Take your Bibles and turn back
with me to Rome Hebrews Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 I Think we got that working back
there Kathy so you could turn the volume up back there if you
want to okay Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14 and I'm going to title this message,
Jesus the Great High Priest. Jesus the Great High Priest. He said, seeing then that we
have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. You remember
the account of this book is to those Hebrews who were tempted
to go back to the Law. They had heard the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, they had believed on Jesus Christ, His blood and
His righteousness, but now they were tempted to turn back. And
so the Apostle throughout the first few chapters is giving
them reasons as to not turn back, as to hold fast their profession
of faith. And He says this in the beginning,
that Jesus is God, that He is exceeding the express image of
His person, that He by His blood purged our sins. Don't turn back. Our Lord Jesus Christ being higher
than the angels, yet was made a man for this purpose, for the
suffering of death. That's why He was made a man. And now He's telling them, look,
seeing this, now listen, I've told you by all that I've said
before, Jesus is a great High Priest. He's passed into the
heavens. Let us hold fast our profession.
Why? Because we don't have a high
priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I know
this, you who are believers in Christ, we are in constant trouble. I know this. I'm often in trouble,
don't even feel I'm in trouble. I don't even know that I'm in
trouble. But I am. We are in constant struggle,
constant turmoil. We are bogged down daily by the
sins of this flesh, by the deeds of this body. We are constantly
being drawn away from Christ back to the world. It's a constant
struggle. So we should identify with these
Hebrew believers. They were being drawn away from
Christ. So are we. Every day by this
flesh we are tempted and drawn away. What do we need? We need constant access to God. Let us therefore come boldly. Now what's the foundation by
which you and I can come to God? You want to go pray? How do you
know God's going to hear you? By what grounds do you have to
come before God and ask anything? Your goodness? Your works? Listen, if your God accepts you
based on your works, your God is too small. Your God's like
you, and I don't care anything about a God like me. You don't
want a God like me. You definitely don't want a God
like you. By what grounds will God receive
our cries? It's a very narrow way. It's very narrow in that it's
singular. Jesus said this, I am the way. That's narrow, isn't
it? There is one means by which sinners
may have access to God. And that is through a mediator. Someone to stand in the gap and
make an offering to God that is acceptable by which we may
approach unto God. And he's saying this, look, hold
fast your profession because we have the way. Jesus Christ,
the great high priest. This is the means by which we
may have access to God is only through a high priest. Seeing them, we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the son of
God, hold fast your profession. Those that are here today and
have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to understand
he is your high priest. He is your high priest. He is
the mediator that stands between you and a holy God. There are many things to say
concerning a priesthood of Jesus Christ, but I have three. Now, don't get excited because
there are several points inside of each one of these. Don't get
excited. Oh, it's only got three. No.
There are many things to say about this. I will try to be
concise. I will try to limit this. But
this is important. Because if you don't have a real
grounds to meet God, you ain't seen trouble yet. Here's our
grounds for meeting God. Is the priesthood of Jesus Christ. That every believer should come
to God by Jesus Christ because He is our High Priest. Now, first of all, I want you
to see how that he was qualified to be your High Priest. And that's
what the Apostle is going to start dealing with in Chapter
5. In Chapter 5, these Jews were
saying, you're saying he's a High Priest. What qualifies him as
a High Priest? What are his qualifications as
a High Priest? And in Chapter 5, he's going
to deal with these qualifications of Jesus Christ. And this is
my first point. His qualifications, look at this.
In verse 1 of chapter 5. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that
he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Now every high priest
in the Old Testament was ordained. You didn't fill out a job application.
You didn't go up and say, I think I want to be a high priest. No,
you don't get to choose this. God ordained high priests. Only God. It was necessary. And high priests were necessary
because they offered things pertaining to God. They offered gifts and
sacrifices that God demanded for sinners. They were vital. Without them, there was no access
to God. And because we are all sinners,
we cannot approach unto God without one. One that will go between us and
God. If you're here today without
a high priest, how will you go to God? How will you ask anything
of Him? You can't. If you go to God in your own
righteousness, in your own goodness, and by your own works, you will
be rejected. I don't care what you think. I care how you feel. People feel religious all the
time. They feel like they're in the presence of God. I really
don't care. You don't have a high priest. You don't have specifically
this high priest. You are not accepted. I know that's not popular. It's
not popular. I don't care. It's just true. You must have a high priest.
You must have one that makes offerings and sacrifices acceptable
to God by which you may be heard. Those who have believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ He has become our great High Priest in things
pertaining to God. What things in pertaining to
God? Satisfaction of righteousness and justice. Those are the two
things we need to be accepted with God. You can't come to God
without righteousness and you can't come to God without an
acceptable offering. This is what Jesus, our High
Priest, has brought for us. Both righteousness and a perfect
offering. Therefore, we are find comfort
in knowing this, that Jesus Christ was ordained of God for this
position. He was ordained of God. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained. Look at verse 4 of chapter 5.
He said, No man taketh this honor to himself, but he that is called
of God, as was Aaron. In Levitical priesthood, it was
only Aaron and his sons that became high priests. They were
ordained this way. In Exodus 28, God demands this. He ordains this. He said, Now
listen, Aaron was a scoundrel. Aaron was a sinner. Aaron was
a wicked man. You remember what happened before
he brought down the law. Aaron had already made a golden
calf and they had an orgy in the congregation. You know who
oversaw that? Aaron. So did Aaron qualify for this
position? No, he was a ringleader for sinners. Yet, listen, he was ordained
of God to that position. He was taken from among his own
wicked nation and made an high priest. Aaron was not called by Aaron, nor
was he called by Moses, but by God. But remember, that Aaron's
priesthood and the law was never meant to save anyone. Aaron's
priesthood was never meant to save anyone. Later on in Hebrews
10, the apostle makes this very clear, that the law was a shadow
of good things to come and not the very image of the thing.
Aaron's priesthood was only a shadow. It was only a picture. These things of the high priest
in the Levitical law, the Levitical priesthood, they stood as only
a type of what Christ was ordained to be. Aaron was only a picture. He was a sinner saved by grace,
just like we are. And he was ordained to that office,
and he didn't take that office. He didn't take it to himself. And look at that next verse there
in your text. He says in verse 5, So also Christ
glorified not himself to be made in high priest, but it was said
unto him, Thou art my son today. If I begotten thee, he saith
in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. I want you to notice, just an
aside here, he goes back again to the Word of God. Remember,
the Word of God is the foundation of all our faith and practice.
What is he doing? He's proving Christ a high priest
according to the ordination of God. Jesus is a high priest because
God ordained it. God ordained that he'd be a high
priest. And Jesus was set up from before
the foundation of the world. He was set up to be the mediator
of His people. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent in this matter. Matter of fact, the text is Psalm
110 verse 4. Psalm 110 verse 4 says, The Lord
has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord swore to this, that
Christ would be made a priest after a better order. We're going
to get to that in just a minute, what that means to be after the
order of Melchizedek. In one sense it means this, that
this priesthood was from eternity. As Melchizedek in Scripture was
a priest unto Abraham in Genesis, before the law was established,
there was a priest. His name was Melchizedek and
he shows up one day out of nowhere. And Abraham pays tithes, he pays
offerings to this priest. And that priest, he makes an
offering and he leaves. And you never hear from him again.
So what is that picture? The picture is Christ. He had
no beginning of days and he had no end of days. He is the eternal
priest. He is the eternal priest. So you that desire to come to
God by Jesus Christ, this is good. Hold fast. because God
ordained him to be your high priest. God chose him to be your
high priest. Secondly, be confident in this,
he was taken from among men. That's the second thing, in order
to be a priest, you had to be a man. You had to be a man. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul
states very clearly, is God. When I speak of Jesus, be careful,
you're speaking of God. He is God. He is the express
image of the person of deity. He said in that text we just
read, He said in one place, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
Thee. When was Jesus begotten? When
is this day? What does that mean? Now that
was written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
So we're not talking about the day of His birth. We're saying
this, that He is the eternal begotten Son of God. He is God. He's one with the Father and
the Spirit. In purpose, in will, in power. Listen, if you deny the deity
of Christ, you're lost. Jesus said, If any man believeth
not that I am, he shall die in his sins. The person of Jesus Christ, in
him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, because
in the person of Jesus Christ we see the grace and mercy of
God. Consider your high priest, ordained
of God, how low he condescended. Second Corinthians eight nine
says, for we know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich. Yet for your sakes, he became
poor. That through his poverty, you
might be made rich. Consider the condescension of
this one who was ordained to be our priest, that he must become
a man. That he must take on not the
seed of angels, but the seed of Abraham to be a man. That through his poverty, through
his suffering, we might be made rich in things pertaining to
God. So he robed himself in human
flesh and became a man. Yet he did not cease to be God.
So what do we have when we see Jesus? We see the God-man. The
God-man. Scripture says, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
So, is Christ qualified to be a high priest? Well, he was ordained
for it. And secondly, he was taken from
among men so that he might offer gifts and sacrifices acceptable
to God. He's qualified. That's the first
thing. Second thing, I want you to be
confident in this, that he has fulfilled his job. He has fulfilled
his priesthood. What is a priesthood but a mediator? The old The Old Testament high
priests, they mediated a covenant. They were mediators of a covenant. It was a covenant of works. It
was a physical covenant, based on physical promises to a nation
of physical people. And so when God gave the covenant,
One that spoke of physical blessings. In other words, if Israel outwardly
obeyed, if they outwardly did the things contained in that
covenant, remember the nation was blessed. But when they ceased
to perform that covenant, remember what happened. Destruction came.
Enemies came in. All sorts of horrible physical
things happened to them. It was a physical covenant. But
it was never meant to take away sin. You've got to know that
the law was never meant to save you. No part of it was ever meant
to save you. By you doing those things in
the law, it would not commend you to God, but rather condemn
you for the things you didn't do. The law was only meant to expose
sin, never to redeem it. Consider this. How many offerings
were made by those priests? Every time blood was shed, it
only reminded you that you needed more blood. Because they weren't
finished. It reminded you that the other
sacrifice that they made just yesterday wasn't good enough
because they needed to make one again today. And when they make
one tomorrow, it's going to remind you of this, that that offering
that they made yesterday is not good enough for today. Those
priests had to continually, constantly offer sacrifices. How much blood
was shed? How many offerings were made?
How many sins were atoned for by those offerings? The apostle
is going to deal with that in this book as well. He says, that
there is no remission of sins without blood, yet the blood
of bulls and goats could not remove sin. Not one. Why were they commanded to offer
it? Why were they commanded to fulfill that old covenant? Because
it pictured Christ. It pictured His offering that
was to satisfy God. Now consider the covenant that
Jesus is the mediator of. It's a covenant of grace. Not
a covenant of works. It's a covenant of mercy. And consider this, it's an everlasting
covenant. This covenant of Moses was made
when Moses lived. What happened before all that?
There was no law before all that. But the covenant that Christ
is mediator of is an eternal one. It's a covenant made between
God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. It
is a covenant that was made before the world began for His people. And this is the covenant. Here
it is, very simply. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. How's that possible? How can
sinners become the people of God, accepted of God? In this,
I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more. Isn't that a better covenant?
The covenant of law is a constantly remembering sin. This covenant
of grace that Jesus the High Priest brings is one of perfect
forgiveness. rather perfect forgetfulness. I will not remember their sins
and iniquities anymore. So you who are believers, I want
you to be comforted. Christ is not only qualified,
but He has fulfilled the job of this office of High Priest. He has mediated a better covenant. Look at this in verse 2 of chapter
5. He said, Who shall have compassion
on the ignorant, on them that are out of the way? For he himself
with compass are by infirmities, and by reason thereof he ought,
as for the people, so for himself to offer for sins. This is talking
about the old high priest. They had to offer for themselves.
You know Christ didn't offer a sacrifice for himself. Why? He had no sin. He had no sin
to offer a sacrifice for. So when my High Priest came into
the world, He came in as a righteous man, a holy man, without sin. Why should He do that? So that
as a High Priest, He might fulfill all the righteousness I need. Listen to what God says about
you and me. There is none righteous, no, not one. What about my intellect? There
is none that understand it. What about my heart? I'm really
seeking after God. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all together. become unprofitable. What that
means is you take all of our collective goodness and it's not profitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. I hope you understand and see
then your need of a high priest to provide righteousness for
you. A righteousness that you cannot provide. Listen to what
he says in that same chapter in Romans. He says, Romans 3.21,
But now the righteousness of God. Not just any righteousness. Not just like our half-hearted
pretend righteousness. No, the righteousness of God. Listen to this, without the law. I'll tell you what, that sounds
good to me. The righteousness of God without my obedience to
the law. That's what it says, without
the law. It's clear, it's manifest. Witnessed
by what? The law and the prophets, all
those types and pictures. It witnessed of how righteousness
should come. Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. That's how righteousness is made.
That's how my righteousness is made. My high priest qualified,
ordained of God, became a man. He was a righteous man so that
he as my high priest might obtain righteousness of God for me. That's what he did. He obtained
righteousness as my high priest. Unto all and upon all them that
believe. Secondly, he not only as my high
priest obtained my righteousness because that's what I needed.
I needed something else. I didn't just need the gifts.
I needed the offering. I need the offering. He also
offered to God an acceptable sacrifice. Now listen. I ask you just a minute ago,
how much blood was shed in the Old Testament? How many goats
and pigeons and calves and bulls were? How many of how many of
them had their throats cut and the blood pour out? How many
minimum to a day minimum to a day? For hundreds and hundreds of
years. And not one ounce of blood, not
all that blood atone for one sin. Why did God shed so much
blood? I think to show you the seriousness
of sin. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. And yet what he's showing you
by this is that no amount of earthly blood is going to work. My blood is not going to work
because I'm a sinner myself. That's why those lambs had to
be pure, because it had to picture that if it was to be accepted,
it had to be pure. The priest was to wear a white
linen garment to show you this, that that one who offered it
had to be pure. The offerer and the offering
must be spotless, without sin. Now who else could that picture
but Jesus? Name one. Anybody? No, it's only
Him. He's the only one it could picture. So He's the priest, right? And
listen, He's the offering. I think it's amazing. He's amazing. If you see in Hebrews 9, He's
going to talk about that tabernacle, that tent that they put out there,
and how all the furniture of it, all the making of it, the
very thread, the badger skin on the outside, it was ugly.
On the inside, it was pure gold thread, and purple, and scarlet,
and beautiful tapestry on the inside. Who else could that picture
but Christ? The furniture. The labor, the
washing away of our sins. The showbred, Jesus told you,
I'm the bread of life. Don't you see that everything
in that tabernacle pictured Christ? That's astounding, isn't it?
And when people go to church, what do they want to hear about
themselves? God don't want to talk about you. Don't you get it? He only wants
to talk about His Son. I don't want to talk about his
son. I'm sorry for you. That's all God wants to talk
about. You know what part you got? Sinner. That's what you
got. That's the best that you're going
to get out of this. And if God save you, you get to be a son.
But he's only going to do it through
this one person. He says in Hebrews 9, 9, which
was a figure for then present, which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make them, that did the service
perfect pertaining to conscience, which stood only in meats and
drinks and divers, washings and carnal urns, imposed on them
until when? Until the time of the Reformation.
Until the one who these pictured should come. And he has come.
And listen, Jesus Christ has come to offer Himself a sacrifice
for sin. When you see Calvary, when you
see Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I want you to know what you're
seeing. You're seeing the High Priest offering Himself as the only, you got this, the
only acceptable offering to God. How many times did Jesus Christ
offer himself? How many? Look at Hebrews 9. Flip over a few pages. Look at
Hebrews 9. Look at verse 11. But Christ, being come, a qualified
high priest, He's a high priest of good things to come, of greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hens, that is to
say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by His own blood He entered in, how many times? Once, into the holy
place, having What'd he get? Look what he got. Tell me what he got. What did
the high priest get when he brought his blood into the holy place?
He obtained eternal redemption. How long is that? He did it once. And when he did
it, he got something for it. Eternal. Redemption. Look at the next chapter in verse
nine. Hebrews 10, verse nine, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God, he taketh away the first. Talk about the law, the covenant,
he taketh away the first. By obedience of it, by magnifying
it. He didn't scoot it under the
rug, He actually obeyed it. Taking away the first that He
may establish the second. That second covenant that He
mediated, I told you about. The one about forgiveness, forgetfulness
of your sins. By the witch will, by the will
of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body. How
many times? How many times were you sanctified?
By who were you sanctified? By the will of God, and by the
offering of Christ, and it was done once. And every priest standed daily
ministering, offering at all times the same sacrifices that
can never take away sin, but this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, what did he do? What did he do when
he offered that sacrifice? He said, we have a high priest
that has passed into the heavens. He sat down. You know what piece of furniture
is not in the tabernacle? A chair. There's the mercy seat,
but that's where God sat. There's no place for the priest
to sit. No place because they never were finished. This is
true of all false religion. They are never finished. They're
never finished. Their high priest did all he
can do. And you have to finish it. You got to make it successful.
Not my high priest. That may be yours. It's not mine.
Mine's done. And what an insult to try to
add your works to his. Well, Jesus, you know, you did
a good job. But I think I need to add a little bit. You know,
my church attendance is pretty good. Maybe that'll help you
out. You know, I don't do this. I don't drink anymore. I don't
smoke anymore. Hey, maybe that'll help you out.
I don't do this. I started doing this. I stopped
doing this. You know what that adds to his
righteousness? Nothing. Nothing. I tell you this, God's
people do desire to be righteous. We long for it. We weep because of our flesh. We weep because of our sin. But I know this, I am as holy
as God. because of my high priest righteous. John said this, listen, you believers
take this to heart as he is. How is he? Just told you where
he was sitting down. He's finished. God accepted him,
he's holy, he's perfect as he is. So are we. when we get to heaven. Know what
it says? Tell me if that's what it says.
No, that's true. It says, as he is, so are we
in this present world. Because his offering, he sat
down at the right hand, expecting till his enemies made his footstool
for by one offering, he hath perfected forever. them that
are sanctified. Now you, who have Christ as our
priest, he was qualified. Isn't he? God chosen. He was taken from among men.
He's qualified. He did the work of the priesthood.
He offered gifts and sacrifices acceptable to God for those he
represented. As someone this week, who did
Aaron represent? As high priest, who did he represent?
He represented Israel. That's it. He didn't represent
the Moabites, he didn't represent the Amalekites, he didn't represent
the Canaanites, the Jebusites, any other side. He didn't represent
any of those people. He only represented Israel. Now
you pay attention, Christ represents only his people. And he did the work for his people. It's done. Who are his people? They are they. He calls. To obey. Look back in your text. Hebrews chapter five. Verse 9, and he being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto who? All them
that obey him. What is this obedience? Is it
the law? It's what he's preaching against. He's not preaching for you to
go back to the law. He's talking about obedience
of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. Isn't that wonderful? It is to
you who believe. Why? Because you who believe,
that's your high priest. That's your high priest. He's
qualified. He's done it. He's your high priest. And the
last thing I want to do to comfort you, this is the third thing,
is his priesthood is unchangeable. Now, imagine you lived in Israel
during the time of the priest and you had a good priest. You
had one that was compassionate, One that was faithful to offer
those sacrifices. And he up and died. You know
what you didn't know? Who you get next. Next guy may
be horrible. And many times they were. Many
times the high priest would extort money from the people. Many times
those Old Testament high priests, they would not offer the sacrifices
rightly. And that would bring trouble
into Israel. So they didn't know what they
were going to get. You who have this high priest, you know what
you're going to get? You're going to get this same
high priest because his priesthood doesn't change. Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today and. Forever. I want you to know that's when
he says this in verse 10 called of God and high priest after
the order of Melchizedek, this comforts us in this that he this
priesthood had no beginning. And it has no end. In other words, I've always been
represented by this priest. Always. Seeing then we have. I like that because that's a
that's constantly present tense. I right now have an high priest. You know what? I right now have
an high priest. And when I leave here, I will
have a high priest. And when I fall on my face, I
will have a high priest. Who constantly mediates between
me and God. When did this high priest love
you? When did he start to love you?
A lot of people believe that God
begins to love them when they believe. How very childish and faultless
is that? Believe. You see, God's eternal
and all he can do is eternal. His love is eternal. If he loves
me now, I know this, he's always loved me. For he said, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Who does he love? Therefore with
loving kindness have I drawn thee. Do you have a high priest? Are you drawn to this high priest?
Do you believe on this high priest? Well, that's because God always
loved you. And know this, because of that
high priest, he will always continue to love you. He will always continue to intercede
for us. Therefore, seeing we have a high
priest that's passed into heaven, let us come boldly to the throne
of grace so we may find mercy. You need mercy? I do. You need help? Only one way God's gonna hear
you, if you have a great high priest, Jesus, who passed into
the heavens. Pray God will bless this. We
stand and be dismissed in prayer. And there was plenty more to
say about that. Land dismisses in prayer, bro. Thank you for this. Faithful heart. There he made intercessions.
All his life. all the people that you gave
him for this world to know. Making intercessions for us.
Not only making them, we're making them according to your will.
We thank you for your precious truth.
Lord, I thank you for the gospel that's been declared to us this
day. We have such a faithful high
priest. We bless you, praise you for it. That one who bore
all our sin away. Cast behind your back, never
to be remembered against us anymore. Thank you for such a great hope
that we have. That's because of what your darling son has
done for his people. Lord, I pray that you keep your
hand upon each one. in this place today. Oh, may they bow. May they bow to Thee. May they
bow to Christ and trust and believe on Him. Forgive us of our sins. Keep us upright. Cause us to
look. Keep us looking to Christ. Not
to nothingness. You're going to separate. Give
Your people over those that are sinned. Those afflicted, pray
that You give them comfort in their hearts. We bless You and praise You.
Through Your goodness, You tend to mercy toward us. These things we ask in our dear
Savior's precious Name. Amen.