last week, titled, Exhorting
One Another. And we close that message by
expressing how exhorting one another is coming together, worshiping
our Savior, but pointing each other to Christ. Pointing each
other to our High Priest, our Mediator, our Go-Between. We sing the song, Crown Him With
Many Crowns. Boy, our Lord sure has a lot
of hats, doesn't He? more hats than you and I can
talk about in any short period of time. He has the hat of a
king, doesn't he? We were talking about millennialism,
those who believe that he's going to return to this earth and establish
his reign. Folks, God reigns right now in
his son, the Lord Jesus, on his throne. He is king right now,
and as our brother Mike Loveless brought out, he is always being
king. He just wasn't Jesus in the flesh. It wasn't His time until just
over 2,000 years ago when He manifested Himself in the flesh
for one purpose. But it was a purpose. And it
was His purpose. And it was His purpose determined
to save a people unto Himself. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. So our Lord came here on purpose. He never left his throne, though.
He was still God, even though he was man in the flesh. He was
100% God, ruling over everything. You read in the scriptures where
the Lord knew what they were thinking. I just thought about
this. We like to say we know what each
other are thinking, don't we? I know what you're thinking.
No, you don't. God does. He absolutely knows. And even though he was a 100%
man who needed to eat, to sustain the flesh, who needed to drink,
who needed to rest, he was still God sitting on his throne. He
was still God in the flesh, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's king. And he's always
been king. He wears that hat. He's judge. All judgment has been put in
the authority of the Lord Jesus. And there's going to come a day,
and I slowed down because I want to make sure you understand this.
There's going to come a day when he will separate the sheep from
the goats. And he will say to the goats,
depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. That means personally. He never
knew them personally. He never knew them intimately
as he does those that he has loved from before the world was. Folks, that could be you and
I just as well as it is anybody. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Therefore, it is Him that has
mercy. It's not for anything we have
done. But by His grace, there are some who are saved. He's
the judge of all things. I laid down my life for this
one. The judgment of God the Father was laid upon me for this
one who deserves hell, who deserves my wrath. I took that wrath for
that one. He's the king of judge and judge. He's the high priest. He's not
just the high priest, but he's the altar that the priest would
go into. The altar is a picture of the mercy seat. Who's the
mercy seat? Christ Jesus. He's not just the
altar, he's the sacrifice that is put upon the altar, the blood
that is sprinkled upon that altar. So I want to talk to you this
morning, I want you to consider the position of a priest. Now there's many hats. We could
call him manna, our bread, the bread of life. We could call
him living water, he who quenches our thirst. But I want to talk
to you this morning about the high priest. The one mediator. I want you to turn over, if you
would, to Exodus 28. What does a high priest do? What does a priest do? In my
mind, I think of this. I can't help it, I'm just going
to say it. I think of the Catholics, the Catholic priests. I'm sure
that there's other religions that have priests. When I think
of a priest, I think of one who gets all dressed up in their
mighty clothes, and they go out and stand before the people,
and they shake the smoke. I'm not trying to make fun of
them. I'm serious. They preach to the people. What
does Scripture tell us? Scriptures tell us that a priest
is one who stands before God, representing the people. In our language today, we could
call that a go-between, couldn't we? It's a pretty important position,
wouldn't you think? With sin separating us from God,
because that's what sin does. Folks, our God is holy. He cannot
even look upon sin. You know this. I'm not telling
you anything new. It's the same thing I told you
last week. It's the same thing I told you Friday night. It's
the same thing I told you for Bible study. We're sin from the
top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. We've separated
ourselves from God. We need something. There's nothing
in us that can bring us into reconciliation with God. You
can cut yourself and bleed all over the place from now until
whenever. It's never going to do any good. Your blood is tainted
with sin. God only accepts perfection and
holiness. We must be as holy as God to
be in the presence of God. So how? How can a sinner be in
the presence of God? We need a mediator. We need somebody
who is worthy to stand before God and represent us. satisfies everything of God the
Father. Perfection in every way. We need
a priest. That's why it's only a priest
who can enter into the Shaniah glory in the Old Testament Scriptures. The holiest of holy places in
the temple. I described it a little bit last
week. It's a veil that hangs across between those who are
the congregation and the mercy seat where God dwells. And there's only one way through
that veil, and that is through the high priest who goes in once
a year, not without blood. He goes in once a year representing
his people. He enters into the holiest of
holies in the temple with blood and makes a sacrifice to atone
for the sins of the people. This position was so important
that the dress was very extravagant and it means something. Look
here with me if you would at verses 1-6. 1-6 of Exodus chapter
28. Our Lord in instructing Moses
said, Take thou unto thee Aaron, thy brother, and his sons with
him, from among the children of Israel, take them out from
among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me
in the priest's office, even Aram, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,
and Ethmar, Aaron's sons. And thou shalt make holy garments
for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty, And thou shalt
speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit
of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate
him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And
these are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate,
and an ephod, and a robe. and a broided coat, and a miter,
and a girdle. And they shall make holy garments
for Aaron thy brother and his sons, and that he may minister
unto me in the priest's office. And they shall take gold, and
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall
make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet,
and fine linen with cunning work." What a picture. That's pretty
fancy robing, isn't it? I started this message by describing
one of the hats of our Lord as king. That's what this is picturing. These garments did nothing for
those men other than this. Picture the one priest who could
enter into the holiest of holies with perfect, pure, righteous
blood. All those times those men that
were dressed up like this went in and represented the people,
it was nothing. It was nothing but a picture
of the one who could do it and do it perfectly before God. This
is a picture of the glorious attire the Son of God has. He's King. majestical in every thought you
can come up with. And he always has been. I know
he humbled himself. He humbled himself and became
a servant, even to the death of the cross. But that never
took away the royal robes that he wore upon him as spiritual
robes. He was always God. He was always
dressed in the finest that you could even imagine. Covered in
gold and precious diamonds and precious stones. These priests
who went before God with the blood of animals representing
the people, they had to do this over and over again. Why? Because
their sacrifices never did anything. Your works will never do anything. Your efforts in this flesh are
never going to do anything when it comes to salvation. But John,
how can you say that I show up to church every Sunday? How can
you say that I got baptized? I love my brethren more than
anybody else does? How can you say that about me?
I'm not the one who's telling you that. Christ says there's
nothing you can do. God tells us that everything about us is
filled with sin. That's why a true-blooded sinner,
one who knows what they are before God, we have no confidence in
this flesh. Not just in this body that moves
fingers and does this and opens a mouth and moves a mouth, but
the very mind that thinks in it. I don't have any confidence
in that. I have confidence in one thing, in my Savior, the
Lord Jesus of whom this book speaks of. You want truth? You're not going to find it in
the newspaper. You're not going to find it on Google. You're
not going to find it on any of those things we see on the internet.
You're going to find it right here in God's Word. That's where
truth is. And truth says this, that we
are dead and trespassers in sin. I believe that. These priests,
their works were never ceasing. They never sat down and rested.
Every year after year after year, they would go into the hidden
room cloaked in the things behind the thick curtains so that none
could see in. And they would bring blood, the
price of sin. Folks, there is no remission
of sin without blood. But it's not just any blood.
It has to be perfect. It has to be righteous. And there's
only One who fulfills that. That vessel in that is the Lord
Jesus. They met with God. They stood
between God and the people as a go-between. A mediator. One
who mediates between two parties, reconciling, bringing the two
together. Now turn, if you would, over
to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy, if you would. I open
this message by telling you we talked about exhortation last
week. Exhorting one another. Not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another. Especially
as we get closer to that time of the end of the world. The
time of our Lord's return. And we're getting pretty close
to that. Some of us closer than others. May not be the one we
think it is. In chapter 2 of 1 Timothy. The Lord inspired Paul to write
these words to Timothy. He says, I exhort, therefore. See the exhortation we have for
each other? Chapter 2, verse 1. 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse
1. I exhort, therefore, says Paul.
I exhort, therefore, says John, to you. that first of all supplications,
prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. I exhort you, I encourage, pray,
ask for the Lord, make intercession, give thanks be made for all men,
for kings and for all that are in authority. a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men, in other
words, all of his people to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge
of truth. Every one for whom the Father
hath given him shall come to him." That's what that just said.
For there is one God and one mediator. between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. I didn't want you to take my
word for it. I didn't want you to, well John said, I wanted
you to hear this, thus saith the Lord, for there is one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between
God and men, Christ Jesus. My subject today is one mediator.
Turn over to Hebrews. In chapter 10, we've been looking
at this book extensively in our Sunday morning service, our Bible
studies. We're over in chapter 11 right
now looking at the I'm proud of witnesses, so I want to go
back for those of you who can't be with us on Sunday morning.
The Bible says, I want to go back and have you look with me
a little bit here at chapter 10. These priests of the Old
Testament were nothing special. They were men, just as they were
in that time. They had the same faults of everyone
else. They were sinners, that's why
they continued in their work. Their work was never good enough.
Their works were filled with the impurities of the flesh.
The blood they brought was the blood of the impurities of this
world. In truth, their sacrifices never
did anything. God never accepted the blood
of animals. They were but a means, a picture. Listen to these words. Let me
read for you from Hebrews chapter 1. God, in His sundry times and
in diverse manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by
the prophets, half in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom He made the worlds."
All those things in the Old Testament were nothing more than pictures
of this One who would speak of Himself in the New Testament.
They were nothing but a means picture that was used to point
the people to the one true sacrifice, the only pure sinless sacrifice,
the one who provided himself as the spotless sacrifice of
sin. The spotless Lamb of God. The
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Our text tells
us there is only one mediator between God and men. The priest
of old could never sit down. Their work continued over year
after year after year. It was never enough to satisfy
the judgment of God. Don Fortner wrote this, he said,
the most amazing thing in all the world is the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, should condescend to become
a man that he might live and die in the place of sinful men
as our substitute upon that cursed tree. I hope I never forget,
he writes, over the wonder of redeeming love. And then he writes
this poem. Could we with ink the oceans
fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were ever stock of earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of
God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole. though stretched from sky to
sky. Don closes his statement with
this, he says, yet when I meditate upon this great to stupendous
fact, the fact that the Lord of glory came here to live and
die for me, to be made sin for me, to bring in everlasting righteousness
for me, to put away my sin by being made sin, to give me life
by laying down His own life, that He came here to save me,
I am compelled to ask, with reverent astonishment, why? Why did Christ
come? This question, writes Don, is
answered in many ways and in many places in Holy Scripture,
but it is not answered more fully, more clearly, in any single passage
than it is here in Hebrews chapter 10. Here, the Holy Spirit tells
us specifically why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world
and died in our room instead. Join me if you would, Hebrews
chapter 10, beginning at verse one. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come. The law was a shadow. What is a shadow? It really is
nothing, is it? Let's see if I can get a shadow
behind me. No, can't. It really is nothing,
is it? But a picture of the real thing. The law, having a shadow of good
things to come, and not the very image of the things can never
Folks, a shadow can never, you ever fight a shadow when you
were a kid? I remember that Peter Pan movie, how he would fight
the shadow, how interesting that was when I was a kid. Oh, and
I couldn't wait to get a sword out and try to fight the shadow. Shadow can never do anything. Not the very image of things
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year,
continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Did you see that? God's
Word. I was telling you a moment ago that those sacrifices did
nothing. Isn't that right? There's God's
Word. Thus saith the Lord. Those sacrifices did nothing.
They could never make you perfect. Verse 2, for then would they
have not ceased to be offered. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers, once purged,
should have had no more conscience of sins." If those sacrifices
were any good, if they were doing anything to help you in your
salvation, if they could do any part, then there wouldn't have needed
to be any more. It would have ceased to happen. Verse 3, but
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance, again, made of
sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins, wherefore when
he cometh into the world, because the blood of bulls and goats
can do no good, wherefore when he cometh into the world, the
Messiah, The promised one. The one who was promised to come
and put away the iniquity of his people. When he said, sacrifice
an offering thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared
me. Christ has always been the Son
of God. The Lord Jesus has always been
the King, but a body had to be prepared to be sacrificed for
our sins. This is grace! This is grace
to the ultimate! Magnified bigger than you and
I can even imagine! A body was prepared for our sacrifice! All those other things just pointed
to that. Verse six, in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said
I, lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me.
All of the Old Testament. What did he say to the disciples
on the road to Emmaus? You guys know. He expounded all
the things, what? Concerning Christ. concerning
him." Isn't that what it says? Isn't that what the Word of the
Lord says? I come in the volume of the book that is written of
me to do what? Thy will, O God. Somebody's come to do the will
of God for us. Somebody's come to fulfill that
law, every T, every dot, as perfect as it can be for you and I. That's grace. That's mercy. Verse 8 and above, when he said,
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin,
thou wouldest not, neither hast pleasure therein, which are offered
by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish, introduce, bring to be the second. By the witch will, by His will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and for all. How is it that God would come
and do all these things for me, writes Don? This is how. This
is why. That He would come and through
the offering of Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, once and for
all, verse 11, in every piece, every priest that stand in daily
ministering and oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never
take away sins, but this man. One sacrifice for the sins forever
sat down on the right hand of God. Is He coming back to this
earth to establish His Kingdom? Folks, His Kingdom is already
established in Him, the Lord Jesus, sitting on His throne
right now. What does it say there? He sat
down on the right hand of God. From henceforth, verse 13, expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool for by one offering. Folks, that offering. He who
knew no sin was made sin for you and I. That boggles my mind
still. I can't wrap my little puny brain
around that. I had a guy the other day try
to explain it once again to me. And I had to stop him in his
tracks. Brother, I love you, but stop! You're saying the same
thing I've heard for 25 years. I still don't understand it.
And it doesn't matter. I just know that it's so. I just
know that He who knew no sin was made sin for me, that I would
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the only righteousness
John has to stand on. This is the one who goes into
the holiest of holies. That's what it's talking about
there. He entered, He sat down on the right hand of God in the
holiest of holies, in heaven itself, on the throne of God,
at the mercy seat of whom is a picture of Him. And by that
one offering, He hath perfected, completed, forever, them that
are sanctified, set apart. Notice that it didn't say the
whole world. It said them. That means not everybody has
been made perfected, have they? Folks, that's grace. That's mercy. That's unmerited favor that God
has for His people. He perfected us when He didn't
have to. Verse 15, Wherefore the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. That first verse we read there
in chapter 10, verse 1, the law is talking about the ceremonial
laws that God has made to Israel throughout time. You know what
the first law God gave Israel? We looked at it Friday night.
It was the law of a bond of a slave man. If somebody was poor, And
their only way for making a living was to give themselves unto someone
who had enough to take care of them, somebody who had enough
to feed them, somebody who had enough to give them a place to
live. It would be called a slavery. You would give yourself as a
slave to someone. I wish I had covered this a little
better on Friday night. Did you know our Lord Jesus Christ
gave Himself as a slave to His Father for our sakes? He willingly took upon himself
the form of what? A servant. These ceremonial laws,
they point us to Christ. We look at these things the Lord
tells us that we must do, and oh, how we desire to do so. You
remember when there was a time when you had no desire? Ah, I'm
not hurting anybody. I'm not doing anything that's
going to wrong somebody else. It's okay. That's the way I used
to think. Salvation is by grace, and the
law's only accomplishment is to reveal our need of grace. I can't do it. I can't do that, and I can't
do that, and I can't do that, and I can't do that. I can't
do any of it. I want to! I'm trying! I just can't. The law is works, and works and
grace don't meet. I need salvation by grace, don't
you? In Romans 11, verses 5 and 6,
we read these words, "...even so then, at this present time,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and
if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is
no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work." Then over in
verse 2, we see the word purged. It says, "...for then would they
not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once
Purged. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3.
Turn over there just a moment if you would and look at that
with me if you would. Look at Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. I
want you to see this because this is talking about us. Talking
about God's people. Hebrews. Chapter 1 verse 3. Who
being the brightness of His glory. This is verse 3 of Hebrews 1.
Who being the brightness of His glory. Speaking of Christ. Who
is the brightness image of His person and upholding all things
by the word of His power. Did you see that, Mike? Did you
see that, Mike Musher? There's God Almighty upholding
all things by the word of His power right there. He's on His
throne. When He had by Himself done what? Purged. Purged our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. In verse 4 of our text back there
in Hebrews chapter 10 it says, For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Did you see that?
I want you to turn back now to Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews
chapter 9 we read these words beginning at verse 11, But Christ,
being come and High Priest, of good things to come. Did you
see that? Here's our Mediator. Our High Priest. Isn't that what
it calls Him back here in Hebrews 3, verse 1? Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider, this is what we looked
at last week, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,
our Mediator, the very One who's going to go into the holiest
of to the holiest of holies with his own blood. We're washed. We're purged. We're purged by
his blood. Christ being come a high priest
of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say not of this building,
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained." That's
past tense, folks. That means it's done. That's
how we can say when the Lord was on the cross I remember the first time I heard
a message on that section of Scripture. It was Don Fortner,
and he stood up there and he goes, I've had people ask me
this question, what do you think it means when the Lord says,
it is finished? He says, well... He did that. I'm pretty sure
it means it's finished. That's still just as funny today
as it was when I first saw that. And I'm not trying to laugh at
myself, I pictured Don doing that actually. It's finished. It's done. He has obtained eternal
redemption for us. This is our mediator. This is
the go-between. We got people out there right
now who are trying to go between Israel and Hamas, you know, and
they're trying to work out ceasefire deals and all this, and next
thing you know some guy's killing somebody over here, or Israel
blowing up pagers over here, or whatever. Our mediators of
this world really don't know what they're doing. They really
don't. You can't say that about Christ.
You can't say that about the One who knows all things. He
does everything perfectly. If He is mediating, is there
any chance that it's not an accomplished deal? Is there any chance that
He has not obtained eternal redemption for us? Look at verse 13. For
if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes and a heifer sprinkling,
the unclean sanctifying, the purifying of the flesh, How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, purge? I love that word,
purge. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Look at verse 15, and we'll close
with this. And for this cause, He is the mediator. of the New
Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. We were talking about this in
our study this morning. Folks, I know. I've been there. I know how difficult it is sometimes
to set our priorities in this world. And I'm not in any way
saying that it's damaging you, putting you in jeopardy. If you
belong to God, nothing can put you in jeopardy. But you can
sure miss out on a lot of really good blessings. Bible studies
can be so rewarding. I remember when Kathy told me,
she goes, why don't we go up on a Friday night? I know it's
tough for you, but why don't we go? And I said, OK, fine. I gave in. I said, all right,
it doesn't matter how long I work today. I'll try to figure out
what works. even if I have to go in uniform. And some of you
who know, who've gone, you've seen me show up in my FedEx uniform
before. But once we started going, I
was so blessed with what we see in God's Word that I just kept
coming and kept coming and kept coming. You're missing out on
some blessings. I'm not saying it's gonna cause
anything of sin in you to hell. I'm saying you're missing out.
You're not being as blessed as you could be. We were talking
about this in Bible study today. Abraham is looking for a city
that is built without hands, a city that is built of God.
And it says in Hebrews 11, verse 10, that that city has foundations. This is the city that we look
for. This is the eternal promise that I just shared with you that
the Word of God tells us there in Hebrews 9 verse 15. For this cause He is the mediator
of a new testament that by means of death, His death for the redemption,
for the redemption of his people of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament. That's the law that brings us
to the knees of our transgressions, that which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. That's the city that we're looking
to, the ones whose foundations are built upon Christ. This is
our exhortation to each other. Look to Christ. The foundation
of that promised land we've been promised is on Him. It's all
on Him. Salvation is of the Lord. Aren't
you thankful? Oh, I'll tell you. It means I
can just sit down and rest. I can just sit down and rest.
I am assured salvation if I am in Him. As you are as well. This assurance is what keeps
me singing Every time we come together, every time the Lord
opens the door for me to speak about it, I want to sing about
my Savior, my Mediator, my High Priest, my Apostle, the one of my profession, the
Lord Jesus Christ.