The book of Hebrews indicates that it was difficult to talk to the Hebrews about certain things because they were “dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5:11). Actually, many people may read the book of Hebrews with a seeming “dullness of hearing,” because its passages are puzzling without an understanding of the Old Testament as well. The tenth chapter contains some very beautiful, precious treasures. Although these truths are hidden in a rather complicated text, they will unfold to us a very simple message.
Hebrews 10:12: But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. This means that the Lord Jesus Christ brought a new dispensation. In Old Testament times, the guilty one led a sacrifice for his sins (perhaps a bullock or a lamb) through the streets. On his way to the altar, everyone he passed could say to himself, “I wonder what he has been up to now?” A certain animal sacrifice indicated that he must be guilty of one of several corresponding sins which that animal atoned for. For example, it may have been a trespass offering or a peace offering. However, a man is no longer known by the kind of animal he leads through the streets to the altar! This verse says that when Christ came, He made one sacrifice for all time. Therefore, when we take upon ourselves the precious blood of Jesus Christ and accept His perfect sacrifice, then every new offense does not require a fresh new sacrifice. His one sacrifice has taken care of our every need for all time.
Jesus sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. Hebrews 10:12b–13. Having made a sacrifice for our sins, He could then bring forth His redemptive plan of sonship. The creation of sonship on the earth would then bring everything under the feet of Jesus—not only as Savior and Christ, but as Lord of lords and King of kings (Revelation 17:14). Everything would be in subjection to Him in His Kingdom.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Verse 14. Therefore God’s provision for us is complete: He has perfected us by one offering. Of course you have not yet experienced this perfection; it may be that this process (which we will discuss shortly) is delayed by your own lack of faith or motivation to enter into the program—the plan for your life—that God has for you. This verse says that Christ has already completed His part of it. The phrase “He has sat down” after completing this (Hebrews 10:12) means that nothing more remains to be done, as far as Christ is concerned or as far as the compassion in the heart of the Father is concerned, to bring you into perfection. As you believe God and open up and submit to Him, the progressive, unfolding perfection that God has for you will begin to open up to you. I do not believe that Christ died only to give you a complimentary ticket to escape hell; He did far more than that. He died to elevate you into sonship in His Kingdom, over which He is Lord.
Hebrews 10:15–16: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them.” Some Christians take exception to the application of this teaching, listing it as “false doctrine.” Because we teach that God’s intent and purpose is that believers become living epistles of Christ, they imply that we claim that the word we speak is equal to the Scriptures, and that in time we will not or may not even use the Bible. This is not true! This has not ever been said. We exalt the Scriptures as the Living Word of God.
Too many Christians “exalt” the “inspiration” of the Bible, while it is sitting on their shelf accumulating dust! This was not God’s intention. He intended to transfer that written truth into a living truth and write it on our hearts (Hebrews 10:16). God intends to write His Word upon our hearts, to make us His living epistles, read and known of all men (II Corinthians 3:2). This is the plan and purpose of God, and we are not exalting ourselves or saying that our teaching is superior to the revelation of the Scriptures. Rather, we glorify God that we can and will be the fulfillment of the Scriptures, and what God has promised will come to pass. I will maintain this truth, even if the persecution increases to the extent that we must die for it.
He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin (meaning, in effect, “nothing more is necessary”). Hebrews 10:16b–18. Do you realize how God works? He has made the religious requirement of yesterday to be inadequate for your need today. Therefore, if you cling to the old, you sin against God’s present provision for you. Think about this. If you were to come to the altar with a bullock or a lamb or a goat to be slain because you read in the Old Testament that this is what you must do to have your sins forgiven, and you would then confess your sins over this animal, you would actually be sinning, because the New Testament makes this proclamation: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29b. If you reject the perfect, pure Lamb of God without spot or blemish, whose blood was shed for our sin, by going back to the form that was only a foretype of it, then you are sinning (I Peter 1:19; Leviticus 17:11; Matthew 26:28).
If you revert to some form or ritual that was designed by God only as a foreshadow and a foretype of the perfect manifestation to come, you sin against the revelation and provision of the Lord for you. Many things in your own life may be like that. Galatians 4:1–5 teaches that while you are a child, you do not differ from a servant; but when the time finally comes for the inheritance, then you receive your sonship with its attendant privileges. This means that if anyone (especially a religious leader) holds you in bondage as a slave, and he fails in the time schedule that God has for you to introduce you to your privileges of sonship, then he is failing God and sinning against you.
A parent can do that with his or her own child. When a child is small, you do not give him much liberty. Though he may be the object of your affection, the apple of your eye, you demand that he absolutely obey you. He must learn certain things. He must take your hand when he crosses the street. You keep the razor blades and the medicine out of his reach. You take certain precautions because of that child. If he disobeys, you give his hand a little slap. Inasmuch as you are teaching that child obedience, you are treating him very much like a slave. Some parents treat their children like that even through their teenage years. They continue to suppress them. Those parents become sinners, transgressors. They should do as the Heavenly Father does. He lifts restraints and gives liberty and freedom as His children reach maturity and take responsibility. A parent should do the same.
There must also be a changing, flexible, spiritual “parenting” in the church. Believers must not be locked into a religious system that continually ministers a legalistic restraint which inhibits maturity—a restraint which protracts immaturity and fails to develop the sense of responsibility which should come with spiritual growth. Does this mean that when you are a newborn spiritual babe, you must put aside all the worldly activities, so that later on you can go back to them? Not at all! It means that after you have been tutored in the Lord, you can take greater liberty and greater initiative in the Spirit to do the will of God. That liberty in the Spirit should see a corresponding ever-increasing restraint on the flesh!
As many in the body come forth to maturity with real initiative and are doing the will of God—they can take over some of the things we are doing. Working yourself out of that job is a mark of achievement. I will not have succeeded until I have you moving in revelation as prophets of the Lord, as the Lord wants. It is my desire to do this.
When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy food during the famine, Joseph put his special cup down in the bottom of the sack of grain that Benjamin took back. This was the means he used to bring his brothers into a realization of his real identity. Because Joseph loved his brother Benjamin so much, what did he do then? He showed special favor to Benjamin. He fed Benjamin five times as much food from his own table as he gave the other brothers. Then he sent back 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothes for Benjamin, because he loved him (Genesis 43 and 44).
When Elkanah returned from sacrificing at Shiloh, he always gave his wife Hannah a double portion, and later she gave birth to the prophet who brought forth the School of Prophets (I Samuel 1:5, 19–20). If you love someone, and if you truly have the fathering spirit, you yearn for that one to move in more than you did. You yearn in your heart to give him a double portion.
This quality was in the heart of our Lord Himself. When He told the disciples how much He loved them and that He would be going to the Father, He said, “The works that I do shall you do also. And greater works than these shall you do, because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). He was explaining to them that He loved them so much that He would work with the Heavenly Father, in order to insure that they could surpass even what He had done on earth. What a fantastic Lord we have! That is the true spirit of a fathering ministry.
A leader is often willing to teach a young aspirant all he knows—except a few secret little tricks which will always leave the student a bit inferior. Have you heard the famous story of the swordsmanship teacher? He trained one of the great swordsman of Europe so well that his student thought he had been taught everything the teacher knew. One day the student challenged the teacher, and he was surprised to find himself defeated by the old man. The teacher said cynically, “Surely you didn’t think I would teach you everything I know, did you?”
The Lord does not do that; He said, “Whatever I have heard the Father speak, I tell you” (John 12:49; 14:10). “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things that the Father says” (John 16:13). God is concerned that there be no limitation upon our development and growth! Any limitations that we suffer, we have imposed upon ourselves. Limitation was never in the plan of God, and it is not taught in the Word of God.
Some people say they believe the Bible, yet nothing has happened to them to give evidence of it. Our nation is afflicted with a lack of spiritual motivation; even many believers are not concerned enough about their spiritual growth. Some have a capacity by which their lives could be very valuable to God—but they are not motivated. This may apply to you. Some of you have a tremendous capacity and great abilities. Only one thing is holding you back: you do not really care about being a man of God or a handmaiden of the Lord. You do not care to break through.
You may be afflicted with the ailment we could call “don’t-involve-me-itis.” You think, “I do not want to become too involved with God, because the moment I do, I will have to wash somebody’s dirty, offensive feet. As soon as I become a bond servant of the Lord, I will have to serve—and I must want to do it!” You will never make it until you become aware that “as you do it unto the least of these, you are doing it unto the Lord” (Matthew 25:40). You need that motivation in order to truly serve. The promises and provisions of God may be available, perfect, and complete; yet you will never walk in them until something within your heart hungers and thirsts after God (Matthew 5:6). You must believe that “He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). This faith requires a certain motivation: your desire to please Him, to do His will above everything else.
Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (This refers to the Levitical sprinkling of blood, the sealed covenant and the washing water of the laver, by which the priests were totally cleansed before they entered the holy place on the Day of Atonement—Leviticus 16.) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:19–23.
Here, now, is the uncomplicated message, so simple that each reader will understand it. Here is precisely where we will position ourselves: We “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews chapter 10 goes on to develop those concepts, concluding with the amazing truth that we are not to throw away our confidence which has great reward; we have need of diligence and endurance, so that when we have done the will of God, we may receive what was promised (Hebrews 10:35–36). We are indeed to have that perseverance; but first, according to this Scripture, we must concern ourselves with the confession that we make, and then with how we press on in that confession.
There is an essential principle involved here which we must grasp. We “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23). Nearly all of us have a confession, but most often it is an expression of unbelief, rather than a confession of hope which reaches out in faith and embraces something from God. Here is the principle: To voice your need as an observation without faith is to strengthen the hand of Satan against yourself (Kingdom Proverb). When you give voice to your unbelief, then Satan has something to work on. The book of James warns us about the deadliness of every wrong utterance we speak. The tongue can “kindle a fire.” It can, in its ambivalent expression of the heart, bring forth blessing and cursing at the same time, salt water and sweet at the same time (James 3:5–11). This is not what God wants from our hearts; He wants us to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23). He does not want us to fail in this. We will continually cross out our expression of faith if we confess a need without faith.
The confession of our hope and our faith should be without wavering. When we are in a worship service and hear the Word, we embrace it. But we can later nullify it and cross out its effectiveness by the way we give voice to our inner negative responses and conditioning. Again and again I have observed someone who was right on the verge of a breakthrough go through a little testing. The bitterness that came out of his heart and the negative things he then voiced crossed out his progress and short-circuited his breakthrough. Afterwards he was sorry and repented, but nonetheless he nullified the confession of his faith. The confession of his hope did waver, and he voiced the negative things that gave the enemy substance and power to come against him. Bear that in mind. Voice your need, but always with faith! Whatever you desire, whatever you need, voice it (Matthew 21:22). Be specific in your prayers and petition, but do it with faith!
I wonder how many prayers are really not words of faith, but rather are sounds resembling the squeals of a little pig that is caught in a fence. Many who are “praying” are actually squealing because they are in a corner, and their “prayer” is only a voice of desperation. Desperation can be wonderful—if it leads you to draw on the resources of faith and the Word that resides in your heart. However, if desperation causes you to abandon the promises of God, then your prayers in crying unto God become the actual expression and sealing of your despair and unbelief. You are only crying out to God in protest of what you are going through; you are informing God that He has failed you, rather than believing that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11).
At times you may feel justified in making this statement: “I don’t feel good!” While it may be true that you are not feeling very well before you say it, you certainly will not feel well after you say it! If you want, you can say, “I’m sick,” but faith must take another positioning: “By His stripes we were healed” (I Peter 2:24). Faith embraces a Word. Even your need must be expressed with faith.
Regardless of what you may have gone through, come back to what God has said. Do not draw back if you see that your church is experiencing difficulties. Churches have always had problems. To some, churches would be fine if it were not for the people in them! A church treasurer once said, “So many problems, so many problems! Why not ask the people to mail in their tithe every week; then we could just forget about them and their problems!”
Wherever there are people, there will be problems. This is especially true concerning people in a church, because this present existence is preparation for the life in God’s eternal Kingdom. That is the purpose of His Word. We know that because He rose from the dead, we too will rise. We have suffered with Him, and we will also live with Him and reign with Him. We will be His sons (II Timothy 2:11–12; Romans 8:17). What we experience is doing something to our spirit now which will determine the level of our future existence; furthermore, it also determines the level of this present existence.
How do you handle those difficult situations which you encounter? In the fourteenth chapter of Romans, Paul gave one of the most famous messages on the matter of conscience and how to relate to it. He talked about one man eating meat and another not eating meat (a vegetarian); about one man keeping one day, and another man keeping every day alike (speaking of the Sabbath). Paul left those issues open, saying, “Let each man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:1–5).
Because we observe the Sabbath, some respond, “That is under the Law; you are under legalism!” We also have Sunday services, which causes others to react, “You keep Sunday; that practice is of Babylon.” Everyone has an opinion! However, I prefer what the Word says: “Whatever you do, you are to do it fully convinced in your own mind” (Romans 14:5). Paul concludes the chapter with this significant statement: … whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Verse 23.
It is not what you do that really counts; what does count is the faith in your heart or the unbelief in your heart as you do it.
Various religious groups have differing observances. Some observe the Communion by drinking water; others take grape juice; still others drink wine. Some take it once a year; others take it once a month; and some take it every Lord’s day. Romans 14:5 says, “In whatever you do, be fully persuaded in your own mind.” You can be bound to a religious observance which can actually become a sin to you because you perform it with unbelief. Therefore Paul warns, “Whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
It would be interesting to keep a tally sheet while you are in church, to see how much of what you do is right (that is, of faith), and how much you take back home with you that is wrong (that is, of unbelief). Then when you sing, for example, “Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold,” you will think twice about what you are singing! If you stand and voice a prayer that you think will impress God (or impress the rest of the church), but it is not a reality to your spirit, that is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.
Let us analyze this matter of our confession. What you voice is important; but more important is your faith or your unbelief behind it. This carefulness in our confession is something that God is requiring of us now. Proverbs 18:21a warns us: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. In Luke 6:45b we are cautioned, Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Colossians 3:17 admonishes, And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. When we see clearly the goal to which God is bringing us, we realize that only our spirit, focused in faith, can bring an end to the defeat that comes through the unbelief of the flesh.
What we voice, then, we must voice with faith—much faith. Let hypocrisy in our relationships disappear. You may be sensitive to this question, but what does God think of you when you talk about your brother behind his back and voice your rejection of him—while to his face you mouth perfect acceptance of him? How does God look upon that hypocrisy, the great breach that exists between what you say and what you really believe? “Whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Whatever you voice that you do not really believe in your heart, or whatever you do without a corresponding faith in your heart, becomes sin. If you voice a prayer or a prophecy, there had better be faith behind it. Only faith avails. “Faith that worketh by love” is the only agent that works effectively (Galatians 5:6). Our striving aside from faith slides into some kind of religious observance or effort that can never be effective in bringing forth the will of God.
Does this mean that you must be perfectly frank in everything you say? No, but whenever you voice something, you should have faith supporting it. I have observed the confrontation of people with a depth of truth which would probably cause them to explode in anger and totally reject anyone else who would dare to voice such things. The only reason they accept the Words I give is that much love and faith for them reached their spirit, and what was spoken to them was the “truth in love” of Ephesians 4:15. That edifies (I Corinthians 8:1). You can voice almost any truth to a person if you really love him deeply enough.
It is the viciousness, the anger, and the unbelief that sometimes emerges which can destroy people. Men have made statements of accusation from the pulpit that no one would question as being true, and yet the people left antagonized because the spirit behind those words was wrong. There was unbelief; criticism and judgment were involved.
When I know your human weaknesses and failings, how can I still love you without being hypocritical? It is because I also know what is in your spirit. I love you in the Spirit. I believe for you in the Spirit. That does not mean I must either accept or reject your flesh; the flesh nature is transitory and God will bring it to an end anyway. I am aware that the hand of God is working within you. I am only concerned that you open your spirit and listen to the Word that is coming. Listen to it with an honest heart, and then watch as God changes you.
You may be feeling very condemned, thinking, “If he knew what was in me right now, he certainly would not love me!” God knows what is in us, and He loves us! He sees the problems of every one of us, and He is able to change them. He accepts us on the basis of what He has done in bringing forth His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8). We are accepted by the precious blood of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:18–19); this brings us before the Father. He may see that you have a need or a problem, but He does not reject you because of that; He accepts you because of the honesty and truth in your spirit. Lift up your heart and say, “I may have many problems, but Lord, I voice this with faith: I worship You with all my heart. I refuse to do anything with unbelief; I will move with faith!”
Each time you come before the Lord, sing with all your heart unto Him. Carefully avoid mouthing words mechanically that you know from memory. Voice only that which you mean in your heart. Speak it with faith in your heart. It is amazing that you become whatever you speak in faith.
We accept one another. If I see something in your flesh, I do not have to accept or reject it; I have already accepted you in your spirit (II Corinthians 5:16). This does not mean that we excuse the flesh; rather, we refuse to be defeated by its temporary coexistence with the Spirit. That is what the book of Galatians is all about. When Paul talked about the flesh and the Spirit warring against each other, he said, “If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” He explained that even though the flesh coexists with the Spirit, it does not necessarily follow that we must be defeated by it (Galatians 5:16–17).
We give ourselves to walk with God. We worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). We have faith in our hearts, in everything we embrace and everything we do. Even if we make a mistake, we look to God and say, “I was believing You, even when I made that mistake. You did not tell me that I must always have right judgment in all things, but You did tell me to have a right spirit in all things. In my heart I wanted to do the right thing, and I was praying with faith—but I fell and made a mistake.” You may have a long record of mistakes and offenses and failures, but the multitude of mistakes or sins does not count. Rather, it is the heart that reaches out to God with faith that is accounted as righteous (Galatians 3:6).
God has a deep love for us. It is a popular conception that God prefers the religious people, but the Word does not actually bear that out. It says that “the harlots and the publicans will go into the Kingdom ahead of the Pharisees” (Matthew 21:31). The religious people rarely make it. They are so wrapped up in religious trappings and deceitfulness, concerned about creating a pious image before others, that God is nauseated with that. Some of the most difficult passages in the New Testament are those in which Christ assailed the religious people of His day. After that, “then drew near all of the publicans and the sinners to hear Him” and He taught them (Luke 15:1).
Get rid of your self-condemnation. Even though you may have made many mistakes, refuse to carry condemnation with you. Open your heart and draw faith. Say, “God, I am calling upon Your name with faith, and You will hear me.” Whatever you do, do it with faith. If you make a mistake, make it with faith. If you decide, “I am ready to quit this church,” go ahead and quit it—if you can leave with faith that you are moving toward something better. May God bless you. But if you are ready to leave because there is criticism and bitterness in your heart, and you are not moving with faith, then it will be a sin to you. Do not walk with disillusionment. Do not walk with discouragement. Walk with faith in God. Keep the Word of God uppermost in your heart and in your thoughts.
Have people failed you? Where in the Bible does it say that people are infallible, and that they will instantaneously take on all the attributes of God, without ever disappointing you? Where does it say that they will always be understanding? But when you consider His faithfulness, then you are brought up short. Then you must answer to God for what you know and for what you believe, and whether you walk in it with faith—whether you respond with faith or unbelief.
Deeper inspiration and challenge is continually being presented to us because God is setting before us an entirely new step, a new level in which to walk, and we are learning the basics of it. We cannot remain in a rut or ritual, and still move into the Kingdom of God. We must not continue to voice things that we do not really mean. When we go back to the Word and have faith in it, believing it, we sense a whole new revival of hope and expectation.
Many churches do not have the same format for their services, yet God blesses them. Why? He does not look upon the type of songs which are sung, or any other form. He looks on the heart (I Samuel 16:7). “Worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). “Whatever you do in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” from the depths of your heart (Colossians 3:17). Do it in faith. God will bless you.