Hull, Albert: Bible Reading High Priest As Securer-02 Heb 6_13-10_25

Turn the page to the book of Hebrews again. Uh, we'll follow the outline. I think it's well ordered to keep our minds in control of our, our thinking on the topic. That is the, the securing of our acceptance the forerunner has entered. Now we begin at chapter six, please. Um, verse number thirteen. And when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For ver- for men ver- verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of Thomas the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge, that they hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor to the stone, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made or having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. I would like to read a few verses in chapter seven, though it's not in the outline, but just for help. And we'll break in at verse twenty three. And they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, saying he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest became up, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than heaven. Who needeth not daily as those high priests who offer up sacrifice first for his own sin and then for the people. For this he did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmities, but the word of the oath which will since the law maketh a son who is consecrated forevermore. Chapter ten, please. Verse number fifteen. Wherefore the Holy Ghost also is witness to us, for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those deaths is the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful at promise, and let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of summary, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. That was the price for the reading, and I trust the Lord will give help in the understanding of these very remarkable portions that are allotted to me and to us for consideration this afternoon. This is the last Bible reading of the Saturday, and, uh, we hope none of you go to sleep. We trust all will be wide awake because sometimes we're inclined to get a little sleepy, a little heavy at the close of a reading like this. As we look at this chapter, I just want to pass on a few little comments that might help us to understand it. I would suggest to you that Paul is leading to the theme of where we're going to predominantly consider for the first part, verses number thirteen to the end. But I want to go back because I feel, while we're not going to dwell on it, I want to go back just to show that the writer, whoever the writer may be, by the help of the Holy Spirit, I probably use the name anyway before I'm finished. I always make that mistake. But whoever the writer may be, he is, first of all, at the end of the chapter, I think for the consideration of younger believers in particular, at the end of the chapter, as he writes to these Hebrews, we can see the writer's disappointment. That is verses number eleven to thirteen or fourteen. The writer's disappointment. He wanted to see them mature. He wanted to see them develop. He wanted to see them grow in their apprehension of Christ on the great theme and thrust of the epistle, the priesthood of Christ. But they were sluggish and they were slow, as we have in that part, in that section at the end. I say that with thoughtfulness, brethren, because sometimes we do get a little sluggish, and we feel, is it worthwhile, is it worthwhile sitting down in Bible readings with our Bible and taking time to study the word and bringing down a thine, uh, dictionary and a concordance, and trying to the best of our ability to catch certain themes of certain epistles and thereby grow in grace. Now they were dull of hearing, we find that at that particular point in chapter five. He moves on, and we have the writer's desire in verses one to three in chapter six. He says he wants to develop the theme, if God permits, and therefore he says, leaving the principles of the doctrine of, of, uh, of Christ, let us go on to perfection. And again, that word means maturity, full growth. So the writer's desire is to see development. And I'm going to say a little word, being a maritimer. I think I can say it. I'm a young man, and yet I'm the oldest man in the Maritimes in the work, so I can say it. I believe a hall like this should detect the capacity for Bible readings like this. Our dear beloved brethren have come such a distance, who have known the word and have certainly served God's people in handling its truth, and I believe we should take every advantage of being at their feet. That's where we learn anything we do know, at the feet of our beloved brethren. So I find that in verses one to three, we have the writer's desire for them to learn more in relation to the development of truth in the priesthood. We have from verses number four to eight we have the writer's danger signal to them. He raises the red flag of warning. That is, and I have a reason for saying this, because I think it colors what we're going to consider very shortly. He raises the warning flag. I don't think he's suggesting, suggesting at this particular point that there were those that had really apostatized. We will see that develop later, but it seems in the back of his mind he can see that coming on the horizon, and therefore he raises this red flag of warning and shows that it's impossible for those that were once enlightened. Now, we're not going to deal with that, so when we come to the passage, we're going to deal with the passage. I'm only giving a little background to what we're going to consider. So we have his, eh, danger sign of warning, the apostasy, the turning from, the turning back. Then when we come into verse number nine and, eh, right to verse number, eh, right down to verse number, we'll bring it down to verse number fifteen. we have the very clear, distinct illustration to them. In fact, nine to ten is his de- the writer's definite encouragement of these believers. Now, why I say that is this, it indicates that he didn't really intimate that there was apostatizers among them. He could see it in the distance. He could see what would and could happen, and therefore he comes in with a definite, a definite, uh, encouragement, and he says, but we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation. So he's given them, as it were, that little injection of a lift of encouragement amidst all the storms that were surrounding them. I think, again, we must recognize, and I'm only blown by what others say, we must put on, put on the Hebrew cap to understand the Hebrew epistle, that it's written to Hebrews, written to Jews, and that will help us to discern and rightly divide in relation to the portions that are before us. I want to move now to what we're going to see, the example that he gives in relation to God's promise and God's oath. I am picking up a word just very quickly. I think that my brother will help me in this. We have the forerunner. I think that's really the, the main thrust of the consideration of this end passage. With the forerunner, we must link the word anchor. Now, I hope you're picking up what I'm saying. The dangers were around them. There was a sea that was storming. There was waves that were beating against the bark of this community of Christians called Hebrews. They'd embraced Christianity, they'd turned from Judaism, that which was God-given. They'd turned their back on sacrifices and all associated with it. But the storm is raging, and the writer feels that, and he wants to stimulate and strengthen them in that storm. And therefore he lifts their mind, and he gives the illustration of a man, Abraham, whom they all respected deeply, and this man Abraham, he received the promise and he got the oath on Mount Moriah, and he obtained the promise after he patiently endured. You can look at that and see there's an analogy with the Hebrew Christians. They needed the patience to endure. They had left that which was visible for that which was invisible. They left the tangible for that which they couldn't handle and touch with their physical. And so they could really get discouraged. But this, this picture and this illustration of Abraham would, what I would say, which would do with me likewise, it would put that little strength into me and that encouragement that here's our father Abraham on Mount Moriah, and God gave the promise to Abraham, and on Mount Moriah he swears by himself in relation to blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And our brethren will come into that and help us on the obtaining of that promise. And then he moves and shows. For men, he brings in just the ordinary, everyday truth that we all know. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all dispute. Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of Thomas the immutability or the unchanging un- un- that which is unchangeable, in which it was impossible for God to lie. I look at the four impossibilities in this great epistle, and here is one of them, the impossibility for God to lie. He has given a promise, and he has sworn by himself. He has given his oath. And the purpose of using this is that, that we might have strong consolation. We have fled for refuge. Again, the Hebrews are thinking, no doubt in their minds, of the cities of refuge. And I like this, brethren, uh, in my own simple meditation, that the high priest who was in that city, whatever city that would be of the six, when a manslayer slew someone unwittingly, that the axe head come off and it hit his fellow man that was beside him, and he slumped and he died. That man that died, his brother, his blood relation could well say that man that did that was I. But God gave instructions that were cities of refuge where the manslayer, the manslayer, not the murderer, where the manslayer could flee for refuge. And when he passed through the gate, the picture is very simple. It's this, that he was safe as long as the high priest lived, and he remained in that. Now, what he's picking up here, he's developing that, and he shows that that high priest was the security, and I think our brother Crawford has well got it, the securing of our acceptance, that that high priest was the security of the manslayer who fled to Wessex. But when he died, I know the man goes back to his possession and all, but in the figure, in the picture, he was only safe as long as the high priest lived. Now, what he's picking up here is this. We have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. Now, the hope in the Hebrew letter is not the hope of the rapture. It's the hope of heaven, and it's attendant blessings that come from that. Every time you get the hope, I think, my brother will help me in that, but as far as I discover, the hope has to do with the coming day, the coming glory, heaven and all its attendant blessings. Now he says to these, we have fled for refuge, just like the manslayer, to lay hold on the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor to the soul. Now you see the storm that's been raging. You can see the, the little bark, a community of Christians that are being almost swept off their feet and almost crushed with all the things that are happening. They're now lifted to a forerunner, and that forerunner is linked with the anchor. Now please get a hold of it very quickly, which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and that which entereth within the veil, whither or where, I think the word should be, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The, the contrast is very evident that we have a priest forever, so we are safe and secure, eternally secure, because of our great high priest who's gone in, and his priesthood is a non-transferable priesthood, and we have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. Now, I think our brother Paisley has mentioned, so I have to admit when I get my help, my dear brethren are very kind. It can be looked upon, the forerunner can be looked upon as an advanced group that is paving the way before the great army follows. They blaze the path, first of all, for the army to follow in its attack. Or it can be used in the picture of the great ships of sea, that they carried with them a small ship, a small little vessel, and they put that vessel down to the water, and that little vessel went right into the harbor and threw in the anchor. And that was the forerunner of that great vessel coming in. Now, I think that's a picture that is lovely. Now, brethren, let us tell me, let us say this in passing this, I forget, I'm only telling you what I enjoy. The High Priest of Israel was a representative of the nation. He bore them upon his breast and upon his shoulders when he went in on the great day of atonement, but he was never a forerunner. When he went inside the veil on the day of atonement, that great veil that stood said no way in, only one man. He could be the representative for here, but our blessed Lord is truthful. He's the representative of his people. He's at the right hand of the majesty on high. But brethren, this chapter tells me he's the forerunner. He has blazed the way in. He has gone in himself, indicating that he has opened up, that others will follow. I link with this very simply, Hebrews chapter two. He's bringing many sons to Gloria. So I will leave that chapter to move to chapter seven, which we will consider very briefly. That in chapter seven at the end is the contrast with the priests of the old economy and the unchangeable priesthood of the Christ. And he brings in that this priest that we have, he is able to save them to the uttermost. Now, I remember what Mr. McPhee said, I co- quoted it somewhere. Mr. McPhee said somewhere, sometimes when I come to Bible readings, they rob me of the sweet nuggets that I've enjoyed for years, because they get down to what you call the nitty-gritty and the technical points in view. Well, it's most important to get the technical points, and you may have preached in the gospel, wherefore he is able to see it to the uttermost, and the average man adds to the guttermost. That's very good. We'll preach it still, that the work of Christ is available right to the guttermost, right to the ends of the earth. But in the context, brethren, he's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save right through the whole period of church history, right to the very end. All who are linked to him by faith, he will bear us eternally upon his heart. And then he goes on to say, for this high priest, I could say something now, but I'm not going to do it. I want to keep the vibrating nice and sweet, and I don't want to say the wrong thing. But when I get to this point, and I need help in these points too, that we have such an high priest who is, now please get a hold of this, very simple, holy, Godward. Harmless, manward. Underfiled, inward. Stop there for a moment. Separate from sinners beyond the tomb. Made higher than the heavens, he reaches the right hand of the throne and the majesty in high. Such an high praise. I go a wee bit maybe, uh, blinking sometimes when I think of the brazen altar and I think of the golden altar. Golden altar is four sides and a crown, and I think the four sides and the crown are seen in this verse in chapter seven. That is the four sides, holy, harmless, undefiled, sent with them sinners, and the crown with penalty made higher than the heavens. That's the priest that we have, eternal in his character. Here we find that he is consecrated forevermore. Now, chapter ten, and then I'll sit down, and we look at verses fifteen as it's on the outline, to the rest number twenty four. When we come to this chapter, we're going to look at the covenant introduced. Now, this would take a whole Bible reading, I'm sure, to go into the covenants, the covenants plural, and then the covenants that's referred to in Jeremiah. But I would take it, brethren, the main implication, and I need help again, I'm putting out because I studied it and looked at it. The main implication of introducing a new covenant here is this. Their sins and iniquities, for I remember they're more for us. That's the point he has in view. You know all quotations, they're sometimes more than really what the writer has in mind to underline in our mind. I think what he wants to underline, because chapter ten is a contrast between sacrifices and the supreme sacrifice, and the New Covenant introduces to us that great sacrifice of the Christ, and of course, their sins and iniquities will I remember again no more forever. And then verses nineteen, he's picking up the lovely thought that we've had already, let us draw near, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter in. Now, I think, brethren, I'm going to sit down very quickly, but I want to say this, the three things that I see, and maybe our brethren will help. I see that chapter ten is giving us the great truth, freedom to enter. That word boldness is not the word we would use possibly today, being bold or brazen, that's not the idea, but it means that we have a freedom. Based on the great sacrifice, we have a freedom to enter in, based on the fact that Christ has gone in. We're going to see that because having touched the freedom that we have to enter the Holy of Holies, he brings in the foundation of that freedom by the blood of Jesus. The foundation of the freedom is the blood of Jesus, and he develops that by saying, by a new, and I'd like the margin again, Newbury helps me, a new and living way, a newly slain way. Could I, could I say, brethren, have you in mind that Calvary should be yesterday in our, in our thinking, just as if it happened? He opened up the way through his death at Calvary and the blood shed, a newly slain way, and then it's a living way. One writer says it's not contrasting the old way with the new way. No, no. It's cra- contrasting the new way with no way. In other words, in the Old Testament, there was no way in. But in the new economy, there is a way in, a newly slain, a living way, which he has consecrated for us. And sometimes these verses can be a little difficult, and I used to think in my mind, even in trying to handle it, I get caught in the cogs of the wheel very quickly in trying to interpret it, because they can get a little mixed up the way it's written. Through the veil, that is to say, a flesh. Now, brethren, I don't think, in my mind, that he has the veil of the temple that was standing in Jerusalem in his mind. The veil that he's speaking of, that veil but typifies Christ, we recognize that, but the veil he is construing with the word flesh. It's telling us of his body, his incarnation and his body, so he is opened up this way, uh, through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and then he says, having an high priest over the house of God. So we have this freedom. We have the foundation, and then he finishes with the fitness to draw near. That is, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. That word full assurance is mentioned four times in the epistle, I think. Poss- no, I'm wrong in that, but it's four times mentioned in our New Testament. It's in different relationships, but here it is the full conviction of faith, and then having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Now, I take it, brethren, he has in mind, the writer, that this has taken place initially with all believers. This isn't something that we have to fight against, but this is something that has taken place initially on the basis of the sacrifice and in the value of the precious blood. We draw near, and so forth. I think, of course, the analogy is back to Leviticus chapter eight. And then, following that, three exhortations. Now, I hope we'll get there to the three exhortations, and that will finish the Bible reading. Let us consider one another to provoke. The idea is to stir up unto love and good works. Incitement, sharpen each other to good works, and then, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a manner of some is. And I think I'm indebted to our brother Crawford that'll probably develop it more, that it's a circle without the center that we have here, which is very lovely, the way he handled that when I heard it. That is the assembling of themselves together. Not forsaking, now, brethren, remember again with the Hebrews in mind, the forsaking of the assembly, it's very bad to do that today, we shouldn't do that, but that doesn't constitute a man in apostasy. I think in view here he has that when apostasy sets in, this is what follows. They forsake the gathering of themselves together in assembly capacity as the manner of some age. But exhorting one another daily so much the more as you see the day, and the great, I suppose, that will come up, what day is this? And there are many days in scripture. I just simply look at it, brethren, that in the writer's mind, I've done very well in this reading not using the writer's name. I'm pleased with myself in that wee bit. I haven't mentioned his name. Uh, but I do believe, brethren, what he has in mind today is he sees the coming judgment on the temple, and if he sees that coming very near, this is a, an epistle to stir them up to go on, to encourage, to enrich, to strengthen, to establish, that they might go on for God and enjoy the great truth of priesthood that he has developed and in, and will develop even in other passages that will be taken up later. And of course, this is our application of it. We should assemble ourselves together, we should provoke one another to love and good works, and we should exhort one another daily, so much more you see the day approaching. Also, the temple judgment that was about to take place in the horizon is but a foreshadowing of a coming judgment that will take place in relation to the earth and the setting up of the glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's all I've got to say, and I trust my brethren will be very kind to me. I have to admit I'm the youngest man here, so go easy with the young guys. Say that after the warning was given of apostasy, that he was persuaded of better things of them. And, uh, I'm, I'm only going by my memory now. I asked Brother Crawford just a moment ago, and I think we're right in this, that it's the only time in the epistle that he uses the word beloved. But beloved, verse nine where you began your reading. But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. It's an endearing word, isn't it, to use only once in relationship to them for encouragement. These things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak, is the exhortation you've given us that our brethren would make progress. Very good, yes. When God made promise to Abraham, uh, do we have a definite promise referred to, uh, was it the promise of the seed? Uh, was it Isaac and the, and the multiplication of the seed? Is that the promise? I thought it was, brother Crawford. I thought it was twofold. I haven't the time. I wanted to get to the humanity of the Lord. My brother, eh, Abraham is the greatest man of faith in all the Bible. The reason I'm saying that is this: he had never known of a resurrection. He had never heard of a resurrection, and yet he believed that God would raise him from the dead. Not the eleventh chapter. I think that is the, I think that is the chief thought here, if you will. Uh, I think that's what is developed in chapter seven after this. These priests in Israel, they were not allowed to continue by reason of death, but our priest has an unchangeable priesthood because he has an indissoluble life. So I really believe that the idea is in the, in the Melchizedek priesthood of the Lord Jesus, that it is beyond death, untouchable by death. Uh, I think we didn't, uh, have time to go into that so much in chapter five, but, but I would think that his priesthood is predicated on his resurrection. Is that not the reason Isaac comes in here? I think so... for Brother Crawford making up the frame analysis, why included it here? Because it has a special bearing upon what follows in the priesthood, that the risen Christ, eh, is unchangeable in this priesthood. The Aaron goes to Mount Hor, his garments of glory and beauty are transferred to his sons, his sons' sons, right down until the heaven. And so that there's a continuation of preaches, but you're going to show us that the Lord Jesus has an unchangeable because this man Chapter six, and in the chapter ten where you have read, suddenly the emphasis then switched to the Lord himself. And while we admire the faith of Abraham and his patient enduring, I think the great foundation is what we have in Acts chapter heaven, where the God of glory appears to our father Abraham. And it was that vision that enabled Abraham to endure all that he endured. What would enable these believers to endure? What will enable us to endure is a vision of the unchanging 현실. We were in God, or wherefore God willing more convincingly than other translation has, or another word there, more abundantly or more convincingly, to show unto the earth upon us the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it with a note, or by a note, that by true immutable things, which is the promise of the oath, this would be a tremendous strengthening to the Hebrew believers, and that's the storm that they will have. The immutability of his counsel, uh, I, I suppose we, we all are clear on what we're talking about. Uh, it is absolutely impossible for God's promise to fail. We were reminded in chapter one that the Lord Jesus speaks what is called the word of his power. Uh, when God speaks, it is done. Uh, the immutability of his God's character and God's word. And of course, the authority of his word is based upon his character. So I think the, the reason we're bringing in the resurrection here, by the way, uh, you're gonna have a little difficulty fitting the resurrection into whatever verse you have in mind here, but uh, the reason we're bringing it in is that that was God's fulfillment of his promise, his word, and the resurrection of Christ, the living Christ, the man in the glory is brought before us as Jesus. You'll notice at the end of the passage, and as the forerunner, it is Jesus who has entered into the heavenly sanctuary as the forerunner. So there's blessed truth here. Our, our confidence, our assurance is based on a living Christ who was in the tomb and rose from the dead and has entered heaven, as we heard earlier today, and is there so that we have assurance and we have absolute confidence. We have a refuge What that is is on unfailing. sale? One starts out with, uh, thou art the same, thou art the same. Everything else is changing. Chapter thirteen, Jesus Christ today and yesterday, today and forever. For all that can bring the same nature to a promise, I think, it has to be a mutable also, doesn't it? You You can't can't get separate a written it, can order. you? In the old spirit, the idea of an old. Number sixteen. it doesn't mean just a harsh truth in a general sense, for men verily swear by the giver, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all disputes. In other words, everything is, is, uh, finalized, and, uh, every, every dispute is in it removed. In other words, the oath confirmed, and that's the same in God, because the oath is a confirmation, is a conviction that he will certainly keep his judgment. He's going to tell us that the last vision is called, I know the Lord swears and will not repent. I will speak forever after the order of y'all. But all that he has to do now, uh, is not linked with law. It's not linked under law, because it says, that is in Galatians, that the law was added, but the promise was never enough. And here's a promise made to the heirs of promise. And you say, well, now, what makes this promise to Abraham so real? And it's not a set, set aside in any way by anything that was connected with the law. Well, that's simple. Uh, the promise was to receive Christ. He's the forerunner. He's the anchor within the veil, and he makes good, and it's confirmed by the oath, that promise, and he makes good all the promises of the hope that's set before us. He makes them good to us. How do we know we're going to get what we get? Even in Romans eight, we're saved by hope. What makes us sure? There's a man in the Lord. I think that that helps. So what, what's the hope you have? Heaven? Is it Rapture? Is it the Rapture? Or is it something particularly Jewish set before the Jews' rights? My personal, and I read out, of course, and as I read it, my personal thought of a hope is Christ in heaven. The anchor is strong within the deity, as the protector for the heaven itself, the Holy Ghost. Is it the idea of us entering heaven at death? Or is it the idea of us entering heaven with rapture? Or is it just a general idea like the land at the end of the journey? I would almost see, uh, it saying, and uh, I would have to meet my brothers to help too and other yourselves, that, uh, the hope is taking us beyond the rapture for all that lies before. Simply, you mentioned the habitable world, you mentioned the thing, the coming age, mentions the, the place upon the throne, the clean place. So I think it's taken into, uh, further than just the thought of being a rapture. I think it's taken beyond that to more the fulfillment or confirmation of things. Rapture is not only simple to the Hebrews. Isn't that right? That's right. So i- it's almost Peter's view of things, isn't it? Receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our soul. You've got that ultimate end, but you're not occupied so much with the rest. The end of the journey, I would say. Is the institution note that it's there again to bring forth the hope of all the blessings that are in Christ and setting forth in that new priest and everything? I think maybe the next chapter helps us a great deal as to what the hope really is, uh, because Melchizedek, of course, was first of all king of righteousness, and after that king of peace. So I would think that, uh, the hope is that the, that righteousness will be finally brought in to the habitable earth, that Israel will come into the bit of it, that the church will come into the bit of it, that, uh, that the king priest will sit upon its throne, there will be perfect righteousness and perfect peace, and I don't know any hope that could be higher or greater. Regarding the oath, brother, the first mention of it here, just to help here, verse sixteen. Verily, eh, for verily men swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife. Now, what we have here is a reference to an Old Testament law in Exodus twenty and eleven where a man is entrusted with his neighbor's ox or, eh, cattle. He's going away on his vacation. You come and you say to me, will you keep my ox and my sheep while I'm gone? All right? And when you come back, they're not there. They're driven away without anyone seeing. Now I say to you, honestly, Albert, I did not drive away your sheep. You see? Well, now the only way that that can be solved, it's a very interesting thing. It's only a domestic issue, but the end of all strife is an oath between those two men of the Lord. It has to be an oath of the Lord, and the Lord stands between the two men, and it becomes an end of all strife. Now, in this oath, which is a greater oath, is confirmed not, eh, by the Lord watching, but the oath is the mediation, is the inter- eh, interposing of himself by the oath. That's what makes it immutable. You understand what I'm saying? You know what that oath is in Exodus twenty two eleven. You read it up, I'm sure, before you started this title, so you should have done it. And the, uh, isn't that the idea of that oath, brother? It's the Lord himself interposing. That is the word, of course, that we have for confirmed. Uh, God entered into this. He, he interposed his word and his promise. That's it. Yeah. Not a, not a thing I know. of. And with the hope, you mentioned in your opening remarks, one of the points of the writing is to give these believers encouragement. With their Jewish background and their Jewish knowledge, they had absolutely no hope of entering into the Holy. And now, because they've got Christ and the high priest, they can enter in at all times and under all circumstances. That might be an application. Forerunners brought very clearly before us, and and the outline as we are securing our acceptance that he has gone in and blazed the path, and he has, he is going to follow, bringing many things to glory. Can we, are we at the point where we can look at the city of red? You see, you mentioned it very beautifully in Joshua twenty and Numbers thirty five, but I have taken this to Acts three in particular. Eh, we're reminded of Peter, and Peter helps me in reading the epistles of the Hebrews. And when Peter preached in Acts three, he adopted an attitude towards the men that had crucified Christ, uh, as placed in the position of manslayers. With them, there was an opportunity to come to that city of refuge. Uh, they did it in ignorance and in unbelief, but a willful rejecter was like a killer. To him, there was no rest. So there were those that came making profession, and there were apostates, but these people had taken the place of, uh, manslayers, and for them there was a refuge, and they laid hold now upon all the hopes that were promised through the resurrection to the nation. We must always keep the Hebrew cap on in this passage. I think also the cross would indicate something when he said, Father, forgive them, for they know that what they do is the manslayer in heat. Manslayer. Yeah. Uh, and there's an opportunity for them to But they're not free. at a different They have come the Prince of Life. They place themselves beyond the refuge. He turns from the nation completely, nationally, because they're now murderers, and for them there is no refuge. So these people have been mercifully saved and brought out into the refuge. You would like that the couple can to sin willfully at the same time. Going back, the man Galen in six and ten, and Hebrews I I think, sinning willfully, having received the knowledge of the truth and breaks the Sabbath rest for him there was no rest. Taking this broadly, uh, to give us some application right today, we can lose ourselves in the beginning of Acts, can we? So to take this broadly, you would say that all those who were true believers, uh, that are addressed in this epistle have fled for refuge to Christ, uh, and on that ground they can enter into the city of refuge. I agree with your prophetic, uh, act three, but I think here generally, this is open for folks to enter in. We're not excluding now that we remember he was written to us right the first minute. In the 2 years that while the high priest in Israel could enter into the Holy Place, he never could take anyone else in there. And when he was in there, all he could do was enter in on behalf of. But here we have an incident, he's not only, he's in as a representative, and he's in as a representative, and then that is and that he will be in there too. That's the much the contrast then to what we had under Israel. Under Israel, we never could enter into the Holy Spirit. But here we have the forerunner going in, and we will be there, and that's the hope. That's the fulfillment of the hope that the believer will be there too. Absolutely. Brother, you'd agree that in chapter ten, he got banished into the holiest of all, and through the blood of Jesus, okay, a new and living way which he had consecrated for us. So the way is open, the the way is clear, and it's a guarantee now when we get to chapter ten, that we have a fullness of freedom, and here it's guaranteed the fact that we're going to be where he has gone in the right hand of God. The little ship that was on that galley, that large vessel in the Mediterranean, was actually called a forerunner. The little boat, you know, that they had. It was dead. Yeah, I think it's a nice thought, you know, that the little ship was actually called the forerunner in the Greek text, and so the little forerunner was let down, and the anchor is carried in. It's a nautical thing here, from the city of refuge to the, the idea of the forerunner. Whether the forerunner is transcended, even Jesus, you understand that, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Why bring in the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ? I'm asking a question, but I don't know. Why do you bring in the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ? Is it the idea that the Melchizedek priesthood is to remain, it's to last forever, and so having entered in, he's in there forever, and so we should have all the, all, always have the opportunity to follow him in. The priest died. He applies it forever, so we've always got an angel within the veil. Is that why you bring in the Melchizedek priesthood? Or some other suggestion. I would certainly go along with that, that his Melchizedek priesthood is his eternal priesthood. In, in contrast, it's permanent, it's untransferable, and that gives us that acceptance, that security, eh, in relation to the, in contrast to those that fled, I, I look at it from the cities of Vesu, and they were only safe while the high priest was there. You've got this, this, this closing statement leads you on to the next chapter, where the subject of Melchizedek is to be enlarged. Well, why arrive at Melchizedek here? You got any idea, Norman? I thought, brother, he was leading on to what you have actually in verse three of chapter seven, that there are two ways that Melchizedek was made like unto the Son of God, and not the Son of God made like unto Melchizedek, but vice versa. So there are two ways that Melchizedek was made like unto the Son of God. Those two ways are, and notice it is the Son of God, he had no beginning of days and no end of life. So I take it that the Melchizedek priesthood is a non-sacrificing priesthood. It is a ministering priesthood, but I think that there's another thought that we, we probably have mentioned, but I particularly did not notice it. It is a revealing priesthood. Uh, in other words, to Abraham, Melchizedek revealed El Elyon, the Most High God. He revealed God to him. And our high priest, our Melchizedek high priest is performing those services today perfectly within the sanctuary. He is ministering to the needs of his own who are here in weakness and infirmity. He is...