You don’t have to come to Christ. But if you’re going to be saved, friends, you’ll have to come. God has no other way. The Lord Jesus said, “No man cometh to the Father but by me.” You may think that’s dogmatic and narrow—and it is. But the interesting thing is it’ll bring you there. And the other part of it is you don’t have to come. That’s where your free will comes in. You don’t have to come, but if you’re going to come to God, you’ll have to come this way because God has elected this is the only way. In fact, He can’t take your righteousness; He won’t have it. “It is not by works of righteousness which we have done. According to His mercy that He saved us ….” This is His way.

Today whether you eat meat or don’t eat, it doesn’t make any difference. Meat won’t commend you to God. You just eat what you want. But the point is it was teaching Israel, by the way, to make a distinction, and that’s important. They had to make a decision, you see, about this. This one’s clean; this is unclean. You have to make decisions today as a believer, by the way, about your conduct. You have to make a decision whether you accept Christ or not, whether you’re going to study the Word of God, whether you’re going to walk in the way that’s well pleasing to Him. All of this is here.

The word and the walk will identify a child of God today. The clean one, if you please. And today, what a marvelous, wonderful spiritual lesson that you have here. And the emphasis is put upon the study of the Word of God and the walk of the believer; they go together. My friend, the walk of the believer is tied up with the Word of God. And if you’re going through this world, you’ll have to chew the cud, the Word of God, and you’ll have to have that separated walk that only the Word can produce. They both go together.

God was, and He is, interested in the details of the lives of His people. There’s no detail that’s too minute to escape His interest and concern. Someone said to the late Dr. G. Campbell Morgan years ago, “Do you think we ought to pray about the little things in our lives?” And Dr. Morgan, in his characteristic manner, said, “Madam, can you mention anything in your life that’s big to God?” You and I can divide in our lives big problems, little problems. Your problems and my problems are not divided that way before God. They’re just little problems. And He wants us to bring everything to Him in prayer. Worry about nothing; pray about everything.

“He put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forehead, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses.” Now this was put upon him, and it was holiness unto the Lord. These garments distinguished the high priest from the other priests. And we need to recognize you and I can come as lost sinners to Christ, and we can come today as soiled saints, but, my brother, you and I have to know He’s holy and He’ll not tolerate sin in our lives. If we’re going to come and accept Him as Savior, we turn from sin to Him. If we are to serve Him today, we have to deal with sin in our lives.

A great many people say, “Well, I’m saved.” You are? Hallelujah. And you think that justifies you to do any kind of service? And they say, “Yes.” And I say, “You’re wrong. You have to be cleansed to be used.” Listen to this. “It’s not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Spirit renews as we go along. And we’re told “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You want to be used of God? Then go confess your sins, Christian.

A prophet comes out from God to speak for God to man. A priest comes out from man to go to God to speak for man to God and to represent man. You see, the Lord Jesus is both prophet and priest. He came out from God and spoke for God to man. He reveals God to man. Now He goes from man back to God and is our great High Priest. He represents us there. In fact, we’re in Him. And, my friend, if you’re not in Him, you’re not up there, because you and I could never get there on our own.

We’re to stay very close to Christ for peace of conscience and power over temptation. My Christian friend today, stay close to Him. That’s the thing that’s all important. He only gives peace to those that are His own. And He only gives it to His own who have entered into this glorious, wonderful fellowship with Him—that look to Him, rest upon Him. Oh, when you find Christ adequate and wonderful, then the peace of God that passeth all understanding is going to enter into your heart.

I find that when we’re told that we’re to offer ourselves a living sacrifice unto God, that’s the hardest kind of make, because when you crawl upon the altar and the fire gets hot, I crawl off. I don’t know about you. I find a lot of folk do that. But it was only the Lord Jesus; He could say, “I do always the things that please Him.” I wish I could say that. I’m afraid you can’t say it. But the Lord Jesus could. But that’s a challenge to every believer today, because God delights in the continual obedience of His children. This is, I think, real food for God. What love and obedience.

You and I have a High Priest that is in heaven today, and He’s as busy as He can be. Now when He says He sat down, it means that His redemption was complete. It’s just the same as when it says God rested on the seventh day. He wasn’t tired. The Lord Jesus didn’t sit down up there to do nothing. He’s busier today than He’s ever been. He died down here to save us; He lives up yonder to keep us saved. And you and I ought to keep in touch with Him. This is reality. This is spiritual. The trouble today is we’re out of touch with the living Christ, and He’s no longer a reality to us.