SEE THAT YE REFUSE NOT by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 13, 1900

SEE THAT YE REFUSE NOT.

By Uriah Smith

“But ye are come, . . . to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Heb. 12:22-24. This is a part of the language of the apostle to the Hebrews, in which he is setting forth the great superiority of the privileges that Christians enjoy, over even those who were permitted to behold the wonderful display of God’s power at the giving of his law from Sinai.

“That speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Than what of Abel?—The blood of sprinkling. The apostle is speaking of mediation, and of the blood of sprinkling connected therewith. Abel, in his service of faith, had such blood. This can hardly refer to the blood of Abel’s body, poured out by the murderous act of Cain, which cried out of the ground to God for vengeance, as some seem disposed to apply it; whereas, obviously, it applies rather to the sacrifice that Abel offered of the firstlings of his flocks, by which he showed faith in a Redeemer to come, on which account he is said to have offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, God being well pleased therewith, and granting to him the witness that he was righteous.

What is this blood of sprinkling, so pre-eminent, to which we come?—The precious blood of Christ, sprinkled by him in our behalf before the Father, in the sanctuary in heaven. But if the blood that Abel offered typified the blood of Christ, and was an acceptable evidence of faith in him, why did not Abel, and all the faithful from his time on, have just as good service to offer to God in this respect as we have now?—We have that “better hope” mentioned by the apostle, in Heb. 7:19, in these words: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.” The law here spoken of, which made nothing perfect, is the same as the commandment of the previous verse, which he says had verily been disannulled for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. And it was the ceremonial law that was thus described as weak and unprofitable; that is, it was inefficient, as the meaning of the word is; for it could not accomplish that which was necessary to be done. It made nothing perfect; it did not finish the work; it did not remove sin from the record and the heart; but it was the introduction to, or that which prepared the way for, the bringing in of a better hope; or, as the margin reads, it was the bringing in of a better hope. And by this hope we draw nigh to God.

All this has reference to Christ, by whose ministry and mediation we come directly to God, without the intervening offering of the blood of beasts, or the ministry of an earthly priesthood. The sinner, to be sure, obtained, under that system, the pardon of his sins; but it was indirectly, through sacrifices, which were the means by which he took hold of the world’s one great Sacrifice that was to come. But the Christian dispensation has advantages over this, some of which the apostle points out in the texts already referred to. “For ye are not come,” he says, “to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,” etc. Then, in Heb. 12:22-24, he says, “But ye are come, . . . to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” The blood that Abel had to use has been already described. How is the blood under the new covenant better than that?—It is the blood that really takes away sin; and we are permitted to plead this blood, directly, and in reality, and not as something that was only a figure of this.

But in its blessed purpose, the Levitical law was a figure for the time then present, and an introduction to, and a preparation for, the “better hope,” the bringing in of which was to make something perfect, which all that had gone before could not do. On this interesting point of the bringing of a better hope, A. D. Huntington, D. D., says: “Here stands the anxious conscience, troubled, discouraged, looking up at the blazing standard, the commandment, and then looking back at its disorganized and miserable self; no way of bringing the two together. It needs a reconciler who shall not lower the law, but keep it, honor it, magnify it, and at the same time, lift up, forgive, reinvigorate man, and breathe into him a new life of the Holy Spirit. This is the bringing in of a better hope.”

All this was foreshadowed in the law, to be fulfilled in Christ, whose priesthood God had established by an oath. The Levitical priests, being mortal, could continue only for a limited time as individuals. And when one died, his successor, according to the law of descent, took his place; and thus there was a long succession of them. This is why a complete round of service was performed in the earthly sanctuary every year. It was in order that the same high priest might officiate through it all, and thus be a more fitting type of Christ, the world’s great high priest, who continues through the entire round of the unbroken service of the sanctuary in heaven. So the apostle can give us the comforting assurance that Christ ever lives to make intercession for us, and that he has an unchangeable priesthood, that can not pass to another. His ministration is not therefore broken up into limited periods, but he performs his momentous work of mediation in one continuous service once for all. He does not complete one round of service for one particular period, and for one special class or race of men, and then have another period of service and another probation for another class who did not have an opportunity in the first. No; he offers to all an opportunity now; and he is the judge of the amount of responsibility incurred by each one in regard to it, and to what extent he improves, or needlessly slights, the opportunity that is given him. So comprehensive is his work, and so complete is his power, that “he is also able to save them to the uttermost,” or, as the Greek reads, always, or for all time, “that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Having thus set forth the wonderful provisions of the gospel, and the gracious invitations sent forth to win men to them, the apostle, very naturally, and in the most tender, earnest, and searching language, throws his whole heart into the following words of entreaty: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” “O,” says the careless, indifferent friend of the world, “I will not refuse him; I will interpose no obstacles in his way; I will offer no hindrance to his work; but I simply do not care to have anything to do with him; I would not actively refuse or reject him.” Ah, friend, that is just what you are doing by the course you propose to follow. To neglect him is to reject him. To lie still on your oars is to go down stream.

“Simple neglect” is called, in verse 25, turning away from him that speaketh from heaven. There is no neutral, indifferent ground. Our great Captain himself says, “He that is not with me, is against me.” He that is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. There are but two standards— that of Prince Immanuel, and that of the Prince of this world. Under the one or the other, we are all marching along and doing our military exercises. Under which are we? Many are wearing the uniform of the one army; but all that they do is in the interest of the other. Mere profession counts for nothing. That does not change character, which is the all-essential thing to be changed; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The Lord knoweth them that are his. Many profess themselves to be the friends of Christ, whom he could not recognize. They have not received his words, nor followed his counsel. They have refused “him that speaketh from heaven,” notwithstanding the apostle tells them to be careful to see that they do not do so. They are those spoken of in Matt. 7:23, concerning whom Christ says, though they profess to be his, “Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.” “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” How could words throw us more intently and earnestly upon watchfulness and carefulness in reference to our real attitude to Christ our Saviour? See that you do not refuse him. Let it be your great and first care that you do not refuse him that speaketh from heaven. Study to know how much this includes, and how it can be obeyed.

The apostle then enforces his exhortation by an appeal to the other phase of the subject. The principle of wrath and retribution is the same under the gospel that it was in the ages before Christ. “In the recovery of men to God,” says an eminent writer, “this is one of the things most needed.” “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,” says Paul, “we persuade men.” If God should permit the world, for one brief moment, to hear the weeping and wailing of the hosts of the lost, as they meet at last their doom; to hear the universal groan, which Pollok so vividly describes, it would arouse the student from his books, chain to the floor the feet of the dancer at the ball, paralyze the arm of every soldier in the very height of the wild and insane strife of the battle field, rouse a slumbering world from their beds, bend the most stubborn knees, and extort from every lip the earnest cry, Lord, save! or I perish.

Still it is the love of God, and not his terror, that constitutes his marvelous power. To such as answer his heavenly call, God shows himself only as a loving Father, who would be loved by them, and love them forever. But to them who answer not to it, and, far more, who dare to abuse it, to all such he is still a consuming fire. How “much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven”?

U. S.