Well, we come back this week
to the book of Hebrews and we're going to bridge across from the
end of chapter four into chapter five this morning, that's my
intention. We've seen that Sabbath, Sabbath
pictures the rest that there is in Christ. It's pictured in
creation, the seventh day rest when God created for six days
and then on the seventh day he rested from all his works. And
that's a picture, as I said last week, of the eternal rest, the
eternal Sabbath that is in heaven, that is in the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of God triumphant and accomplished. That pictured
that rest. Then the law was given by Moses
and the fourth commandment was given, remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy, remember that rest day, do no work in it, absolutely
strictly applied. It was a picture But that picture
is fulfilled in Christ. And I'll say again, I know some
people get upset at this, but I'll say it again. Sunday is
not the Sabbath day in its Christian form. We keep the Sabbath by
faith every day when we trust and believe and rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Christ as you know, is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And
that commandment, that law of keeping one day of the week holy
has ceased because Christ is the end of it. There's no rules
and regulations about what you have to do on a certain day to
keep a Sabbath day. What do you have to do to keep
a Sabbath? Believe Christ. Trust Christ. The promised land
rest. When the Israelites were brought
out of Egypt and through the wilderness wanderings and they
were promised a rest in the promised land. They were promised physical
prosperity and peace and release from their burdens and release
from the slavery in Egypt. They were promised that, but
it was just a picture. And where Moses and the law could
not take the people into that promised rest, Joshua, the type
of Christ, could take the people into that promised land, but
again Because of sin and things physical, they went away in idolatry. They were sent into captivity
because of their idolatry, because of their departure. Many of them,
many of them, most of that generation that came out of Egypt did not
enter in to the promised rest. They didn't enter in to that
picture of the Sabbath which is in Christ. Why didn't they?
Why didn't they enter in? It says they could not enter
in. What was the reason they could not enter in? It's there
in chapter 3 at the end of it. So we see they could not enter
in because of unbelief. It's unbelief that kept those
people out of that picture. of the Sabbath rest of the people
of God in his eternal kingdom. But, but, but, verse 9 of chapter
4. I know I'm stressing these things,
we're repeating some of the material, but I think it's so important
to understand this. Verse 9 of chapter 4, there remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. There remaineth a keeping
of the Sabbath to the people of God. It's an enduring rest. And what is it? As I've said,
it's the kingdom of God, accomplished, triumphant. It's that Sabbath
rest of faith that begins now when we trust Christ, when we're
given faith by the Holy Spirit to look to Christ and to believe
and to see all of our need for acceptance with God provided
in Him. So what is there left for me
to do? Nothing but trust Him. Trust Him. What a blessed state
this is. What a blessed state this rest
of faith is. Let me remind you, turn back
to Psalm 65. You don't have to turn to these because I'm just
going to read them quite quickly, but if you want to, Psalm 65
and verse 4. Blessed. What does blessed mean?
Favoured by God. the favour of Almighty God, the
sovereign ruler of the universe who upholds all things by the
word of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest, O to be chosen of God, to have your
name written in the Lamb's book of life. Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. that he may
dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. That's true
satisfaction. What a blessed state to be in.
Here's another one. Psalm 16 and verse 11, I think
it is, yes. Psalm 16 and verse 11. Thou wilt
show me the path of life. Isn't that good that there's
a God who rules over all things, who will show his people the
path of life? In thy presence is fullness of
joy. Oh, have you been to this thing,
or have you seen that show, or whatever else it might be? In
the presence of God is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore. At thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore. What will the bliss of heaven
be like? We don't know, we can't see, we cannot tell, but we know
it'll be beyond anything that we can imagine, because Christ
is there. We'll see him, we'll be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Here's another one, Psalm
32, Psalm 32, and verses one and two. Blessed, blessed, favoured by
God, favoured by the creator, the upholder, the one who rules
over all things. To be favoured by this one, blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven. Transgression which
must be punished by death, eternal death. But if it's forgiven,
is taken away. What a blessed state, whose sin
is covered. They will look for the sins of
Israel and Judah on that day of judgment, and they shall not
be found. Why? Because Christ has taken them
away. Where has he taken them? As far as the east is from the
west. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Oh, what a curse to be under
the imputation of sin, to have to give account for it, to have
to pay the debt for it. But blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. How to attain that blessed estate? How to attain that? Yes, that
sounds good. In this world of frailty, fragility,
of life, of things happening, where is there any hope in this?
Oh, there's hope in politics. I think not. Have a look at it.
Look at the state of it. Terrible. Never been worse. All
of these things, there's no hope in it. But how to attain this
blessed state? of the kingdom of God and everything
that he has for his people. Answer, this is how to attain,
believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus. We're
exhorted again and again, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What
should we do, the Jews asked of Jesus, that we might do the
works of God? And Jesus answered, John 6, 29,
Jesus answered, This is the work of God that you believe on him
whom he has sent. To trust in Christ alone is to
do the work of God that is acceptable to God. That's what it is. In
Hebrews 4 and verse 11, We're told that we must labour, we're
encouraged to labour, to strive, to enter into that rest of God
in Christ, lest any man fall after the same example, what
example? Of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, the same example
of unbelief. We're to labour to enter, and
the means is then immediately given, which is the Word of Truth,
the Word of God, the Bible, the Scriptures, the Word of God,
for Christ is the Word. You say, where do you get that
from in the Bible? John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Couldn't be
clearer. On his thigh in Revelation 19. when he's on this white stallion
of triumph in the picture, in the vision given to John. On
his thigh is his name, and it's written there, the Word of God.
This is the Word of God. Christ is the expression of the
unknowable, unseeable God. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made him known. You know,
We're dealing with things, we're thinking of things which are
beyond our comprehension, in their majesty and glory. There
is one God, there is one God, but he's manifest in three persons. I'll come on to that in a moment.
We're to labor to enter into that rest. We're to labor, to
labor in the word of truth. Paul said to the Galatians that
he travailed, he worked, he labored, he strived in birth again. You know, he's talking about
labor pains as a child's about to be born. He said, I travail
in birth again until Christ be formed in you. It's a work. He
kept preaching to them. arguing with them, and showing
them, and reasoning with them, and giving them from the Scriptures
the reasons to trust Christ. Because if Christ is formed in
you, as Paul laboured in birth again, until Christ be formed
in you, then what he says in Colossians 1.27 is right. It's
Christ in you, the hope of glory. If Christ is in you, if you believe
him, you're resting in him, you have a solid hope of glory. That's
the hope that Stephen mentioned in his prayer. Be ready always
to give a reason to anybody who asks you the hope that is in
you. Why do you have this hope? Why
do you have this hope? Well, it's because of these things.
Solid reasons. It's not some airy-fairy thing
and you've lost your mind and you've gone off without any reason.
No, it's absolutely solid. It's a reason for the hope that
is in you. How do we do it? Through the
Word, through the Word of God, which is Christ. We labor in
his Word, prayerfully seeking the mind of Christ. You know,
it says somewhere, we have the mind of Christ. Labor in his
Word. How do you labor in his Word?
Here he preached. hear it preached. As I said last
week, there's never been more opportunity to hear good preaching. You have to be discerning because
there's a lot of very poor preaching, but there's good preaching and
it's extremely accessible. When God said in that vision
to John about the woman, the church, going into wilderness
separation from this evil world, he said he would put her in a
place prepared of God for her to feed her there. And how does
he do it? Well, look at today, look at
the last 20 years with the internet. Preaching of the true gospel
grace of God has never been more readily accessible. So get to know it. Strive, as
Peter says in his epistle, to grow in grace and the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Be determined, as Paul
was, as he wrote to the Corinthians, I was determined when I was with
you. To know what, Paul? To know nothing other than Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Because why? As Jesus said, if
you found this, if you found gospel truth, the truth of gospel
grace, the truth of the forgiveness of sins, the payment of sins,
of acceptance with God, You've found the pearl of greatest price,
and whatever other riches you have, you count them, like Paul
said, as dung by comparison. You know, many people started
to leave Jesus when the doctrine got difficult in John 6, and
he said to the disciples, will you also go away? And Peter,
the spokesman, the bold spokesman always, he said, to whom shall
we go, Lord? You. And nobody else has the
words of eternal life. Why would we go anywhere else?
We cannot go anywhere else. So how to attain it? From our
position of fleshly weakness, of sin and of darkness. How are
we going to attain it? Because that's what we are in
the flesh. We're sinners in the flesh. We're weak in the flesh.
Our best intentions always turn to sin. Our righteousnesses are
filthy rags in the sight of God, truly. In our own strength, they
are. In our own strength, they are.
In Christ, he sanctifies them. But in our own strength, they're
filthy rags. From our position of fleshly
weakness and sin and darkness, how are we going to attain labor
to enter into this rest? Well, it's there in verse 16.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Do we not need mercy from God and grace to help in time of
need? Who will provide mercy and grace
to help in time of need? Who will provide it? our great
high priest. Verse 14, seeing them, we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. A great high
priest. He is the one by whom we can
find, we can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. So I've got three main points.
Our priest on a throne. other priests, just by way of
the fact that the passage here speaks about other priests, and
then the priest, our everlasting priest, on his throne of glory.
So, our priest on a throne, let us come boldly to the throne
of grace, let us come confidently to the supreme throne. Think
about this, come boldly to the throne of grace. The scripture
is so intense and rich in its meaning, isn't it? Every phrase
is so full of meaning. We cannot plumb the depths of
it. We cannot get to the bottom of
it. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. This
is the supreme throne of the universe. This is to almighty
God. Come boldly to the throne of
almighty God. Come to the one who injustice
is a consuming fire. Come boldly to the one who it
says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. How do we come boldly to one
who is so strict in justice. How do we come to this seat of
sovereign power, this seat of grace and mercy? It's only because
of the grace and mercy accomplished by the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You might have heard this before,
but justice, if we come for justice, if we come to the throne of grace
looking for justice as we are outside of Christ as sinners,
then beware. Come fearfully, not boldly, come
fearfully. Because justice is when we get
what we deserve under the justice of God. People cry out, you hear
them crying out for justice from moral high ground. And more often
than not, they don't know what they're talking about. The justice
of God is strict, absolutely. It's when we get what we deserve
under the justice of God. The soul that sins, it shall
die. But mercy is when we don't get
what we deserve. And it's not just that God says,
oh, it doesn't matter, I'll let you off. I'm feeling calm and
settled today, so I'll let you off. No, it doesn't mean that.
Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve. Why? because another
has taken it and paid for it in our place. God can be merciful. God is perfectly just to be merciful
to sinners who his justice demands the death of because Christ,
our substitute, has already died in the place of his people. Mercy
is when we don't get what we deserve. Grace, grace is when
we get what we don't deserve. What don't we deserve? every
spiritual blessing in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the grace of God. Great riches at Christ's expense. And when do we need it? We may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In time
of need. Now is the time of need. As sinners,
we're in constant need. In trials and tribulations, we're
in constant need. It's a time of need. Let's come
boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace
to help in the time of need. We're in need of forgiveness
constantly. We're in need of cleansing from
our sin constantly. We're in need of peace with God.
Oh, the bliss of peace with God, knowing that it is well with
my soul. You know, we sing that hymn,
it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul. And it's lovely
to sing the tune and have the melodies in your heart, but to
know in your heart that you have peace with the living God. We
need salvation from sin. We need salvation from just condemnation. And in ourselves, we're utterly
bankrupt, but we have a great high priest in heaven. Seeing
them, we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens.
We have a great high priest. And what is the role of a high
priest? Paul tells us, writing to Timothy,
1 Timothy 2 verse 5, he says, there is one God who is holy,
majestic, and there is one mediator between God and man who is sinful. There's one mediator. There's
only one mediator. What's his name? There it is,
Jesus, the Son of God. One that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, is the great high priest of his people.
Jehovah Jesus. Almighty God, the Savior, because
Jesus means he shall save his people from their sins. It's
the same name as Joshua. Jehovah Jesus, Almighty God,
the Savior. God manifest, shown openly in
human flesh. God who is distant and above
all and beyond all and dwells in unapproachable light, but
God who is empathetic to our human condition. I said last
week what the difference is between sympathetic and empathetic. Sympathetic
is when you feel sorry for somebody. Empathetic is when you know exactly
what they're going through, because you feel it yourself, you've
been there. He is empathetic to our human condition, yet he
is supreme God. He is supreme God. As I said
earlier, this is a mystery. This is such a mystery. The thoughts
of this are high. The things of God are higher
than us. They're the mysterious things
of gospel grace that he chooses to reveal to his people. There
is only one God. Only one God. Be in no doubt,
there is only one God. When we talk of Christ sitting
on the right hand of God, don't start thinking that there are
two. There are two persons, but there is one God. In Mark chapter
12, verse 29, Jesus tells the assembled gathering, one asked him, what's
the most important commandment? And he said, well, the first
one is this. Here, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,
there is one God, yet he's manifest, he's made known in distinct persons,
in the person of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. How do we see the Father? Look
to the Son. He that has seen me, said Jesus,
has seen the Father. by the Holy Spirit communicated
now. If I go not away, said Jesus,
the Holy Spirit won't come to you and manifest the things of
God to you. Remember always the eternal purpose
of God. It's not for us to have a good,
nice, peaceful, happy time in this life. is to land us safe
in the eternal kingdom of God. That's his eternal purpose, to
land his elect multitude in the bliss of his triumphant kingdom,
in his celestial city as John Bunyan pictures it. It's all
accomplished by the persons of the Godhead. The one Godhead,
one Godhead, the Father's love in election before the beginning
of time, when he chose in Christ a multitude that no man can number,
from every tribe and tongue and kindred, for eternal salvation,
to be the citizens of his eternal kingdom. And he put that multitude
in betrothal union with the Son of God. the Son of God who would
come and redeem them from the curse of the law, and the role
of the Spirit when that is done to bring to every single one
of these people the faith, the spiritual life, to see and to
trust and to rest in Him. So our heavenly prophet, the
one who teaches us truth from heaven, is the Lord Jesus Christ. I came down from heaven to show
you these things, he said. Our heavenly priest, our great
one high priest, is Christ. Christ, he is our great, we have
a great high priest, Jesus, the son of God. Our heavenly king,
who rules over us with such benign rule, You know, so many, the
rulers of this world, the men and women are sinful and therefore
they, whatever they say they might set out to be, they are
not benign. They're full of self-interest.
But he is our king with nothing other than benign care for his
people. He is as Paul writes to the Colossians,
Christ is all and he is in all. He has finished the work. He
has perfected the work of salvation. Salvation as a result is not
in any doubt. For those people chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, salvation is certain. So let's just briefly think for
a moment, because it's here, about other priests. in chapter
five and the first four verses. The writer, I think it's Paul,
but he talks about the priests of the Aaronic, of the Levitical
line of priests. All religions have priests that
try to intercede for people with God. And Old Testament Israel,
from the Exodus of coming out of Egypt, had the Levitical,
Levi was one of the 12 sons of Jacob, And it was from the tribe
of Levi that the priesthood was to come. And it was the sons
of Aaron. Moses was a Levite, and Aaron
his brother. And from the sons of Aaron was
the priesthood established and ordained of God. And it says
there in verse one of chapter five, every high priest taken
from among men You know, one of the people is chosen to be
the high priest, is ordained, why? For men, for men and women,
in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices. His role is to intercede between
God and the people. men for men, offering gifts and
sacrifices. And look, verse 2, he's an empathetic. These human priests of the Aaronic
priesthood are empathetic. They can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. He's a man of sinful flesh, just
like the people that he intercedes for. And verse 3, by reason hereof
he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer
for sins. He is a priest because he's a
sinful man. The first thing he has to do
is to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he can intercede
for others. He doesn't decide, oh, I think
I want to be a priest, so I'm going to go to this school and
they're going to teach me how to be a priest. No, no man taketh this
honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron,
he's called of God. He's appointed by God, not just
self-made. But this is just a mortal picture.
This is just a human picture, because these priests, why do
I say mortal? Because they died. There were many high priests
because they each had to be replaced as they grew old and died or
came out of their office. It's just a mortal picture of
the true and only immortal high priest who is God himself, manifest
in Jesus Christ, his son. But when the picture was fulfilled
in reality, when Christ came and fulfilled it, it ended, never
again to be needed. the priesthood of these Aaronic
Levitical priests ended. And the next five or six chapters
of this epistle to the Hebrews stresses this, showing the Jews
to whom it was originally written how Christ has ended their Aaronic
priesthood. They wanted to have elements
of that religion. Yes, they believed Christ, but
they wanted to have elements of that religion. No, he's saying,
it's ended. Christ has fulfilled it all.
So, we might just note in passing that so-called Christianity,
which has so-called priests, and it doesn't matter whether
they're male or female, it's completely wrong. It's completely
unscriptural. There are no things such as priests
now. Apart from, hold on. Any who
pretend to intercede with God for people are impostors. That's
the truth. That's the truth. If you don't
like it, argue with the scripture. Any who pretend to be priests
interceding with God on behalf of people are impostors. It's
not true. The people of God come to God
through our everlasting One High Priest and Mediator, who is Himself
God. We come to God by God, manifest
in Christ. All true believers, in a way,
are priests because of Him. Because all true priests... true
believers don't need a man who is a priest to intercede, we
have God the man who intercedes for us. And in him, as Peter
writes to his readers in 1 Peter 2 verse 9, The people of God,
believers, those who believe the gospel of grace, are a chosen
generation. That's how you know that you're
among the elect of God. That's how you know your name
is in the Lamb's book of life. That's how you know that you
will hear those blessed words. Come, you blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Why? Because you believe the truth. That's what Paul said
to the Thessalonians. What was it that convinced him
that they were chosen, they were the elect of God? Sanctification
of the Spirit. and belief of the truth. But
we're a chosen generation, and then Peter says, you are a royal
priesthood. It's not as if one is interceding
for another. No, every one of us has direct
access into the holy of holies by virtue of what Christ has
accomplished. So, our everlasting priest, then,
just to wrap this up. In chapter two and verse 17,
look back there, Hebrews two and verse 17. It says that Christ took on him,
not the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed, not
of Adam, but of Abraham. The seed of those who believe
the same as Abraham. That's the elect of God. Wherefore,
verse 17, in all things it behoved him, it was necessary for him
to be made like unto his brethren. God calls the people of God the
brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're his brothers. Our God,
who is manifest in Christ, is our brother. He's our friend.
He said, I call you no longer servants, but I call you my friends.
We're his brethren. Why did he have to be made like
unto his brethren? Why did he have to come in human
flesh? like his brethren, like the children,
as they partook of flesh and blood, as it says a couple of
verses earlier, he did this that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God. What for? To make reconciliation. for the sins of the people. It's
in him that we're reconciled. We who are sinners by nature
are reconciled to God. Consider him. Consider how he
has fulfilled the picture. It says that in chapter 3, verse
1. Consider this high priest of ours. He was, verse 5 of chapter
5, just as Aaron didn't appoint himself, but God appointed him.
God the Father appointed Christ the Son. Christ also glorified
not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto
him, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The father
said that to the son, you are the son of God. He said in another
place, in exactly the same way, the call of God to Christ, thou
art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's appointed
a priest and we read it in Psalm 110 and verse four earlier on,
the Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. This is a Psalm of David written
a thousand years or so before Christ came. Can you see how
the Holy Spirit gave him the light to understand? How the
seed of the woman promised in Genesis would come to redeem
his people from the curse of the law, and he would come as
a priest, not of the Aaronic order, not of the Levitical order,
but after the order of Melchizedek. Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
What is that? Well, in Genesis 14, if you read
the account there, and for the time we won't turn there now,
but Abraham had gone and rescued his nephew, Lot. Calls him his
brother, but you know, the same idea, it's his brother's son.
He'd gone and rescued him because The kingdom of Sodom and Gomorrah
was overrun by other kings of the area, and they took them
away. So Abraham, with a very small company, went to rescue
him. And on the way back from the
slaughter of the kings and the rescue of Lot and his family
and those things, on the way back, he met this mysterious
person, Melchizedek. He brought bread and wine. Melchizedek,
the name, it seems, is melek, which means king, and tzedek,
which means justice. And it says in Genesis 14, 18,
that he was king of Salem, which is peace. He's a king of justice
and of peace. Look at chapter seven, just for
a moment. Obviously we're going to get
there in a week or two's time, but I want to read these four
verses because they're so relevant. This Melchizedek, king of Salem,
priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from
the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham
gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king
of righteousness, And after that also, King of Salem, which is
King of Peace, listen to this, without father, without mother,
without descent, no genealogy, neither having beginning of days
nor end of life. but made like unto the Son of
God abideth a priest continually. Now, consider how great this
man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. Consider him. This is God. This Melchizedek is God, manifest
in a pre-incarnate Christ. Who could have a greater name
than Christ? Who can share the glory and character
of Christ? This is Christ. I am absolutely
convinced of it. This is Christ. Melchizedek is
Christ because he brought bread and wine. What's that? Communion.
Symbols of his broken body and his shed blood. This is what
Abraham believed in. And this is why all who believe
the gospel are the children of Abraham, in the same way. Who
can have a greater name than his? His name is above every
name, as it says in Philippians, as it says in Isaiah 45, a name
which is above every name. This one, Hebrews 4.14, Jesus,
the man, This high priest, Jesus the man, is his people's high
priest after the order of what he appeared to Abraham as, Melchizedek,
who is Christ, Christ himself. He is all and he is in all. I
need nothing, I need no one else for life and for godliness. I
have all in him. Looking to him I have all that
I need. I don't need to go on a pilgrimage,
I don't need to bow and do this, that and the other, I need to
trust Christ. I need to embrace Christ. He
is God who, as chapter 2 told us, was made flesh for a little
while, lower than the angels for a little while. He was God
who came down from his glory And it says there in verse seven
of chapter five, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him. This echoes
what it says in Philippians chapter 2. I often read these verses
because these are so rich. But Philippians 2 verse 5, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, he's God. He was taking nothing away from
God in being in the form of God. Thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but though he was God, dwelling in eternal
glory with the Father, he made himself of no reputation, little
lower than the angels for a little while, and took upon him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, in the
likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, Ah, that's a long way, isn't it? Ah, ah, even the
death of the cross. Even that death. Do you know,
that was the death that was reserved in the Roman jurisdiction for
the worst of criminals. It was a shameful thing. It was
a vile thing to have a member of your family nailed to a cross.
What a dreadful thing. How ruinous to your reputation.
But he became obedient unto that death. Wherefore, because of
it, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth. As a man, he perfectly feared
God, as it says in that verse seven of our chapter five. He
prayed to God in the Garden of Eden, sorry, in the Garden of
Gethsemane. under the weight of sin. It was
impending. The weight of sin was coming
upon him. He sweat as it were drops of
blood. The disciples couldn't stay awake because of heaviness
of their eyes. And yet he went to pray in that
garden and he prayed, fearing God. Nobody feared God as perfectly
as this man who is God. When he was a man on earth, he
feared God. And he prayed to God in that
garden under the weight of impending sin. It doesn't say that he prayed
to be saved from dying on the cross. It said he prayed to be
saved from death. He was able to save him from
death. Because by his death, if you
go back to chapter two, by his death, that he should taste death
for every one of them, verse nine at the end of it, that he
should taste, he became a man that he should taste death. He
should taste the death due to every one of his people as sinners.
It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things,
what did he do? He brought many sons to glory. In bringing many sons to glory. If he had not have died and his
people not died in him, The weight of justice of the law would still
be hanging over the people of God. But when he died, his people
died in him. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. He died to bring his many sons to glory. And there are
so many more things to say about this Melchizedek, which you'll
say in the next Few chapters, verse 11, many things to say,
but hard to be said because why? He says to them, you're dull
of hearing. You're dull of hearing. You're not very bright when it
comes to hearing these things. There are many more things to
be said about this Melchizedek, but here's the main point. And
just grasp this before we go on in coming weeks. In verse
nine, being made perfect, being made complete, he became the
author. of eternal salvation unto them
that obey him. How do you obey him? What must
we do that we do the works of God? How do you obey him? This
is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. In 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Peter
tells us, Christ also hath once suffered for sins, not repeatedly
like those other priests, He, the just one, the holy one, on
behalf of the unjust, for and in the place of the unjust, he's
once suffered for sins. Why? That he might bring us to
God. Everything else that we might
do or think for self-improvement or preferment with God is, as
Paul said, worthless by comparison. I just want to read, before we
close, chapter three of Philippians, verse seven. Chapter three and
verse seven. But what things, he goes on about
the things he was as a Pharisee and what kudos and status he
has, but he says, but what things were gained to me those I counted
loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. You will, if you are in Christ,
you will attain that. Everything else is worthless,
as Paul said, by comparison. John put it this way in his epistle,
1 John 5 verse 12. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Could it
be any clearer and more straightforward? He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Do you
have him? Do you have the Son of God? If
you do, praise God, you have life.