Living the Life of Faith
By Camron Schofield
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it].
Here was the song of Moses as the Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea. We find something by connecting scripture with scripture was a precious privilege offered to the Israelites at that time.
Exodus 15:13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people [which] thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided [them] in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.
15:14 The people shall hear, [and] be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.
15:15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
15:16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be [as] still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, [which] thou hast purchased.
15:17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, [in] the place, O LORD, [which] thou hast made for thee to dwell in, [in] the Sanctuary, O Lord, [which] thy hands have established.
15:18 The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Verse 17 denotes the privilege and opportunity for Israel. Gods promise to Abraham was that in the fourth generation his word and promise to Abraham was that he would inherit forever a habitation. God said he would fulfill it in that fourth generation. Through the works God did in Egypt his name was proclaimed around the whole earth as the Israelites proceeded out in Egypt. It was Gods intention to fulfil this song. That the very people that passed over the Red Sea would be planted in the mountain of God’s inheritance. The promises to Abraham were the promise to his seed and his seed was Jesus Christ. The inheritance of Jesus Christ was a earth made new and these people were to walk through the red sea into the world made new. We saw in our last study the parallels of them in their experience and us in ours today. The Israelites were tested on the Sabbath question and if they were able to keep the sabbath then God knew they would be fit for a holy and eternal habitation but they could not enter in because of unbelief. They came to mount Sinai and there God sought to ratify the Abraham covenant that he would walk and work in him that God would supply his righteousness but instead they said all that the Lord has said we will do it. Big mistake. We will do it was what they said. These things are written for our admonition and we want to be admonished.
Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
These wonderful works yet he says depart from me ye that work iniquity. What was the problem? The problem was we. We have done it. We will do it. That was the problem. God had been trying to teach the Israelites the same thing he told Abraham you are going to have a son but how could they have a son as his wife was barren. How could he have a son? How could God’s word ever be fulfilled? We have to do something they thought and Abrahams wife game him the maidservant. She gave birth to a son and it brought to the home bitterness and jealously. God came to Abraham you are going to have a son but Abraham was like, I’ve just had a son. That was not what God regarded as Abrahams son. When Abraham was required to take Isaac and slay him, God said take thy son, thy only son. This son produced by his own working was discountenanced by God. Abraham thought he had to do something. He thought his works were needed to affect the promise of God but God would have done it if he had let him. So it was with the Israelites and those in Christ’s second coming say we have done this and that all these wonderful works, we have done them. But at Mount Sinai as soon as they made that commitment the law entered. It was added because of the transgression. They failed and last study we saw what our labour is and our labour is to cease to cease form our own works. Israel had missed the point. He had taken them through various experiences in the wanderings to show them their incapability to deliver themselves from sin. He led them into the Red Sea and shut them up in a dead end. Have you ever been shut up in a dead end? Behind them the troops and before them Red Sea. They couldn’t deliver themselves and God opened the way. They came to the waters of Meribah and they were thirsty and the water was bitter but God made it sweet. They journeyed on and ran out of food and God rained bread form heaven. They needed water and from a dry rock in the desert God poured out the water of life. They couldn’t do a thing to provide themselves the necessities of life so God tried to show they could not provide for themselves the necessities for eternal life. He wanted to put them in the mountain of his inheritance in the place of his sanctuary but he is a consuming fire. In order to dwell in that place they needed to have a fitness, a righteousness in order to dwell in a righteous habitation.
They needed to be a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle but they should be holy and without blemish. Could they provide that for themselves? They thought they could. All that you have said we will do it. Time and time again they missed the point. God had tried to show them the futility of trying to trust themselves but like Abraham they thought they had to do something to save themselves. With Abraham was the promise that threw his line would come Jesus the saviour of the world. In him all the nations of the world would be blessed but he didn’t have a child and unless he had one to produce more children how can I be saved? How can this deliverer and redeemer of my sins be born if I don’t have a child? I have to do something to save myself and so he manipulated the circumstances and what do we have today? We have in the Middle East because of Abraham thinking he could affect his own salvation, we have the very thing between Jews and Arabs that is precipitating a third world war. Abraham learnt the lesson and Isaac was born but the Israelites never got it. They never got Isaiah 64:6. Do we get it today? Much of Christianity today does not get it and much that do deal with it in the wrong way.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Because that is the fact, this is Gods promise. Our righteousness is as filthy rags.
Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue [that] shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This [is] the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness [is] of me, saith the LORD.
Hebrews 3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? [was it] not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
3:18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
They could not enter in because of unbelief. They wouldn’t believe they couldn’t and wouldn’t believe that God could.
Hebrews 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.
4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
As they couldn’t enter in back then we have opportunity today. This is our works. Our works is not to do our works because self wants to continuously rise up and say pick me I can do it. The old story of the red caboose was drilled into me. I can do it, I can do it. Wrong. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me but in my own strength forget it. To cease from our own works is where true rest is found.
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it].
This is our admonishment for today. The gospel was preached to them. Do you believe that? Weren’t they under a different dispensation? The gospel was preached to them. What is the gospel? This gospel was preached unto them.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
What is the gospel? It is the gospel of Christ, the power of God unto a fitness of that heavenly Canaan. This gospel was preached to the Israelites. They received bread from heaven, the heavenly manna.
John 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
6:34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
The bread from heaven. There in their desperate need other sustenance of life je was given. Then they needed water as they were thirsty.
Exodus 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and [there was] no water for the people to drink.
17:2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore [is] this [that] thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
17:4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
17:5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
What happened? Jesus was smitten. He said I will stand upon the rock and smite it. There flowed out form the side of Jesus Christ on the cross water and blood. Here was Jesus Christ smitten for the needs of the people, the sustenance of eternal life, of righteousness. They said is the Lord among us or not? A rock in the middle of the desert pouring out enough water to feed their cattle and sheep, the Lord was among them. But what kind of Lord was among them? We want to see how this gospel of Christ was preached to them.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Apostle Paul preached the gospel but where did he preach the gospel from? From the bible? From the to. The writings of the Old Testament he preached the gospel. Do you know what the Berean’s did when he preached amongst them? They went home daily and searched the scriptures whether those things were so. What was the gospel of Christ which he preached from the to?
Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
3:4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if [it be] yet in vain.
3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, [doeth he it] by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed.
3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, [it is] evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
This gospel he got from the Old Testament as it was preached to the Israelites. Christ was set among them to teach that by the works of the law they couldn’t be justified. Only by faith could those who are justified live. The Israelites had it all played it out before them but they did not enter in because of unbelief. They were lacking in faith so God threw them out and forgot them. Did he? No he didn’t. He didn’t just cast them aside like that. He thought now I’m going to put you in a school I’m going to give you an institution that you can learn from. So he gave them the earthly sanctuary. Which was a shadow of that which was in the heaves.
Exodus 34:29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
34:30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
34:31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
34:32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
34:33 And [till] Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
34:34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel [that] which he was commanded.
34:35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Moses talked with God face to face but the people did not have the faith. There was a veil upon their hearts. The veil Moses had to put on his face was for their sake because if he did not put a veil on his face each of them would have had to put a veil on their face. Their faces were veiled by unbelief. The simple things of God that he tried to teach were not comprehended so God had to give them something they could see in the hope they would see the things that were not seen but did they see them?
2 Corinthians 3:13 And not as Moses, [which] put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [veil] is done away in Christ.
3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
Even though God gave them a sanctuary system, they never got the point. Through that system they still had the same opportunity of entering into rest but they didn’t. they were blinded. There was a veil over their minds. They couldn’t see the end of what was before them. They couldn’t grasp the reality of the type. The bread from heaven was something they could eat and they took it for granted it was going to be there every day. The water from the rock was for their thirst but it flowed and flowed and became normal. The sanctuary system was given as a shadow because of the shadow on the own hearts. A shadow is cast in the form of the shape of the reality. He hadn’t given up on them. He gave them not just the sanctuary system but a whole entire economy. Their whole entire lives were regulated to provide them with constant visual practical demonstrations of the unseen. The sin offering which was slain was to be a constant teach to them that the wages of sin is death. The blood of the innocent victim poured on the altar was to constantly teach them of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of the world. The flesh of some of those sacrifices was eaten like the bread from heaven was eaten. The flesh of Christ was given for the life of the world. Like the impartation of the righteousness of Christ, our sanctification as the blood flowed out from the victim, the imputation of righteousness, the justification, the laver of brass for the washing. The washing away of the past life of our own works and doings. The baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then there was the table of shewbread in the most holy place and the candlesticks that represented the seven spirits of God.
The completeness of the Holy Spirit. Who takes of the things of Jesus and shows them unto us. The dress of the priests, there was total and complete covering from the neck right to the feet, a representation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover the shame of our nakedness. Our wretched miserable poor blind and naked souls. I thank God for the dress reform. I thank God for the dress reform. I don’t do it because I am a Pharisee but because I am sinner. I am aware of my wretched my condition but not aware as I should but even in the home on my own I cover up because if I don’t I feel naked. Naked before the Lord and destitute of his grace. I am such a sinner I need the righteousness of Christ to cover my unrighteousness. I need every inch of his righteousness to cover every inch of my shame or I’m lost. Ever ordinance of the sanctuary and their whole entire economy was to teach them of these realities which would have been a reality if by faith they had laid hold of it. Every aspect of their life was regulated. Right to the minute they were constantly surrounded by representations of what God would do for them if they looked beyond the veil. God was trying to teach them that he was making sacrifices for them but instead they said yes we can do it. And day by day and year by year they slew their sacrifices thinking they were making sacrifices for him that he would be happy with them because of their wonderful works and they missed out. Are we missing out today? We are no different to them. It is natural for us to say all that the Lord has said I will do. It is a normal reaction which God caters for and today he daters for that. As proud self-important humans just like you see in children we say I will do it. Abraham did it. God does give us works. There are reformations that need to take place in our lives. Changes in our life need to be made but those works are to be mingled with faith. Faith is to be wrought with our works. Everything we do is to be bound up in the things of God. The scene is to be indissolubly dissolved in the unseen. There was a study by Paul Godfrey who described it in such a practical manner;
“God designed that everything around us would send messages to us of himself so where ever we looked would speak of him. Is that not what it is equated to? Someone waking up out of sleep? If we would wake up and say Lord, may I be part of the resurrection? Then you might look out of your window and you would see the sun rising and your mind would think;
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just [is] as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
“As you saw that, you would say Lord, may you please cause me to shine in your character as I live? You might consider you are in your house and it hasn’t fallen down and that the wise man built his house on the rock and it didn’t fall. Then you might think Lord help me to build my house upon the rock. Then you would hop out of bed and would get dressed and say Lord please cloth me your righteousness, please give me the garment of salvation that I might go out and no one would see my shame. As you dress yourself with these thoughts you would open the door and you would think Lord, help me to open my door when you knock at my heart because you do stand at the door and knock. Then as you open that door you would say Lord I’m opening my heart to you this morning, please come in and you would venture out of your room to have some breakfast and you would take the bread and you would say give me your bread, the bread of life this morning. Give me the sustenance that I may live by every word that proceeds out of your mouth. As you put your bread down, you might put oil on your bread and you would say Lord, give me the oil of your holy spirit. Then you would take the salt to put it on your bread and you would say Lord, let me be the salt of the earth this morning. If we would understand what God is trying to speak to us, we would have the most amazing devotional time in the morning. Our minds would be constantly looking at the physical and thinking of the invisible. That is what the scripture says, the visible things explain the invisible.” Paul Godfrey The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
This is a practical description of what our lives ought to be that with the requirements of God we are to see the unseen. Are we doing that? Are we living a reformed life to make God happy with me or am I living it so we can be happy with God. What is our motive? Because I have to? Because I think that if I do this then God will love me and in that day I can say look I did this and that? Do it because God loves you. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Do what God requires of you because your faith is so weak that you need to be surrounded with reminders of God’s love around you. All the things he gives us today, requirements and ordinances of life are for the same purpose as of old where we might have constant visual reminders of his salvation. Do it because you are so slow of heart to believe. Do it that when you believe his commandments are not grievous, that this is the love of God, you will be encouraged and motivated. Do it because you believe. When we believe you will rejoice in every light that comes your way. Every standard of Gods kingdom will be appreciated and welcomed but not because of the thing itself but because of the unseen in the reality of it all. Because of what it represents. God gave the Israelites a beautiful economy. Nations since then have been picking bits out of them. The roman empire itself was so successful in battle it imitated the Israelites in the wilderness. If you find it hard to believe, hard for your faith to pierce beyond what you see, it is the hardest thing you will ever do, that you will at times need to make sacrifices as though the life blood has been taken out, even in that let your faith grasp the reality.
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ,
3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
He counted everything he saw as but dung. But his prayer was that he would know him and the power of his resurrection and his sufferings. The fellowship of whose sufferings? The sufferings of Jesus. Do you ever feel that when God requires something of you, you find it hard as a bit of a hurt there? Does it hurt to give up your own ways? Let faith grasp the unseen. Whose sufferings are they? They are not your sufferings. What you are feeling is the shadow of the feelings of Jesus. Your experiences are the experiences of Jesus Christ. Will you get caught up in your little self or will you let this be reality? Jesus made our sins to be his sins. When you are feeling so unworthy and you feel that you cannot come before the throne of God and ask his forgiveness, remember the reality. The reality was that hung upon the cross and in the psalms it says I am a worm and a no man. My sins are more than the hairs of my head. My God, my God why has thou forsaken me? then he cried out father into thy hand do I commend my spirit. How could he say such a thing? How could he say into your hands I commend my spirit when I feel so deplorable. He was naked. God wouldn’t accept him naked would he? When there is mental affliction and you feel you are drowning in your own sorrows Jesus said;
Psalms 69:1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul.
69:2 I sink in deep mire, where [there is] no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
69:3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Who is speaking here?
Psalms 69:21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked [for some] to take pity, but [there was] none; and for comforters, but I found none.
This is Jesus Christ.
Psalms 69:4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, [being] mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored [that] which I took not away.
69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
69:6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
Who is speaking? This is Jesus. Naked and feeling deplorable and totally sinful.
Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
When? In an acceptable time. When he was at rock bottom and he could do nothing that was the acceptable time. Have you ever met experiences in your life and you see you haven’t done anything right and you can see you can’t do anything right unless he helps you and you really want to? That is where the promised rest is. Right there. God was trying to teach the Israelites through their whole entire system that they couldn’t. they couldn’t deliver themselves. Everything had to demonstrate to them that by believing and acting on a belief in Jesus Christ. Enoch was not because God took him. He had the testimony that he pleased God. Why did he please God?
Psalms 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give [it]: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
51:17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
God will not despise a broken and contrite hear.t when you break up as to how you have missed the point how you in your life have done the same thing as the Israelites, you missed the blessing, you fall broken at the foot of the cross be comforted God will not despise you. God finds no joy in the forms of service, the form of covering yourself or eating of right. Even in the form of keeping his law. That is not where he finds delight. He finds delight in a broken spirit. In whose sacrifice does he delight? The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. The sacrifices are acceptable to him. The word Jesus Christ which was from the beginning, the word which was and with God was made in the likeness of our sinful flesh. He took our exp on his self and he had to sacrifice to be obedient. This is a sacrifice of God which is acceptable when you are called to make sacrifice in your life what is your faith to lay hold of? Your sacrifice of Christ. He was in your exp, he was making the sacrifice. So when you are called to make sacrifice, it is his sacrifice. We know his prayer. He had to pray three times not my will but thine be done.
Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
He was the what? He was the author. We are reading the book. We are only in our experiences looking at the type. We are only partaking of what he suffered. Would you believe that? Will you believe that even in your self-denial, in your painful sacrifices that it is a shadow of Jesus own sufferings? What you are going through, what you must past through, is like just reading the book. It is a shadow of his sufferings. When you enter into your sufferings, what a joy, because I am not looking at the seen but eh unseen. Not only am I looking at the unseen but I am feleing the unseen. Jesus Christ was a high priest who was touched with the feeling o four infirmities. When the word of God cuts across your path praise the Lord for the pain. What a joy it will be when it cuts across your path. More life blood to be sucked out, it is not mine it is his.
And of all the gifts that Heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor. {DA 224.5}
What rest is there by believing? The rest from ceasing from our own works. From ceasing to try and please God by our own efforts. As they say let go and let God. If you are called to make a sacrifice, there is no more sacrifice; it is a sacrifice of Jesus. Just think you will let go and let God. You will let him work and to od. Then there is nothing for you to worry about. Absolutely nothing. When you cease from your won works, and it is God to work and to do, you can honestly say I didn’t do it. If you didn’t do it then you don’t’ have to worry about what people will think and say and do in consequence. God will take care of that. Besides, it will be just another opportunity to partake of the fellowship with Christ in the perfection of his right doings. Sounds good doesn’t it? Stop dreaming. Wake up to the reality. Let faith lay hold of something practical. May God help us to do this?
Amen.
