Part 1 - To Know Him

Hebrews 3:1, " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle

and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." There’s a word here I want you to pay close

attention to. It is the word "consider". We have spoken before about the necessity of knowing Him.

The most important thing in spiritual life is to know Him; not merely just to know that He exists, but

to know Him. It’s not just to know Him based on what He’s done for you; not just to know Him

about what He has done or what you think He’s going to do; but to know HIM. That’s what this

word "consider" means. It means to understand. It means to have an understanding heart; it means to

mind something, to give your mind to it. Surrender to Him your mind; not just your natural brain,

but your mind, your very soul. Why did God make man a living soul? God breathed and Adam

became a living soul. Why? That man may know Him! It is not through your body that you know

Him. It is through your body that you know things about Him, but in the soul we can know Him,

have understanding concerning Him. So now, we’re going to consider Him; not as He is known after

the flesh, not as He is known by your senses or through the body; but as by the soul through the

anointing of the Spirit, that our hearts might be filled with the understanding of the Lord.

So the writer of Hebrews is saying - CONSIDER HIM! Again, not consider what He has done -

that’s the only way some know Him. They know Him as a historical figure; what He has done. Or

they know Him in the future; something they think He’s going to do. But who is He now? That’s

what’s important. What is your relation with Him now? See, you can’t minister to anybody out of

the past or out of the future. You must minister out of a present understanding, a present

relationship, a present knowing. Who is He to you now? That’s what we’re talking about. And fifty

years from now, it will be the same. WHO IS HE NOW? So we’re going to consider Him in this

way.

Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 26. In this chapter Paul is talking to King Agrippa. He has told

King Agrippa about his experience with the Lord upon the road to Damascus. We must understand

that Paul never saw Jesus with these natural eyes - never! And yet his letters are filled with seeing

Jesus. He was an Apostle; the definition of Apostle means you are an eyewitness of Jesus. If

someone says they are an Apostle and they haven’t seen Jesus - then they’re just a liar! This isn’t

just my opinion; this is a Biblical definition of the word "Apostle". Eyewitness account. How is it

then that Paul saw Jesus? Never by natural means; but would any of us doubt that Paul has seen

Jesus after reading his letters? He is either the biggest liar that ever lived, or he knew Jesus by some

way other than by the natural means. I want you to consider this, consider what it means to know

Him in this way. Listen to what Paul says in verse 22. "Having therefore obtained help of God, I

continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great saying none other things than those

which the prophets and Moses did say should come." He is saying I have said nothing other than

what the law and the prophets said should come.

Now what was the problem here? The Jews were trying to kill Paul. He had appealed to Agrippa,

and Agrippa is asking why are these people trying to kill you? And the Jews were saying he was

doing this and that, and teaching false teachings. Now Paul himself had been a Pharisee, so Paul is

saying, I am saying nothing other than what Moses, the law, and the prophets said would come. He

is saying the problem is these people want to preach the law and the prophets, but I’m preaching that

what the law and the prophets said IS COME! Paul is saying they don’t mind me preaching the law

and the prophets, but they don’t want me to say that what the law and the prophets said - is come!

That’s the way it is with much of the Church world today. They don’t mind me coming and

preaching the scripture; but they don’t want me to tell them that the scripture has already been

fulfilled in Christ! Because most Christians believe that most of it has not been fulfilled in Christ.

We’ll just leave that alone for now.

Are we preaching different scriptures than Paul preaches? Paul was including everything from

Genesis to Malachi - all the law and all of the prophets. And he said, what I am preaching is what

the law and the prophets said would come. What was he preaching? He was preaching Christ, he

was preaching that Jesus is that Christ. He said Jesus is the answer to the law, and he was saying that

in Jesus Christ all of the prophets are fulfilled. What the prophets said would come - has come! He

didn’t say "should come". What the prophets said should come, has come in Christ! That’s what

Paul was preaching, that’s how he understood Christ to be. What is our present understanding of

Christ? In most cases it’s far short of that. We must consider, in our study time, the prophets. We

should consider what they say. Do we have different prophets today than Paul had? Has Isaiah

changed? Is it a different Isaiah that Paul knew? Is it a different Daniel, a different Hosea, Amos?

Are they the same or are they different? We must consider this. If we are going to consider Christ we

can’t use our imaginations. We have to use the scripture to consider Christ. He said, "These are

they that testify of Me..." He’s not one of the things they testify of: HE’S THE ONLY THING

THEY TESTIFY OF. The scriptures testify of The Living Word of God. Does God have more than

One Living Word? So the scriptures testify of Him. This is Paul’s contention. He is using the

scripture that was present in that day; basically Genesis through Malachi, the writings of Moses, the

writings of the prophets.

Very often Israel summed up all of the Holy writing by just calling them the law and the prophets.

And they were speaking of everything that they considered to be scripture. So Paul is declaring that

Jesus is The Christ out of their own scripture. Now they believed from their own scripture that

Christ is coming. The problem here is, Paul is saying - HE IS COME! The One you’re looking for -

IS COME! You killed Him, but according to your scripture, God raised Him up from among the

dead! That’s how Paul knew Him. He did not know Him by the flesh; he knew Him according to the

scripture, by the Spirit. When Christ appeared to Paul, it was The Resurrection that appeared. And

yet, what did He say? " WHY ARE YOU PERSECUTING ME?" Think about that! Who was it that

Paul was persecuting? Christians, the Church. But the Lord Jesus didn’t say, why are you

persecuting Christians? No, "Why persecutest thou ME?" Paul said, "Who are you? Which one of

these that I’ve been putting in prison are you?" Jesus says - All of them! The Resurrected Christ

identifies Himself with His Body on earth. He doesn’t have two or three bodies, He has One Body.

Read the scripture! Reason - consider! Is He lying to Paul? "Why are you persecuting Me. Who are

you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." He didn’t say I’m Peter, I’m Stephen; Paul saw

him stoned to death. No - I AM JESUS! Not after the flesh, but I am Jesus in the flesh: I am in My

Body, and you are persecuting My Body, therefore you are persecuting Me!

Some of us are very much like the Jews; we just can’t imagine such a thing. How can He be in me?

By The Resurrection, by the Eternal Spirit - that’s how. That’s how we must consider Him. That’s

how we must know Him - in the power of The Resurrection, by The Eternal Spirit of God. Is He any

less real that way? He is more real that way! Concerning His earthly body, His temporal body; it is

said, "who made himself of no reputation, who took upon Him the form of a slave." That was Jesus

in the flesh, that was Jesus in a natural body. Is He greater there, in the form of a servant, lower than

angels; or is He greater in The Resurrection - no more to die, no more a servant, but rather a Son,

living in His Own Body? Which is the greatest? Which is the greatest Body? CONSIDER THESE

THINGS! You are not His Body appointed unto death; you are His Body by The Resurrection - He

lives in you!

Do you believe that? Only the Spirit of God can enable you to know that, but you must consider

Him in this way. We must quit considering Him after the flesh. He is not that way any longer; that’s

not how Paul preached Him. Acts 26:23, "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first

that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people (that is the Jews), and to

the Gentiles." He is no longer just the Messiah of the Jews; you Jews crucified your Messiah. But

God has raised Him up from among the dead. He is now the coming Lord of Jews and Gentiles! In

Him there is One New Man, One New Creation! This is how we must consider Him. When we

gather it must be for learning Him. Otherwise we could stay at home. But we can’t learn Him after

the flesh, because He is no longer after the flesh. He is resurrected! He lives in His Body, and to

come against that Body is to come against Him. To bless that Body is to bless Him.

Jesus said that; that was the basis of Paul’s understanding concerning Christ. Paul began to

understand something; he began to see what the prophets had said, Paul began to even understand

the mystery that the prophets talked about, that they themselves did not understand. He says this

mystery that has been hidden is now revealed. What is the mystery? Is it that Christ would die?

That’s not the mystery; the prophets clearly said that He would die. Is it that He would be raised up

again, resurrected - is that the mystery? The mystery regards His coming again; His returning in

Spirit and Truth and living in His Body! And that His Body would be both Jew and Gentile. Paul

declares that to be the mystery. That’s the mystery that only the Holy Spirit can reveal. Not only did

He die, not only is He raised up, but He has come again and received us unto Himself, and we dwell

in Him, and He dwells in us! We are a New Creation in Christ Jesus - that’s the mystery Paul talks

about.

Have you read the verses concerning the mystery? I know you have, but have you considered those

verses? Have you considered Him who was dead, been raised up, but now lives in you? Reason with

me: what good would it do you if He was crucified, resurrected and doesn’t live in us? What good

would that do me or you? If He is not your life, then what is He to you? If we are not His Body, then

what are we to Him? The prophets wrote of this mystery, but they didn’t understand it. They

couldn’t imagine that Gentiles could be part of this. They couldn’t imagine that the New Jerusalem

was Jew and Gentile. They couldn’t imagine that the restoration of Israel was Christ living in His

Church, and that Israel is not Israel by the flesh, but according to the circumcision of your heart, and

the birth of The Seed; that you who belong to Christ are now The Seed of Abraham. The Bible says

that, but the mystery goes beyond that. The mystery says in Christ, in The New Creation there is

neither Jew nor Gentile. No, not there; there there’s just One New Man! How can this be? Not in the

flesh, but by the Spirit. One New Man - Christ, by His Eternal Spirit, in the power of The

Resurrection, living in you! Neither Jew nor Gentile - One New Man. This is the mystery of God

that was hidden even from the prophets. They spoke of it, but they didn’t understand it. And Paul

declares it - it is Christ in you, the expectation of glory. Whose expectation? Listen carefully - whose

expectation? Not yours; He isn’t an expectation to you. Paul said Christ is in you. Whose

expectation? All through the Old Testament, all through the prophets there was this expectation of

glory. The prophets prophesied of it. Moses showed it to the people - the glory of God. But it was a

passing thing, which meant that it’s not yet perfectly come. Then we find Ezekiel talking about the

glory filling the temple of God. Israel was expecting a glory; they were expecting the glory of God to

fill the temple of God. There was great expectation concerning this in Israel.

Paul is saying just this - the answer to that expectation is IN YOU - Christ, the glory of God! HE IS

COME! He is in His Temple! The expectation is here! The hope of Israel is come, and He dwells in

you! Christ in you, the expectation of glory. It’s not still an expectation. He can’t be in you, and

expected to be in you; He’s either in you or He’s not! But here’s the point: until we know Him, in

our hearts, until we know Him, then He is to many, an expectation. Expectation is answered when

we see Him. To many today He is still an expectation, but not to those who have seen Him, not to

those in whom He is revealed. The whole foundation of Paul’s gospel is just this - God revealed His

Son in me, that I might preach HIM; not just preach about Him, but preach HIM. That I may

declare Him in the power of His resurrection, that I may declare Him in His Body, that I may

declare Him as your life. Now, so that you may go forth in that power, in that understanding, in that

reality, and declare Him in all the earth, in truth, in reality! That’s what it’s all about.

Are we today to still speak of Him as the prophets did, or are we to know Him as the answer to all

the prophets? 2 Peter 1:16-19, " For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we

made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of

his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a

voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And

this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We have

also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that

shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." What’s this all

about? Peter is still trying to convince the Jews that Christ is the answer to their own law and

prophets. He is saying the same thing here that Paul is saying. Peter is saying we didn’t just make all

this up, these are not old fables we’re telling to you. We were eyewitnesses of His glory! And then

he talks about what we call the Mount of Transfiguration. What happened there? Who appeared

there with Christ? Now Peter, James and John went up there with the Lord Jesus. They are

representing the Church, they are representing His disciples, they are representing a New Covenant.

They go up there with Him and all of a sudden they see Moses and Elijah, obviously not in the flesh.

They had never seen Moses in the flesh or Elijah in the flesh, so how did they know who it was?

This is a spiritual scene that is going on, something is being said here. There was a spiritual

recognition there, and when the writer wrote that story, he wrote with the understanding of The

Spirit. But who was it that appeared? It was the law and the prophets. Who represents the law?

Moses. Who represents the prophets? None other than Elijah.

All of a sudden everything is covered by the cloud, representing the glory of God. The law and the

prophets had prophesied of the glory; the glory of God covers the whole scene. Jesus is showing His

disciples something. When the glory of God lifts, when the cloud lifts - the law has been fulfilled, the

prophets have been fulfilled! Moses is gone; he isn’t going to appear any more. Elijah’s gone; he

isn’t going to appear any more. THE ONLY ONE THAT IS LEFT IS JESUS! In Him is fulfilled

the law and the prophets and the glory of God. Then He tells His disciples something. He says do not

speak of this until after the resurrection. Why? Because this whole scene had to do with what would

happen in the resurrection: that He would come forth in the power and glory of The Father, in the

fulfillment of the law, in the fulfillment of the prophets, and that He would show Himself that way to

His Church! And now the Church is preaching that reality; at least the Church used to preach that

reality, and we must preach that reality.

Peter says here we have a more sure word of prophecy. What does that mean? Does that mean we

have another prophecy? Think about this. No, it doesn’t. We don’t need another prophecy; we have

the prophets fulfilled. Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about the gift of prophecy or

the gifts of tongues and interpretation of tongues. But that’s not predictive; that edifies and builds up

in The Truth. We don’t need any more predictions. The Bible’s prediction is fulfilled in Christ. We

need to know Him, we need to know The Truth as it is in Jesus. Now about the gifts of the Spirit -

we can comfort one another, exhort one another, confirming The Truth in one another. But we don’t

use the gifts of The Spirit to add to the Truth, because The Truth is in Christ. The Holy Spirit

confirms The Truth.

Then what does this mean, "a more sure word of prophecy’? I heard a preacher once say that this

means we preach better sermons today! Better preachers - it hasn’t got anything to do with it. In the

first place, I doubt that we have better preachers. A proper translation would help us. The original

text reads, "We have the prophets made more certain." What did he mean? He meant the prophets

testified of these things; they testified of Him. We have seen Him! Therefore unto us, the prophets

have been made more certain, because we have seen Him of Whom they speak. We have the

prophets; now we’ve seen The One the prophets spoke of. Seeing Him, we know the prophets are

true. We have the prophets made more sure because we have seen Him. But if you haven’t seen

Him, then how much of this to you is true? Oh, I believe it! Yes, but you believe it as a doctrine, you

believe what you’ve heard, you believe what you’ve read. How can you really believe until you’ve

seen Him of Whom all this is written? And modern day teachers will tell you that doesn’t make any

difference, but Peter said it does make a difference. Peter, James, John, Paul - the Christians; they

are out there every day laying down their lives. They are being killed! They are being fed to lions,

they are being locked up in prison, they are being hung up on crosses, they are being boiled in oil,

they are having their heads cut off. It’s important to them that they know The Truth!

They are not going to go through that for a fable, they are not going to go through that just because

they read it somewhere in Isaiah. They are going through that because they have seen Him of whom

Isaiah speaks, and they know Him to be true. Therefore they know Isaiah to be true. And I’m asking

you - is that the way you know Him? In your heart, in your soul - is that really the way you know

Him? That’s how we must know Him. Not because I read the book and say this is true, but because

The One of Whom these scriptures speak is by The Spirit of God revealed in you. And you say, Yes,

This One is come! HE IS IN ME! I see Him of Whom they all speak! Then the book becomes alive.

This is how we must consider Him.

Part 2 - He Has Brought Us From Death Unto Life

In Christ, in His death, burial and resurrection, The Cross; we have come from the law and the

prophets - all of them, to " I Am The Resurrection." Our relationship is not with the law and the

prophets; our relationship is with Him Who is The Resurrection, The One Who now lives in you,

The One by Whom we have all things. Knowing Him - The Resurrection. This is what we’re talking

about. By The Cross we have come from the law and the prophets. I’ll say again there are many

Christians who just like the Jews of those days, have not yet in their comprehension come from the

law and the prophets to the reality of The Resurrection. To them He is still the expectation of the law

and prophets. They have not yet comprehended Him as the fulfillment of that expectation.

So let’s continue in our considering Him. Hebrews 3:1, " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of

the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."

Consider Christ Jesus. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, that is, of our faith. But

the consideration is to be upon Him: Consider HIM. And then what does Paul immediately do here?

He compares Him with Moses: Moses a faithful servant, but Christ, The Son; Moses a servant in the

house, Christ the builder of the House. What is Paul saying? Christ is greater than Moses, but is that

all he is saying? Is he really comparing two people, or is he comparing what both of them represent?

What does Moses represent? At the time of this writing, Moses was dead. Christ had been crucified,

but Paul is saying He is alive! So in the first place he is comparing the administration of death with

the administration of life. Moses represented the administration of death, the law represented the

administration of death; the law could not make alive. It spoke of life, but it could not bring you to

life. It could not make perfect, whole, complete. It spoke of that, but it could not make you that way.

So the law identifies with Moses.

Jesus says, " I am the resurrection and the life", so the resurrection identifies with Christ. So Paul

is comparing in the first instance death to life. What is he saying? Let’s consider Him Who has

brought us from death unto life. Christ is all about life. Salvation is ultimately about life. There are

many elements of redemption - forgiveness of sin; but ultimately salvation is not just about

forgiveness of sin. Look at the law - sacrifices, blood offerings, and for one year there was

forgiveness of sins. So sins were forgiven in this administration; not forever, but sins were forgiven.

But there was no life at all. What I’m saying is Christ means more than just forgiveness of sins,

salvation is more than just forgiveness of sins, because salvation is exceedingly more than the law.

Salvation doesn’t just do what the law did and do it better. Salvation goes far beyond the law and

does what the law could not do.

So the first contrast here is between death and life. We haven’t merely passed from Moses to Christ;

we haven’t merely passed from law to grace - much more. We have passed from death unto life.

There is no reason that any of us who are in Christ should in any way fear death, because you are

passed from death unto life! I’m not telling you that your bodies will not sleep in the dust. I’m

telling you your soul shall never know death. We are passed from that death unto Christ Who is our

life! The One Who lives in us! That’s the first comparison of Chapter 3; not just with Moses and

Christ, not just with the law and grace, but with what Moses really represents - the administration of

death; and to what Christ really represents - the administration of life. And all the way through the

book of Hebrews, in every chapter you are doing that, you are coming from that which is under

Moses to that which is in Christ. Hebrews is a book of considering Christ, but according to what

comparison? Considering Christ as compared to what? Considering Christ compared to all that has

been said about Him!

There is a time we have to come from what is said about Him to actually knowing Him. There is a

time that knowing what is said about Him is not enough. The Hebrews writer is talking about that -

coming from words to The Living Word (chapter 1). That time must come. The Spirit desires to

bring each of us to that time. You’d be surprised how many Christians have not come there yet.

They faithfully believe all the words, but The Word Himself is not truly experienced. IT IS THE

WORD HIMSELF WHO TRANSFORMS THE SOUL. Words enlighten the intellect; The Word

transforms the soul. Why? Because He is Life - it’s all about Life! It’s not all about teachings and

doctrines and prophecies; it’s all about Life. Except we have life, we have nothing. The Buddhists

have teachings - wonderful teachings. The Muslims have teachings on purity - wonderful teachings.

It’s not enough. We must understand that Christianity is not just a series of teachings, even based on

prophecies. No, there’s more to it than that. Consider Him. The writer of Hebrews is saying it’s

more than that. It’s HIM we have to come to. The Living Word is greater because it is The Living

Word. Even though the prophets are true, it is considered to be dead letter except when it is fulfilled

in Him. Then it is Living Word!

So we come from dead administration to living administration. Then we come from dead letter to

Living Word. And I’m telling you - Living Word is better! The Bible speaks of death being

swallowed up in Life. We could look at the verses in 1 Corinthians 15 that is talking about this. This

is the death that is swallowed up in The Life. In those verses Paul is bringing us from one

administration to another, one creation to another; from that which is made strong by the law, to that

which is established in Christ Jesus. Here is the death. In all of the Bible the only thing that is

referred to as the administration of death is the administration of the law and prophets. The only

thing that is ever referred to as the administration of life is connected to the resurrection of Christ. It

is in Him that death is swallowed up in life. And that we now, according to the very wording of the

scripture have that. " Thanks be unto God, who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus." We have

victory, we have victory over death! It’s not talking about death in these clay pots; it is talking about

coming from that which can not make perfect to that which is perfect Himself. It is coming from that

which speaks of Him but sees all men dead (Thou shalt surely die); to the place where, according to

the scripture, all are made alive. For as in Adam all died, so in Christ all are made to live.

Now that’s what the Bible teaches as coming from death unto life. And if you are in Him today, you

have come from death unto life. Maybe you haven’t come in comprehension, but you’ve come there

in Spirit. You’ve come there in Christ. This is why in all of the epistles, bar none, Paul says that the

Christians would come to comprehend The Truth. He is not praying that they will get saved, he’s not

praying that Christ will be in them. He is telling them they are in Christ. He is praying they will

comprehend with all saints what is The Truth. He is praying they will acknowledge The Truth as it

is in Jesus. In another place Paul is praying that the eyes of their understanding would be opened.

And in another place he is praying that they might understand the mystery which is revealed in

Christ. He is praying they would comprehend this reality. What we are able to do, one to another, is

to declare The Truth, one to another. But it is such Truth which we declare, that we are dependent

upon the Holy Spirit to give us the comprehension; bringing it out of the natural affairs of man and

into the realm of the reality of The Spirit.

So that’s the third comparison: to come from Moses to Christ is to come from the natural form of

things to the spiritual reality of all things. Look in Hebrews 9:8-9, " The Holy Ghost this signifying,

that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet

standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and

sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience."

Look at the next verses because there is a time element here. These things are represented in the

tabernacle: we have the outer court, inner court, Holy of Holies and the veil. Paul is saying this

whole tabernacle while it is standing, it remains as a type, as a symbol or a figure that there is still a

division between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. As long as this tabernacle remains on earth,

then this division is shown. What do we conclude from that? We conclude that when this division is

done away, that this tabernacle is destroyed. The whole purpose of it was to show that there was a

place that they could not go. They could not go into the glory of God, they couldn’t go into the Holy

of Holies. Only one time a year the High Priest was able to go in. He represented them, and that was

allowed onetime a year, to show that there was a time coming when another High Priest, a Better

High Priest would both take away the veil and make the way into the Holy of Holies and the

presence of God, the glory of God; He would make the way for all who would come.

But while this tabernacle remained, this division was obvious. Verse 11, " But Christ being come

an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with

hands, that is to say, not of this building (or creation)." Look at verse 23, " It was therefore

necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the

heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the

holy places made with hands..." Christ is not entered into this tabernacle: His type entered here.

But Christ is come by a greater Tabernacle: The Tabernacle by which He is said to come is not

made with hands. It is a Greater Tabernacle because He is a Greater High Priest. The first was a

type, the second is the real thing. The question is: Who is the second? The question is: where is He

now come? The question is: where does He now dwell? Back to verse 24, " For Christ is not

entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven

itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." The narrative continues. We’re going to go to

the end, Chapter 10:19. We’ve been talking about how to get from the Holy Place to the Holy of

Holies. The Holy Place in the Old Testament represents the administration of death; it is called the

worldly sanctuary. It is the Holy of Holies that represents the administration of life, and in the

pattern they are not allowed to stay there. They are allowed to go there just one time a year, then

they have to come back out. And that signifies something, and that’s what we’re talking about. It

signifies that this whole system, and this whole tabernacle must be done away, that there be a NEW

system called NEW Covenant, a NEW Tabernacle wherein dwelleth life and not death, with a NEW

High Priest who ministers in a living sanctuary.

So the whole question is, how do we get from the one to the other? We just read that - we get there

by our High Priest, who NOW appears in the presence of God for us. This word is not ‘instead of

us’, but for us, because look at verse 19. " 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." What does this whole old tabernacle represent?

Theologically we know that it represents The Cross. The way the furniture is arranged tells us that.

The fact that blood goes from the first altar all the way here to the last altar tells us that. The fact

that the priests can only come in by sacrifices tells us that. So this system, this whole tabernacle

along with its priesthood, has been fulfilled at The Cross - through His death, through His burial,

and made manifest in His Resurrection. It is by The Resurrection that we have been brought into the

Holy of Holies! ‘In that day you will understand this, that as I dwell in My Father, so you dwell in

me, and I dwell in you.’ IN THE RESURRECTION He has brought forth a Tabernacle not made

with hands, for the scripture declares you are created in Christ Jesus. How are you created there?

Not by the work of hands, but by the work of the Spirit. You are a Living Tabernacle. How is it that

you are a Living Tabernacle? Only one way - by Him Who lives in you, because The Tabernacle

belongs to The High Priest. Thus in Hebrews 8 it is written, here is the sum of the matter: WE

HAVE AN HIGH PRIEST! He is the minister of a more prefect Tabernacle, the sanctuary of God.

So we have come from the natural, which is in a figure; we have come from a form to a fulfillment;

from a form to the true substance; from a system to The Truth. We have come from Moses to Christ.

And death has been swallowed up in life. Thank God, who giveth us the victory through Christ Jesus

the Lord! That is exactly what Paul is talking about when he teaches concerning the resurrection in

1 Corinthians 15.

CONSIDER HIM. That’s what we’re doing. This is to be our permanent vocation. How so? By the

two words he uses here to strengthen his statement: Apostle and High Priest. That type of Christ

involves every aspect of our life. You see, considering Christ is not to be a once a week affair. It

isn’t to be merely a once a day affair, or even merely a daily affair. It is to be the constant state of

our hearts. As His Body, as those whom He has brought from death to life, from administration of

death to ministration of life, from words to Living Word, from form to reality; as those so involved

with Him, our sole vocation must be considering Him. Having the mind of Christ is not an

occasional affair, but a continual state of being. Therefore, whatever we are doing, whether in

studies or in ministry - whatever, it is to be done within the scope and concept of the mind of Christ.

But too often those things seem to take us away from Jesus. Could it be to us that those things have

become the works of flesh? Is it possible that our Christian service has become no more than us

doing something for the Lord? I think that’s so in many cases.

Do all things considering Him - the Apostle and the High Priest; that covers it all. High Priest covers

every aspect of spiritual worship and all that is in that. Apostle covers every aspect of daily life;

being sent and ministry - all things. All things are done, incorporated in considering Him: not

separating us from Him, not separating us from that consideration, but as an outworking of that

consideration, empowered by that consideration. Otherwise, ministry will become for you very

tiresome, very limited, except it be done in considering Him.

Now to make a point, I’ve done what I’m doing now since 1960 - a long time. Long enough for it to

become wearisome if it was me just trying to "keep the fire burning for Jesus." But I tell you the

truth, I am more excited inwardly and outwardly today than I was when I began. I say that to make

a point, because it need not be that way for one, but for all. Why? Because what we do, the physical

ministry is always governed, directed by knowing Him, by considering Him. The two are never

separated. The Lord hates division, division within a matter. For instance, the Lord would never

bring a division in this old covenant; He will not bring a division in this house. He will not bring a

division in the New House either. But we know that God divides, so what is it that He divides? He

divides this whole old house from the whole New House. The division is not within the old, nor is it

within the New. The division is between the old and the New, and the division is The Cross. You

can’t bring pieces of the old over into the New, or bring pieces of the New back into the old. The

Cross will make it very clear in your mind. We’re not just talking about something called the old

flesh. We’re talking about the whole system; we’re talking about the administration of death; we’re

talking about types, and figures and shadows. Those things didn’t speak of something evil; they

spoke of something good. But with the coming of the good, those things have become old, and must

be put away. And we find our life in Him.

Then the scriptures are important because we comprehend that they indeed are speaking of HIM.

And you read Isaiah and you get excited because you see things fulfilled in Christ. And so it is with

all the other prophets. Then you read the epistles and you can get excited because you realize that

Paul is speaking of One Who is come, Who is in you! And the gospel is NOW! And it doesn’t make

any difference if you’re digging a ditch or sweeping the floor - CHRIST IS MY LIFE!

So we have come. Later in Hebrews you will find we have come to Mount Zion. You’ve come from

the voice of words, the old covenant in words: to the New Covenant in ONE WORD, and you find

that in Mount Zion God speaks only in His Son. From the voice of words and trumpets... It’s in

Hebrews 12:18. It says you are not come to a certain kind of mountain, but what mountain is that?

It’s Mount Sinai; it’s not the mount of Christ, it’s the mount of Moses. The type, the shadow was

given there. "Moses, build a tabernacle. See that you do it according to the pattern given to you

in the mount." It’s not the mountain of spiritual life; it’s the pattern of spiritual life. The pattern was

given there. We have the pattern in the law, the old. Jesus is not the pattern; Jesus fulfills the pattern.

The pattern is of Jesus; He’s the answer to the pattern. Christianity is not a pattern; it’s the answer to

the pattern. The Church is not a pattern of something else to come. The Church is that which was

supposed to come. All of this was the pattern of the New Temple - The Church. The Church is not

made with hands; the True Church is The Body of Jesus Christ, established in the heavens. We are

come from words to Living Word. We have come from patterns to the substance, to the reality.

So he says you Christians have not come to this mountain and then he describes it: words, trumpets,

fire... read it; burnings and hidden things, darknesses. No, but you have come to Mount Zion! You

have come... you are not coming there. IN CHRIST YOU ARE THERE! You are come to Mount

Zion (verse 22). Then he describes Mount Zion. It’s not made out of dirt or rocks, he says it’s the

New Jerusalem, he says it’s the City of God, he says it’s the dwelling place of The Most High, he

says it’s the dwelling place of the saints of God, he says it’s the dwelling place of an innumerable

host of messengers, he says it is where the covenant is made sure in the blood of Jesus Christ. WE

ARE COME THERE! Of Zion it is said, " Out of Zion I will issue my commandment, my law."

We have to understand that means the commandment of life and the law of the spirit of life in Christ

Jesus, because Zion is not of the administration of death, but of the administration of life. The Jews

couldn’t understand that, and we must not fall to the same mistake. The Jews insisted that Zion had

to be a literal mountain made out of dirt, and that there was going to be a return to the law and

another High Priest like Aaron. But the prophets didn’t mean that. And the writer of Hebrews tells

us they didn’t mean that. The prophets were speaking of things that were patterns; but the reality is

fulfilled in Christ. The real Mount Zion is a spiritual people, a spiritual city, a spiritual reality, an

eternal covenant which we have in Christ Jesus. And in giving us understanding of the reality of

Zion you will understand, because Zion is a place of spiritual understanding. In the old covenant,

Zion refers to spiritual understanding. Jesus says you will know, you will know something about Me

and about God. What will we know?

In Zion you’ll realize something; you’ll realize that I’m in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am

in you. So Isaiah talking about Zion called it a people who are the City of God, a people whose

habitation is God, and a people wherein God doth dwell. That’s what Isaiah says about Zion, and

that’s fulfilled in Christ! I just wish Christians would get as excited about reality as they do about

figures. CONSIDER HIM. That’s what the book of Hebrews is doing, and that’s what we’re going

to continue to do. Consider Him - not after the old; consider Him in The Resurrection, One Who

says "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE." Why must we consider Him? How else can

we truly minister Him? What shall we be - ministers of death or ministers of life? This is the

question - CONSIDER HIM!

Part 3 - He Has Brought Us From The Natural

View To The Spiritual Realization

Now, we could diagram what we have been speaking of, and if we did, we would always begin with

The Cross. There’s a reason for that: The Cross and all that it involves is the center of God’s plan for

redemption. It’s the center of God’s plan for mankind. Everything is fulfilled in The Cross, and

everything of Life flows out from The Cross. Now when Paul said, I will know nothing among you

save Christ and Him crucified, this is what he meant. He didn’t mean he just had one sermon in his

briefcase. Everything Paul said came out from the reality of The Cross. An uncrucified Christ is not

Christ at all! Because The Cross embraces three things: His death, His burial and His resurrection.

All of that is involved in The Cross. It represents the three days of The Cross: the day of death, of

burial, of resurrection. And in those three days, all of the scripture, all of the law and all of the

prophets are fulfilled in those three works; not just in His death, but in His death, burial and

resurrection. This is extremely important to understanding the Bible. It is vital to comprehending our

life in Christ because with regard to our life in Christ you can not bring something from the old over

into the New. You can not do that. The old must come to The Cross and be met in His death; the

New comes forth in His Resurrection. You and I are in His Resurrection in that He lives in you.

What did Jesus say? " I am the resurrection and the life." Everything after The Cross is in Him; on

that side of The Cross everything is involved with the I Am. On the resurrection side of The Cross

He is the only One who lives. We live by Him, and if you don’t live by Him then you are dead.

What makes this so? The Cross makes this so! This is the reason why Paul knew nothing but Christ

and Him crucified; that is, everything that He knew concerning Christ, concerning the Church,

concerning Christ came out from The Cross. To Paul, The Cross (being the death, burial and

resurrection of Christ) was the very heart of God’s plan. It is there that the scripture, the old

covenant ends and the New understanding, the New Covenant begins. What is the point? The point

for you and I is just this: we must come to embrace The Cross, in our hearts, in our souls, in our

understanding if we in our hearts are ever to come from the old to the New. If we are ever to come to

comprehend Christ in The Resurrection, we must embrace The Cross - today - NOW!

Understanding that The Cross isn’t two pieces of wood; that The Cross is not merely an historical

event; but that The Cross represents the death, the burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We

must understand that what is dead by The Cross is eternally dead. Upon that realization then today,

we are able to reckon ourselves dead indeed. See, what was dead by The Cross wasn’t dead for just

one day two thousand years ago, because what would that have to do with us? What died there died

forever! The old man died - that effects us today.

But when does it effect us? How does it effect us? It effects us when we come to Christ crucified; it

effects us when we come and embrace the reality - when He died, I died too. And that’s what Paul

says: when one died, all were made to be dead. Reckoning yourself to be dead indeed unto sin - by

what death do you do that? By His death! And that verse goes on to say, but alive unto God; alive

unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Consequently Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the

life." You can not separate resurrection from life. They are one, and The One that they are is

CHRIST! This is extremely important. Most Christians today, in their understanding have separated

resurrection from life because they don’t understand that The Resurrection and The Life is Christ;

and that Christ lives in them, and that they live by Him, and that we are now His Body. If we are not

His Body then He does not live in us. If He lives in us, then we are His Body. You can’t separate

that. You can’t say, He is my life, He lives in me...one day I’m going to be His Body. You can’t say

that.

If He lives in you now, then you are now His Body. This is what Paul tells you. I’m just stirring up

our minds to remembrance. We are considering Him together, so let’s consider. If He is in you and

in me, we are His Body. How can you be more His Body than that? Does He really live in you? Do

you really believe that? Do you really believe that Christ dwells in you? Then because of Him, you

are His Body; not because of religion. Religion doesn’t make you the Body of Christ. Only Christ

can make you His Body. But His Body is a temple made without hands, so how does He make you

His Body? Again, consider, the scripture says His Body is a temple made without hands, but He

makes us His Body. How does He make us His Body? By dwelling in us He makes us His Body.

We are His House because He lives in us. We are His temple because He lives and ministers in us.

Paul refers to His working which worketh mightily in me. It is Christ working in you to do the will

of God. It is Christ working in you to do and to perform the will of God. Therefore we are His

tabernacle, we are His temple.

"I am the resurrection. I am the life." So again, you can not separate The Resurrection from The

Life, but modern day Christian theology has done that, because we have Christians today who say

Christ is my life, but they are waiting on the resurrection. That doesn’t even make good sense! If

Christ is my life, I should be manifesting The Resurrection, I should be exhibiting New Life

everywhere I go. My ministry should be bringing others into that same Resurrection. Right where

Jesus said (in John 11) "I am the resurrection and the life", He said something else. He said, "he

that believeth in me shall never die." If you have come from death unto life, (and those who are in

Christ have come from death unto life) then you are not waiting on a resurrection. You are living in

The Resurrection and The Life! Listen, because natural minded theologians have taken the spiritual

things of Christ and have made then doctrinal events, The Church has been robbed of the reality of

life in Christ. Modern theologians would tell you that The Cross was an event two thousand years

ago, but The Holy Spirit would apply the reality of The Cross in you today. Modern theologians

would make the resurrection an event, a historical date, but in fact, in truth, Christ Himself is The

Resurrection and The Life - NOW! We try to bring this living reality into a natural understanding,

and we lose it. We lose the spiritual reality, and we’re left with a teaching, a teaching about Christ,

rather than knowing Him; a teaching about resurrection, a teaching about heaven rather than the

reality of that in Christ.

What is spiritual life all about? What is redemption all about? Lay everything else aside, just lay our

doctrines aside, lay our teachings aside - and consider this: it’s all about LIFE! It’s about us living or

dying, it’s about whether you are dead or whether you’re alive. God’s Eternal Plan is not primarily

about heaven - where it is, what it is or when it is. It’s primarily about Life! "I am the Resurrection.

I am the Life." That’s what it’s about. We get so busy trying to figure out what and where heaven is;

we lose the whole concept of Christ is my life. We get so involved in where I’m going and when I’m

going; we lose the reality that now and forever He’s my life! If that is not true, the rest of it doesn’t

make any difference. Why do we spend so much time speculating on all the other things and have so

little comprehension of the greatest reality - I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. It is

time we consider Him! The world doesn’t need preachers of heaven. The world needs ministers of

Christ! Don’t forget this, don’t let this pass over your heads, don’t just make a note of this -

CONSIDER HIM! If you’re going to make any difference in the world it will be through

ministering Christ. I won’t argue with you five minutes on this other stuff. None of it is my life - He

is my life! I don’t have time except for seeking to know Him. He’s the reality of everything else

anyway. Who is the reality of heaven? It’s The Lamb Who is The Light! Who is the reality of the

city? It is Christ Who is the foundation! We must consider Him.

We have said that Hebrews is comparing Moses and Christ: not just as two individuals, but what

they both represent. Moses represents the law and the prophets, and Christ is The Living Word. The

law and the prophets are fulfilled in Him. And we found that by The Cross we come from all things

that are natural to all things that are spiritual. Now don’t make this mistake: many believe that in

order for something to be real it has to be natural. But the Bible tells you just the opposite. The Bible

tells you that it is the natural things, the things that you can see, touch and taste that are not real.

They are temporal, they are passing, they are not eternal. So don’t make the mistake of saying only

the natural are real, because it isn’t real at all in the light of eternity. It is the spiritual that is real.

I’m not talking about spiritualizing something. I’m talking about what is true spiritually.

Spiritualization is kind of like spiritual imagination. I’m not talking about you and I making

something spiritual; I’m talking about true spiritual things. Our life is by The Spirit; therefore our

life is spiritual. Is it not real? Oh, yes, because the natural shall die. The Cross demands that: the

natural shall die. The spiritual shall never die. That’s The Life that He is!

So we should understand that by The Cross - His death, His burial and His resurrection - we come

from things natural to all things spiritual. We come from a natural temple that was built with hands,

to a spiritual temple not made with hands. We come from a natural temple that you can go into and

sit down, to a spiritual temple that you are - a temple that Christ enters into and sits down! Which is

the better temple? The spiritual temple is better! Then why would you want a natural temple? Why

would you want another old temple? Why would we want to go rebuild the natural temple in natural

Jerusalem? Why? Jesus said, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again." Did

He do that, or not? If He did that, then what remains to be done? NOTHING! He spake of the

temple which is His Body; are we His Body or not? That Body is not built by hands, that Body is

built up in the knowledge of Christ. That temple is bound together in the knowledge of Christ.

Growing up into Him, a holy habitation unto God! So which is greater - us having a temple we can

go into, or the Father having a temple He can go into? Consider Him Who has made of us such a

temple.

So we have come from the administration of death to the administration of life. I want to go back to

something in considering Him Who has brought us from death unto life. Consider Him Who has

brought us from the natural to the spiritual; consider Him Who has brought us from the natural

temple and made of us a spiritual temple. There is a title for Him that represents that - High Priest.

And I want us to consider Him Who is our High Priest. He is the HIGH Priest - exalted. Let’s look

at the old High Priest first, in Leviticus 16. Now we agree from our study in Hebrews that

everything before The Cross, everything of Moses, of the old is a type, a shadow, a figure of that

which is to come. Here is my question - in light of that which is to come - what was to come? Christ

was to come! Think about that very carefully. The law was a type of a better law to come, the

prophets were a type of a better word to come. Who came? Christ! Here’s my point: all of those

things are summed up in Him! In Him is the better law - the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus

has made me free from the law of sin and death. That’s Romans 8. The prophets - what they

prophesied was true, but Christ came as The Truth: He gathered unto Himself all true things, all true

saying, and said, "I am the Truth." What I’m saying is the law was a type of a better law: the better

law was not just another written law that was better. The better law was spiritual, not written on

paper, not written on stone. The better law is Christ and in Christ! When we learn Christ we are

made partakers of a better law. It’s the same way with the prophets. When we see Christ, all of the

prophets are certified, they are confirmed, they are made more sure. Why? Because we have seen

Him of Whom all of those prophets speak.

And it’s the same way with all the types. The natural temple must give way to a spiritual temple.

Here’s the mystery of that: we have a temple that is spiritual - we dwell in Christ. He has a temple

that is spiritual - Christ dwells in us. A natural temple could never be like that. He is our dwelling

place; we are His dwelling place. And I’m telling you, it doesn’t get any better than that! The

problem is not in the reality of Christ, it’s in our comprehension of Christ. We are still looking for a

natural temple, whether it’s remaining on the earth or whether it’s remaining in our hearts. As long

as it remains, the way into the more holy is not made manifest. But when the natural is done away,

off of the earth (and it was done away off of the earth), and when it’s done away in us; that is, when

we quit looking for the natural - we are able to realize the greater spiritual temple in Christ Jesus.

This is what the letter to the Hebrews is all about: bringing them from the natural view to the greater

spiritual realization, because remember, all of them had been part of the natural view.

Think of it: there’s all of those Jews, because they were the first Christians, and the Hebrew people

were those to whom the book of Hebrews was written to. It’s written to Christians who have come

out of the Jewish religion, to secure them in their faith, because the writer knows they are having a

hard time. For so many years they’ve looked at this big temple, this huge temple, and they are

having a hard time realizing we are now that temple. They can’t understand that because when this

letter was written that temple was still standing there in the natural; it hadn’t been destroyed yet. It

had been destroyed in Spirit at The Cross. Jesus said, " Destroy it and I’ll raise up a new one." See,

that was spiritual. The natural eye couldn’t see that, but the old was destroyed. In the Resurrection a

New did come forth, but to the natural eyes it didn’t look like anything had happened. The temple

was still there, sacrifices were still being offered, the priests were still going about their daily chores,

and there’s this little group of Christians over there, and they are saying ‘we are the priests of the

Lord, we are the saints of God, we are the Body of Christ, we are the temple of God.’ A little bitty

group of Christians, with this big system all around them - they were having a hard time; the natural

was just overwhelming.

See, it’s the same way with Christians today. The natural is just overwhelming; because it’s so big,

it must be true. But that wasn’t the case then and it isn’t the case now. It’s not true because it’s big,

it’s true because it’s CHRIST! Now if it is Christ, it can be large or small; it doesn’t make any

difference, because the reality of it is Christ, not the size of it. But in the natural everything is judged

by the size. So here they are, looking at this temple. It’s been there basically for 400 years, and they

are trying to believe they’re the Temple of God, and that God doesn’t dwell there in the old temple,

He dwells in the New. And to make matters worse, the Jews of that system are trying to kill these

Christians. They are not just disagreeing with them, they’re trying to kill them! Is it any wonder they

need a letter? They need someone to secure them in the Truth. That’s what we’re doing. It’s just as

real today as the day it was written, because we still are in a natural world that is still filled with

natural temples, natural religion, and we need to consider Him. Because the spiritual was the answer

then, and the spiritual is the answer now.

The hope of natural Israel was not found within itself; it was found in Christ. And those that came

out of the natural found LIFE! Those that would not were destroyed with the system. It’s the same

way it is today. You are the true hope of the world because Christ is in you! And you are in Christ!

If you would pin me down on the question and insist I answer the question - who is the city of God,

what is the city of God? I would have to say - YOU ARE! I hope you can hear that. The Lamb is the

Light of that City, Christ is the Foundation of that City, The Stone upon it, which is built with lively

stones - The Everlasting City of the Living God! Abraham looked for a city - and you’re the City he

looked for! He looked for a city that had foundations - this City is built upon The Foundation, which

is Christ. Where is the temple, who is the temple of this City? God Himself is the Temple of this

City! He dwells in the midst of this City! And the Light of this City is the Lamb of God - Christ and

Him crucified. When I tell you The Cross is the center of God’s plan, this is what I’m talking about.

Now in Leviticus 16 and 17 we find the work of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, or on the

Day of Reconciliation. This is the time that the High Priest goes behind the veil for the sins of all of

Israel. On this day, upon this occasion Israel is summed up and seen to be one man - the High Priest

is representing all of Israel. These scriptures say that. So he is going behind the veil for all of Israel

and for himself as well, to make atonement for all of Israel and his sins as well. In other words, all of

Israel is summed up and seen of God in the High Priest. In everything he does he is representing all

of Israel and himself as well. Now that’s the setting for this teaching. He goes in behind the veil and

he takes the blood of the sacrifices with him. And in doing that he passes through every chamber of

the tabernacle. Now we know there are three chambers of the tabernacle. He starts out with the

brazen altar and he goes all the way through. See, normally they just come from the brazen altar into

the second chamber, and they never go into the third. But one time a year he goes all the way behind

the veil into the Holy of Holies. And this represents the full work of The Cross. This High Priest is a

type, a figure of The One to come.

This tabernacle is a figure of One to come; this blood is a figure of blood to come; this is all a figure

of a reality to come. But it is a reality that is tied to the work of the High Priest and no one else.

That’s the reason when we come over and consider our High Priest, the work is always called HIS:

HIS death, HIS burial, HIS resurrection. But God has included us in Him. As it was with the type,

so it is in the reality. All of Israel was included in the type; each of us are included in the reality. See,

the only Israelite who wouldn’t be included in this reality would be the Israelite who refuses to have

anything to do with the sacrifices, with the blood and with the temple. And in these two chapters of

Leviticus you will find that there is such a person; he is said to be "cut off" and cast out. He has

nothing to do with Israel. Those that are part of the spiritual High Priest are those who claim His

death, His burial and His resurrection as our own. If we say we’ll have nothing to do with that, then

we are cut off, we are cast off, and we are reckoned as not being the House of God.

It is a ministry and a work of the High Priest, but we must be partakers of it willingly. As it was with

Israel, so must it be with us. Now here’s the point: with this High Priest it was done once every year.

Leviticus 16:34, " And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the

children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses." So

this Priest entered in once, but it was once each year. But our High Priest, in Hebrews 9:26 has

entered in once and for all! Glory to God! Once and for all, but you can see the type: once each

year...but in Christ once and for all. Let’s look at that, and you see it’s comparing these two priests.

Let’s start in verse 23, " It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens

should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than

these." That’s what we’re saying: these things were patterns, they were patterns of the heavenly

things. The patterns come to be fulfilled in Christ. We must understand the patterns have been

fulfilled. We are not still waiting on them...well, maybe some are still waiting. But we who have

entered in are not still waiting. CHRIST IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PATTERN! Of the

whole thing! Verse 24, " For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which

are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."

Look back at the story: the Old High Priest goes through the outer court, goes through the inner

court, one time a year he enters into the Holy of Holies. This is a type, this is a shadow.

But in this type God sees all of Israel in that High Priest. Wherever that High Priest is, every

Israelite is there too; he’s in the High Priest. We understand the Israelite is represented on the

garment of the High Priest, on his breastplate and upon other emblems of his garments. But that’s

type, that’s shadow. The idea is that where the High Priest is, all of Israel is there too - one time a

year. But our High Priest is not entered into places made with hands. He is in the True Holy of

Holies, He has gone behind the veil of the flesh, by His death , burial and resurrection. He is entered

into the presence of God, He is entered into heaven itself - NOW - to appear there for us! Where He

is, we are also! It was so in the type, and it is much more so in the reality. He does not appear before

God instead of us, He appears there for us. We are there in The Resurrection, we are there in Him.

He does not appear before His Father empty, He brings many brethren, He brings many sons unto

glory! That’s why He is the good pleasure of the Father’s heart. This is our High Priest who says, " I

AM THE RESURRECTION. I AM THE LIFE." Consider Him - the Apostle and the High

Priest of our profession.

Part 4 - God Hath Spoken in His Son

We are considering Him who has brought us from the old to the New; considering Him by Whom

and in Whom we have passed from death unto life - considering Him. We are not only considering

what He has done: He has brought us from death unto life, He has brought us from the natural into

the eternal, the spiritual; but now we are to consider Him - The One who makes the Resurrection

side of The Cross real, The One who gives it substance. Let’s CONSIDER HIM. This is the ministry

of the Holy Spirit, that at some point He would bring the Lord’s Body to consider the Lord. See, as

the Lord’s Body we spend a lot of time just considering we are the Lord’s Body. As Christians we

spend a lot of time just considering that we’re Christians, but at some point in time the Lord’s Body

has got to just consider the Lord Himself. We must come from considering ourselves, even ourselves

in a new form, to considering Him. For other than by Him, we are nothing! What is the Lord’s Body

without the Lord?

Turn to Hebrews 1:1,2. You’ll notice here that the writer is comparing times past to the end of those

times, and those two words are important when we relate them to The Cross and when we relate

them to the Lord. Before The Cross, before the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord, before

Christ crucified, time is considered as past - times (plural) past, days (in the plural form) past. We

have the times of Egypt and the times of Moses and the times of Isaac and the times of Jacob; the

days of Saul, the days of David, the days of Solomon - all of these times and all of these days. And

by The Cross these are all reckoned to be past. But on the other side of The Cross, The Resurrection

side, we have time (singular) in its fulness - fulness of the time. That’s a scriptural statement. "But

when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son..." It means that all that was

indicated by these times has come to its fulfillment in this time - it has all been fulfilled in Christ,

who is to you and I, ONE NEW DAY! That’s the reason Paul tells the brethren at Thessalonica in

his letter, "Brethren, I need not write to you concerning times and seasons, because you are all the

children of the day." See, our life is not caught up in Monday or Sunday or Saturday, or times or

seasons, but in Christ - One New Day! And if you will really consider that, it will open your eyes to

a lot of things. Most untaught Christians are still looking for a day, and The Day is come, and you

are in Him! Now walk in the light as He is in the light! Be not as the children of darkness, or of

misunderstanding, but as those in whom the light of day is coming to its fulness. So we are then to

consider Him.

" God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the

prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all

things, by whom also he made the worlds;" A better translation of verse 2 in the Greek reads; Hath

at the end of those days..." Now what days are we talking about? The days when God spake in

different ways: He spoke in types and shadows, by the prophets, He spoke in different times and in

different means. That’s what verse 1 says. But hath at the end of those days spoken in a different

way, a new way. How ? IN SON! In times past God speaks in many ways, and it was God who

spoke, but He could not speak perfectly, nor could He speak of perfect things. He spoke to Moses,

and exactly according to what God said, Moses built a tabernacle. "See that you do it according to

the pattern." He didn’t vary one word, but the Tabernacle wasn’t perfect. It was perfectly built but it

wasn’t a perfect Tabernacle. Why is that? Because God could not in those times speak perfectly;

because God is Spirit, man is natural - God could not speak perfectly to man. And God could not

speak to man about things that are perfect. So God spoke to Moses, but Moses couldn’t perfectly

hear the Word of The Lord, and Moses built a Tabernacle but it wasn’t a perfect Tabernacle.

But on the other side we have fulness, completeness, perfection - in Christ Jesus. Here we have a

perfect Tabernacle; the Bible says so. It is perfect in that it is eternal in the heavens; perfect in that it

is spiritual and not natural; perfect in that it is life and not death. We have here God speaking

perfectly in His Son, because in this time God doesn’t speak through a type of His Son, He speaks in

the Person of His Son. God doesn’t reveal a type of Christ in you; He reveals Christ in you! You

don’t have a type - you have the substance. And because you have Christ in you, not just a type, you

have the Perfect Word of God in you, not just a type. So when God reveals The Son in you, He

reveals The Perfect Word, The Perfect Will, The Perfect Understanding in you, and the result of that

is The Perfect Tabernacle - not made with hands, but made by The Living Word of God! So in these

times God spake in different manners, but at the end of these days He hath spoken in Son. There’s

no question about that. The question is just this: have we heard Him? I want you to reason with me.

You may have heard Him according to times past, you may have read the scripture where Moses

said this and that; you may have read the scripture where Israel crossed The Red Sea, where Elijah

called the fire down, where David was anointed King, where Daniel was thrown in the lions den.

You may have read all of that, but have you heard Him of whom all of that is speaking?

You have read the scripture - have you heard The Word of God? The Word of God is in you. All of

these scriptures testify of Him, and you have the Testimony...but have you heard The Word? Here in

times past all they had was the Testimony: it was spoken by prophets, it was written on stone, it was

written on animal skins. They had The Testimony, but they did not have The Perfect Word. The

Testimony could not make them perfect; it can’t make you perfect either! You can read the Bible

until your eyes fall out, but unless you hear The Word, you have not heard God! It is a true

Testimony, there’s no doubt about that, and we must search The Testimony - yes. But unless you

come to the Living Word as a result of The Testimony, The Testimony alone will not make you

perfect. We must understand this, because many Christians think that just because they quote the

scripture they know the Word of God. The Jews thought the same thing; they quoted the scripture to

Jesus every day, but they didn’t know The Word. He told them that and they got mad!

I have a whole bunch of Christians who just stay mad at me! They all have their Bibles..but we’re

talking about considering Him, we’re not talking about time past, we’re taking about The Living

Word - knowing Him! The Testimony is about Him, but He Himself is in you! Yes, we must have

The Testimony because it is The Testimony of Him, but you must never substitute The Testimony

for Him. You must not stop short of knowing Him. And the Jews did that, and in John 5 Jesus said

that, verses 36-39. Jesus says I know that you search the scripture. You do that every day because

you sincerely believe that in them you have eternal life. But they are they which testify of Me. I am

the light of the scripture, but you won’t come to Me that you might have life. You see, they had The

Testimony, the same one you’ve got, but they would not come to Him, The Living Word. And there

are many Christians just that way too: they know what the Bible says, but they don’t know who the

Bible says. We must understand this. We know the Bible teaches life, we know the Bible teaches

resurrection, we know the Bible teaches temple of God, Body of Christ. We know those things are

teachings in the Bible, but we don’t understand The One in Whom all of those things are fulfilled -

The Living Word!

So let’s consider Him in whom ONLY God hath spoken, understanding that The Testimony is true,

but The Word is The Truth. It is The Truth that makes us free; it is The Truth that gives us life. We

must understand I take nothing away from The Testimony, but the end of The Testimony is Christ.

The end of the words (plural) is The Word (singular). And something else; it is impossible to have a

real understanding of the words until we see all of them fulfilled in The Word. If we try to find life

in The Testimony itself, we become disappointed. The Testimony has no life in itself; there is no life

in these words, in this ink and in this paper. THE LIFE IS IN CHRIST OF WHOM THIS

TESTIMONY SPEAKS. When all of these words, for you, in your heart, are summed up in Christ,

then you will pass from a natural understanding to a spiritual understanding, you will pass from

words to The Living Word, you will pass from The Testimony to The Living Witness.

God hath spoken in Son. Now let’s look in Ephesians 4, following this same line of consideration,

and we find Paul saying the same thing here. Verse 14, " That we henceforth be no more children,

tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and

cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Don’t you think we’ve been children long

enough? This is what Paul is saying. Well, it’s true today. You would think that in 2,000 years

somebody would have grown up! But we still have a lot of children! None of us is 2,000 years old,

but the condition today is very much the same as it was then. The Church was full of children then -

it’s full of children now; children in understanding - having no maturity, no understanding in the

Lord, tossed to and fro. That seems to be a picture of the whole Church world; deceived on every

side by men who make their living deceiving people. It says, "cunning craftiness whereby they lie in

wait to deceive." This is what they do. Paul isn’t talking about sinners here, this is a letter to the

Church, a letter to the saints of God - to grow up. Because there are many among them whose whole

purpose among them is just to deceive; to keep them from growing up, to keep them from coming to

the truth. They just want to sit around and argue about The Testimony - argue about baptisms,

argue about laying on of hands, argue about resurrection, argue about eternal judgment. Do you

know where I’m quoting from? Hebrews 6. "Let us get on beyond these foundational things, let us

put them to rest - baptism, laying on of hands, eternal judgment, resurrection. That’s not talking

about Christian baptism. Remember Hebrews is bringing us from the old covenant to the New

Covenant. The baptism spoken of here is ceremonial Jewish washings. Under the old covenant there

were ceremonial washings, but Christ washes us with the washing of the Water of The Word! Which

is in Him - let’s get on beyond ceremonial washings!

What does it mean - the doctrine of laying on of hands? That doesn’t mean praying for the sick.

Under the old covenant they laid hands upon the head of the animal and identified themselves with

the sacrifice. That’s the doctrine of laying on of hands. If you brought a sacrifice you couldn’t throw

it out there and run off. You had to lay your hand on it and identify yourself with it; it was a

doctrine, you had to do it. Well, that’s been fulfilled in Christ, because when He died He laid His

Hand on all of us! When one died, all died with Him. His death has become my death, my death has

become His death. When He died, I died. So let’s get on beyond this business of laying on of hands,

identifying with sacrifices. That’s what Paul is talking about. Then he mentions resurrection:

resurrection of the dead. The Jews believed in a resurrection of the dead - their prophets prophesied

of it. What they didn’t understand was that they were the dead! And that The Resurrection was a

New Creation coming forth, a New Israel, a New Jerusalem, a New City of God - they didn’t

understand that.

Martha didn’t understand that. She thought she was going to see Lazarus again. Jesus said, No,

you’re not going to see Lazarus again - I AM THE RESURRECTION! So let’s get on beyond that

doctrine, and understand that He is our life. That’s what we’re talking about here. Paul here is

saying that we henceforth be no more children. In Hebrews 6 the same thing is being said. The writer

there says let’s go on unto perfection. And he means things which are perfect in nature. See, this old

system is not perfect in nature, because it can not make perfect. But The New Covenant is perfect in

nature, because Christ is the nature of it. And that is the work of The Holy Spirit in you and in me,

forming His nature in us - that Christ be formed in you - A New Creation! That’s what Paul is

talking about. Ephesians 4:15, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,

which is the head, even Christ." Now we need to pay attention to this. In the first place he is not

saying, speaking "things" that are true; that’s not what he’s saying, because all of the things of the

Testimony are true. But Christ is The Truth. He is the summation of all of that.

" But speaking the truth in love..." That’s the nature of Truth; so we’re not just speaking words,

we’re speaking a nature. In other words, what we are saying has a nature to it, has a life to it - not

just dead words about religion. We are declaring The Truth - Who is a nature, a character, a

substance. He is saying there are those who would just entrap you by arguing about scripture. Grow

up! Grow up! But speaking The Truth...not in words, speaking The Truth in love, in nature, may

grow up into Him in all things. Him - Him who? Who is Him? The Truth is what we’re talking

about. Speaking The Truth in all things may grow up into Him in all things. Who is that? Which is

the head, even Christ! Now just look in a natural body. The speaking comes out of the mouth, it

belongs to the head. And Paul is making that reference here: that The Truth proceeds out from Him

who is the Head, the Head of the Body. When do you and I speak Truth? When God reveals His

Word in us, when He reveals His Son in us, then we speak The Truth; and we speak in the nature of

The Truth, not in the deadness of the letter, but in the life of the Spirit. Speaking the Truth in love,

may grow up into Him, who is The Truth in all things, who is the head even Christ!

Is there any doubt who He’s talking about here? God hath spoken in Son. Is there any doubt that

Paul is saying that Christ is that Son? And that all Truth proceedeth out from the Head, which is

Christ. We, His Body are to consider Him who is the Head, who is The Truth. For it is in Him only

that God perfectly speaks. There are a lot of people preaching what is called "Sonship", but how can

you preach Sonship until The Son has been revealed in you? You will end up preaching yourself,

and that’s what has happened with a lot of those people. The emphasis is upon themselves. The

emphasis of The Truth is upon Christ and only Christ! I don’t read The Testimony and by it come to

the conclusion that I am a son of God. I read The Testimony and it brings me to the conclusion that

He is The Son of God, and when God reveals that very Son in me, then by Him, I understand I am a

son of God, God is My Father. I understand that by The Truth, not by The Testimony. The

Testimony is not about me or you, The Testimony is about Him. When He is revealed in us, then we

understand our relationship. What are we doing? We are CONSIDERING HIM IN WHOM ONLY

GOD HATH SPOKEN.

You have The Testimony; do not stop short of The Living Word. There is one major difference

between the old time and the New Time, between time past and time fulfilled. And that major

difference is The Holy Spirit. We have The Spirit of Truth! He is not called The Spirit of true things,

not the Spirit of things that are true - The Spirit of Truth! Why do you think that is? He comes to

reveal The Truth, and He takes the things that are true, and He compares them to The Person of The

Truth. So Paul says He compares spiritual things with spiritual in 1 Corinthians 2. He takes things

that are true (The Testimony) and He compares it to The Truth, which is Christ. It takes the Holy

Spirit to do that, because we’ll compare The Testimony to most anything. But not The Spirit of

Truth: He takes true things and sums them all up in The Person of The Truth. That is the purpose of

Him coming, that is the purpose of His ministry: that we may know The Truth, and grow up into

HIM, who is The Truth in all things, even the Head, which is Christ. We’ll stop for now. We can in

no wise complete this: eternity only can give us enough time to CONSIDER HIM!

Part 5 - A More Sure Word of Prophecy

We are going to continue considering Him. Our study has primarily been in the book of Hebrews,

and it has been concerning coming from the old covenant to the New Covenant. And basically when

we say "old covenant" that is inclusive of everything before The Cross. We have been specific with

that: old priesthood, old tabernacle, words to Living Word, from people in the plural to Person in the

singular, from figures of the true to The Truth itself. But all of that can be in Old Covenant/New

Covenant, because the priesthood and the tabernacle all represent an old covenant; the law and even

the prophets represent an old covenant. They all belong before The Cross. But they all testify of a

covenant that was then yet to come. The reason your Bible is so wonderful today, this part from

Genesis to Malachi, is that it is no longer testifying of something yet to come; but it is testifying of

The One Who has come! So that today The Testimony has been fulfilled in Christ, The New

Covenant. So instead of the old covenant testifying of something that is yet to come, the old

covenant testifies of what has, in Christ, now come. Consequently, the scripture that you have today,

the old covenant, confirms the New Covenant. As Peter said, we have a more sure word of prophecy.

We have the prophecy made more sure, because today when we read the old covenant scriptures,

immediately we identify those scriptures with the reality of Christ, because HE IS COME!

According to those scriptures - HE IS COME! In the way that they speak - HE IS COME! He has

fulfilled them, and He is in us, we are in Him, so we can read even those scriptures and say, Amen!

We know that those scriptures are true, not merely because they are scriptures, but because what

they said is fulfilled in Him. Consequently for us Christ confirms the scripture, and the scriptures

confirm The Truth of Christ.

You see for us it is Christ that makes the difference, because really those prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah

are not our prophets, they were Israel’s prophets. Where do we find our part? In Christ. The prophets

were to the Jews speaking of One to come; but The One who came was not just to the Jews but to

the Gentiles also. So because of Him and in Him, the prophets also become our prophets because

they speak of our life, they speak of our Christ as much as the Jews. And beyond that there’s a great

mystery. Now the mystery is revealed in the New Covenant, and the mystery is that Christ is not Jew

nor Gentile, and that we who are in Him are no longer Jew or Gentile - we are One New Man. And

that is strictly a New Covenant understanding. It is an understanding that can only be given to you

by the Spirit of Truth.

So we must understand that we must come from knowing Him by the letter only, by the prophets

only, to knowing Him by the Spirit of Truth which confirms the letter. Does knowing Him by The

Spirit do away with the letter? Does it do away with the prophets? No! It confirms the prophets, it

confirms the letter! So we have come from a time of knowing Him only by the letter to knowing

Him by The Spirit who confirms the letter. And until you know Christ by the Spirit you do not really

understand the letter - there’s no way that you could, because it is the Spirit that confirms the letter

by revealing Christ in you; all that is part of Him - a New Covenant understanding. Now Paul

declares that there is an experience whereby the Spirit reveals Christ in you. And at that time you

realize "Christ is in me." But that is a time that just begins - it does not end. And when I say New

Covenant, new understanding, I’m speaking of that continual revealing of Him that gathers up in

itself and answers in itself everything of spiritual life. In other words, CHRIST begins to be your

understanding concerning all things that are spoken of by the prophets; in Him you see all things.

Basically we’re still talking about coming from words to the Living Word Himself. We are

considering Him in Whom only God has spoken. We looked at that in Hebrews 1: God has spoken

in diverse ways in the old, but in the New He has spoken in Son. So that the revealing of The Son

becomes our understanding of all that God has spoken. That is a very important statement for us to

consider. The revealing of The Son in you becomes your understanding of all that the prophets have

said. That is a tremendous understanding. 2 Peter 1:16-19, " For we have not followed cunningly

devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory,

when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I

am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the

holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,

as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your

hearts." What is Peter telling them? He isn’t telling them that they’ve got another Bible, he’s not

telling them that they’ve found a better prophecy hidden somewhere. He left that for the saints of the

modern day twentieth century to do! We’re the ones always digging up a better prophet, we’re the

ones always coming up with a better Bible. Peter is saying here are the prophecies and the prophets

prophesied of One to come. And wherever Peter or Paul quotes from the prophets it is always of One

who would come and suffer and die, and then be glorified. And that by Him Israel would be blessed,

and Israel would have a great name, and Israel would actually come forth in resurrection. That’s

what the prophets said. They had prophesied of great restoration, of great reconciliation. Peter is

saying we have seen Him of Whom the prophets speak, He has come! And because we have seen

Him, to us who have seen Him, the prophets have been made more certain. We have seen what they

said. In another place he says we are partakers of His divine nature.

In another place Paul says, we are quickened together and raised together and seated together with

Him - we have the prophets made more certain. He has not done away with the prophets: he has

confirmed the prophets. And now for the very first time, they are saying, we truly understand what

the prophets said when they said New Jerusalem, when they said New Priesthood; we understand

what they were saying. Somewhere along the line modern day Christianity has lost that

understanding because modern day theologians go back to the prophets and they are searching the

prophets, wondering when what the prophets said is going to come. Peter, John and Paul have

specifically already said, HE IS COME! The New Jerusalem is come! The City of God, the

restoration - it is come! Look at verse 20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is

of any private interpretation." What does that mean? One thing it means is you can’t just make it

say what you want it to say. You can’t just say, I don’t care what the rest of you think, God told me

this is what it means. No - it’s got to agree with what the New Covenant says it means. It’s got to

agree with Peter, it’s got to agree with Paul. It can’t be your private interpretation. That doesn’t

mean the Holy Spirit can’t reveal that Truth to you, but not as though you’re the only one who

knows. It has got to agree with the scripture! Two thousand years ago Peter said something; he said,

we have the prophets made more sure.

But to hear so much preaching today you’d think that Peter didn’t know what he was talking about;

you would think that Peter misled all of the Christians. And you’d think that the early Church did

not understand the Truth, because the prophets really had not been fulfilled, and what they’d said

hadn’t actually happened. But Peter says it did! And he was talking to the very people that the

prophets were writing to. Primarily, but not exclusively Peter’s ministry was to the Jews. Now

understand the prophets wrote concerning a restoration that we have part in, A New Creation, but

they wrote that to the Jews. It was for us all but it was written to them, and that was one of the

problems. They didn’t want to let anybody in; salvation is for the Jews - well, that’s true, but they

said salvation is for the Jews and nobody else - and that’s not true. And even their own prophets said

that. My point is we can’t now come up with all of these private interpretations. If it was so in the

day of Peter then it is so now. If Peter said the fulfillment has come in Christ, then it is so NOW.

Now every prophecy has at least this two fold fulfillment. It is fulfilled literally, materially; and it is

fulfilled spiritually and eternally. The spiritual and the eternal fulfillment is the greatest because that

effects all men, everywhere, for all ages. It effects you and I today. So primarily the fulfillment of

the prophecies is spiritual - it is in Christ Jesus. In other words, it’s in your heart. The old man is

done away in your heart, the New is revealed in your heart, and it is a continual dawning, a

continual coming. When Christ is revealed in you, then He continues to be revealed in you. Paul

calls this growing up in Christ. This is walking in the light as Christ is in the light, children of the

day. That day dawns in you, the day star, the light of that day arises in your heart. So in an eternal

understanding, an understanding that effects you and I, an understanding that makes these prophets

our prophets too - all that they said comes to be fulfilled in us by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the

indwelling Christ. So that we are the New Temple, so that we dwell in heavenly places, so that we

are made to be partakers of reconciliation. So that everything that was spoken of concerning Israel

has taken place in us as The New Israel; not as natural Jews, but Spiritual Israel by the circumcision

of our hearts, and by the new birth of the real and eternal Seed of Abraham - The Lord Jesus Christ

Himself!

Therefore in us the destruction of Israel takes place; the old temple is torn down, the old city is

destroyed. It is in us - the law with its commandments and ceremonies is done away. Why? How so?

Because it is fulfilled in Christ! The True Temple of God is come! The True City of God is come,

because He lives in His City, He is the light of His City. See, we have the prophecy made more sure.

Don’t let anybody take that away from you. It is established in Christ; it has been established in Him

on earth for two thousand years. It’s actually been established in Him for eternity, because The

Father always saw it that way. From before the foundation of the world He has chosen us in Christ

Jesus. In other words, before the foundation of the world He saw such a creation in His Son. And

when we are born again, we become part of that New Creation - immediately, instantly - you might

say in the twinkling of an eye; the work of the Spirit is just that quick!

Now all that the prophets said also has a literal, very material fulfillment. The real argument today

is over that fulfillment; whether what the prophets have said has happened on the earth. And this is

not the time or place to deal with that, but I will say, of far greater importance and significance is

this reality in Christ, because this is the reality that concerns you. This concerns a literal city called

Jerusalem, a literal building called the temple, and literal system called the priesthood - coming to an

end, being destroyed and finding its reality also in Christ. And the argument is here among

theologians. The problem with most of those theologians is they are so concerned with this material

they totally ignore the reality of the spiritual. And they insist that all the scripture in the New

Covenant must relate to the material, the literal, the natural. And the fact just is that there’s no way

that can be true, because that which is first is not spiritual; that which is second is spiritual.

Therefore the New Covenant is not natural, it is spiritual. So if we go to Peter, James, John, the New

Covenant writers, first and foremost they are confirming the spiritual. That’s why we can read these

books today and know they are for us. Otherwise you might as well just make a history book out of

it and throw it away! For you and I, what the prophets have said is fulfilled in Christ. Let men argue

about the natural all they want to; it does not change the reality that is ours in Christ.

You are His Body now! You are a New Creation now! You are in Christ Jesus now! Now you are

quickened by His Spirit, now you dwell in heavenly places! That’s why Paul is saying I want the

eyes of your understanding to be enlightened, I want to show you a fulfillment that only the Spirit of

God can teach you. This is the understanding Paul was interested in, because this is the eternal

understanding. This literal fulfillment at its best comes and goes in a short matter of space. But the

spiritual fulfillment is eternal - it never leaves! Here in Christ is the New Jerusalem, here is the City

of God, here is the mountain of God - here you are in Christ Jesus. This is the message of The New

Covenant, this is the fulfillment of what all the prophets had said. We have the prophets made more

sure! Glory to God!

Now in verse 19 he mentions something else. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy;

whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place..." In the old

covenant we see the figure of that, a light that shineth in a dark place. What do you think that might

be talking about? See, if it is fulfilled in Christ we must find the type of it in the old covenant. Here

is a very important truth: if it’s not in the old in type and figure then it’s not in Christ in fulfillment.

You can not just arbitrarily add to the prophets. If you can’t find a legitimate type of it, then there’s

no legitimate fulfillment. And modern day theologians are continually going beyond or adding to

what the prophets said. They are talking about something of which there is no type in the whole of

the old covenant. Peter is talking about something that is as a light in a dark place. To understand

what he’s talking about we have to go back and find it in the type. Peter says we have the prophecy

made more sure, we have an understanding, a comprehension, we have a Living Word that makes

the prophets more sure. Then he says you need to take heed to this understanding we have; you need

to take heed to this prophecy made more sure; you need to pay attention to it as a light that is shining

in a dark place. This fulfillment that we have, this realization of Christ to which we have come, this

Word that makes the prophets more sure is itself as a light that shines in a dark place - you need to

take heed to it.

Where does that come from in type? It goes to the very heart of the Tabernacle. The Holy of Holies

is where the Ark of the Covenant was. The Holy of Holies was the dark place. This is the type. This

Tabernacle sat in the midst of Israel, whether they were camping, whether they were marching - it

didn’t make any difference. They encamped all around it and it represented the very center of them.

It represented the center of the creation they were. That Tabernacle dwelt right in the midst of them.

It represented the heart and soul of Israel; it represented God’s Covenant with them. It was a type of

God dwelling in them. Now God is light, and where God is there is no darkness at all, but this is in

type. So the glory of God would come into this place. It didn’t stay there, but at certain times, as a

type and a shadow or figure of that which is to come, the glory of God would come. And this dark

place would be full of the light of the glory of God. It was so constructed that no other light source

could get in, and that this glory of God would not shine out. Under the old covenant, the glory of

God came but it did not remain, and it shined in a dark place, but it could not shine out into the

whole world.

But that all changes in Christ! He is the glory of God - Christ in you, the expected glory, the glory

that Israel had every reason to expect. That glory is now in you. So the type has its perfect

fulfillment, the more sure word is come - the abiding glory is in you! And when God takes away the

veil in our hearts, and we behold Christ in us, the glory of God, we are transformed by that very

glory. And we walk in the light as He is the light - God revealing His Son in us. More than that, we

become a light in a dark place. See, first of all there’s a place in you - the soul of man, created of

God for His dwelling place, having no life except the Spirit of God dwell there, and having no light

except Christ dwell there. But when Christ comes, the glory of God is in us. When the Father reveals

The Son, which is what this veil talked about; when he takes the veil off of your face and reveals

The Son, He fills our soul with the light of Himself! And our soul is transformed as we walk in that

light, and we become partakers of His divine nature.

Then something glorious happens; we become light in the world. He sets us in the midst of a dark

place and the same light that shines in this dark place(our soul) shines in this dark place (the world).

"Behold, your light is come! The glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Arise and shine!" This is what

the prophet said. Has that Light come? Most certainly it is come in those in whom Christ is being

revealed. Now the modern day theologians would keep us in darkness, but Peter is saying that light

is already come - we need to take heed to it, as a light that shineth in a dark place. Paul also

confirms this. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul says "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of

darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the

face of Jesus Christ." When was it that God commanded light to shine forth out of darkness? We

think that was the natural creation, but the Bible doesn’t say that. The Bible says in Genesis He

divided the light from the darkness, and the darkness was dark and the light was light; and He called

the darkness night, and He called the light day. It doesn’t say anything about the light shining forth

in the darkness there; it was there He divided the two. It was in the darkness of the Holy of Holies

where no natural light can shine. If no natural light can shine there, then this is not a natural

darkness either. It is not the darkness of sin; it is the darkness of God Himself answering to the

prophets that He dwelleth in darkness. That means that He dwells in a place where natural light can

not find Him. He Himself shines forth and is the light of that darkness.

Natural light, natural man’s understanding can not destroy the darkness in your soul. Natural

understanding does your soul no good. There’s only one light that can lighten your soul. That’s the

light that Christ is! I’m not just talking about a sermon about Him; I’m talking about Him. I’m not

just taking about a sermon about the glory of God, I’m talking about the glory of God Himself being

revealed in you! Now listen, I am not on my way to glory; GLORY IS IN ME! That’s what the

Bible says, that’s what the scripture declares. It’s hard for us to believe because we can’t see it with

our natural eyes, but the glory of God is not seen with natural eyes. It has nothing to do with natural

light. It shines in the dark place, it shines in our hearts. "For God, who commanded the light to

shine out of darkness..." Not into darkness, from within darkness, hath so shined in our hearts. He

doesn’t shine into them, He shines out from within! He reveals His Son within, and it’s an

outshining light. That glory first fills this temple, then the prophet said, shines into the whole earth;

the knowledge of the Lord filling the earth, the glory of the Lord filling the earth!

My question to most Christians is just this: how is the glory of God going to fill the earth until it fills

you? How is the glory of God going to fill the earth until it fills the real, true Temple of God? If you

want to look for the glory of God - fine. Look in the face of Jesus - 2 Corinthians 3:18.You’ll see

there a glory that will transform you and will make of you a light in a dark place. So we have the

prophets made more sure, as a light that shineth in a dark place. We’ve spent a lot of years filling the

earth with religion. When will we ever begin to fill it with the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God? We will do that when we really understand that what the prophets said has been fulfilled in

Christ, and we turn our hearts to CONSIDER HIM.

Part 6 - In Whom God’s Plan For Man

Is Realized

We are continuing in our study of all things finding their fulfillment in Christ. We’re going to

consider Him who is being spoken of in Hebrews 2. In that chapter we are considering Him in

Whom ALONE God’s plan and purpose for man is realized. In Him there is the realization, the

fulfillment of One New Man. This New Man is not a Jew and He is not a Gentile: this New Man is

Christ all and in all. You could diagram that using a circle: this New Man is Christ in total, and then

this Christ all and then in all. You and I who are in Christ, as members of His Body - Christ all and

Christ in all - ONE NEW MAN. That’s according to what the Bible says. One Bible commentary of

that verse , " Christ all and in all" says, "Christ, the fulness of the corporate whole." That’s what

we’ve said: Christ is all and He is in all with reference to this One New Man. You are in Him and

He is in you, and only in Christ does this kind of creation exist. Where else can you go and find that

there are no Jews or Gentiles? Everywhere in the natural creation you are going to find either a Jew

or a Gentile. But there’s one creation where none of the old remains. Where is that creation? IN

YOU!

Paul says in 2 Corinthians we know something. We know that if these earthy bodies were to

dissolve, we have a house or a body from heaven. What he is talking about is a natural body and a

spiritual body. One passes and the other remains. One is connected to dirt - natural creation; the

other is defined by a nature - its nature is spirit, its nature is the nature of Christ. So Paul there talks

about being clothed upon with the new house so that the old house is actually swallowed up in the

new house. What is he talking about? He’s talking about Christ being formed in us, and he’s talking

about the earthly being overcome, swallowed up by the spiritual. The nature of the house changes

from earthy to heavenly. This is so for us today. So it is in Christ that God’s intention and plan for

man is fulfilled. This is The Man that satisfies God. He is not satisfied with a Jew or a Gentile; He is

satisfied with ONE NEW MAN. In Hebrews 2 we see this.

Verse 5, "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we

speak." Now we’ve got to understand something, because immediately we want to know, what is

the world to come? The Bible does not speak of three worlds, it speaks of two - an old one and a new

one: an old age (in the Greek it is aeon) and King James translates it as "world", but "age" is

defined by the inhabitants of it. In other words, time doesn’t define age: the people that live in it

define age. When those people are gone that age is gone. That’s the reason in Christ this is called an

"endless age", an age without end, because the inhabitants of this world are never going to be gone.

This is a new world, a New Creation, it is eternal in the heavens and shall never pass away! This is

the world you have your citizenship in. This is a New Creation, this is the world to come. The word

"to come" does not have to it a future tense: in the Greek it means, "which is certain, which is sure".

That is to say, which is not passing, which is not old, which is not corrupt, which is not mortal. This

is the world whereof we speak, because of what is he speaking in Hebrews? In the whole book he’s

talking about coming from the old covenant to the New Covenant, old covenant world/New

Covenant World; old covenant age which is marked by time and days/New Covenant age which is

not described by time but by eternity.

Now listen, eternity does not mean a long time; Eternity means no time. That’s the truth. We can’t

imagine something that’s not measured by time, but eternity is no time. The God of Eternity is both

the beginning and the end. To Him the end is the same as the beginning and the beginning is the

same as the end. That’s hard for us to conceive; it is a New Creation with new laws, new values,

new understandings. This is the world to come, which is sure, which is always remaining. This is the

world of which we speak. God hasn’t given this to the administration of angels. The old world was

by administration of angels, the Bible says that. But here it is not so. The angels desire to look into

these things and cannot. They can only understand what we manifest because they are a different

creation. Think about that! Christians are always running around wanting to see an angel! And here

are all the angels of God desiring to see Salvation! It is given to the Church to manifest the wisdom

of God before the angels, ages without end. So this world is not given to the angels, it is by the

administration of The Spirit as One New Man. That is verse 5.

Verse 6, "But one in a certain place testified , saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

Or the son of man, that thou visitest him?" This is spoken of by the psalmist concerning natural

man. "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and

honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection

under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under

him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." Now you have to understand he’s switched

views here. The psalmist was talking about the natural man in verse 6. The writer of Hebrews is

answering the question beginning at verse 7. Beginning at verse 7 we see God’s answer in Christ His

Son. We will see that Christ is the One that is made lower than angels, and Christ is the One

crowned with glory and honor. I want to show us something, because the Hebrews writer is talking

about two fulfillments concerning man. Both of these fulfillments are in Christ: one of them is with

regard to the earth and the other is with regard to the heavens. One of them has to do with His

intention being seen in the earth, the other has to do with His intention being seen in the heavens.

And he’s saying that this has not yet been seen in the earth, then he’s going to say, BUT WE SEE

JESUS IN THE HEAVENS, and in Him, in the heavens, we see this thing fulfilled! That isn’t

contradictory, it’s just applied in two different directions. So here’s the answer to the psalmist - why

are you dealing with man, and the phrase, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Christ came as

this son of man, Christ came to show very visibly what God intended man to be. Unfortunately that

even today is not clearly seen in the earth, because The Church is not clearly making it manifest in

the earth. But it is seen in the heavens!

Henceforth the prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in the earth as it is already in the

heaven." So there is both a note of disappointment in this chapter, and a note of victory. Verse 7

says, "Thou madest him a little lower..." He’s talking about Christ Jesus, the Son of Man. "You’ve

crowned him with glory and honour and set him over the works of thy hands." Jesus says My

glory is to finish the work that My Father has given Me to do. "Thou hast put all things in

subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not

put under him." Because This Son was obedient unto death God highly exalted Him and gave Him

a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow! In another

place Paul says that He hath raised Him up and seated Him at His own right hand, far above

principalities and powers, and has placed all things under His feet. This speaks of Christ in the

Resurrection, when He is finished, where He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Whether that reality has been manifested on the earth or not, it is so in the heavens. If it were not so

in the heavens, it could not be manifested in the earth. What it amounts to is this: The Church is

sitting around waiting for God to do something that He has already done, waiting for Christ to be

something that He already is. The Church is the spiritual feet of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Beautiful

are the feet of them that carry the gospel." But The Church will not confess in the earth as it is in the

heavens. We sit around and say one day He’ll be Lord: The Father has already said He’s Lord - HE

IS LORD OF LORDS! We sit around and say one day His name will be great: The Father has

already exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name! We are still looking in the

earth for what we can only find in the heavens. We are supposed to find the Truth in the heavens and

manifest it on the earth, but The Church is trying to find the Truth in the earth and go to heaven!

We’ve got it just backwards! We are raised up in Him NOW! We are to see The Truth as it is in

Him NOW! And as a light in a dark place, we are to manifest that heaven in the earth, that kingdom

in the earth. We are to manifest that name in the earth. And so the writer says in the end of verse 8,

"But now we see not yet all things put under him." It’s already put under Him, the verse above

said it’s put under Him. It has been subjected to Him - that’s the work of The Cross.

What is it that He didn’t defeat at The Cross? Of The Cross He said, "Now is the judgment of the

world." Of The Cross He said, "Now is the prince of this world cast out." At The Cross death was

swallowed up in victory. What is it that He didn’t defeat? What is it that remains to be done? God

raised Him up from among the dead, God seated Him at His own right hand, God gave Him a name

above every name. By the Holy Spirit you are translated into the kingdom of God - it’s a spiritual

kingdom. What is it we’re waiting on? What is it we are still looking for? You need to go out of this

place in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! You need to go out of this place manifesting reality! Not

trying to find it in the earth - manifesting it in the earth! If somebody out there is looking for The

Truth - show it to them! Bring them into the liberty of the sons of God! That’s real Salvation, not

just religion!

Now the writer of Hebrews had a very literal fulfillment in mind as well when he said, "But we see

not yet all things put under him." He was talking about the fulfillment of the destruction of Judaism,

he was talking about the fall of the city, the fall of the temple, and the destruction of Judaism as a

system. And at the time Hebrews was written that had not yet taken place. It was accomplished in

the heavens; in Christ Jerusalem had fallen, and a New Jerusalem had come forth; in Christ the veil

was done away; in Christ the old covenant was gone. But that had not been manifested in the earth

yet. And it wouldn’t be manifested for about 40 years. It is my opinion that this happened in 70 A.D.

when the Roman armies, the power of the last of Daniel’s vision of the beast destroyed Jerusalem,

burned the temple, dug up the stones, carried them to the farthest corners of Judea, made trash heaps

out of them, brought in oxen and plows, plowed up the ground where the literal temple had been,

and it was as the prophet had said, Zion, literal Zion became a plowed field. All of this as a result of

The Cross, but spiritually this happened at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. That’s what

this writer is about to say.

He’s saying though we haven’t seen this Lordship manifested in the earth yet because the Jews, the

whole religious system is still saying, No, He’s not Christ; His enemies, which were those of His

own household, the Jewish religion had not yet been totally put under His feet. In earth that hadn’t

been done; in heaven it had been done. The Jews had not only been put under His feet, the Jews had

been done away with! Because in heaven there are no Jews and there are no Gentiles: there is One

New Man! That victory remains until this very day. You can argue about the date and time if you

want to, but you can’t argue about this heaven. Here the victory is established and here the victory is

eternal. Here He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings! But if we’re ever to manifest The Truth in the

earth it must be This Truth that is established in the heavens. So the writer says, although we do not

yet see, as to the earth, all things put under Him, "BUT WE SEE JESUS". Verse 9, " But we see

Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory

and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Verse 9 is simply

verifying verse 7. He is saying we see Jesus in that way.

Let me paraphrase this. But we see Jesus, the same Jesus who for a little while was made lower than

angels for the suffering of death. He was just made low for a little while for the suffering of death.

But the emphasis of that verse is this: remember he said we don’t see in this earth everything under

Him, but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. The same Jesus that was for a little while

made lower, the same Jesus who for a little while suffered death. But we see that Jesus glorified! We

see Him crowned with glory and honour. That’s a true translation of that verse. He was made lower

for a little while, he died, He suffered for this very reason, that He might bring many sons unto

glory. But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, This One who brings with Him many sons

unto glory - we see Him. So what the writer is saying is though the earthly system has not yet

accepted this, nonetheless we see Jesus crowned in heaven with glory and honour!

We see Jesus who has brought many sons unto glory! The next verses confirm that. It says , we see

Jesus who is the sanctification of all brethren. We see Jesus who is not ashamed to call us brethren.

We see Jesus who has made of us One New Man. We see all things fulfilled in Jesus. We see in Him

God’s full intention for man. Verse 11 says that: "For both he that sanctifieth (that’s Christ) and

they who are sanctified (that’s us) are all of one (that’s God the Father): for which cause he is

not ashamed to call them brethren." What is that? ONE NEW MAN! And the writer is saying

though it may not be evidenced in the earth at this time: the old temple is still standing, the old

Jerusalem is still there, the system is still going on; nonetheless we see Jesus crowned with glory and

honour. We see those that are in Him as One with Him. We find the full intention of God fulfilled in

Christ! And what was true then is true now. The old city actually is torn down, that old temple is

torn down; it was made manifest that The Church was the true Seed of God, because He suffered

that false seed to be destroyed. As a religion it was destroyed, as a priesthood it was destroyed, as a

kingdom it was destroyed. He has brought forth a New Kingdom in the heavens. If there’s anything

that is waiting, it is that the earth is waiting for The Church to manifest the reality of Him. This is

called the manifestation of the sons of God.

So we are considering Him. I trust that the Lord is dealing with us to consider Him. Let us set our

hearts upon knowing Him, that we ourselves may shine as a light in a dark place, that we are not

wandering around in darkness looking for Truth, but we have found The Truth as it is in Jesus, and

become witnesses of that in the earth.

Part 7 - The Restoration of All Things

Now we want to sum up what we’ve been dealing with. Turn to Acts 3 verse 17-26. This is the

setting of what I want to consider. Basically we’ve said that The Cross divides the old covenant from

the New Covenant. THE CROSS DIVIDES ALL THINGS: it divides them either into things of

darkness or things of light, things of death or things of life, the old covenant and the New Covenant.

Now we’re going to talk about the restitution or the restoration of all things. It is extremely

important to understand this. When the Bible speaks of "all things" it speaks of all things in

reference to itself: all things that have been lost in reference to the scripture. We are going to see the

restoration of all things that have been lost, but these "all things" are in reference to the scripture.

We have to have a frame of reference for a term like "all things" and our frame of reference is the

scripture. Doesn’t that make sense? I know a lot of modern day Christians to whom that doesn’t

make sense. They seem to have no frame of reference for the term "all things". But the scripture

itself explains what "all things" mean. So before The Cross we could use the term "all things lost".

We must understand that all things that are lost are found in Christ.

Jesus said I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost. That doesn’t just refer to people; it refers

to a plan of God, it refers to promises, it refers to a purpose, it refers to a creation. But all of that is

described by the scripture. So again, "all things" must be defined in reference to the scripture. We’re

not talking about earthworms or bugs - all things. We say they are part of "all things". No, "all

things" in reference to the scripture. The scripture had nothing to do with bugs; bugs have nothing to

do with redemption. It’s all things in reference to the scripture. We’ve been seeing all things that are

lost are restored in Christ. That’s what Peter is talking about. Now if we look at "all things" in the

framework of the scripture then we have to understand that "all things" is referring to that of which

Israel itself was a type. Everything that is lost with regard to Israel finds its full restoration in Christ.

Throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Isaiah we read continually of God

bringing judgment upon Israel and then restoration for Israel; of God bringing Israel to destruction

and then bringing them forth in resurrection. Over and over and over you read that.

So again I’m saying "all things" is all things that the prophets have said. That’s what we’re going to

read: all things that the prophets have said are going to be fulfilled and find their fulfillment in

Christ. That’s the "all things" we’re talking about. And what did the prophets talk about? They

talked about a judgment upon Israel because of their leaving the Lord, but then they talked about the

blessings returning to Israel because of the promise of God. And Peter is simply telling these Jews

here on the day of Pentecost that those blessings have come in the Person of Jesus Christ, who they

crucified! Therefore he tells them to repent, according to the words of the prophet and receive the

times of refreshing. Times of refreshing are not yet to come, they are come NOW in Christ Jesus!

I’m amazed at how modern theologians, modern Christians can read the Bible and see the

judgments, read about the promise of restoration, and somehow or another do not understand that is

in Christ. Modern day Christians are still looking for a restoration of Israel! Peter stood up and told

Israel, he told the leadership of Israel in that day - YOUR RESTORATION HAS COME! And you

have ignored Him! Now turn and repent!

There isn’t another restoration coming. There isn’t another Christ coming. He’s already come!

Either that or you and I are not saved and our salvation is a joke. The whole purpose of you and I

having the scripture is that we might understand what we now have in Christ Jesus, that we may

understand that everything that sin destroyed is made alive in Christ - not someday - NOW! If that’s

not true, then what are we doing preaching? What right have we to tell anybody that Jesus is Lord, if

He’s not really Lord? The whole power of the gospel depends upon us understanding all things

restored in Christ. Don’t we understand that this was what the Jews could not accept. Peter says this

is what you must accept or be destroyed. Acts 3:23, " And it shall come to pass, that every soul,

which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." That looks pretty

clear, doesn’t it? He says THE prophet that YOUR prophet said would come, has come! And it shall

come to pass that everyone that will not hear Him will be destroyed from among the people. The

Jews understood themselves to be "the people", that was a title they gave unto themselves. We are

"the people"; everybody else was considered to be a heathen, a Gentile. So Peter is speaking to them.

Until the time of restoration comes for Israel, the Gentile has no salvation, the prophets say that:

Jews first, then the Gentiles. Consequently if the time of restoration for the Jews did not come with

Christ, then our salvation did not come with Christ either. But the restoration of all things

concerning Israel, concerning the scripture did come with Christ, and the door of salvation was

opened to us.

The thought we’re talking about is what we said earlier: consider Him, in Whom God’s purpose and

intention for all mankind is fulfilled. The point is just this: the restoration, though it applied to Israel

was not just for Israel. The New Temple was not for Jews, but for Jews and Gentiles - One New

Man. But the restoration in Christ was for the Jews just as much as for the Gentiles. It can’t be for

one and not for the other. What we’re seeing is that God’s intention for all man is fulfilled in Christ -

Jews and Gentiles. There’s not some special salvation for Jews, there’s not some special salvation

for Gentiles. The Bible will not support that. Christ is the fulfillment for God toward all men. Paul

says it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re a Jew or whether you’re a Gentile. And then

again he says, In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile! God’s plan for restoration which was typed in

Israel; God’s plan for restoration of which Israel was a figure, is for all man. Yes, for the Jews first,

because God used them as a type, as a figure. The Jews first, then the Gentiles, and that proves the

point. If Christ is not full restoration, if He is not the restoration of all things for the Jews, then He’s

not the restoration of all things for anybody. To this very day the Jews are looking for another

temple - The Temple has already come! They are looking for another city - The City has already

come! They are still waiting for a true prophet - The Prophet and The Truth have already come!

All things that were lost to man, summed up in Israel were fully restored in Christ. Verse 17, "And

now, brethren I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." What did they do?

Read the first part of this chapter, especially verse 13-15. They killed the Prince of Life! "And killed

the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." Now they

had a prophecy concerning this Prince coming. Can you imagine how they felt when Peter stood up

and said He came and you killed Him! Can you blame them for saying no we didn’t - He wasn’t the

true Prince! What aggravates me is that modern day Christian theology agrees with them. They say

The Prince hasn’t come either. Peter said The Prince came and you killed Him! But thanks be unto

God - GOD HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD! Peter said that: God has raised Him

from the dead and I declare Him unto you! Several thousand believed that and came to that Prince

that very day.

Verse 18, " But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that

Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." Peter is referring to the prophets who had prophesied that

this Christ would come, that He would suffer and He would die. And they also went on to say that

He should be raised up. This prophecy goes all the way back to Abraham and the Seed, where God

told Abraham concerning His Seed, that in you Abraham and in your seed, all the nations will be

blessed. Jesus comes along and claims Himself to be that Seed, but to the surprise of the Jews he

says that very Seed first must die before it can be a blessing to all the nations. The Jews had a real

problem with The Cross. Many Christians today have a real problem with The Cross. They can not

understand that until a thing is dead it can not be brought to eternal life; that until we die, we can not

live again in Him. And that is not a natural death, but the death of The Cross. The very judgment

that the prophets prophesied upon Israel took place at The Cross. Here is where the Temple was

effectively destroyed. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." At The Cross is

where the temple was destroyed. Destroy the temple and you have in effect, destroyed everything

Israel stands for in the Bible. That statement is scripturally correct. The judgment of Israel came

with The Cross. They brought the judgment upon themselves, the prophets said they would.

The promise of God, that He would restore them is in the Resurrection of Christ, because not only

did He say Destroy this temple, but He said in three days I will raise it again. They refused to hear it

and understand it. The disciples really didn’t understand it themselves. After The Cross, after the

death, burial and resurrection Jesus came and for forty days He showed Himself to His disciples.

Listen - this is really important. He didn’t show Himself to one Jew outside of His disciples, he

didn’t go into the markets and heal people. He never went back into the temple, because it was in

actuality, destroyed. He wouldn’t even recognize it. He never went back to it. Now in the natural it

was there, but in reference to the scripture it was destroyed, in reference to the prophets it was

destroyed. The veil was rent and The New Tabernacle of God had come forth in Resurrection

power. He did not show this to the Jews, he showed this to His own disciples. He met them on the

roadways, He met them in homes, He met them by the seashore and He revealed Himself to them by

the scripture. In the 24th chapter of Luke you can read that. It says that He declared Himself out of

all of the prophets, out of the law and out of the psalms. In other words, out of all of the scripture He

declared Himself.

Now, after the day of Pentecost when the saints of God are sealed by the Holy Spirit, Peter is

standing up declaring this same Jesus. He is telling the people exactly what Jesus told them in the

Resurrection. During that forty days Jesus showed Himself to be the restitution of everything the

prophets had ever spoken. He showed Himself by infallible proofs to be alive; not only to be alive

but to be the fulfillment of all the scripture had written. And now Peter is declaring this same Jesus:

that this same Jesus has come in the power of the Holy Spirit and now dwells in them; that the

Kingdom of God is come and now is in their midst; that the restitution promised by the prophets is

upon them. He doesn’t say one day it will be - it is here NOW, because he followed it with these

words, "therefore repent NOW." If the Kingdom of God is not come now, why repent now? If the

restitution of all things that the prophets said is not fulfilled in Christ, why should they repent? But

Peter declares it is come, therefore repent, so that it will be to you as the prophets have said, so that

you will receive your time of refreshing according to the words of the prophets. The prophets said

He shall send; and Peter identifies Him as Jesus Christ - not just The Prince, not just The Messiah,

Peter says Jesus Christ. He will send JESUS CHRIST.

Verse 20, "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you." When was He

preached to them? Look at verse 18, "But those things, which God before had shewed by the

mouth of all his prophets..." He just repeats that in verse 20. "And he shall send Jesus Christ,

which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution

of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world

began." The heaven must receive Him until the time that all things that the prophets have spoken be

restored, be fulfilled. Modern day theologians, and I emphasize "modern day" because this teaching

only came about in the last 200 years with the doctrine called "dispensationalism" or futurism, fail

to understand that Peter is saying that what the prophets have said, though it has remained hidden,

and though heaven hasn’t revealed what the prophets said, is now come - the restoration is now

come! You can not separate that from Peter’s declaration that you killed Him and God raised Him

up, so now repent because what the prophets said would come - has come! And unless you miss it -

REPENT! Peter is declaring that what the prophets said is come in the Lord NOW!

Look at verse 22, "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise

up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall

say unto you." Peter is relating this statement to what he just said concerning the restitution of all

things. He is trying to show them that what the prophets said are fulfilled in Christ. Why is he using

the prophets here? Because the Jews have rejected Jesus, they denied The Resurrection. Peter is

using their own prophets, trying to persuade them - CHRIST IS COME! What else would he use?

He’s talking to Jews, so he reminds them of what the prophets said. And they understood which

prophet he was talking about. Most Christians don’t, but Peter is quoting here primarily from two

prophets - Isaiah and Habbakuk, but actually they agree with all the prophets. Here are some

references: Isaiah chapters 11 and 35. That is exactly what Peter is talking about here - times of

refreshing, restoration from the Lord, a righteous Branch being lifted up.

Look at Isaiah 11:1, " And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch

shall grow out of his roots." Verse 10, " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which

shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be

glorious." Basically that whole eleventh chapter is declaring the restitution of all things for Israel.

And Peter is saying it is come in Christ! He is saying Christ is that Branch, He is that Prince, He is

that refreshing, He is that rest! You need look no farther - the prophets are fulfilled in Him! And the

prophets said it is also for the Gentiles; unto Him shall the Gentiles seek.

Finally Acts 3:22, "...a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you..." Now the term "raise

up" is from a Greek word meaning "resurrection". Peter is proving all things by the resurrection,

and even so must we. This is how we must consider Him - that all things have been restored in

Christ, and they have been proved by His Resurrection. CONSIDER HIM! Amen.