A Sermon by Hugh Martin
Hebrews 8:1. We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
1. If heaven is the scene of the priesthood of Christ, it is thereby also the scene of the Church’s worship. The priesthood of Christ and the worship of the Church are so connected that they stand or fall together, and the scene of the one must be the scene of the other. All our worship of God hangs on the mediation of Jesus in executing His priestly office, and he who does not know the great leading truths about Christ’s priesthood cannot intelligently nor acceptably worship God. No worship is acceptable to the Father – no ascriptions of praise and glory, and no supplications and prayers, can come into His presence – save through the hands of the one Mediator between God and men.
This does not merely imply that, on the one hand, God has regard to the sacrifice of Jesus and that, on the other, the worshipper directs his faith to it also. There is more implied in it than that. For the sacrifice of Christ cannot be regarded as something that has passed out of His own hands, so that benefits may be solicited and bestowed on the ground of it while the continual personal and living intervention of Christ Himself is unnecessary. No, not only does the Father dispense the blessings of the covenant on the ground of the satisfaction rendered to divine justice on the cross of Calvary; but when He dispenses those blessings it is only through the perpetual ministry, the gracious personal intervention, and the very hands of the living High Priest Himself. And not only does the acceptable worshipper proffer his faith and love and service through the merit of the great propitiation, but he recognises that his right to do so with acceptance is dependent on making use of the ministry and service of the High Priest, as He personally and officially presents them at the throne.
When we are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, our privilege rests on the twofold ground: (1.) We have “a new and living way” into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, through the rent veil, which is to say, His flesh; (2.) “We have a great High Priest” – the risen Saviour Himself, as the leader of our worship – “over the house of God”. And assuredly no one will rise to the purity of a true heart, and to the privilege of the full assurance of unshaken confidence, whose faith does not embrace the completeness of this
1Taken with editing from The Family Treasury for 1870. A previous sermon on this text, entitled “Heaven the Scene of Christ’s Priesthood”, appeared in the issues of this magazine for January and February 2011.
double warrant for drawing near to God. All our worship is dependent on the priesthood of Christ. Our worship is, in fact, nothing but our communion with Christ in His priesthood. Our whole worship hinges on that priesthood, takes its colour and character, its spiritual life and substance, from it; gathers round it; and revolves about it. Inevitably the scene of His priesthood is the scene of our worship.
The opening statement of Hebrews 9 is: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary”. The contrast which the Apostle is carrying out, between the old covenant and the new, suggests, by antithesis, the implied counterpart: the second covenant has ordinances of divine service, and a heavenly sanctuary as the scene of them. And this truth is either expressly asserted or implicitly involved in repeated statements throughout this Epistle.
In chapter 4 we are called on to hold fast our profession, on the ground that we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens – Jesus, the Son of God. It is surely the throne of God in heaven to which, on the same ground, we are invited to “come boldly . . . that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”.
In chapter 6 we have a glorious description of the strong consolation which God is willing that the heirs of promise should enjoy in the city of refuge into which they have fled. It is a heavenly refuge-city – heaven itself – into which their hope is seen to carry them, or, into which their souls, in the power of hope, are spiritually carried. This hope enters “into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered”.
In chapter 10 we are invited into the holiest of all that now pertains to gospel worship – analogous to the holy of holies under the law. It is manifestly heaven itself into which we are, by this heavenly calling, summoned to enter by faith: “Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near”.
It is asserted in chapter 13 that “we have an altar of which they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle”. It is assuredly no earthly altar that is in view, but one with which is connected a heavenly worship – one which is exclusively spiritual. In its virtues we are to offer no ceremonial, material, or sensuous sacrifice, or any worship of earthly pomp, but the pure and simple “sacrifice of praise . . . that is, the fruit of our lips”.
Perhaps more decisive than any of these is the grand description of our church state and privilege under the gospel which is expressly contrasted with that under the law. In it heaven is made so palpably the only scene of
worship that readers are continually tempted to fancy that it is the state of glory that is depicted, though it is manifestly our present condition under the gospel which is in view: “Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
Yes, as the holy place in the innermost recesses of Israel’s temple was the recognised scene of Israel’s worship under Aaron’s priesthood, heaven is the scene of our worship under Christ. We indeed enter there in this life, only by faith. But faith’s entrance is real. It is not fanciful but true. We enter by no effort of imagination, but by an effort and exercise of faith. And when faith enters there, it has the warrant of the Word, the call of the Father, the quickening of the Spirit and the ministry and priesthood of the Son to proceed upon. When our case is called, and our petition is to be considered – if we may speak reverently of these great mysteries in terms borrowed from the procedure of courts on earth – then if the question is put: Who appears on behalf of these petitioners and in support of this petition? the answer is: Christ has entered “into heaven itself, [there] to appear in the presence of God for us”.
We may remember gratefully this great truth: that God’s heaven of glory is the real sanctuary and scene of our gospel worship. When we do so, what perfect satisfaction we should have – how calm and equal our mind, how contented – to give up all the grandeur and pomp of ritualistic worship and to cleave to the simplicity of our Presbyterian order! We are only preferring heaven to earth when doing so. And though our forms may be accounted bald and tame and unimpressive, it can only be in the judgement of those who are comparatively carnal and who, lacking spiritual ability to appreciate the heavenliness of New Testament worship, would demand a contribution from the earth and the senses, where heaven and faith should rule.
The truly spiritual worshipper, sensitive to the difficulty of maintaining his spiritual-mindedness, will be jealous of everything fitted to appeal to sense. To such people, the grave sweet melody of Zion’s psalmody will be a congenial vehicle for spiritual feeling. On the other hand, when the artistic sounds of instrumental music thrill the ear, they awaken bodily sense to energies which conflict with those of the spirit, precisely where the spirit
should most of all be free from all such conflict. This will intuitively be felt as a great impurity and a fundamental violation of the great principles of gospel worship.
It will confirm these remarks remarkably to remind you that, in point of fact, to tolerate or desire such innovations and impurities in the worship of God always goes hand in hand with false or defective views of the priesthood of Christ. Historically, ritualistic worship is found to be connected with notions of an earthly priesthood. When the ministers of the gospel are accounted priests, as in Popish and Anglo-Catholic worship, the earthly house of prayer – and not heaven – comes to be regarded as the scene and sanctuary of worship. Its observances, in the absence of heavenly and unseen beauty, are decorated with materials of earthly splendour. And as it is a principle of reason that the worship of God should be glorious, and priesthood and glory stand intimately related, then if priesthood is on earth, the glory sought is an earthly pomp and glory too. The doctrine of Christ’s exclusive and celestial priesthood puts ritualistic worship to flight. And the believing worshipper, seeking in spirit to enter heaven, rejoices to resign every beggarly element of the world, that can only chain down his spirit, which is too prone to cleave to the dust and hinder his entrance within the veil.
I need scarcely remark, in this connection, that it is manifestly the deep appreciation of doctrine – a large, sound and rich theology, once highly valued in Scotland, when every peasant could confound the prelates – that will alone conserve among us the worship and government of the Church of God according to His will. In all things, doctrine takes the lead in the Church – doctrine held fast in the grasp of a living faith, a deep spiritual intelligence, and a loving, cordial appreciation. And where doctrine becomes corrupt, or shallow or inefficient, neither the worship nor government of the Church can long be safe from the follies of human wisdom, and the corruptions and impurities of human inventions. Nor is there any doctrine more distinguishing and glorious in Christianity than the many-sided and exalted doctrine of the priesthood of Christ. You will always find that those who would welcome innovations and ceremonies in our worship are deplorably ignorant of it.
The Spirit that testifies to a man that his sins are pardoned him, doth it first by convincing a man of his sins. Now, you know there is more in conviction than bare discovery. It makes a man to see there is no sweetness in sin; it makes a man to find that sin is the greatest burden, the greatest misery of this life. For that which makes a man delight in sin is because it is presented to him in false shapes; but now when the Spirit of God comes to manifest sin, and makes a man to look upon it in its own shape and nature, then he finds it to be the most unprofitable burden he ever bore in this life.
Richard Sibbes