that Trusts God for all. Believe this ( it is your faith that pleases God along with your obedience ).

Then cease from your own works. Not as if you had to attain this perfectly before entering into God's Rest. No, but consent, yield, be willing that all self-working should come to an end (by child like trusting and receptivity). Cease from self. Where there is life there is action; the self-life will seek to work, except you give up self into the death of Christ; with Him you are buried, in Him you Live. As Christ said, Hate your own life, lose it (Luke 14: 26). Cease from your own works ( your own self sufficiency ), and bow in deep humility and helplessness of all good, as nothing before God.

Trust Jesus as your Joshua, who brings you in, even now. Israel had simply to trust and obey and follow Joshua. Set your heart on Him who has entered the Heavens to appear before God for us. Claim Jesus as yours, not only in His cross and death and resurrection, but above all in His Heavenliness, in His possession of the Rest of Heaven. Claim Him, and leave Him to do His Blessed work. You need not understand it all. Your feelings may not be what you would wish. Trust Him, who has done all for you in earth and Heaven, to do all in your heart too. ( This is the key or secret to understanding or opening up the book of Revelation, Trust Jesus on earth as it is in Heaven. This is the pattern that is repeated throughout.)

And then be a follower of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises. Israel passed in one day through Jordan into Canaan, but did not in one day come to the perfect rest. It is at the end of the life of Joshua we read, "The Lord gave them rest round about." Enter to-day into the Rest. Though all may not be bright at once, look to Jesus, your Joshua, and leave all in His hands. Come away out of self, and Live in Him. REST IN GOD whatever happens. Think of His REST, and Jesus who has entered it in your name, and out of it fills you with its Spirit, and fear not. To-day; if you hear His voice, enter in.( This is the required faith that pleases God our obedience.)

1. Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest in your souls." It was through meekness and lowliness of heart that Jesus found His rest in God: He allowed God to be all, the trusted God for all the rest of God was His abode. He invites us to share His rest, and tells us the secret. In the meekness and lowliness of Jesus is the Way to the Rest.
2. Israel did not enter Canaan. And why? It is twice said because of disobedience, and thrice because of unbelief. The two things always go together. Yield yourself in everything to obey. This will strengthen you to Trust for everything He has promised to do.
3. The Rest includes victory: "The Lord will give you Rest from all your enemies round about, and you shall/will dwell in safety." "And the Lord gave them rest round about, all their enemies gave He into their hand."