Ye Are Come to Zion - Part 1 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Heritage of Faith in Hebrews 12

The key phrase to our meditation at this time is in the twelfth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and at verse twenty-two. But ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable hosts of angels to the general assembly and church of the past born who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirit of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.

It is only the first clause of that sentence which is taken as covering what we have to say although perhaps later we shall proceed to other parts of the whole statement. The words are ye are come and for some of the time in which we are together I believe it is the Lord's will that we shall be occupied with the heritage of faith.

It is understood by all who have read and considered this document called the letter to the Hebrews that it is a most momentous document in the history of God's counsels for it sees the taking up of all that is in the Old Testament especially as to Israel and finding its full and final meaning in Christ and in His Church.

The letter or document covers a great deal of ground. It covers the three great sections of the Old Testament from Genesis to Exodus forming the first great section of the Bible from Exodus to the end of the book of Judges the second great section and from the book of Judges to the end of the Old Testament at Malachi all those sections are taken up and are covered by this comparatively short document.

And all that is found in each one of them and in all of them together is shown to be gathered into fulfilled consolidated in the person and work of Christ and transmitted to His Church so that in Christ we have this immense heritage we inherit all.

There could hardly be a fuller and greater content in so small a fragment of only three words ye are letter. I prefer to call it a document because such it is in very truth a document for the Church's inheritance containing the heritage of believers in this dispensation.

This document sets us on the divine road with God God from eternity on the moon moving forward in purpose a caravan of travelers on that road Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Melchizedek Joseph Moses Joshua Gideon Barak Samuel David the priests the kings the prophets they are all here in the caravan on the road of God.

It touches upon some of the things that we find on the journey such as the tabernacle and its ordinances. All it says that all these who were of this great divine caravan on the road of God from eternity to eternity were in a quest in a pursuit of an inheritance.

They looked. They not only looked but they searched. They had left everything behind were on the road in quest of an inheritance. The whole of the aspect of those ages is forward seekers pursuers on track with God.

And in this letter tells us that we are come to that which was the object of their quest. Through all those ages we have the heritage for which they set out. They received from us because God had some better thing for us that they without us apart from us should not be complete.

And what this letter says overall that is that all all that is no longer future it is present so far as entering into it is concerned it is present. It is present to our apprehension. Ye are come. They were seeking pursuing and coming.

Ye are come. God started on his road. These men joined with him. God has reached the end of his road and we are with him at the end of the road. Tremendous thing that is here in this letter. Ye are come.

We have arrived. The caravan has arrived. Ye are the whole of that heritage of faith. For these were all men and women of faith. The whole of that heritage of faith is now present for our entering in ye are come now that needs breaking up.

Genesis, Hebrews, and God's Completed Work

Take the first phase of it. For in the first place this document corresponds to the first two chapters of Genesis that is quite fatal. How does Genesis begin? In the beginning God. How does Hebrews begin?

God who at hundred times and in divers manner speaks in the beginning God God in that particular it corresponds to Genesis. Then in Genesis God is revealed as the great designer the great projector the great worker upon his design which he has projected and the great perfecter of his work.

And God saw everything that he has made and God said it is done. The letter to the Hebrews corresponds to that in every particular it begins with God. It shows God as the great designer the great projector the great worker and the great perfecter.

We shall see that as we proceed. But the the great point is this. God completed the creation. God completed the creation. Then having completed the creation he planted a garden that was subsequent to the whole creation.

And having planted a garden he put men into it. Now it does not say that God created man in the garden. It does say that God put man into the garden. Man was a part of the creation as a whole. The garden was subsequent to the whole creation and to man.

Man in the garden is something within the whole. You may not see any value in that for the moment. But you'll see before long that is not just an observation. Man was put into firstly a completed work a completed work.

Everything was done everything was prepared then as a completed thing it was provided for man as his heritage his inheritance. Let me repeat man was put into a completed work to possess it to exploit it to develop it and then to build up a family corresponding to and suited to the kind of world into which he had been put.

It was a heritage provided by God for man to be held and to be enjoyed through faith in God through faith in the divine benefactor. For man was an heir of God not in his own right but by the benefaction.

God centered everything in man. Man was placed on a basis of potential sonship. And man was destined for glory. If you could take all that have it all before you in mind and take it into the letter to the Hebrews what you would find is this that what was material and temporal and palpable in Genesis is in every particular present in a spiritual way in this document.

We could not have a more glorious message more heart-ravaging message than that which comes out of a contemplation of this spiritual correspondence to God's activities in the creation. Let us look at it again.

Everything for man's glorious destiny is first of all wrought out by God himself. Yes wrought out by God in Christ. It is an accomplished thing a perfected work. We use the phrase so lightly the finished work finished work and the perfected man all before man gets a look in.

Man has no place. He did not have any place at all in what God was doing up to the point of God saying it is very good. Man had no place and no part in it and he never has had and never will have. God independently took this whole matter into his own hands and did it himself.

And when the thing was an accomplished act the creation was there in its beauty and glory and perfection. He gave it as an inheritance to man. He put man into that that is dear friends it is the great message of this letter.

Indeed it is the great message of the New Testament. But it is the thing that is here so patently and gloriously in Christ God has wholly fully consummated the redemption the new creation. And you and I have no part whatever in making that but you and I are called to inherit.

It is presented to faith good to God that we the Lord's people more utterly apprehended this nothing to add to it nothing to add to it. God has done it. Everything let me repeat. For man's glorious destiny a destiny which was determined before man was made has been wrought out by God in Christ before man comes on the scene.

God completed this heritage for man glorious perfect potential that is containing unspeakably wonderful and great possibilities eternal a heritage of light of life of rest of peace. Things are implicit in the first creation and then they are taken up in the spiritual way and offered to us to our faith not as something still to be done but something done.

God did speak life and God has given and what is true of that is true in every other respect. I don't want to head home if I were to introduce a parenthesis here by way of giving emphasis to the importance of this matter I should say again that as we approach the end of the dispensation which we are doing most certainly and most rapidly God will seek to come back to his full thought concerning a people and to bring a people back to his full thought that he will finish the dispensation consummately.

If that is true then a word like this is apropos of the time that you and I first of all and the Lord's people wherever they are whosoever will shall enter into the wonderful rest and peace and assurance and power and victory and life and liberty and glory of the fact the simple basic inclusive act that God has in Christ that is bound up with man's glorious destiny and has offered it to faith all this to try to make effectual what God has made effectual to try in some way to to do this thing make it good.

We've got to get adjusted over this matter. The matter of our responsibility comes out presently. But it does not and will not for one moment take away from this that God was true in the creation of this world that God did it all right of his own hand independently and self-sufficiently and then gave it as a heritage to man simply on the basis the basis of faith in him as the great benefactor.

What is true in that connection is here in the word shown to be exactly true in the much higher realm than the material in the temple in the spiritual and the eternal God has done that that is all gathered into this.

Faith Receiving the Finished Heritage

This we dare not call little the outcome. You note the turn of everything at that point on the little word back back. Oh up to that point everything was a quest everything was a search everything was a longing an aspiration an effort.

And the point of that it's here all that is here present in the person and work of the Lord Jesus offered to you as a completed thing. The whole thing is wrapped up and offered to you like an object with all its immense meaning and potentiality it's offered to us through faith.

Man was the heir of all God's work. And this letter says as God was true of the man then is spiritually true of the believer. Now the believer as the new creation man in Christ is placed is placed in the heritage.

He did not choose me but I chose you. I'm not going now to launch out on all that there is in the word to show that it was not of our choosing or of our running or of our deciding at all. Any decision that ever we made regarding Christ and his work did not take its rise in ourselves.

It came from God faith if we are the Lord if we are the Lord. It is not because at one time the whole thing had its commencement in what we call deciding of Christ. Where did the deciding come from. That was not the beginning.

There was something behind the deciding and we well know it place in the heritage. We have may have come by various ways and various means. The history of our coming may be as diverse and varied as the number of people who have come.

But behind it all was the action of sovereign grace. We have to say today that we are not where we are because we determined to be because we chose and because there was a moving on God's part. The initiative was with him.

He pursued us he apprehended us. Wonderful thing to know that God has put us into Christ created in Christ Jesus. That is the phrase created in Christ Jesus. There was place in the heritage. Then the garden became significant of several things.

The Garden as Personal Responsibility

The garden signifies firstly the defining the defining of man's existence. That's one thing what I mean is and this is a throwback upon what I said a little while ago about the garden being subsequent to the whole creation.

The garden represents or signifies the narrowing down of everything to man's personal life and responsibility. That is man was not just a kind of general person roaming about the world. It was not just a general idea man a kind of freelance in the creation.

No. God definitely defines something it is called God in the midst of the whole creation. He marks this out he hedges this about and he puts man inside of that hedge inside of those gates. And so defines man's defines man's life narrows the whole matter of man's life down to something quite concrete quite definite definite taking it away from generality putting it there right at the centre so that everything became immediate and where man was concerned see all this that God had done all this wonderful work that had been completed by God and had God's blessing and approval upon it had to be made something very concrete where the man was concerned.

So we're about to put him into that wonderful world and let him just wander about and live out his life in some indefinite way in a kind of general line of things. But no God says all this must be focused and the man must come into a personal definite immediate responsibility to what I have done.

And the garden represents that something very immediate and concrete of the relationship between the heritage and the man. Do you grasp that? Perhaps if we follow that on with the spiritual application become more clear you see what God really said when he put man in the garden right at the centre and heart of the creation was this is your personal matter.

This is your personal matter has to do with you and you have to do with this whole matter. So it is you see with Christ and his work in Christ personally and by Christ vocationally or officially God has perfected the new creation.

God has completed everything and entered into his rest. And we know concerning his unhe has pronounced his verdict very good my beloved in whom I am well pleased God has reached his end and his rest is all finished.

But now God says look here. That's not something of a general doctrine and teaching. That's something that relates to you personally and individually in an immediate way. It's something that you have got to take hold of as your personal heritage.

The whole question of responsibility comes in there. You see it comes down upon the matter all this God has done. What have I done with it. What attitude have I taken toward it. And dear friend this is more meaningful and important than perhaps you are grasping.

And for the moment the point may be this. You believe in what is called the finished work that a face which lies at the very root and foundation of your Christian faith the finished work of you agree with all that I have said about God independently doing this thing right out from himself.

You agree that the new creation in Christ personally has the approval of God upon it the expression of his prophet. Then why look so miserable. Why all the time be going about with forgive the phrase that hang dog expression about about your salvation whether you will ever arrive and get through and come to glory.

I mean this when when Adam was put in that garden and looked around and said is all this for me. Does all this belong to me. Is this mine. There was a man full of amazement full of wonder full of thankfulness.

And probably the one expression every day. Isn't it wonderful. Isn't it wonderful. Just look. Is it less so in Christ. Is it less so in the new creation. Is it less so in the spiritual than in the temple.

Being defective about our apprehension about our faith. About our faith you see this document is the document of faith. First of all something defective about our faith apprehension. Yes we rebuke our hearts.

We yes we rebuke our hearts we we are ashamed. And well we should be there ought dear friends to be more of the wonder of it all more of the worship. We ought to be people who know more of the rest. So God did not leave this thing in kind of general terms.

He reduced it the whole new creation. He reduced to a very practical proposition when He made or planted a garden and put man into that. He said now look here. This all has to do with you. All has to do with you.

And you have to do with all this wonderful. So it is with Christ and His Word. That was the first significance of the garden the garden. Why after the creation God proceeded to plant a garden and then to put man not in the whole thing in general but to reduce it to concrete practical terms and say look here.

This is not some abstract wide world remote sort of thing. This is something that comes very near to you. The second significance of the garden was that it was to be man's home. Man's home. What a home it would have been if man had made it his home.

He had to be turned out. He lost his home. What is home. What is home. Home to justify its name to be true to its real meaning means to begin with it's the place of rest. The place of rest see Christ is our paradise.

It's God's way of making this great universe redeemed concrete concrete practical presenting to us. And Christ is our home. We're keeping true to the text of the letter. The whole letter of entering into rest is one which the writer dwells upon very strongly and very fully entering into rest.

God entered into his rest. God entered into his rest and he put man right into the heart of that which was his own rest. Made that man's home or made man's home at the heart of that rest. Come unto me all ye that labor to me the heavy laden I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

And you shall find rest unto your soul. That's only saying in other words he's our home. He's come home our wanderings our wanderings our circumventive. He might have been a wanderer in the great world but he was given a home instead of being a wanderer.

He was given a home as God has done a great thing. But he has not just left us to wander about in his great thing. He's brought us to his son that his son shall be our home. In terms of rest. He is our rest because he is God's rest home if it is what it is meant to be true to the word is the place of man's pleasure pleasure.

He has pleasure there all his pleasant thoughts are bound up with his home with his joy. Well these things need not take much time in their spiritual application. If Christ has really become our home in terms of rest has he not become the very centre and sphere of our delight of our pleasure.

You know how true that is in the natural when a new home is being set up. Why everything else everything else is put up with got through as quickly as possible in order to get that home make that home.

The dominating thought and pleasure is that home such should be such should be our attitude toward Christ in person. And Christ's worth our pleasure our delight. A home is not a lodging. A home is an abiding place.

Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh of course spoke much parabolically and I can cannot think other than when he said in my father's house are many abiding places. Mentions. The old version says he was speaking in spiritual terms.

Literally mentions don't interest some of us a little bit. They come to the place where we can abide forever and go no more out and find eternal satisfaction and rest. That does appeal to us. And where in all God's universe will that be.

If it is not in Christ he is our abiding place. And therefore therefore the writer does introduce into this letter over against the instability of these Jewish believers over against their variableness.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. It's a contrasting statement you see. For they they were not the same they had professed and moved away from their profession. They had taken a position and let it go.

They had been drawn away persuaded away argued away. They were not settled. But Jesus Christ was the apostle the same. And isn't that something to rejoice in that he is not moving changing his position variable.

He has the attributes of God with whom there is no variableness. Neither shadow casts how many shadows come into light by the unreliableness. Never be sure by the shadow cast the place of a well that comes out later as we go on.

So Christ should be all this to us because he is all this to God. God has come to rest. God has come to settlement and certainty in the person and work of his son. God finds all his pleasure in him and all his interest in him.

All that and God has given him in all these terms and senses to us as a heritage. The challenge to faith isn't it is Christ to us rest delight and pleasure our abiding place our one absorbing interest.

That was what the garden was to Adam to begin with all that and it foreshadowed Christ he is our paradise. The garden makes signified man's vocation man's vocation. God gave it to man as a heritage and told him to look after it to develop its potentialities to realize all its possibilities made it his life work.

Christ as the Believer's Vocation

Man. Now some of you don't pat yourselves on the back. But first man was a gardener. First vocation in this world was gardening. It was man's life work. It was the avenue of his self-expression that could be used.

That phrase could be used perfectly safely then in those situations at that time in unfallen man self-expression because was his one perfectly safe to express yourself if the Lord is everything inside to be expressed the way of his self-expression the way of his own development.

For while things were perfect as to nature they were not complete as to possibility either in man or in the creation perfect yet to be perfected in the sense of brought to full stature. And the garden was the sphere and means of man's coming to full development himself and bringing out all that was there potentially of the work of God.

What a field that opens. Dear friends doesn't it where we and Christ are concerned. Christ is our vocation. Christ is the occasion of our expression of all that is in us. Christ is the means of our enlargement our growth by exercise upon Christ.

See the principles are all there. That is what is being said here in this letter in other language in other ways and forms. It's all here in substance and meaning and principle. This is the meaning of our being Christ.

He is our vocation our vocation our life work our supreme interest our means of our own spiritual development and enlargement. And for the present I must close with this one other word. The garden was man's probation the sphere and occasion of his testing his truth.

Faith as the Test of Inheritance

Here responsibility is introduced. Note the focal point of responsibility responsibility. Responsibility was not to do anything for his own salvation to provide anything to make up his glorious heritage.

It was all complete. He was put into it as a completed perfected thing. And then he was made responsible by what was the focal point of responsibility. Into what did the whole matter of responsibility become gathered just on things.

Faith. Faith. Everything stood or fell as to his faith attitude toward the great benefactor. Whether he believed God whether he trusted God and trusted him and believed him so utterly that no other voice no other voice could turn him aside.

The test of faith in the one who had given him this heritage. Responsibility all comes to that. Isn't that the argument of the letter to the Hebrews from first to last. The great word of this letter is faith.

Isn't it great. Finally the the summing up of everything at the end is faith. Faith faith. But it's been faith all the way through from the beginning. The great letter of faith it was tremendously it has been said in this letter about responsibility.

You focus this whole matter of responsibility down and say well what does it amount to. Believing God. Believing God having faith in God. Faith of that kind of that kind that shuts you up and into God.

It's a very very energetic thing. The faith that is in this letter isn't it. It's a faith that repudiates that forsakes that leaves the whole world. Look at what it says about the faith of those men on this road.

Moses alone speaks on Moses' faith. What did it do for him by faith. He forsook. He forsook. And why did he forsake Egypt. Because God's purpose was not there. And faith drew him in the direction of God's purpose.

And he forsook by faith much more. It's a tremendous thing this faith. But everything hangs upon that. Everything hangs upon that responsibility. Dear friends is not that we have got in some way to make our salvation to save ourselves to perfect ourselves.

Not at all. God is the author and the perfecter of faith it says here. But how is it going to be done. Believe God. And it comes back after all. Is this true. Is this true. This whole thing right on to glorification is an accomplished fact so far as God is concerned it lies now in the perfect tense whom he justified.

Then he also glorified the perfect tense. Is it true that the whole thing so far as God is concerned is finished and offered to me as a finished thing. Oh if only I could see a strain with him without the camp bearing his reproach.

You'll never be able to do it or any of the other things that we are bidden to do in this letter unless unless you have come to that settled assurance. It's all right. There is no question no hazard no risk at all.

In this it's settled. And him that remains is for me I think to take it. Believe it and hold on to it and go on with it. Let us.