The Lord may graciously help
me, I'd draw your prayerful attention to the text that we took this
morning from Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. Hebrews chapter
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 chapter 4 and verse 14. This morning we considered the
role of the high priest in the Old Testament and what was required
of that and the things that were true of the Old Testament high
priests and how Christ came as a fulfillment of that and to
do better than that, to do greater things. And we noted that in
Hebrews chapter 5, there was these points that were true of
the high priest from the Old Testament. Firstly, we noted
that the high priest was taken from among men. He was a human
being. He was not an angel. He was one
that was from among the people. It was ordained, secondly, it
was ordained for men in things pertaining to God. His work was
to do with bringing together, as a mediator, men, Israel and
Holy God. And that thirdly, his work was
to offer gifts, both gifts and sacrifices for sins. So the freewill
offerings of the people, they could not offer themselves directly
to God, they had to go through their high priest. And how we
pointed out that this is how today we need to go through the
Lord Jesus Christ, as we often end our prayers for Jesus Christ's
sake. It's all through that great High
Priest. We need to go to God the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ as that mediator, that God-man
mediator. And then we noted in verse two
of chapter five that the high priest needed to be one that
had compassion on the ignorant. He was not one to hound the people
as if he was somebody holier than they were. He also had problems
with sin. We noted that Aaron had his own
problems with sin. He was one that was involved
very much in the golden calf. And yet he was one that obtained
mercy. and you see it's sinners that
can say and none but they how precious is the savior you see
it's not the righteous sinners jesus came to save and this uh
high priest you see was to be one that had compassion on the
ignorant and them that were out of the way for that he himself
also was compassed with infirmity now um and but then it says by
reason of hereof he ought as for the people, so for himself
to offer for sins. So the idea that he needed first
of all to atone for his own sins before he could atone for the
sins of others. And then we noted that this was
not something that you took this honor on yourself, this was a
God-given honor. And even Christ himself did not
take this honor to himself. It was the Father that gave it
to him. And we pointed out how important the Psalms here are,
those prophetic Psalms written by David of how God the Father spoke to God the
Son and gave him that authority. It was not something that he
usurped himself. And then how that Christ was
made, you see, like under the order of Melchizedek. Although
he was a priest and a high priest, he was not exactly the same order
as Aaron. Aaron's order was one of a continual
succession of priests. But you see, the Lord Jesus needs
no succession. He is an unchanging, He has an
unchanging priesthood because he ever lives. And we noted that
this was like in type Melchizedek, who had no beginning and no end. One who was king of righteousness
and king of peace. Well, we got then really to the
end of verse seven, where we noted that in his days of his
flesh, he offered up prayers and supplication with strong
cries and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death. And indeed he brought the Lord
Jesus through death. His prayers were not unanswered,
but they didn't spare him from death. He had to go through death. And you see, thinking of us and
many of our loved ones at this time that have passed through
death, they've not been spared death. But you see, He is able
to bring his people through death, that last enemy, and able to
bring them unto himself. So death, you see, has lost its
sting. Death has lost its sting. Death was a result of the curse,
the soul that sinneth it shall die. And yet, you see, for God's
people, death is that which brings them into the presence of the
Father, brings them to God. And so that which would have been a curse, is a
curse outside of Christ, has been turned into a blessing for
them. Although we of course still mourn the loss of those that
we have, we often say it's our loss and their gain. Speaking
of a death of a believer, yes we feel the loss, the church
feels the loss, But for the one gone to be with Christ, which
is far better, as Paul explains it, it's no loss. It's no loss
for them. Well, you see, Jesus went before
his people. But then in verse eight of chapter
five, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered. These things are deep words,
aren't they? The Lord God learning obedience
by the things that he suffered. Now we would think from that
you travel from disobedience to obedience. That was not so
with Christ. He was never disobedient. And
yet he learned obedience as he was obedient unto death. He learned
the cost, as it were, of being obedient to his father. He learned
the sufferings as he suffered through these things. He learned
what it was to be obedient to his father, not because he was
disobedient at any time, but he experienced the cost of the
salvation, saying, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. But he learned obedience when
he said, not my will, but thine be done. He learned obedience. by the things that he suffered. And then in verse 9 we have this,
and being made perfect. Now again, we have to understand
this rightly. It was not that at some point
he was unperfect or sinful and then became perfect. That would
be quite wrong. But being made perfect or complete. You see, it's one thing to begin
to begin a journey. It's one thing to begin to work
out our salvation for the church, and it's another thing to complete
it. And being made perfect. He completed it. It's one thing
to begin to follow in obedience, but it's another thing to complete
that. And to be obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. and being made perfect, complete. He completely satisfied
everything that was demanded of him. Being made perfect, he
became the author of eternal salvation. You see, the whole
Idea that in the Old Testament with the renewed day of atonement
year by year, it seemed that it needed to be renewed each
year. So you'd get a year of forgiveness and then you needed
to do it again. But you see, but being made perfect, complete,
all that he'd done at Calvary, it is finished. He became the
author of eternal salvation. This is not a short term salvation. It's not a short reprieve, it's
eternal. You see, the things that we're
dealing with here have an eternal nature. And that's how in chapter
nine, when we read in Hebrews, there's so many contrasts between
the short-termism of the Old Testament dispensation. It kept
changing. It kept only being for a short
time. They had to redo it all the time.
And even when they redid it all the time, every year, and all
the blood of all the bulls and goats, it wasn't as if hundreds
of years of that added up to make some atonement. Hundreds
of years of that going on still didn't make atonement. It still
didn't truly satisfy. But the Lord Jesus, once doing
his sacrifice, satisfied everything that the Lord demanded and being
made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him. And you see here, you see that
it says the eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
You see there's an obedience that comes with following Christ.
These, we're told that there needs to be this compassion to
the ignorant and them that are out of the way, those that are
walking in the wrong way, walking in disobedience. He has compassion
on them. He brings them back. And he brings
them to obedience. And how do we know that we have
passed from death unto life? Because we love the brethren.
There's an obedience. There's an obeying his law, there's
a loving his ways. If you love me, keep my commandments. You see, he hasn't called us
to disobedience. This is a fruit of being saved,
being made perfect. He was the one that was obedient
unto death. He brings to himself a people
that become obedient. obedient to his commands, obedient
to his ways, obedient to his desires. Followers of Christ, followers
of Christ, not followers of the latest fads in this world, but
follower of Christ. Being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. And then if we look on in chapter
5 to verse 10 it says, called of God and high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. So this Melchizedek, this one
that had a different order than Aaron, he didn't have, he wasn't
a priest because his father was. He had an everlasting priesthood
in that sense in time. And it was pointing to the Lord
Jesus that was not just a succession of priests, but would be an eternal
priesthood. And you see that's so important.
We know that naturally, isn't it? You deal with a company and
you have somebody in that company that you know and you respect
and you have dealings with. But as you go on dealing with
that, perhaps that person leaves the company and you've lost your
contact. And you see that person who you
knew and trusted and you dealt with, you haven't got that contact
in that company anymore. And it breaks the relationship.
Well, that's in an earthly time, but this is, the Lord Jesus is
like that high priest. He knows his people. He knows
them each individually. He doesn't have to say, well,
I've got to move on now to another task. I'm moving to waters new,
so I have to leave you now. No, he's an everlasting priesthood. Well, in our text, it says, seeing
then that we have a great high priest, we have it. This is true. This isn't an aspiration of God's
people. This is a solid truth. And we need to lay hold upon
these truths. We sang it in the opening hymn that the things
that we speak of, we need to lay hold on them. They need to
be precious to us because they need to affect the way we live
and the way we come to God. We come to God as one who we
can come to through the Lord Jesus Christ, on his merits. We need to come to the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading what he has done, pleading
his sacrifice, pleading his merit, not our own. Seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. We read of that how much different
that was, you see, between the priests and the Lord
Jesus Christ. The priest, after he had offered
the blood of the goat, he then went into the Holy of Holies.
But you see, he went as a representative, and the people didn't ever come
there. But you see, the Lord Jesus has
gone as our great forerunner. He's gone into heaven. He has
gone to prepare a place for you, not just to represent you, but
to actually make a place for you with God. You see, it's all more glorious. It's all more precious. The Old
Testament, it was just, they had this representative of the
high priest to go in and then to come out and to represent
the people, but not that the people ever would come in themselves
and ever would be able to enjoy that for themselves. But this
high priest is spoken of as the forerunner who goes before his
people. And we read that, of course,
in that well-known, lovely chapter in John's Gospel, chapter 14.
where it says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Not just to go into
heaven to represent us, but to go to prepare a place for us.
You see, this is, a wonderful truth, wonderful
truth. And this is our great high priest
that ever lives. And just you see in the type
of Joseph as a type of Christ, the remaining ability of Jacob
and his family to stay in the land of Goshen was all based
on their relationship to Joseph. Other than that, they were foreigners
and they would have to get out. But because of Joseph and because
of his relationship to Pharaoh, and they were his brethren, they
were safe. And you see, so everything that
they had in Egypt flowed from their relationship
to Joseph. And that's true of God's people,
everything We sing that sometimes, every grace and every favor comes
to us through Jesus' blood, everything. And this is why he's so important. Because when Joseph died, as
you know, in the land of Israel, a pharaoh rose up that knew not
Joseph. they became slaves and they couldn't
stay there. It then became a blessing to
be released from it. It isn't like that with us, is
it? It isn't like us with our heavenly Joseph. He's never going
to die. He's never going to vacate the
throne. He has died and now he's risen again. The first fruits
of them that slept and he's come to be with them forever. I go
to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. So it's not just representing
us. He actually brings us into it. Of course, we read of that
in Revelation, don't we? We just look at that in Revelation.
It's so clear. That's the case. These people
came to glory. These people came to be. in heaven. They came to be accepted in the
beloved. In Revelation chapter 5 verse 9 it says, and they sung
a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation and has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the
elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand
and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honour and glory and blessing. You see, Our High
Priest has gone to glory, not just to represent us, but to
make a place for us. He's gone before us. I go to
prepare a place for you. I go to not just represent you
in heaven, I come to bring you, in God's time, to heaven. You see, Thomas says, saith unto
him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. It's a simple statement,
I am the way, but that is true. He is the way to God. He is the
way into God. the way to get to heaven. He
is the only way. He is the only high priest. He
is the only representative. He is our only hope of eternal
salvation. He is precious. He's precious. There's only one way. And Jesus
is that way. And the epistle to the Hebrews
magnifies the greatness of Christ, magnifies the greatness of this
one who entered into glory as the forerunner, the forerunner,
the one that went before his people, not just one to represent
them and then they would stay outside, but one to eventually,
as it were, in God's time to bring them to himself, I go to
prepare a place for you. See, that's the great blessing
that God has done for his people. You see, returning to Hebrews chapter
9 that we read together, it picks up again, speaking of the great
day of atonement. Hebrews 9 verse 7, but into the
second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
The Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest. It was pointing to what Christ
would do, but it hadn't yet happened. Hadn't yet happened. And when
it did happen, then the shadow had fulfilled what it was working
at. You see a shadow of something gives a representation of it,
but it's not the substance, is it? If you had a shadow of somebody,
a shadow of the one you loved, and you could see the shadow
on the ground, you might say, oh, that person's close to me.
That's precious. But you would never embrace the
shadow for the person, would you? You'd say, well, the person
is the person. It is precious to me. The shadow
just gave me the indication that they were there. Well, the same
with the Old Testament. The types and shadows were precious.
They pointed to Christ. the fulfillment, the precious
one was Christ himself. The Holy Ghost is signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as the first tabernacle was standing. Of course as we
read this evening, it was not just that the high priest represented,
the Lord Jesus. He did. He went with the blood
of those animals, but Jesus went with his own blood. So Jesus
was pictured in the high priest. He was also pictured as the sacrifice,
the one that laid down his life, a ransom for many. He was typified
in that goat that was killed. He was also typified in the goat
that was let to go into the wilderness, into the land of forgetfulness,
of the sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more. But here, in Hebrews 9, it also
shows us the very tabernacle itself represented Christ. Or the tabernacle, the tent. Jesus speaks of his own body
being like a tent, like a tabernacle. And that's picked up there in
verse 11 of chapter 9. But Christ being come and high
priest of good things to come, You see, the gospel has good
things to come. For the Lord's people, there
is good. It's well with those that fear
God. There is real, eternal good for the Lord's people. For those
that chase the vanities of this life, ultimately it will always,
most certainly end in sadness. But you see, for God's people,
those who have put their trust in him. Those who have come to
the end of their own righteousness, they all confess, I nothing am.
They put their trust in the Lord Jesus. There's good, there's
good things to come. It doesn't matter how old you
are. It doesn't matter how infirmed your body is. It doesn't matter
how weak you are. It doesn't matter how frail you
are. There is good for those that
fear God. It's well with those that fear
God, eternally well. but Christ being come and high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle. So here you see there's another
play on types here. The tabernacle, the whole tent
of meeting and all those things also prefigured Christ and he
there is saying by a greater and a more perfect tabernacle
not made with hands that is not to say of this building the body
that God prepared for the Lord Jesus that conception in the womb of
Mary that was a tabernacle that was built by God and not man
Jesus said to them, didn't he, destroy this temple and I will
build it again in three days. In other words, you put me to
death, but God will vindicate me and I'll rise from the dead
three days later. By a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, not made with hands, that is
to say not of this building, neither by blood of goats and
calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You see that's
the great thing isn't it, it's for us. And there's so many things,
a very precious, precious verse in this ninth chapter of Hebrews. It is, I do remember years ago,
our pastor, before he was preaching, read a sermon, I believe, on
this text, in verse 22. I remember it clearly. For without,
and without the shedding of blood is no remission. There needs
to be, vitally, the shedding of blood. And you see here, that
this was what was being taught, all in the types and shadows,
there needed to be the shedding of blood. Yes, it was an animal
in the Old Testament, but it was pointing to the shedding
of blood of somebody greater than an animal, something more
perfect, something that really did satisfy sin and pay for the
sins of the church. without the shedding of blood
is no remission. And then you see in verse 23,
it said, was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in
heaven should be purified with these, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. And in verse 24 of
Hebrews 9, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made
with hands. Christ didn't just go into the
holy of holies. He didn't from the cross go into
the holy of holies in the temple. He went somewhere that the Holy
of Holies represented. He went to the fulfillment. For
Christ is not entered in the holy place made with hands, which
are figures of the true, but into heaven itself. Not a representation of heaven,
he went to heaven. What the Old Testament types
and shadows were pointing to, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. That's the worth of Christ. That's the value of having a
great high priest above. That he's done this for his people. He's done this so that it will
be eternally well with them. He's done this so that he can
say, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.'
So he doesn't just go into glory to represent us, he does do that,
but he goes to bring us there ourselves. So that where I am,
there ye may be also. Jesus says that in his high priestly
prayer, Father I will that these also be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. Think about it, those of you
who have known the things of God in truth, what have been
the happiest, most precious times of your life? when you have some glimpses of
Christ, surely. And you see, he's gone to bring
us to himself, that we may, it now to appear in the presence
of God for us. That's what he's doing. And so
these Hebrew Christians that are being ridiculed because they
haven't got an Aaron, because they haven't got a goat being
killed, because they haven't got an earthly altar. They haven't
got all these earthly things. The epistle is saying, beloved
friends, you've got something far, far better than all these
earthly things. You've got the thing that everything
was looking forward to. You see, we can grasp the shadow
And that's what was so sad really with the Jews. They grasped the
shadow and they made the shadow everything. And they didn't want
the fulfillment of it. Those who looked for redemption
in Israel, the Simeons, the Annas, the Abrahams, they looked through
the shadows and saw the substance. Abraham saw my day and was glad.
Simeon, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for
mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He's just seen a little baby.
But in that babe he saw the God-man, he saw the one who all the Old
Testaments were pointing to, the one that was going to appear
in heaven for Simeon, for Anna, and for each of his people. For
Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which
are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. You see how Christ is not selfish. He does it for his people. In
every office he sustains, in every victory he gains, in every
council of his will, He's precious to his people still. It's not
that he did care for them once and now he's gone and doing his
own thing. He ever lives to make intercession
for these people who he's came to save, who he has compassion
for. You see, there's that great theme
in Hebrews, which is so amazing. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Now Christ did not have any sinful
infirmities, but he did no weakness. He did no hunger. He did no thirst. He did no tiredness. As you know, he went for 40 days
and 40 nights without food or drink, tempted of the devil.
He was tempted in all points, like as we are. You see, if we
get tempted to do something and we fall perhaps quite quickly,
then the temptation doesn't have to get too strong before we yield
to it, when we do what's not right. Christ, you see, the temptation
got stronger and stronger, and he wouldn't yield. He wouldn't,
when he was reviled, revile not again. He wouldn't go back, you
see. You see, he had the most severe
temptation. we are to not think that his
temptations were were less than ours. We so often yield to them
but he did not yield and yet he received the full temptation
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. So this is the one in heaven
that understands our weakness, our tiredness, our frailties,
sympathises with us, this is the great high priest that we
have. And this is why Christ is so
precious to his people. Because you see, there's this
humanity, as well as his deity, the humanity, flesh of our flesh,
not made, you see, did not take upon him the nature of angels,
but for the seed of Abraham, bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh, a man there is, a real man with wounds still gaping
wide. You see, this is our great high
priest, seeing then that we have a great high priest, not we might
have, God's people have this high priest. He's theirs. And he intercedes for them. That is passed into the heavens.
He's not just passed into the most holy place, he's passed
into heaven itself. As we read in Hebrews 9, now
to appear in the presence of God for us. For us. for his wayward people,
for his Peters who denied him, for Saul of Tarsus that spent his life fighting
against the Lord Jesus Christ until the Damascus Road. And
Mary or Manasseh's sins were sins more vile than they. He
has compassion on the ignorant, those that are out of the way,
and yet simultaneously he is the most fearful judge. You see
today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. This is the one that we seek
to worship. This is the one that is worthy
of our eternal praise. Nothing else is. The things that
this world calls good and great, they're gone very quickly. A
next generation, it glories in something totally different.
And the thing that was such a glory of the generation gone by is
gone. But you see, we speak of truths,
which are the glory forever. There's one of our hymns that
says, we have reason to rejoice and the Lord's people have reason
to rejoice. reason to rejoice, they have
something to glory in, they have something that's worthy of their
eternal praise. 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. These things most surely believed
among us, let us lay hold on them. This is our hope. This
is our hope. Our hope is that we have a high
priest, that he is in the heavens, that he has had an acceptable
sacrifice, that when he says, come unto
me all you that labor a heavy laden, I will give you rest. He is able to save unto the uttermost
all that come unto God by him. May we find these things precious
and may we flee from the wrath to come, realizing that he is
the way, the only way. There is no other way to heaven,
no other way to acceptance with God. Aaron's sons who offered
strange fire, they were killed. There was no way they could continue. This man has been accepted. The God-man has been accepted. And God has proved that by raising
him from the dead, giving him a name that is above every name,
the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
that Jesus is Christ to the glory of God. Well may the Lord add
his blessing and may we have that sweet assurance by the Spirit
that the Lord Jesus is our High Priest, our High Priest. and that we may come to him and
come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.