Well, let us turn to God's Word,
turning again to Hebrews, but in the second chapter, Hebrews
chapter 2, and I'll read the last three verses from verse
16 through 18. Hebrews 2, 16 through 18, For
verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took
on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour
them that are tempted. And in particular, taking for
our text the words that we have in verses 17 and 18, one has to consider the theme
of a merciful and faithful high priest, as we read here in the
middle of verse 17. A merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. Hebrews, of course, in many
ways is the counterpart of what we have in the Old Testament
in the book of Leviticus. It's in the light of the fullness
of that revelation that we find here in the New Testament, and
especially in this epistle to the Hebrews, that we have light
to understand those things recorded back in the Levitical law. There, of course, we have instruction
for the priests, the Aaronic priesthood of the Old Testament,
but here we read of him who is the fulfillment of that priesthood
a priest after a different order after the order of Melchizedek
those priests of course were descendants of Levi those who were being descended
from Levi clearly belong to the priestly tribe but the Lord Jesus
comes of the tribe of Judah and in that portion that we were
reading there in chapter 5 we saw reference to Christ being
of that order the order of Melchizedek that mysterious figure spoken
of there in the early chapters of Genesis so considering what
he said here in verses 17 and 18 with regards to the Lord Jesus
a merciful and faithful High Priest. But I also read verse
16 because it's important that we see the connection. We don't
just take a verse or a couple of verses and tear them out of
their context. And there are interesting things
to be gathered from what the Apostle is saying there in that
16th verse. You will observe that verse 16
is clearly one that must be difficult to translate because we have
quite a number of words appearing there in italics and then we
have an alternative reading in the margin. If we read with the
margin, we can in a sense omit the words that have been introduced
in the text. The margin reads, For he taketh
not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold. The Lord Jesus, then, here is
that one who is taking hold. And there's a threefold sense,
we might say, in which the Lord Jesus takes hold. We see it, first of all, in the
doctrine of eternal election. In the covenant, in the covenant
of grace, doesn't the Lord Jesus take hold of a people. Previously, here at verse 13,
he says, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. And
of course that's the quotation from words that we find back
in Isaiah 8 and verse 18. It's true of Isaiah the prophet and the children
that the The Lord was pleased to give him, and those children
were very much part and parcel of the message that the prophet
was to take to the nation of Israel. But it has a spiritual
significance, as it's quoted here in the New Testament. It
refers to the Lord Jesus and those who have been taken hold
of from all eternity in the covenant of grace. And we think of the
language of the psalmist there in Psalm 89. And verse 19, Then
speakest thou in vision to thy Holy One, I have laid help upon
one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I will make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My covenant will I not
break. All of these verses The various
statements are found there in that 89th Psalm, which is a Messianic
Psalm. The Lord God has taken hold of
one, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, God's first elect, and
in taking hold of Him, He has also taken hold of an innumerable
company of people who have been chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. The Lord Jesus then takes hold,
it says here, of the seed of Abraham, the true seed, the spiritual
seed, that is, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, in many ways, we can
say we have the answer to Job's plea. You remember how Job prays
that there might be one for a daisman or an umpire. neither is there
any daysman betwixt us, he says, that may lay his hand upon us
both." Well, the Lord Jesus is that one who can take hold of
the Father, because He is very God of very gods, the Eternal
Son of the Eternal Father, but He is one who has also taken
hold of those that the Father has given to Him in the eternal
covenant. And so, we think of taking hold
of the seed of Abraham in terms of eternity and election. But then also, doesn't the Lord
Jesus take hold of his people in effectual calling? They come to have an experience
of conversion. He takes hold of them and brings
them to himself. And it's interesting that what
we have at the end of this 16th verse, as we read again with
the margin, is in the present tense. He is taking hold of the seed
of Abraham in the present. It's a work that he is accomplishing
here upon the earth in time. We're not just to think in terms
in a eternal election, but here also we're directed to the truth
of effectual calling, and didn't Paul himself experience that?
He was taken hold of by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says as
much when he writes there to the Philippians, I am apprehended,
he says, of Christ Jesus. The Lord, as it were, arrests
him. We think of the language of the
hymn, Thus the eternal covenant ran, Almighty love arrest that
man. There is a taking hold in election,
and there is a taking hold in effectual calling. But then,
and this is a real significance in the context of the words that
lie before us tonight, doesn't the Lord Jesus take hold in the
incarnation. That is the connection here.
For verily he taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of
Abraham he taketh hold. Wherefore, and here is a deduction,
wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. Oh,
he has taken hold of his people as he has become a man, a real
man. And so, as we have it there at
the beginning of verse 14, for as much as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same. And so we come to the words that
we have here in the text, verses 17 and 18. He's made these statements
in the previous verses. He's spoken about the Lord Jesus.
He has taken hold of humanity. Why has he done this? Why has
he become a man? Wherefore, in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour
them that are tempted. And so as we come to consider
the text, I want to divide what I say into those two simple points.
Firstly, to consider Christ as merciful, and then secondly,
to consider him as faithful. And we see these attributes as
he executes his work as that one who is the great High Priest. First of all, he is a merciful
High Priest. and of course the word merciful
literally means full of mercy or we could say full of pity
because that's the meaning of the word it's the same word as
we were looking at recently considering those Beatitudes in Matthew 5
blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy and we
said then that the word that's used there is one that as that
literal meaning of pity. And it's the same word I say
that we have here. Always full of pity. What do
we read concerning him as a merciful high priest? It's in things pertaining
to God. It's in things pertaining to
God. He serves his people. He serves
them as one who will be their high priest in things pertaining
to God one God and one mediator between God and men and God is
that God who is the Holy One and how the Lord serves his people
those who are sinners and he serves them as that high priest
who will have dealings with the Holy One of Israel on their behalf. And we see his suitability when
we think of him in his person. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Apostle in Romans 8 speaks
about God as sent his Son. God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin as condemned sin in the
flesh. Oh, he has become a real man,
he has experienced this human life that we live. He has suffered
temptation, as we're told here in verse 18. in that he himself
has suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are
tempted and we read it didn't we in that fifth chapter how
the Lord did experience all the reality of our human life and
yet he was that holy and that sinless one there in Verse 7
of chapter 5 we're told 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 the obedience
by the things which he suffered and being made perfect he was
perfected for his work as a high priest by all that he had to
endure not only the eternal Son of God,
but truly the Son of Man, and able to succor, it says, them
that are tempted, because He Himself has known what sore temptations
are. But the word that we have here,
succor, Interesting because it's one of those words, it's a combination,
it's two words joined and welded together. And the one part of
the word means literally a cry. And the other is the verb to
run. And we can understand it in this
sense. He runs to those who cry for help. He runs to those who
cry for help. He is fitted to serve them, to
minister to them. and then again we read those
words at the end of chapter 4 Satan High Priest it says became us
he became us and there the expression became us literally means he's
suitable he is fitting here is that one you see who
is able to sympathize with his people is touched. That's what we read there in
chapter 4 and verse 15. Touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. And it's interesting because the
word touched is actually the Greek word sunpasa. Sunpasa. You'll see how the that
word is transliterated into English in our word sympathy the root
of our word sympathy can be traced back to that particular word
Sumpatha he is touched and then in chapter 7 and verse 26 is
the one where we read of him being suitable such a high priest
became us he suited to us he fits us oh here is one who is
truly a merciful high priest but besides being suitable in
his person when we think of him as that one who can have pity
we also have to recognize that he is merciful in terms of the
work that he has accomplished here upon the earth and what
is that work that this merciful high priest as accomplished? Well, it's in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He has come to make reconciliation. We know that God is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity. And God cannot look upon sin. That's the language of Habakkuk. chapter 1 and verse 13 and then
again back in Exodus 34 we're told he will by no means clear
the guilt he is a holy God and a righteous God and a just God
and the soul that sinneth it must die there must be punishment
meted out and there can be no remission
no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood the Lord
Jesus Christ is that one who has come to to make reconciliation
by bearing that punishment that was due to the sinner and so
reconciling the sinner to God all we read of his work there
in Colossians chapter 1 at verse 19 following have it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven and Paul says you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight
Oh, this is his work. He is a merciful high priest. And then, of course, we also
read here in Hebrews not only of the priesthood and the significance
of priestly work, but we have some reference to the tabernacle
and the furnishings of the tabernacle in the opening verses of chapter
9. And amongst those furnishings
mention he's made of the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat that was there
in the Holy of Holies. That place where God promised
he would come and sit in the midst of Israel and
there he would have fellowship with them. The Mercy Seat. And we've said on previous occasions
how the word that we have there, the particular form of the word
rendered mercilessly, it is only used on one other occasion in
the New Testament, back in Romans 3.25, where as Paul is speaking
of the Lord Jesus, he says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. and it's that word propitiation
that is really equivalent to the word mercy seat here in Hebrews
9.5 so the Lord Jesus Christ who is a merciful high priest
is also that one who is the mercy seat whom God has set forth to
be a mercy seat through faith in his blood and you know the
significance and the connection there because of what we're told
in Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16 gives us detail
concerning what was to be done on the great day of atonement,
Yom Kippur. The one day when the high priest
and the high priest alone was permitted to go beyond that second
veil and he was to go before the mercy saint, before God's
throne. and he must there take the blood
of sacrifice, and he would sprinkle it before the mercy seat, and
upon the mercy seat he would make atonement. He would propitiate,
as it were, the wrath of God. God angry with the wicked every
day. Well, it's all as its full accomplishment
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that one who is typified in the mercy
seat, this merciful high priest. And now having accomplished all
that work, he fills the throne of grace. We have the mercy seat
in the Old Testament, when we come down to the New Testament
we read of the throne of grace, the end of chapter 4 where we
were reading. Seeing then we have a great high
priest, says the Apostle that is passed into the heavens
Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession for we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Oh how the Lord Jesus then is
that one who is truly a merciful high priest. He has pity. He
knows what sort of temptations are. He was assaulted by Satan
himself. He lived a true life here upon
the earth, a human life. He was a real man. He is that
one who is altogether free from every taint of sin and able to
minister to his people how he becomes them, how he suits them.
That one who has vanquished sin and Satan and death and the grave,
having accomplished the first part of his priestly office by
making that great sin-atoning sacrifice. So now he has entered
heaven itself. where he ever lives to intercede
he's merciful but it says here he is a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people and we see that as a faithful high
priest his ministry is twofold there's a Godward aspect and
there's a man-wood aspect it pertains to God but he makes
reconciliation for the sins of the people he makes reconciliation
for sinners his faithfulness and his two-fold first of all
think of the God-wood aspect of that faithful it says in things
pertaining to God and again Concerning this high priest,
we read at the beginning of chapter 3, in the second verse, "...who
was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful
in all his house." We have mention of Christ Jesus at the end of
verse 1, and then, "...who was faithful to him that appointed
him." He was clearly one who was appointed to his office by
God himself. And how the apostle emphasizes
that in the epistle. He says here at verse 4 in chapter
5, No man taketh this unto himself, but he that is called of God,
as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. Though he is the eternal
Son of God, But, as he saith also in another place, thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And then again
in chapter 7, in verse 21, those priests, speaking
of the Old Testament, Aaronic priests, those priests were made
without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto
him, The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest
forever, after the order of Melchizedek." Why? He is made a priest, not
only by the Word of God, but by the oath of God. It is the
Lord God Himself who has appointed him. And what has he done? Why? He has served God in his
priestly office. When he comes to the end of his
ministry, we have that great high priestly prayer, as we call
it, there in the 17th of John. And so he prays to the Father
and says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. There we see him a praying
priest. And of course, really here upon
the earth we see him primarily as a sacrificing priest. and
so again there in John 19 and verse 30 he's able to utter that
great cry of triumph it is finished it is finished we're told and
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost no man was able to
take his life from him he gave up the ghost it was a voluntary sacrifice
no man could take it from him authority to lay it down, he
had authority to take it again, that was the commandment that
he had received from the Father. Oh, what a faithful high priest
he is, faithful to Him who has appointed him, being found in
fashion as a man, he became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. And he's a real man. He's no stoic who can just walk
through sufferings and feel nothing at all. No, he is a real man. He has real human emotions. What
agonies he felt as he contemplated all that lay before him when
we see him there wrestling in prayer with his father in the
garden of Gethsemane. Always subject to the Father's
will. If thou be willing, he says, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. How is human will? And he has a human will. Let
us not forget that. He's a real man. He has a human
will. And yet that human will is always subject to the divine
will. And he agonizes. in his prayers
to God. Being in an agony we're told
he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood
falling to the ground. Oh what faithfulness we see when
we think of the way in which he serves God as a high priest. The work of the priest of course
is to stand between God and the sinner. He's faithful to God
and then he's faithful also to sinners. And that's what we're
told here, is it not? Yes, he's a merciful and he's
a faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, but then it's
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. It's interesting, isn't it? the words. I don't know if you
ever try to do word study when it comes to the word of God and
reading. There are books that can help
in doing those sort of detailed studies. Because there's so much
in the language, in the words, we believe in verbal inspiration.
And the word that we have here in verse 17, in the beginning
of the verse, that word behold, in all things it behoved him
to be made like unto his brethren. What does the word mean, behoved? Well, it has the idea that he
is bound to this, he's obliged, he's obliged to do this. That he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest. He couldn't be a priest for his
people, unless he becomes one with his people. This is why
he takes upon him the seed of Abraham. And because the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, we're told he likewise took part
of the same. He's bound to this. And the strength
of the language here, the second part of the 17th verse, you see,
in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren
and then we have that word that which introduces us to the purposeive
clause in order that, that's the force of it he is behold to be made like
unto his brethren in order that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest and so he is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, we're told in
chapter 7 and verse 25. All His faithfulness. He loves the Father, but He also
loves His people. His love to the Father is demonstrated
in His obedience to all the will of the Father. But remember what
we're told in John, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them unto the end. How he loves them, how he's faithful
to them, how he will serve them. But again, this word that we
have, the word faithful, it literally means he's trustworthy, he's
reliable. Or there's something sure about
this man who is the great high priest of our profession. And of course this epistle is
absolutely full of the Lord Jesus in his priestly office. In chapter
10, verse 21, we read, Having an high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he
is faithful that promise you see we can make deductions from
his faithfulness to our faithfulness because we have this great high
priest Paul goes on to give this exhortation we should desire
that full assurance of faith that we might be those whose
faith is unwavering because it's rooted in Him who is faithful
He is the faithful one and then again in those words at the end
of chapter 4 where we began our reading tonight we come together
for prayer isn't there every encouragement for us to pray
when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ in this particular office,
his priestly office. 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. For we have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. How we can succour us and He
will run to us when we cry to Him. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. A merciful and faithful high
priest, that's who our Lord Jesus Christ is and that's the one
by whom we must come and present our prayers to God. May the Lord help us as we turn
from his word and turn to the Lord himself in prayer. We're going to sing our second
praise in the hymn 120, the tune Evangelist, 138. With joy, we
meditate the grace of our high priest above. His heart is made of tenderness,
his bowels mouth with love. Touched with the sympathy within,
he knows our feeble frame. He knows what sore temptations
mean, for he has felt the same. 120, June 138.