Let's go back to that scripture
in Matthew chapter 25, and as you are making your way toward
it, I'll say it's good to see you all this evening. I just wanted to say a word.
I appreciate those that made it over to the funeral of Philip
Meadows Monday. We had a very good showing from
our congregation, and I know it meant a lot to the family,
and it meant a lot to me to see faces that I know. Believe me, it's always easier
to preach to people if you've got some folks in the congregation
that are pulling for you and who love the same message. And
you know that they're lifting you up before the throne of grace.
So I want to thank you, those of you who were able to come
out. And I know you were there because
you knew Philip. You worshipped with him. He came
out for his family's sake, and that's good. It was good to see
you there on my part. I don't want to be selfish on
it, but actually, I felt like God gave us a good service. Those
of you who were there, I felt like God gave me a little liberty
to preach the gospel. And the family was receptive,
and you listened to me very graciously, and I appreciate that. So it
was a good time of worship, even though the circumstances that
brought us together were sad in many ways. Yet it was a time
of rejoicing, for the Lord took another one of his elect on home
to glory. Alright, we're in the book of
Matthew. I want to talk to you tonight
about the perfect priest. The perfect priest. In the Old Testament, there were
three offices that God ordained and men had to be anointed unto. Those were prophet, priest, and
king. As you know, those offices rarely met in any one man. Rarely, if ever, did they meet
in any one man. We have Melchizedek. He was a
priest, and he was a king, but he wasn't a prophet. You've got
David, and you have Solomon. They were prophets, and they
were kings, but they weren't priests. Now, one might argue
that Moses was all three. Well, he certainly was a prophet,
and he was a priest, as he interceded for, and he was the mediator
between God and Israel, and he was a great leader, but he was
never called a king. He was never called a king. There is really but one who is
the prophet, the priest, and the king. And that's our Lord
Jesus. It's very interesting as we look
in this scripture, the passage that was read to us earlier,
there we see Christ the King. You'll notice back in chapter
25 and verse 34, and of course, our Lord is speaking here about
that when time shall be no more, And he stands as the sovereign,
as the judge, and all shall be gathered together before him.
You'll notice in verse 34 of chapter 25, then shall the king
say. So obviously he's identifying
himself as the king. It isn't that he wants to be
king, but he is the king. He's always been the king. He's
the king of kings and he's the Lord of lords. Now, as God, he's
always been king, but as the man, Christ Jesus, he earned
the right to be the king. He earned the right by virtue
of doing the work that the Father gave him to do. He finished the
work of redemption. That is, he saved his people
from their sins and he brought in everlasting righteousness
by his substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary. God
has rewarded him. Back in the 2nd Psalm, the Father
says to Christ Jesus, ask of me, I'll give you the heathen
for your inheritance. And our Lord Jesus indeed reigns
over the heathen. He reigns over every kingdom.
He reigns over the kingdom of creation. He reigns over the
kingdom of providence. And He reigns over the kingdom
of grace. He is the King. He is identified
as being the King here. Peter said in his message on
the day of Pentecost, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
that God hath made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both
Lord and Christ. He's the King. He's the sovereign. He's the ruler. And all things
that happen in this world or any other world as far as that
goes, everything that happens in God's universe happens by
the absolute sovereign authority of King Jesus. He's the King. He earned the right to be the
King. He shed His blood for His people. He died that God might
be a just God and a Savior. God has rewarded him. He's king
overall. He's the king. The second office
is that of prophet. Now, having shown us at the end
of chapter 25 that our Lord Jesus is indeed the king, I want you
to notice here He is as the prophet at the beginning of chapter 26.
Notice verse 1 of chapter 26 of Matthew. And it came to pass,
when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,
here is the great prophet. He has finished speaking the
word of God. In other words, everything that
he was instructed by the Father to speak, he has spoken to the
Jewish people and to the world. He has proclaimed all of the
sermons and all of the discourses that his Father sent him to declare. He is the great communicator
of divine truth. Moses wrote of Him back in Deuteronomy
chapter 18. Moses spoke of that prophet that
God would bring into the world. Christ is that prophet raised
up by the Father sent to declare His Word. He came down from heaven
to set forth the Father, to reveal God to us. Without this prophet,
we would still today be in ignorance in blindness and in false religion. Our Lord Jesus is the prophet,
mighty in word, mighty in deed. It was said of him, never a man
spake as this man. What did he speak? The Word of
God. The Word of God. Therefore, he
said in Mark chapter 13, heaven and earth shall pass away, but
my words, the words that I speak as that prophet shall never pass
away. He is the perfect prophet. who
has an absolute knowledge, absolute thorough knowledge of the will
of God, and the mind of God, and the purpose of God, so that
he could speak those things that had not yet happened. He foretold future events. He's the prophet. Shall I remind
you of a few? He predicted, He prophesied that
one of the disciples would betray Him. He detailed how it would
happen before it ever happened. He said to the disciples, one
of you is going to deny Me. He prophesied of His own arrest,
of His sufferings, of His death, of His resurrection, of His exaltation. of his second coming and of the
judgmental authority given to him by the Father. This prophet,
this prophet spake as never a man spake before. Because he fully
knew the mind of God, he could speak the mind of God by the
power of the Holy Spirit. He spoke of his own death. Now
we know why he died. He died that God might be a just
God and a Savior. But he spoke of his own death
years before it ever happened. He's the prophet of God. He died
to reconcile us to God. He died and he paid a debt he
didn't owe. Because we couldn't pay the debt
that we did owe. And all of our indebtedness was
charged to his account fully. Fully. Removed from our account,
put on his account. And really, that happened before
the world began. And he came into the world and
did just exactly what God sent him to do to save his people
from their sins by retiring fully our indebtedness. You know what
it means to pay a bill. You get a bill in the mail, date
due, better send it in by then. Well, in due time, in due time,
when our debt was due to the law of God, when God said it's
time for it to be paid, He came and paid the debt in full. This
one who is the prophet did that. And he spoke of doing that before
he did it. And he detailed, he set before
them itemized, as it were, events as to how this would all go down
long before it went down. Because he's the prophet. Well,
that's what prophets in the Old Testament did. They foretold
future events. He did it in great detail. He
said early in his public ministry to the Jews, destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it again. Then said the Jews,
well it took 46 years to build this and you're going to rebuild
it in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. That's what he spoke of. After
his resurrection then the disciples remembered he prophesied of his
own resurrection. He's the prophet who spoke of
his exaltation. There in Matthew chapter 25 that
you read, he spoke of the judgment at the end. You remember at his
mock trial, the high priest asked him, art thou the Christ, the
son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye shall see the Son of Man
coming on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven."
And oh, was the high priest mad then. But you know what? He's
the prophet who was speaking of things that were absolutely
sure to come. He was the prophet who taught
and instructed men in the knowledge of divine things. He spake as
never a man spake. He preached the gospel fully.
He preached the gospel faithfully. When he began his ministry, it
says Jesus went forth preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He
was a preacher. And let men say of other men,
they're the prince of preachers. He's the prince of preachers.
He's the prince of preachers. And we learn our message from
Him. We learn our methodology from
Him. We learn what it means to be
a preacher from Him. We listen to Him because He's
the prophet. Moses said back in Deuteronomy
chapter 18, God will raise up a prophet like unto me. Our Lord
Jesus is that prophet, mighty to perform miracles. Did Moses
perform miracles? Yes, by the power of God. So
did Jesus of Nazareth perform miracles. Was Moses the mediator
for the people as the prophet? Yes, so was Jesus of Nazareth
the prophet. So is he our mediator between
God and men. He's the man Christ Jesus. Was
Moses the redeemer of Israel? Yes, in the sense that God's
instructions. He told them about the Passover
lamb, the shedding of the blood, the application of the blood.
He told them all about that. Our Lord Jesus is the Redeemer. The Redeemer. And as the shed
blood of the Passover lamb made sure that all of the firstborn
were spared, saved, rescued, so the blood of our Lord Jesus
has saved everyone in whose stead it was shed. And God said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's never changed. It's never changed. He's the
prophet likened to Moses. So much so that when our Lord
came into this world, the things that He spoke were quite literally
the words of God. He said in John 7, 16, Jesus
answered and said, My doctrine is not mine, but Him that sent
me. You say, why did he phrase it
that way, preacher? Because he was not acting nor
speaking independent of the Father. Everything he spoke, everything
he did, every miracle he performed was by the authority of the Father. with the perfect okay of the
Father, and according to the Father's will. He did nothing
independently of the Father. He knew the mind of the Father,
the will of the Father, the purpose of the Father, and He did it
perfectly. Always. Always. He said in John
8 and 28, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall
know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my
Father hath taught me, I speak these things. I'm of the same
mind as the Father. I'm not saying anything different
than the Father says. I speak consistently with His
will. He's the great prophet. Now watch
this. He's the perfect priest. Now
I showed you in this passage, in the end part, the last part
of Matthew 25, here's the king. In the first verse of chapter
26, there's the prophet. Now here's the priest, verse
2. Matthew 26. You know that after two days
is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed
to be crucified. Here's his work as priest. Here's
the king, here's the prophet, here's the priest. It is indeed
glorious to see our Lord as the king, ruling and reigning, sovereign
over all things, He is the King, and it's glorious to hear Him
speak as the Prophet, speaking the very Word of God, that One
who is the Incarnate God, that is, the Incarnate Word. But what our Lord deals with
now, that which He directs the attention of His disciples to,
is the necessity of his work as priest. What did a priest
do in the Old Testament? Well, basically he did this.
He offered the sacrifices to God, and he did business with
God on behalf of men. He spoke to God on behalf of
men, whereas those who were prophets, they spoke to men for God, right? They got their message from God,
they got their sermon from God, they got their prophecy from
God, they received their word from God, and they gave it to
men. Whereas the work of a priest was to minister before God and
minister to God on the behalf of men. Here's our Lord Jesus. And he sets before his disciples
the necessity that he, as the priest, offer to God the only
sacrifice that could ever put away sin. The sacrifice of himself. Why, from the very moment of
his incarnation, he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. Actually, do you know how long
he had been heading to Jerusalem to die? From old eternity. From old eternity. It was ordained
then he would give his life a ransom for his people. And he set his
face like a flint, as it says in Isaiah chapter 50, read verses
5 through 7. And though his friends, though
his disciples said, please don't go, he set his face like a flint
to go. Though he knew what awaited him,
the mockery, the suffering, the persecution, the trial, the death,
he still was determined to go. He's the high priest. who would
offer to God the sacrifice that would put away sins. He was unaffected
by the words of His disciples. He was unmoved by the threats
of His enemies. He was not dismayed when they
came to apprehend Him. In fact, He said, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they all fell
back. power of His Word. They weren't
in charge of anything. He was. That's His finest hour. That's His glory. In a sense, you could say Calvary,
Calvary was his throne. There's the king, there's the
prophet, there's the priest, upon the cross, fulfilling the
Father's redemptive will. It was this purpose that he came
into the world. He'd been pointing to that from
before the foundation of the world. He never shied away from
it. He said, I must go. The Son of
Man must be lifted up. Just like Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness. He said the chief priest must
take the Son of Man. He must. He must because God
ordained it. He must because He said, I want
to do this. There was a joy set before Him. The joy of saving His people. Of redeeming us. Of reconciling
us. What a joy that was to Him. And we joy to think about His
death, to think about His resurrection. We find great delight in focusing
on our thoughts upon this. Our Lord Jesus, He had been speaking
about the great things that would happen at His second coming.
And then He gave some few last words as the prophet, But now
he directs the attention of his disciples to his crucifixion
and to his death. And while the wondrous predictions
of his second coming were still ringing in their ears, he once
more tells them, there is the necessity of my death. All roads lead back to Calvary,
don't they? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the prophet of God. He is the king of God. He is
the priest. He is the priest. I call your
attention to this because we need to understand we can never
attach too much importance to the sin atoning work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We focus on this work over and
over and over again. Here's the priest offering to
God this sacrifice that actually did the job. Notice how he expressed it in
the second verse. You know that after two days,
you know, you know, that after two days is the feast of Passover. You know that. You know what
Passover is all about. And they did. They did. They knew about the lambs that
were put up. Male of the first year, without
spot, without blemish, put up four days for inspection. They
knew. They knew all about it. Why these
men, they had to go to the Passover plus two more feasts every year. Every year. They knew. They knew about the Passover.
Here's the Passover lamb. Here's the Passover lamb. And
they knew something else too. They knew the Son of Man is betrayed
to be crucified. They knew because He had told
them. He had told them several times. But though He told them, they didn't fully understand
or grasp it, did they? These men, they were still looking
for an earthly kingdom. They still had this idea that
Jesus of Nazareth was going to relieve them of Roman oppression. One of these days, He is going
to rise up and drive these dadgum Romans right out of town. Drive
them back to Rome where they belong. And re-institute the
glory days of David and Solomon. They didn't understand. He came
to die. That's why He came. He came to
give Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. He is the perfect
priest. The perfect priest. Go over to
the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. Let me show
you just a little bit here. Hebrews chapter 1. And we know
the theme of the book of Hebrews is Christ is better. He is better. And his priesthood is better
than Aaron's priesthood. Because he is a priest after
the order of Melchizedek. In chapter 1, we see him as the
exalted priest. Let me read this again. We have
read it a few times here in the last couple of weeks, but look
at verse 1 again. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
there is the prophet, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, there is his priesthood, sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels,
there he is his king. Prophet, priest, and king. He is the exalted priest. The
exalted priest. Yonder in glory. There is a priest
upon his throne. Our priestly king. Look at chapter 8. Chapter 8 verse 1. Chapter 8
verse 1. of Hebrews. Now, of the things
which we have spoken, this is the sum. That means, here's the
main point. Here's the main point of it.
We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens. Notice that, who is
set. Now, he sits there But that's
not the word. He's set. This is set. In other words, this is fixed.
It can't be undone. He's set on the right hand of
the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the
sanctuary of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not
man. He's the exalted priest. His position at the right hand
of the Father is fixed. It's set. It's immovable. Immovable. And then go back in
the second chapter. I'll show you something about
his priesthood in the second chapter. Here we find he's a
faithful and merciful high priest. He is the successful priest whose
sacrifice put our sins away. He is the exalted priest who
sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. His throne is
set. And in the second chapter we
see He is a merciful and faithful high priest. Look at verse 9. But we see Jesus. who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Made
lower. In other words, he was given
a body, like in Dwyer's, for this express purpose, for the
suffering of death. That's why he was given a body. We see him crowned with glory
and honor that he, by the grace of God, Oh, what grace is in
this redemption. That he by the grace of God should
taste death, experience death. Here's the way I experience this
water. Mmm. I taste it. He experienced death. He tasted death. The reality
of it. The horrors of the wrath of God. He tasted it. He, the perfect
Son of God, having sin imputed to Him, wrath fell on Him. He tasted it. He tasted it. And moreover, He drank it. He
drank the cup dry, didn't He? The cup of God's wrath. He turned
it up, as it were, and drank it down to the last bitter dregs. And put that cup down and it
was empty. There is, therefore, now no condemnation. No condemnation. Listen! No condemnation! No judgment to the American Christ
Jesus. Because He drank the cup dry.
And now, no wrath for us. No wrath. Because we don't have
any indebtedness. God's not mad at us. God's not
angry with us. God's not frowning on us. He's
always smiling. It was that song that says, Back
to the Clouds, that God's always smiling. The clouds may look dreary and
they may look threatening, but listen, God doesn't threaten
His people at all. He only has wonderful things
for us. There is no sin. Sin has been
put away. Now drop down to verse 16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels. That word took, it means to lay
hold of, to grab hold of. He didn't grab hold of the nature
of angels. He didn't take hold of that.
He took hold of the seed, watch it, it doesn't say of Adam. But
of Abraham, the seed of Abraham, he took hold of it. Verse 17,
wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren. That's us. That's us. That he
might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God. Why? To make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. That word for means because.
Because in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he's
able to succor them that are tempted. In other words, he's
able to help with feeling. With feeling. When somebody you don't know
is hurting, Well, you feel bad for them, but you don't really
enter into it. But if it's your child, if it's
your blood kin, you feel it, don't you? It's different. It's
different. I mean, all of us who You know,
we have feelings of sympathy toward those who suffer and say,
I'm sorry so-and-so sees somebody on television, something's happened,
the fire's consumed everything they've got. Well, I feel sorry
for them. But then you go on about your
business, don't you? You know why? Because they're
not really special to you. You understand what I'm trying
to say? But if it's your child, your son, your daughter, That
what touches them, touches you. That's what this is saying. What a sympathizing high priest
we have. And he says, what touches you,
touches me. Say, nobody knows what I'm going
through. Hang on a minute now. Wait a
minute. Your sympathizing high priest
does. He is touched with the feelings
of your infirmities, and He helps you with feeling. With feeling,
because He loves you. He loves you more than you have
any idea that you love. The kind of love that you have
for your son or your daughter, your husband or your wife, or
your child, whoever. Our love is weak and feeble. It ain't even to be compared
with the kind of love He has for us. And I'll tell you one other thing
and I'll quit. Look over to chapter 4. He is
an approachable priest. Chapter 4, look at verse 14,
seeing then that we have a great high priest. Where is he? Well, he's passed
into the heavens. Who is he? Jesus, the Son of
God. Well, let us hold fast our profession
then. Are you talking about a reason
to persevere and keep on going? It's the kind of high priest
we've got. But watch this, verse 15. For
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. He never had any sin. always
pure and holy and spotless. Well, let us, therefore, come
boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Because this is the kind
of priest we've got. Christ Jesus. He not only offered the sacrifice
for us, but he does all the business with God for us. And he prays
for us. He said to Simon Peter, Satan
has desired to have you that he might sift you like wheat.
I prayed for you. I prayed for you that your faith
fail not. He's praying for you. Does that
help you? That helps me. That helps me. I prayed for you. He said in John 17, in his high
priestly prayer, he said, I pray not for the world. And let me tell you something,
if he doesn't pray for the world, that means he doesn't love the
world, and he didn't die for the world either. He said, I
pray for those that you've given me. Well, that's us. The elect. You read there in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1 back in the office. The elect of God. He's praying
for us. Lord, let me be encouraged. You're my great high priest.
You take care of me. And you leave nothing to me.
He gives me faith to believe. To embrace Him. To look to Him. Why, we don't have a worry in
the world, do we? Huh? You're not going to worry
about anything tonight, are you? You're not going to go home and
fret or spew or be steamed up about or murmur about anything,
are you? I know you're not. Because you're
going to go home and you're going to say, we've got a great high
priest who's passed into the heavens. He's taking care of
us. He's taking care of me. So I'm just going to lay down
my head on the pillar and go fast to sleep because He's on
the watch. And He's never lost a sheep.
He's not going to lose you. He's not going to lose me either. Bless His name. Amen.