LIFE & GAME CHANGER 15 OF 16

THE GREAT APPEAL

"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not, when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape, who turn away from Him that warneth from heaven."—HEBREWS 12:25.

The words, "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh" reveal the ultimate purpose for which this letter was written.

The Hebrew Christians to whom it was addressed were in danger of falling away from faith, and the danger which thus threatened them was the result of intellectual waver­ing as to the full and final authority of Christ. That in­tellectual wavering, moreover, resulted largely from the fact that they had not put Christ completely to the test. They were Christians. They were believers. They had turned from the Hebrew form of religion to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, but they were unstable. They were remembering the majesty of the old economy with its angelic ministration, and its guidance through Moses and Joshua and Aaron. They were undoubtedly some­what confused by the apparent simplicity that was in Christ. The Temple was gone. The ritual had passed. All the splendor with which they had been familiar was no more. They were in danger of apostasy from the faith as they looked back, but did not sufficiently con­sider the fact of the Lord Himself. As we have already said, they had not put Him completely to the test, as the writer of the letter said:

"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin."

They had been treating the whole matter largely on an intellectual level, and had been unable to grasp the full significance of Christ, because they had not yielded to Him a complete devotion.

It is best to remind ourselves at this point that these two points always go together. All intellectual wavering in the presence of Jesus Christ on the part of those who have known Him, is the result of a failure somewhere to carry out logically the things professed. The great idea was expressed by our Lord Himself in the words:

"If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God."

The test of the Divine nature of the Christian message is that of "willing" to put it to the test. He whose life is yielded actively to the claims of Christ, even unto resist­ing unto blood if necessary, will discover that the teaching is of God.

This has been the line of the argument of the letter from beginning to end. In our first meditation we saw that it was a writing intended to set forth the full and final authority of our Lord by an interpretation of His Person, and that in the speech of the Son we have received the last thing that God has to say to man. It may very easily be said that this speech of God to men took place by the measurement of our calendars, two thousand years ago; and the question may be asked, Is it so that God has said nothing since? The unequivocal answer is that it is so. That does not at all mean that men have under­stood all He then said. The Church of God in its entirety has not fully grasped all the height and depth of His teaching. For two thousand years the most wonderful attention has been given to it; and yet it will readily be conceded by those who have been most diligent in exam­ination, that, to employ the words of Robinson in this application,   "There is yet much more light and truth to break forth from the Word of God."

This appeal, then, in the closing movement of the letter, "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh," should always be read in close connection with the opening statement:

"God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son."

Thus to bring the first and last together, in brief sen­tences, we may read:

"God . . . hath . . . spoken unto us in His Son." "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh."

Necessarily the writer is urging us to pay attention to the message of Jesus, but we are to realize that that mes­sage is God's message to men. The truth is enforced in the words which follow:

"For if they escaped not, when they refused him that warned in earth, much more shall not we escape, who turn away from Him that warneth from heaven.”

Here once more the two movements of Divine revelation are referred to. In the first, God warned men on the earth level. In the final, He has spoken to men directly from heaven.

Referring to the past; in every method of God there had been some central principle, some central value of revelation. All these separated parts were now merged in the message of the Son. Nothing essential that God had said to man before the coming of Jesus was contra­dicted, or denied, or superseded. In Him everything was said again, but with new meaning, with new value, with added emphasis. It is poetry on the highest level, and yet clear revelation of insight and interpretation when John in the Apocalypse, describing the vision that was granted to him in Patmos, said among other things:

Personally I never grasped the significance of that until I stood one day by the side of the Falls of Niagara, and listened to the waters. As I stood and listened I thought of whence those rushing waters came. I remembered the mountains lying behind, and all the mini rivers and rills that were rising and racing down the mountain sides, until presently merging, they became a great river; and then other rills and other rivers, waters, waters which at last poured themselves over in the music of the mighty falls. The voice of many waters. Thus I hear the speech of the Son, and in it all the music of the flowing streams of the Old Testament merging into the full and final speech of God through the Son.

In passing over the letter we have heard first the speech of God through angelic ministry. Of course it is im­possible to deal with the details of the revelation that came in that way, but we may gather up the whole of the message through the angels, and declare that it concerned the throne and government of Almighty God. From the appearance of the cherubim at Eden's gate to the testi­fying angels of the Apocalypse, the message had always been concerned with the sovereignty of God. All that they said on that inspirational subject has been finally said and completely interpreted in the message through the Son.

Next in order we come to Moses who was the faithful servant in the entire house. Through him we may with equal brevity, and yet accuracy, declare that the message was that of the utmost importance of law, that is, the appli­cation of the Divine sovereignty to all human affairs. All that God said to man through Moses concerning the appli­cation of His sovereignty through law to all the details of human life and conduct was now said, perfectly, finally, completely, in the ethical teaching of the Son.

Passing over the history we come to Joshua. We are often inclined to think of him as a warrior, but he was infinitely more. He was the captain of the hosts of the Lord, those hosts who were called upon in the Divine economy to cut out the cancer in the world's life, of a corrupt people, and establish a center of healing and beneficent blessing. Through Joshua God was revealing to men the necessity for organization. The people established in that little stretch of land, washed by the waters of the Great Sea, in order to the fulfillment of their mission, needed such leader­ship and such organization. The Son, when He spoke, revealed superlatively and finally the same necessity in the brief but inspiring things He said concerning His Church as to the law of her life, and her activities.

Moreover, God had spoken through priesthood, with Aaron as the great central personality. Following the historic line we reach at this point the utmost need of humanity. Rebels against the Divine sovereignty, care­less about the Divine law, self-centered, rather than living in relationship with others, they needed mostly medi­ation, some way of access to God. He gave them a re­vealing ritual, the great value of which was not the ritual, but the things it suggested.

All this is clearly brought forth in the history of the past speech of God. If we watch the historian who writes, or listen to the singer as he sings, and attend to the pro­phets as they speak, God is forever speaking, and the things He had to say to men concerned His sovereignty, the necessity for law, the necessity for true organization, and the necessity for a way of approach to Himself through mediation.

With this survey we may now declare that in the speech of God to men through the Son first we have nothing new. In all that he said there was nothing which He had not said before. The God Who had spoken in divers portions, divers manners, now through the Son said the same essen­tial things about human life. It is quite possible that this statement may be challenged, that it is challengeable. Care­ful consideration, however, will show that it abides true. How often we have been told that through Jesus the one new thing about God made known was that of God's

Fatherhood. Let us remember that a Hebrew singer had declared that:

"Like as a father pitieth his children,

So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."

We constantly use what we speak of as the Lord's Prayer without realizing that every sentence in it is really a quotation from Talmudic literature, saturated with pre­vious Biblical literature.

Having said that, let us now make a further statement about the speech of the Son. Everything He said was new. He said the things which God had been saying through the ages, but now in such a way that men dis­covered, and have forever since been discovering, that they only commenced to understand the revelation of God as it was uttered in and through Him. The message of the angelic revelation of the sovereignty of God was now spoken so that it became an entirely new conception, whereas it was an eternal truth. The Son insisted upon the sovereignty of God as He said, "Seek ye first the King­dom of God," and interpreted that sovereignty as He said, "God so loved the world that He gave."

As to law, the Son distinctly declared:

"I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it."

When one day a man, whose profession was concerned with the ancient law, asked Him, which is the great com­mandment in the law? Our Lord summarized everything in Moses by quoting from Moses, and adding to the double quotation a word of practical importance. From Moses He quoted:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

Concerning that He declared it was "the great and first commandment." That is to say, that there can be no right relationship between God and man that is not rooted in man's right relationship with Him. He then declared a second, a sequence:

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and finally added the great word:

"On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets."

The final interpretation of law is, of course, discovered in the ethical manifesto of Jesus.   Thus through Him God said the old thing in such new form and fashion as to emphasize the necessity of law, and to interpret its require­ments.

When we come to Joshua and organization, we hear the voice of the Son saying:

"On this rock I will build My Church," My Ecclesia, My Theocracy,

"And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

Thus, in the speech of God through the Son we have the statement concerning the one organization through which the sovereignty of God is to be proclaimed, and His law applied to human life.

God had spoken concerning meditation through priest­hood, with Aaron as the central figure. He now spoke on that same fundamental necessity through a Priest after the order of Melchizedek. That Priest Himself upon occasion, said:

"No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,"

The inescapable implicate is that all men can reach the Father through Him.

Thus He Who had spoken in the past in divers portions and divers manners which had never been completely apprehended, nor indeed could have been, spoke at last through Him in Whom the many waters merge into the one Voice.

In view of all this the appeal of the writer,

"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh,"

Finds its full power. It was given to Hebrew Christians. It remains the message to the Church. It is more than that, because the outlook of this letter and the outlook of the speech of God to men is forever world-wide in its in­tention and in its purpose.

Supposing that speech is refused, what then? There is no need for any answer to be given to that question if we think of world conditions at the present moment. What is the matter really with the whole world today? (America-Europe-Asia-Africa-Far East) The sovereignty of God is neglected, the law of God is ignored, the methods of God are contemned, and the mediation of God is refused. Many different gods but not the One Jesus spoke of.

The result is that we have the vision of man, still striv­ing after the full realization of life individually, socially, nationally, and never able to arrive. All this because man cannot find an authority equal to the management of human affairs. Monarchy has failed. Democracy has utterly broken down and reveals its ultimate destination, and the world today is facing dictators, and that is already seen to be facing disaster.

The result of all this is that law breaks down. If we refuse the interpretation of law found in the message of the Son, we have nothing but failure. The laws that men make are necessarily based upon the examination of con­ditions, and these are constantly changing. The laws of God deal with causes, and thus ensure full realization.

Still thinking of the past and of organization, we come to the Divine provision of the Church. Here, of course, we have much to cause the heart sorrow, and yet that in­stitution which has brought all the things into human life that are worthwhile is the Church. Where today it appears as though men were refusing the Church, careful consideration will show that they are not refusing the Church of God, but that Christendom which calls itself the Church, which has so largely and completely failed. Nevertheless the inward, spiritual reality remains as the light of the world. Not many got on the first boat although there were many religious garbs in that day.

The final word therefore is the word of this appeal, because if we refuse the Son, there is no more a name given among men through whom salvation can come. That declaration fell from the lips of Peter as he addressed the early Church. It was arraigned and arrested before a rationalistic religion. The Sadducees had challenged the Church, and Peter then made this declaration:

"He is the stone which was set at naught of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner. And in none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven that is given among men, wherein we must be saved."

That is a national, racial, human statement. It was indeed a remarkable statement as it declared that this One had been set aside by the builders, that is, by the experts.. These had accounted Him to be "naught," a cipher: Peter declared that He was the chief Corner-stone. The archi­tectural figure there, of course, is that of the pyramid. As examination of a pyramid will reveal the fact that the corner-stone is the key to the whole building, the stone from which you can find the height and breadth and di­mensions thereof. Of human life in its saving and in its realization, the Son is the Corner-stone. Unless we build according to the lines revealed in Him, we shall never reach the triumphant apex, shall never have a perfect structure. While other voices, ten thousand of them are clamoring for our attention, let us listen anew to the voice of God, and see to it that we "refuse not Him that speaketh."