So Lord, may you graciously help
me. I would turn your prayerful attention
to a verse you will find in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. Hebrews 4 and verse 14, 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. Hebrews 4 verse 14. One of the great titles or offices
that is given to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that
of the Great High Priest. We think of those three offices
that the Lord Jesus is involved with as a prophet, a priest and
a king. And in Hebrews particularly it
focuses on the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what I'd like to do as the
Lord helps me is to try and unpack what that means for us. What does it mean to have a high
priest? And surely the Old Testament
is what took place in the Old Testament and how that worked
is how in the Hebrews it sheds light on the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So the Old Testament is teaching
us about the work of Christ. It takes the Aaron and the priests
of the Old Testament and shows us that Christ is like these
things but he's different in other ways as well. And so it's
by similarity and contrast that the writer to the Hebrews is
picking up the difference between the Lord Jesus Christ and indeed
the whole emphasis of the epistle to the Hebrews is the supremacy
of Christ over all the Old Testament types and shadows. So as we look
at this text, so seeing then that we have a great high priest,
what does that mean? What did the high priest do?
What was the importance of the high priest to Israel in the
Old Testament? And that will be something that
will show us how that is important to us today. You see, in the
Old Testament, there was many things that happened on earth
as pictures of that which now is happening on behalf of God's
people for them in heaven. You see, in the Old Testament,
there was the high priest. And he offered these sacrifices.
He pleaded on behalf of them. They saw this man. They saw the
one who God had appointed to do this. But today, you see,
we still need a high priest. We still need one, as it were,
to offer to God our prayers and our praises. We still need that
high priest, but not an earthly one. we need the lord jesus and
that is the work that jesus is now a part of the of one of the
offices that jesus is involved with now is fulfilling that which
in type and shadow the old testament high priest did and in the sunday
school this morning i we we went through um the the tabernacle
and the holy of holies, that it was only the high priest that
was able to enter once a year. The whole of the typology there
was showing the holiness of God and the difficulty it was for
the separation there was really between a holy God and Israel
that was sinless. and this very important role
of the high priest to speak to God on behalf of the people and
to offer those gifts and sacrifices and also to show the people the will of
God towards them. So if we look in Hebrews chapter
five that we read together, it starts off really with showing
what the role of the high priest was in the old testament and
what the qualifications were for that role and so if we go
through chapter five of hebrews that we have here something of
the salient points picked out about the old testament high
priest and the purpose for doing this is to see this is a picture
of what is still being done by the Lord Jesus Christ and it's
been superseded and it's been outdone by the work of Christ. So if we look in Hebrews chapter
5 and verse 1 we read this, for every high priest taken from
among men. So the very the first if you
like the first qualification of of the high priest was one
that was taken from among men it was not angel that came to
mediate between Israel and God, it was a man. Indeed it was Aaron. Aaron was that one that had been
appointed by God who was one of them. He was Moses' brother,
he was one of the tribe of Levi. It was a man, it was not an angel
and you see The apostle here is going to expound this and
show how some things were true of Christ and some things Christ
was different than. You see, when you teach somebody,
you teach This is like that, but it's different than something
else. And that's a good way of teaching, to compare what you
currently know with this new thing that the teacher is trying
to teach you. Well, here, the epistle to the
Hebrews is taking the knowledge that, of course, the Jews, the
Hebrews knew of the Old Testament, and tries to show how, you see,
there were some that were saying to the Hebrews, you haven't got
a high priest. You haven't got all these things that you used
to have. You've lost so much. But in the Hebrews it's saying
you haven't lost. You've got something far, far
better than ever. the Old Testament had with all
its types and shadows. You've got the fulfillment of
it. That's not to despise the Old Testament. God has left this
Old Testament as a picture, a picture of what Christ needed to do and
what Christ came to do. So firstly, we have then, he
was taken from among men. And as we look back in Hebrews
chapter 2 and verse 16, we read this of Christ, Hebrews 2 verse
16, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, he's
talking about the Lord Jesus, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren. This is the first qualification
as it were of this high priest. There had to be a humanity about
that high priest. A humanity. He was a man. And you see, and this is going
to come out as we look at the qualifications, it was because
that man could have beings there was to be an empathy
for every high priest taken from among men it was from their own
people it was not an angel it was not some other heavenly being
it was a man and God had appointed this isn't it in the Old Testament
nobody could come into that holy of holies but the high priest
but he was not an angel he was still a man himself and there
you see is the differences between some of the things that needed
to take place in the old testament and don't need to take place
with christ some things on the great day of atonement do not
need to be done by christ today or because he didn't need to
offer a sacrifice for his own sins it was not necessary because
he was sinless whether the high priest you see in Aaron's day
than the sinners. A bit of difference. So as we
go through, there's going to be similarities and contrasts. And the whole point here is to
exhort the work and what it means to have a high priest. What it
means to have one that is going to represent us to God. and gonna
gain acceptance between God and man, the mediator, the man, Christ
Jesus. For every priest, every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men, and this is
what they're ordained to do. in things pertaining to God. So it was to do with their relationship
to God that Aaron the high priest was appointed. It was to do with
Israel's relationship to God, that Israel was a sinful nation
and sinful people, and they needed to be right with a holy God.
And there was this need for one to to go before them and one,
to represent them, to represent and to offer, you see, and that
comes to their third qualification, that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices. You see, in the Old Testament,
there was these, the offerings, some of the offerings were classed
as the sweet savor offerings. And they were a sweet savor to
God. And they were much more like those, and some of them
were specifically the free will offerings. So that you came and
you gave these to God out of your love, showing your devotion.
And some of the burnt offerings were like that, showing the devotion
of our hearts to God, that we come and give it, give God what
he has first given us. And you see, but what we see
here clearly is that Israel couldn't do those to God without going
through the priest. There was a necessity of the
priest. The high priest was vitally important
to communicate between God and man. And that has not changed. That has not changed today. You
say, but we don't have a high priest. We don't have a priest
at our church. The Lord Jesus Christ is doing
the work of that high priest now. So we do have a high priest. We do have a mediator. It isn't
that the Old Testament needed a mediator of a priest and the
New Testament didn't. We need a mediator. But what
the epistle to the Hebrews is showing is that the mediation
work of Aaron and his priesthood was really foreshadowing a greater
that was coming that would really make peace with God, which was
even the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, I think these things
are very valuable because otherwise, what does a priest mean to us?
Why do we need a priest? Well, we're sinners and God's
holy. There is a separation between
us. That hasn't changed. what is today true and since
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth and suffering
and bleeding and dying, he has fulfilled all that the Old Testament
showed of the high priesthood. Well, for every high priest taken
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that
he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Well, there was these
sin offerings, wasn't there? Think of the great day of atonement. First of all, there was a bullock
and a bullock needed to be offered for a sin offering for the high
priest himself. And then one of the kids of the
goats was offered on behalf of the people. And then after the sin offering
had been dealt with, and the high priest had gone into the
Holy of Holies once a year, he went twice on that day, first
with his own blood, then with the blood of the, sorry, not
with his own blood, with the blood of the, for his own sin,
the blood of the bull for his own sin, and then the blood of
the goat, the kid of the goats for the sins of the people. He
went twice into the Holies. not without blood, but you see
this was picturing something that the Lord Jesus Christ would
fulfill and do so much greater later on, that he may offer both
gifts and sacrifices sacrifice of praise to God we
need to but you see it's all through the mediator of the Lord
Jesus Christ all our praises rightly offered in his name you
see it all comes through it all had to go through the high priest
in Israel's time and that hasn't changed in the sense it still
needs to go through a high priest that high priest is now the Lord
Jesus Christ well it In one sense, it was then that the spiritual
Israelites saw in the high priest something that Christ would do.
Abraham saw my day and was glad. Well, so we have these gifts
that need to be offered, and we are to come and thank the
Lord for his goodness to us, that we are his creatures and
everything we have is his, and we give back of what he has first
given us. But also there needs to be the
sacrifices for sin. There needs to be a sacrifice
for sin. The wages of sin is death and therefore there needs
to be a sacrifice. And how are we going to make
a sacrifice that's acceptable to God? Well, not any Israelite
could come and do a sacrifice on their own and that could not
make atonement of itself. It had to be on the great day
of atonement. the work of the great high priest
to take, to kill that kid of the goats, that one, if you remember,
there was two goats, one that got let loose and sent off into
the wilderness, one that was killed, and the one that was
killed, that blood needed to be brought into the Holy of Holies
to make acceptance for the sins of the people. Well, verse two
of chapter five, we have this, another issue, another qualification. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant? So this high priest was not to
be somebody who was unattached or detached from the people. He was not to be somebody who
didn't understand the difficulties and the infirmities, as we come
on later in this same verse, who can have compassion on the
ignorant, on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. And you see here, the one Aaron
that was appointed to be the first high priest, I was looking
at it this morning as I was preparing finally for this service, where
we read of Aaron and where he was first appointed to this great
work of the office of priest. And it was when Aaron was down
on the mount and Moses was up on the top of the mount, And
God was speaking to Moses and telling Moses about the fact
that there would be a priesthood, that Aaron would be the priest.
And all the things that Aaron would do, his robes and all the
things that he would wear and all the things, the important
works that he would do. And it struck me how important
it, the timing was staggering really. The next thing you read
about Aaron, after you read of all this thing that he would
do, is Aaron, making a golden calf and sacrificing
completely wrongly as far as the worship of God was concerned. He'd just been, as it were, appointed
by God to be that high priest. And right at that time, the first
thing you read about Aaron is him agreeing with the people
to make a God for them that would go before them, for we don't
know where Moses has gone. for that he himself also is compassed
with infirmity. I believe this is something of
the nature of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He condescends
to men of low estate. And how in the picture, we mentioned
it even in the Sunday school, it was mentioned after the Sunday
school, because we did regarding David and Abigail, and how David
was wrong in seeking revenge against Nabal. And Nabal and Abigail. And yet, It was noted then that
David, a man after God's own heart, there was thoughts recorded
about him. And you see, the Bible is very
honest. It talks about real people that have real sins that need
to be made right with a real holy God. It does not diminish
the holiness of God, but it doesn't diminish the sinfulness of sin. You see, Aaron was to be somebody
who himself was a sinner. And he was to come and represent
in the Holy of Holies Israel who had sinned. You see, there
was to be something of a flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone.
He was going to be one of them. And he was going to be compassed
with infirmity. Now we realize that, of course,
the Lord Jesus, when he came to this earth, he was not sinful. As such, a high priest became
us who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. You see,
here's the difference. Yes, we've had similarities,
but now we have a contrast. We have the fact that Jesus is
a high priest that didn't have any infirmity, and that's picked
up very much in this, that on the great day of atonement, he
first had to go for to offer for his own sins first the high
priest did. But let's come on to that in
a minute. Who can have compassion on the ignorant? You see to have
compassion is to have empathy and you see the Lord Jesus is
one that has empathy with his people and this is the great
point. We have not, you see we read
that of chapter 4, we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feelings of our infirmities but was in all
points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Who can have
compassion on the ignorant? You think of his compassion on
the ignorant when he was on Calvary. Father forgive them For they
know not what they do. What ignorance, what ignorance
they displayed. They were crucifying the Lord
of life and glory, but they didn't know what they were doing. Later
on we read in, I think it's possibly in the Acts of the Apostles,
that they did it ignorantly. They didn't know what they were
doing. You see, who can have compassion on the ignorant? And, on them that are out of
the way. You see, this high priest was
not going to be one that sailed above the people on a different
plane. He was going to be one that understood something of
the difficulties of their infirmities, because he understood it personally.
And you see, this was to be the nature of the high priest in
the Old Testament. And there was going to be something
of this in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 3 it picks up of
Hebrews 5, and by reason hereof he ought as for the people so
also for himself to offer for sin. So this is picking up the
point that in the great day of atonement that the high priest
first had to enter into the holy of holies with the blood not
of the goat but of the bullock. which was a blood of that one
killed on behalf of the sin of himself as the high priest. And
then having cleansed himself, made atonement for himself, he
was then to stand and do it on behalf of the people. But here's
a contrast. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
need to do this. He did not need to first of all
go and gain acceptance with God himself by the offering of somebody
else. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. You see, and this is what the
apostle is getting at here. Seeing them, we have a great
high priest. This high priest makes all the
other high priests pale into insignificance. They're important
in their place and it's good to understand their qualifications
and what they did and how they did it. And then to see that
Christ fulfilled it far, far better than ever they did. And then we understand something
when we say, The Lord Jesus Christ is our prophet, our priest, and
our king. We need a high priest. It's not that the Old Testament
needed a high priest, the New Testament don't. We need a high
priest. We have a high priest. That's
of course why to think of earthly priests now, it is quite wrong. Because earthly priests are challenging
this. They're saying that they are
the way to God. But no, we have a way to God. And that is through the Lord
Jesus Christ, the great high priest. And by reason, the hereof,
he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for
sins. And then you see, in verse four,
we have another qualification. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself. No man takes his honor unto himself. And I think this is why we realize
the importance of some of the quotes in the Old Testament,
which are quoted many times, to show that the Lord Jesus didn't
usurp authority and usurp a place of high priesthood that was not
given to him by his father. this is very important you see
Aaron didn't decide that he would be the high priest in fact Aaron
didn't know it it was given we read about it when Moses was
up the mountain Aaron of course sadly fell in the matter of the
golden calf but he was restored you see The Lord is able to restore
people. That's the whole message of the
gospel, is restoration. He restoreth my soul. What was it in the New Testament?
It wasn't that different, was it? Peter denying his Lord and
Master with oaths and curses. Who was it that was preaching
on the great day of Pentecost? It was Peter preaching a precious
Christ to perishing sinners. Who was the great apostle to
the Gentiles? It was Saul of Tarsus. What was he doing? Persecuting
the church, doing everything he could to destroy it. God forgives
sinners and is able to raise the beggar from the dunghill. and set them amongst princes.
That's the gospel. That's the gospel of the grace
of God, what God can do. Aaron, the one that was sacrificing
with all the people and leading them on in totally the wrong
way, he becomes the first high priest. Surely it's a great deed,
but surely doesn't it speak something of the long-suffering nature
of our God, that there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared.
But he is to be feared. Aaron's two sons, we spoke of
them this morning, Nadab and Abihu. You see, they went into
the tabernacle, they offered strange fire, which God had not
commanded, and they were struck dead. You see, if it was not
done according to the word of God, death was the result. This
was serious. But you see, We need that high
priest and we cannot come. And Nadab and Abihu, they couldn't
come in their own way. They had to come in the God's
appointed way. But if we just look at this point
in Exodus, Exodus 28, and verse one, this is Moses up the mount
being told, really is the first time we read of the word priest
in the Bible. Exodus 28, and now, and take
thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among
the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in the priest's
office. This was a new revelation to
Moses that God had given him on the Mount Sinai. Even Aaron,
Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar, Aaron's sons. and thou shalt
make holy garments for Aaron and thy brother for glory and
for beauty. And we spoke this morning of
the fact that he had those garments for glory and for beauty. Christ
is glorious and beautiful. And yet when he came to work
out that great day of atonement, the great time at Calvary, the
great time of leaving heaven's glory, he came to this earth.
and he was stripped of all, as it were, he laid aside his glory. He had those linen garments,
and with those linen garments he entered and he presented,
you see, the priest on that day, he took the blood of the animals
and presented that, but the Lord Jesus didn't take the blood of
some other animals. He took his own blood. You see, he became not just the
lamb, but the priest. He was the priest and the lamb.
You see, on the great day of atonement, the priest and the
bullock and the kid were all different identities. But they were picturing one who
would do it all. And that's the whole message
of Hebrews is the superiority or the supremacy. of the Lord Jesus Christ who
took these offices. But it's not until we see these
offices and we see what the Old Testament needed to do to understand
what was necessary to approach to God that we realize that we
have somebody that is able to do it and to do it forever. You see Aaron died, his sons
died, and the generations died. There was not a continuation
because they died. But you see the Lord Jesus, because
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. That's why he is
the great high priest. And that's why unto you that
believe, he is precious. In every office he sustains,
in every victory he gains, in every counsel of his will, he's
precious to his people still. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself. Aaron didn't decide himself to
be the high priest. It was an honor given to him
by God. And so was it with Christ. They said, the scribes and Pharisees
tried to say to Christ, you've taken this on yourself. But you
see, that's why these prophetic Psalms are so precious, you see,
and that's exactly what's referred to here in verse five of Hebrews. Well in verse 4 it says, no man
taketh him this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God
as was Aaron. We've just looked at the passage
where that takes place. So also Christ glorified not
himself. You see here, the vital necessity
of really understanding the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, that the Lord Jesus is not the same as the Father.
therefore the Father says these words which are then applied
to Christ. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made in high priest but he that saith unto him thou
art my son today have I begotten thee. So the Lord Jesus Christ
as the second person in the Trinity did not take it on himself this
role. he was given it by his father. What a preciousness of the humility
of Christ. He took this not on himself,
but he said unto him, thou art my son, today have I begotten
thee. And here it's speaking in Psalm,
this is a quote from Psalm 2, what the father said to the son,
and how that The eternal son, this does not mean that at one
point there was no son, but there was the begetting at, we think
in the womb of Mary, the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
humanity. He had his deity, but now there
was gonna be the joining of the humanity to his deity. And you
see, he was going to be the son of God and the son of man. thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. And then it goes on in
verse six, as he saith also in another place, thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. And here we have this man referred
to as Melchizedek, this one who later on in Hebrews, it goes
through very extensively, it spends a whole chapter on this
man, Melchizedek. You see, and the whole point
here is, it is looking at the Old Testament and looking at
similarities and differences. The Lord Jesus Christ was a priest,
like Aaron was a priest, but there's differences. The Lord
Jesus Christ was one that had an everlasting priesthood. and that was after the order
of Melchizedek. You see in this verse that's
quoted here, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
is written in Psalm 110, verse four, the Lord has sworn and
will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And we read those few verses
of Melchizedek in Abraham's day, Abraham returning from the slaughter
of the kings, he met Melchizedek and you see this man that we're
told in Hebrews 7 that Hebrews 7 verse 3, without father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life, made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest.
continually. So this is speaking of Melchizedek
as that one who we don't read of his parents. You see the whole
thrust of the Aaronic priesthood was all to do with which family
you came from and there was a natural generation of it, went through
the generations. But this Melchizedek, we don't
read of his generation at all or his ending. And there was
this idea of it being, you see the silence of scripture is also
important in time. You see, it doesn't mention his
beginning or his end. And this is mentioned in Hebrews
to show that this was a type, there was a picture here of one
that didn't have an end and didn't have a beginning. even our Lord
Jesus Christ, which was from everlasting to everlasting. And this shows again something
of the superiority of Christ over Aaron and the Aaronic priesthood. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest, this one that is able to offer a sacrifice for
our sins, an acceptable sacrifice, indeed himself, he offered himself
to God. And there is this acceptance
then of his sacrifice. So Christ, sorry, and he said
in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
And then it goes on in chapter five to expound what Christ did
as when he came to this earth, who in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. And here we see the sufferings
of Christ. You might have thought, well,
surely this one who was the son of God would be spared suffering. But no, this is not the case.
But we know very clearly that Christ was one that suffered
greatly. He was a suffering savior. He
came, you see, with this great work to perform, to save his
people from their sins. And he was going to experience
something of what it cost to be obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. You read here, who in the days
of his flesh, that means when he was on this earth, and is
particularly speaking here of the Garden of Gethsemane, offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death. God the Father
was able to save God the Son, the Lord Jesus, from death. but it wasn't his purpose. If
it be possible, let this cut past him. If the plan of salvation
could be possible without Calvary, but it was not possible. To save him from death, and he
was heard in that he feared. In that sense, it's similar to
us as Christians, isn't it? Being a Christian if the world
carries on going for many years yet, does not save us from death,
does it? We're not saved from death. We
think of that. Graham has passed away. His funeral
was last week. He's not been saved from death
by being a Christian. But being a Christian can give
you a good passage through death. And the Lord Jesus had that.
He was brought through death. He didn't remain dead. And of
course, the Lord's people will be raised up again. You see,
they will be brought safely through death. It is a passage. And you
see, this is the way the Lord Jesus has gone before for his
people. He's gone before them. He's experienced
it. You could say, well, you know,
you're somebody, God in heaven, how would he know what it was
like to die? How would he know what it was like to experience
all those pains and agonies? He did. He experienced it. It
happened. though he were a son, is able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. So as we come to an end this
morning, thinking of the work of Christ, seeing then that we
have a great high priest, the message here is we have this,
this is truth and this is truth that we need to lay hold on.
We're not to go seeking an earthly priest, we're not not to go seeking
to approach God in our own righteousness or our own merit. Seeing then
we have a great high priest, this is the great blessing of
the Church of God. Seeing them, we have this great
high priest that is passed into the heavens. You see, after the
kid of the goats was killed, the blood was brought into the
Holy of Holies to present. You see, that was after the Lord
Jesus died at Calvary, When he said it is finished, he gave
up the ghost. The veil of the temple was rent
from the top to the bottom. Access. He went into the Holy
of Holies. Now he presented his body, his
blood, to the Father as acceptable. as an atonement for sin. And
this is the great thing that our Lord Jesus Christ has done.
The Old Testament high priests, they took blood of bulls and
goats, particularly of the goat at this point. But Jesus had
a richer blood than they. He presented his own blood, perfect
blood, perfect sacrifice. Another difference between the
Old Testament and the New. The Great Day of Atonement was
done yearly. It had to be done every year.
Why did it have to be done every year? Because it didn't. It only
pointed to sin being atoned for. It didn't
actually atone for sin. It pointed to the way that it
would be atoned. And it needed to be repeated
year by year, so each of the generations would see that this
is pointing to how sin will be dealt with. But when the Lord
Jesus, he did it once, and it never needs to be done
again. You see, it's complete, it's so much more superior. than all the types and shadows.
That's not to despise the types and shadows. I believe we see
the beauty of Christ through the types and shadows. What does
a great high priest mean if we don't look at the Old Testament
and look at what the high priest did? He did these things, but
Christ has done them better. He's done them. And that's why
we have in our text, seeing then that we have a great high priest. What are we to do? How does this
affect our lives? Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, not just anybody, this one who is the son of God has come
and been this high priest for us. and done all the things that
the high priest used to do, or many of them, with the differences
that I've outlined. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession. Let us grasp onto these great
doctrinal truths so that we know that we don't need an earthly
priest, so that we know that we cannot come with our own righteousness
as acceptable to God. so that we stop going the wrong
way. Let us hold fast our profession.
Then it goes on in verse 54, we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are. Yes, you see, he had that
compassion on the ignorant. There was this compassion in
him, this empathy, yet without sin. And what's the end then? Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. You see,
the Lord Jesus has done this for his people. And so that with
this great high priest, Israel could be accepted with God. There
was a way that God could be satisfied. There was communion once again
between Israel, sinners and the Holy God. And here in Hebrews,
it's saying, we have this high priest. We have a great high
priest. We have this one that can bring
together a holy God. It's not that the Old Testament,
you see, there can be this thought that with the Old Testament,
you see, it needed the priest. We don't need a priest now. We
don't need an earthly priest. We need a priest. We need a priest. We need one to represent us. We need one to pray for us. We
need one to present that acceptable sacrifice on our behalf. We need a high priest. We have
a high priest. And you see, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heaven, Jesus
Christ, the Son, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. We're to lay hold of these things,
and we're then to walk them out in our lives. And these things
are to affect the way we come to God, the way we think of God,
the way we think of his offices. You see, there's a lovely hymn
that says, in every office he sustains, in every victory he
gains, in every counsel of his will, he's precious what those
offices are. And I believe in this precious
epistle to the Hebrews, it shows us something of the great work
that in the Old Testament Christ, the Lord Jesus or God set up
all these types and shadows so that we can have today a better
understanding of why we need a high priest, as to what a high
priest does,