Chapter
Five As chapter 4 was the chapter of rest, so chapter 5 deals with spiritual
growth and development. Chapter 4 began with a warning about not missing God's
true Sabbath, and ends with us being urged to come boldly to the throne of grace.
Now, as we enter chapter 5, the matter of the high priest is dealt with. For Hebrews
is a book of better things, and here we find that Christ has entered into a better
priesthood.
When God ordains men to act in the priesthood on behalf of
other men, He knows that those priests are also weak, sinful, and infirm, and
need an offering for their own sins. And no one is able to put himself into a
priesthood ministry. He must be called of God, as Aaron was. So then we see that
it was God who ordained and called Christ to be a priest after a better, more
powerful, and more lasting order. Here, for the first time in the New Testament,
we are introduced to the Melchisedec priesthood. The next 3 chapters deal with
this man and his ministry. Only twice is Melchisedec mentioned in the Old Testament
(Genesis and Psalms), but in verse 5 and 6 we see that he is related to Sonship.
Verse 5 quotes from the second Psalm where the Father said: "Thou art my Son,
today have I begotten thee." And immediately he quotes Psalms 110:4: "Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec".
"Sons at Rest"
You
will never enter the Melchisedec order until you have become a son. For this reason
God is birthing a many-membered son company on the earth. It all comes through
Him who was the "only begotten of the Father," the first one to enter the Melchisedec
order. Notice that Christ did not have to strain for this ministry or this position,
but He was called into it. He had entered into the rest spoken of in chapter 4.
This is the secret of Sonship. God is on the throne. He has everything in control.
There is absolutely no reason to be nervous. Trust Him. Rest in Him. Sons know
this. They have learned to turn their lives over to the Father. There are those
who have great ambitions to do something for God. They want their lives to count
for great things in the Kingdom. But it seems that they find themselves spinning
their wheels, put on the shelf, going nowhere. And they become fretful, worried,
and restless. They try this thing awhile, and it doesn't work. Then they try something
else. Same results. Tell them to sit still and wait on God, and they look right
through you. "I've got to get the show on the road". "Time's wasting". "Where's
God? Doesn't He know that life is passing me by, and I can't seem to get going?"
What's their problem? They haven't matured in Sonship enough to learn to rest
in Him. Let Him have the steering wheel, and the accelerator, and the brakes.
You'll be surprised at how much He can get done with one who has turned everything
over to God, and entered into His rest.
In the year of 1950 prophecy went
over me that God had chosen me to write and publish His message. For years nothing
happened, while I stewed and fretted and dreamed of great things. I sold life
insurance, worked as a radio announcer and gospel disc jockey. I preached on radio,
and in pulpits here and there, pastored, did construction work, and went back
to selling insurance. Finally, after ten years, I had our first tract printed
and mailed out to a few hundred addresses. Believe me, those ten years were hard
to come by. Our whole family experienced a furnace of divine dealings. We learned
patience, and trust in God, and confidence in the fulfillment of His revealed
purpose in our lives. I cannot tell you the times that I had to pull my car over
to the side of the dusty country road in the flat plains of Kansas, and plead
with God to give me the strength and determination to drive to one more farmhouse,
make one more call, try to sell one more policy. In the summer's heat I could
visualize the camp-meetings going on around the country, see myself in the pulpit
preaching the end-time message of glorious victory. But here I sat by the side
of the road, sweat running down my face, begging God for grace to make it to the
next farmhouse. I had a precious family back home, depending on me for next week's
groceries. Working on commission meant "no sales--no groceries." Does God know
how to burn the impatience out of us? Oh, yes! I know.
In the Days of His
Flesh
Did Jesus have the same temptations we have? Yes. But without yielding
to sin. He overcame in every case. I cannot say that for myself. It was the grace
of God, and His life that carried me through. But Jesus went through great travail.
He cried to God with prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Did
He have a dusty Kansas road? Perhaps not, but while others slept, the Bible says
He would arise a great while before daybreak and go out into the mountains to
pray. In the days of His flesh. Do you think you are going through something that
He never experienced? He had a reverence for the will of God. He was heard in
His praying because of His piety.
"Though he were a Son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered". Sons must learn obedience. It is one
of the most important ingredients in the life of a son. There must be a trust
in the Father, and a complete submission to His perfect will. Still want to be
a son? Read further. "By the things which he suffered". The word "suffered" here
is the Greek word "pascho", meaning to allow, to endure or experience. It is not
speaking of His suffering on the cross. He learned obedience long before He got
to Calvary. It was a daily dealing of God throughout His entire life from Bethlehem
to Calvary. He endured every circumstance God brought His way. He allowed the
perfect will of God to take place in His life, regardless of the humiliation or
discomfort. And as a Son, He learned obedience, as all sons must. Are you "suffering"?
Are you allowing the will of God to take it's toll on your ways and desires? Are
you enduring every circumstance of life, with the knowledge that He is the Lord
of your life, and knowing that all things are of God? Satan's attacks cannot destroy
a son of God. Job and the devil both found that out. Every attack of the enemy
is there only to be overcome. It is the will of God that destroys us. Our old
man is crucified, until there is nothing left of us except the Christ that is
being birthed within. Enduring this destruction of the self-life, allowing His
perfect will to be done in us, is what brings sonship obedience.
Verse
9. "And being made. He became." There were some things He was not until He entered
into them. Perfect? He was perfect when He hit that hay in the manger, wasn't
He? In the sense of sin or impurity, yes He was perfect. But in the matter of
maturity and fulfilling the purpose of God on this earth. No. He was made perfect,
through the dealings of God in His life. He had to learn obedience. He had to
endure many things. Then "He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them
that obey Him." Others must also learn obedience, if they are to receive this
eternal salvation. He is the example of a perfect son.
"Hard to be Uttered"
Again inverses 10 and 11 he brings up the subject of Melchisedec. He would
like to preach about this glorious subject, this better priesthood. He would like
to tell them of the marvelous treasures that are theirs in Christ. But they cannot
hear it. Dull of hearing, so he does not waste such truth on them. What a rebuke!
Many times I have had to sit silent in meetings, sometimes in conventions, with
great truth burning in my heart because there were no ears to hear. In chapters
6 and 7 he again brings up the subject of Melchisedec, and goes into more detail.
But first he must talk to them about the difference between milk and meat, and
the first principles.
The last 3 verses of this chapter deal with the shame
of these Hebrew Christians who had known the Lord for many years, yet had not
progressed in their spiritual life. It had seemed enough to them just to know
Him as Saviour, like so many of our fundamentalist friends today. But there is
a principle of God. When you don't progress in divine truth, you retrogress. Since
they wouldn't continue on into deeper truth, soon they found that they needed
to be taught again the first principles. Many were returning to temple worship,
and Jewish rituals and offerings. Like so many Pentecostal people today who refuse
to go beyond Pentecost, and end up in old order, man-made systems of religion,
and deadness of spirit. Blind eyes that cannot see what God is doing in our day,
deaf ears that cannot hear the voice of the Spirit. "Because they received not
the love of the truth, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion". (2
Thessalonians 2:11)
Strong meat belongs to the mature sons. So what is
keeping you from becoming mature? Can you believe what God is saying today? Can
you receive the deeper teaching on Melchisedec and the sons of God? Or are you
trying to "stay on good safe ground with a salvation message in the milk of the
word"? Well, it's not safe ground. Keep moving, forward, higher. Greater things
are in store. We will deal more in detail about the strong meat when we get into
chapter 6, regarding the "going on unto perfection".
But remember this,
the babes are identified by the fact that they cannot eat strong meat, but must
have milk. And even some of the milk messages, sad to say, have been watered down
and weakened until the babes can hardly stay alive on it. But there are those,
thank God, who have their senses exercised to discern. By reason of use. Don't
be afraid of experience. You must learn to know the difference between good and
evil. It doesn't say that we accept the evil, but we must know the difference.
So we can receive the good and reject the evil. Babes must be carefully fed by
others, for they have no discernment of their own. Grow up, saints of God! It
is the hour for your maturity! The strong meat of His Word is here. He is revealing
great truths about His sons and the Melchisedec priesthood in these last days.
It is time for mature sons to break forth. We are coming to full age. Hallelujah!
And give the glory to Jesus!
Bill
Britton Hebrews the book of better things