Hebrews chapter 3. And the title of the message
this evening is, A Comfortable Consideration. A Comfortable
Consideration. Our text says, Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle
and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful
to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all
his house." I want to give you one phrase that we should all
endeavor in all things and at all times should govern our lives
every moment, it is this, to consider Christ. In everything, we should consider
Him. In everything, we should think
about Him. We should consider Him as to
our motivation and to inspire and encourage us and strengthen
us. And as we walk in this world,
we should always in everything consider Christ. Consider Christ. Always consider Christ. And I
do pray that God would give us this grace. to consider Him in
all things. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus. Consider Him always in everything. Consider who He is. Who is He? He is God, very God. Paul says
in the previous chapter, he says, "...for it became Him for whom
are all things and by whom are all things." This one we are
considering is God. God, very God. Yet He condescended
to become man. Consider that. Consider the great
condescension of God that He took upon Him, not the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham, speaking of the nature of His
elect. He came taking on our nature. The sovereign, merciful God came
down. Consider what He's done. What
did He do? He came to make our salvation
perfect. He came to accomplish salvation. Not to make it possible for you
to finish it. He came to finish it Himself.
He came to accomplish it Himself. Consider that. Consider that. Consider the debt that you owe
Him. How much do we owe? How much
do we owe Him? How much praise should we give
Him? How much honor should we give
Him? How much of our time, our energy,
our money, everything, what do we give? What can we give? If
we give everything, we've not given enough. What do we owe
such grace and compassion of God to come and save us? Consider
His will. What is His will? His will is
to save you. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will. By the witch will we are sanctified through Him
that loved us. It is His will to love you. And
I'm glad His will is immutable, aren't you? Unchangeable. He
won't take it back. He can't take it back. He's immutable. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. That's His will for you. And
it's His will that all of His children come in. Consider that. Consider Christ's will. I will
that you be with Me where I am. That's what He prayed in John
17, is it? That they may be with Me where I am. That's His will. Consider that. Consider what's best for His
glory. Always and all things, consider what's best for His
glory. What's best for the glory of Christ in everything we do?
That should be top priority in every decision we make in this
world. What is best for the kingdom
of God? What is best for the glory of
God? Consider. Consider that. What's best for
God's people? And Paul here in this verse,
the intent of what Paul is doing by the Holy Spirit is he is using
this as a means of encouragement. As a means to encourage believers
to continue in the faith. It is an encouragement to saints
to persevere. to look to Christ by considering
Him, considering who He is, what He's done, what He's doing, what
He will do. By these considerations of Christ,
we are encouraged to continue in the faith. And that's what
Paul is doing. He is encouraging us and comforting
us in this. It is a comfortable thing to
consider Christ. It's comfortable to consider
Christ if you're in Christ, isn't it? If you're in Christ, it's
comfortable. It's a comforting thing. Consider
Him. So let's begin this. And the
apostle says, wherefore. Now, you could divide this chapter
into three divisions. The first is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the consideration of his faithfulness in his offices of apostle and
high priest. That's verses 1 through 6 and
verses 7 through 10. The apostle speaks that there
are many who profess faith in Christ but will perish. They
will perish because those will go away. Those will desert and
leave the faith. And he says, the third divisions,
14 through 19, if we ever enter into heaven, if we were to have
eternal life, we must persevere. Those are the last three. But
I just want to focus on the first one. The first division about
Christ's faithfulness. That's what I want us to consider
tonight for our comfort. Christ's faithfulness. His faithfulness. The apostle begins, wherefore?
The apostle having first laid out how Christ was above all
angels, how Christ's excellency is above angels, and yet how
He must have condescended to become a man. In order to save
us, He must have become a man. He must have taken on our nature
and by this became the champion of our salvation. And He shows us our unity in
Christ in verse 11 of the previous chapter, "...for both he that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." He's
telling us of our union and how Christ is not ashamed to call
us brethren. And that's why He uses wherefore.
So when you see that word, therefore or wherefore, always know what
it's there for. You have to look back to see
what it's there for. So what he's doing now is now
the apostle is able, having expounded those things, he is able to speak
to those who are true believers in Christ. And that's who this
message is for. What good is it to consider Christ
if you're not in Christ? A lot of people consider Christ
as not in Christ. There's a lot of people who know
a lot about Christ who are not in Christ, who are not believers
in Christ. So this is where the rubber meets
the road now. He says, wherefore, and he speaks
to specific people, holy brethren. Holy brethren. He's speaking
to believers in Christ. Those who trust in Christ alone
have no confidence in the flesh. Who's that? That's me? That's
me? I have no confidence in the flesh.
I trust only in Christ. Those who are called, he said,
with a heavenly calling, partakers of a heavenly calling, the joy
and peace and comfort of this truth, all who are called of
God the Holy Spirit, without doubt, come to Christ. Have you come to Christ? What is it to come to Christ?
Christ is in heaven. He is bodily seated at the throne
of God. How can a mortal come to Christ? It is by faith. Believing in
Christ is what Christ means by coming to Him. And only those
who are called with a heavenly calling come to Him. Only those
who are called by the Spirit of God come to Him. Now, the
false doctrine of our day preaches that the Spirit's calling is
conditional. The Spirit woos men. He tries
to bring men to Christ. This is the doctrine of universal
atonement, how Christ died for all men without exception. The
Spirit's going about now, and He's trying to manipulate, use
lies and deceit and any means necessary to get men to exercise
their free will. In other words, their Holy Spirit
is powerless to save. How blasphemous is this to rob
God of His glory? This heavenly calling that he's
talking about is not something that is powerless. This heavenly calling is so full
of power that everyone he calls comes. Our God Our gospel declares what
our Lord Jesus said, all that the Father hath given me shall
come to me. This is the heavenly calling
of your holy brethren. This is the heavenly calling
that you have received. It is a calling of power. The power, the power of Christ. All that the Father has given
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. That's good news. That's good
news. To us who deserve to be cast
out, and yet when we are called to His feet, He says, I will
never cast you out. Why is that? Well, because we
were given to Him of the Father. We were given to Him. The Father
gave us to Christ, and all that the Father gave to Christ will
come to Christ. And how many will Christ lose?
None. He said, all that the Father
has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. Every one of His elect that seeth
the Son, and believeth on Him, hath everlasting life." This
is what it is to receive a heavenly calling. Where does a heavenly
calling come from? Heaven. You know, these things you really
don't need to be a scholar to understand. A heavenly calling
comes from heaven. It is a call of God to the heart
of man. It is the new birth. It is the
resurrection from the dead. But how shall they come when
they're called by free will? No, no, no. Freely willing, yes,
but not free will. We come willing, made willing
in the day of His power. And Jesus says in those next
verses in John 6, He said, No man can come unto Me except the
Father which hath sent Me draw him. And this drawing is the
same as the heavenly calling. To be drawn of the Father is
the heavenly calling, divine calling, irresistible calling. It is the new birth of the Holy
Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof,
but you can't tell whence it's coming and whither it goes. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God." Born of the Spirit
of God. Our Lord Jesus said, the hour
is coming and now is when the dead, the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. Do you get that? Who's going to hear? The dead.
Only the dead hear. and the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." When the Lord called Lazarus
from the tomb, was that a request or a command? Lazarus, come forth. Was there any speculation as
to what should happen next? No, Lazarus came forth. Paul says in Galatians, when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. What's the motivating factor
of the call? It pleased God. Why are you called? Why are you here? Why do you
believe on Christ? It pleased God. That's why you
are here. He called you with a heavenly
calling. That's the only reason you believe
at all. It's because He called you to life and faith without
a doubt. This is not a compromise. He
didn't call you to try to compromise with you or bargain with you.
He called you and it was not conditional. It was powerful. Powerful. Have you heard His
voice? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, saved, saved. He that believeth on the Son,
John the Baptist said, hath everlasting life. And this calling and faith It is the evidence of something
great. It is the evidence that you are
his son. that you are the sons of God.
It is the evidence that you have this union that he spoke about
in the previous chapter. This Christ who came in the flesh,
who died for His people, the champion of His people. Those
He that sanctified and those who are sanctified are one. Well, who's that? Those who receive
the heavenly calling. You're one with Christ. And faith
in Christ is the evidence, never the cause. How many times a day
do you put so much on your faith? We rest and trust so much sometimes
in our faith, and then it just falls out from underneath us.
Why? Because that's not the cause.
The faith is the evidence. The cause is Christ. The cause
is Christ. The cause is God. Now, John says,
are you the sons of God? I like that. It doesn't yet appear
what you shall be. I like that. That what we are
now is not what we're going to be. Thank God for that. We are the sons of God. We're
sons by election. Sons by union with Christ. And
Christ is our surety. Christ is our substitute who
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And if sons of God, if you're sons of God, do you
not realize this? The Lord Jesus Christ is your
brother. I've got brothers. And I'm a brother myself. And
I'm sure that either one of us would look at the other and say,
that's not much. But I tell you, I've got a brother. I've got
one that sticketh closer than a brother. I have an elder brother
who is not ashamed to call me his brother. And because of my brother's atonement,
Because my brother has shed his blood and purged our sins because
of his perfect righteousness he clothes us with in the new nature. He's not ashamed to call you
holy brethren. Holy brethren. Joanne, you are holy brethren. Don't shake your head. It's what
the book said. That's what the book said. Holy brethren. Holy. How in the world is that possible?
Because He made you holy. He made you holy. That was His purpose from eternity. That you should be holy. And
what did Christ do for us? He made us holy brethren. Holy brethren. And now, holy brethren. That's
who I'm talking to. That's the first point. I just
want to let you know who I'm talking to. Holy brethren. You
who are partakers of the heavenly calling, spoken to by God Himself. That's who I'm talking to. You
who believe on Christ. Now it's time for you to comfort
your souls by considering. Considering the One who did this
for you. Consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession. This is not the only place that
Paul exhorts believers to consider Christ. Go over to Hebrews chapter
12. Hold your place, but go to Hebrews
chapter 12. In Hebrews, this chapter, He exhorts the brethren. In verse 2, He says, "...looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Isn't that just
what we said? Who's the one that does this? Who gave you that
faith? The author of the faith did. Jesus. Looking to Him by
faith. For the joy that was said before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down in
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that
endured such contradiction." That word's hostility. You do
not see that our Lord, when He came into this world, everyone
was hostile toward Him. When He was just a boy, Herod,
set in his heart to kill him. And from that time on, everyone
was hostile and he endured that. He endured the hostility of men,
of sinners against himself. And why should we consider him?
Why do you consider that? Lest ye become weary and faint
or discouraged in your minds. How often do we become weary
and discouraged? Why are you weary and discouraged?
Well, look what's happening to me. Man, I'm in trouble all the
time. I'm sick. I'm in afflictions. Everyone's angry at me. There's
nobody likes me. The world is against me, wave
after wave, and I feel discouraged. Well, consider your Lord. Did
He not endure much more? Is the servant greater than His
Lord? No. They hated me, He said. They'll
hate you. Though our salvation is perfect
through our substitute, though we are holy and righteous before
God in the new nature and lacking nothing, yet we must constantly
be encouraged to consider Christ, to hold Him up in our minds and
hearts because we are still in this flesh. Because we still have this old
man about our necks daily dragging us to the ground. We would soar. Would you not soar? Do you not
long to soar? in thought, in word, in deed,
to be righteous as my master, to be servant of my master, unfailing
service. That's what I want. That's what
I want to do. And yet I'm constantly pulled
to the earth by the old man that is still in me. That's a reason
you should consider Christ. Second of all, the world is against
you. Our Lord said those foes He said, I came not to bring
peace, but a sword. And the foes of a man shall be
those of his own household who's not experienced that. Which believer
has had a perfect household who's not set against him? Our ancient foe, Luther said,
still seeks to work us woe. His craft and power are great
and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. Peter
said, be sober and vigilant because your adversary walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. Is that not reason enough to
consider Christ daily? Is that not reason enough to
flee to Christ and find more about this sacrifice, more about
His person and His offices? Therefore, believer, let us heed
this wise counsel of the apostle to be vigilant and sober, to
safeguard our minds from all sorts of discouragements, so
that our hands may not be weak in service to Christ, so that
we do not become fearful and unbelieving. Let us consider
Christ in everything. Consider Christ. Consider Christ so as to enlighten
our minds and comfort our hearts and strengthen our hands. So
now then, let's see what the Apostle says to consider. He
says, Consider the Apostle of our profession. The Savior's
Apostleship. Apostleship. Consider that Jesus
is the Apostle of our profession. Now, this profession or confession
that the apostle is speaking of is the gospel that we believe. Let this be settled in our minds. Our gospel is not of men. Our gospel is not comprised of
traditions of men, nor is it of the opinions of men, nor is
it the philosophy of men. Our gospel is the inspired word
of God. Inspired word of God. It is God-breathed. The Apostle said that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness. Our Gospel is the inspired Word
of God. As God moved men of old to speak,
and write these Scriptures that we have before us. The Word of
God that we have then is the only source of practice and faith
because it alone is the only immutable, unchangeable Word. Peter said this, all flesh is
grass. Isn't that true? We are in a
nursing home here. There are people all around you
They're at their end. We're all coming there. We're
all going quickly. And we're all going to make it
to that end. And when a man dies, so does his thoughts, his opinions,
and everything he had with him. It's gone. All flesh is grass,
and the glory of man is as a flower of grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, but what endures? The Word of God endureth forever. The Word of God endureth. It
doesn't matter what men think or men feel or men's opinions
about things. God's Word is the only thing
that lasts. It's it. It is established. God establishes His Word. And everything God determined
to do, He is doing, He has done, and He will do according to this
Book. According to this Book. My dad used to be a plumber and
they had plans. They had detailed plans. They
would measure it out to the inch in everything. You know what
I always found out? is there are always changes. You know, my dad, the general
contractor didn't like it, but all the subcontractors loved
it because there was a change order. I mean, if there was something
to change, you could charge more and you got more money for changing.
But look at God's plan. Look at God's blueprint. It's
down to the very, very centimeter, and yet it does not change. It is the immutable Word of God. It always is the same. Believer,
our gospel is no fable, no myth, no doctrine of men, but the Word
of God. And then consider what the Word
of God testifies of, the whole. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. The whole book,
the sum and substance of this gospel we believe, which is our
confession, which is our profession, is about Christ. Jesus said,
And when he spoke to those disciples on the road to Emmaus, the scripture
says, And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So what is this book concerning?
Christ. Now then, consider the apostle.
What is an apostle? An apostle is one who is sent.
That's what it means. One that is sent of God. An apostle. An apostle is sent like as a
prophet is sent to be a mouthpiece, to speak the Word of God. So consider the apostle of God,
Jesus Christ, the great apostle. He who is the sum and substance
of the whole Word of God was sent to preach it. Now, who knew
the book better than he did? It was all about Him. Of course,
He knew Himself, and He knew the Word, because the Word spoke
of Himself. Therefore, God sent Him to preach
this Gospel, to declare this Gospel, and to manifest this
Gospel. Everything that God had said
was about Him, and He was speaking it, preaching it, and fulfilling
it. That's what He was doing as our Apostle. In Luke chapter
4, look over there. We'll just flip to a couple of
pages. And you don't have to if you can't, but Luke 4, verse
18. This is our Lord's first message. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And not only preach, but look,
he's sent to do something. He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, recover the sight
of the blind. Here's another thing to do, to
set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. He was sent to preach the gospel.
He was sent to preach the gospel of himself. The gospel of redemption to captive
sinners, to the blind. And what message? What message
sets the blind... gives sight to the blind? What
message sets the captives free? It is the gospel message of redemption. The gospel message of substitution. He come to send good tidings
of great things. Isn't that what the angel said?
He is, I behold I bring you good tidings of great things. Redemption for the ruined sinners. This message is the same in Romans
5, verse 19, "...Wherefore, as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many were made
righteous." Jesus came to secure salvation, to preach salvation,
but also, not only to preach it, to secure it. To secure salvation. Go over to Hebrews 9. This is what our Apostle has
come to do. He's come with sin of God to declare the Gospel,
but not only to declare it, but to accomplish it. Hebrews 9 verse
26, For then must he have offered,
suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once at
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die after this, the judgment, so Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Believer, go where you will in
the Word of God. It's all about Christ. It's all
about Him. Everything in the Old Testament
are types and shadows and pictures and prophecies of Him. And now that He, our Apostle,
has come, all of those types and shadows are done away with.
All of them are fulfilled in Him. Behind me, you do not see an
altar with sacrifices or an Ark of the Covenant, you do not see
the veil, you do not see the temple, you do not see those
things because He is the fulfillment of all those things. They all
pictured Him. He is their fulfillment. And
when He came, all of those types were done away with. God in sundry
times and different manners spake in time past that the prophets
hath now spoken to us out by His Son. So you take comfort
in it. When you consider Christ our
Apostle, you take comfort in this. Our Gospel is the Word
of God. And the Son of God is the fulfillment
of all the Word of God. He is the object of our worship. He is the object of our faith. It's Him. It's Christ. Now, second
of all, not only His apostleship, but let us consider His priesthood. He says this, consider the apostle
and high priest, high priest of our profession. Now, in the
Jewish religion, the highest office you would think would
be king, Wouldn't you? It's a high priest. They had Herod. In the days of
the Lord Jesus, they had Herod, you know, as king. But when it
says the ruler of the Jews, who is it talking about? A priest.
That's who it's talking about. Because they had the access to
God. They were the ones by which the
sacrifices were made. And without them, Everybody was
lost. There was no way. They felt doomed. So this is an office, the highest
office is the high priest. In one sense, he ruled, the high
priest was one that ruled the nations. He alone was the only
mediator between God and men to offer the sacrifices of God,
especially on the great day of atonement. You remember that
day that, you know, everyday priests came in and offered sacrifices. But on the great day of atonement,
not just any priest could offer this sacrifice. Only one priest,
only one out of everyone could offer. It was a high priest.
Only he could do this. No other priest was allowed to
make the sacrifice or enter into the presence of God with the
blood. And I'll tell you, that is exactly
what the Apostle is saying here. Christ is our High Priest. He is the only one who can intercede
between us and God. He is the only one qualified,
appointed to make the sacrifice necessary to bring us to God. The only one. Now you consider
that. How many millions of people have
lived and died in this world and not one is qualified? That man in Rome ain't qualified
to do anything. I wouldn't let him park my car, much less try to get me to God.
There's only one qualified, the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider that. Therefore, it is highly significant
for Jesus Christ to be given this title. Believer, consider
Christ, our high priest, is most surely our ruler. Is He not our
ruler, our king? Or are we just pretending? A lot of people pretending. A lot of people offering praises
with lips. But if we consider who He is,
we should know this. He is our ruler. He alone is given the power over
all flesh, but as the high priest did not represent all those outside
of Israel, even so, our high priest only represents the elect
of God. He only represented the elect
of God. And as our high priest, he alone entered into the presence
of God, not with the sacrifice of animals and goats and blood
of bulls, but our Lord Jesus Christ entered into the presence
of God with His own blood. Consider that. You know, you
can't really have a high priest without a sacrifice. It wouldn't
be any good, would it? If you had a high priest but
didn't have a sacrifice, what good would that do you? If you
had a sacrifice but not a high priest, what good would that
do you? You must, of necessity, they must go together. But listen,
they go together so much in Christ that He who is the high priest
is also the sacrifice. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
did not offer another. He offered Himself. He freely gave Himself for His
people. Therefore, our High Priest, who
was purposed of God, gave Himself to God. And I want you to see
this. In the great day of atonement, when the High Priest went behind
the veil, did anybody see what was going on back there? No, it was a transaction between
God and the high priest. And I tell you, that transaction
that took place upon the tree 2,000 years ago was a transaction
between God and His Son. He offered Himself. He entered
in within the veil Himself with His own blood. As our high priest, when he entered
into the presence of God for us, he made an atonement. Made
an atonement. Listen, I just can't get over
Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9 and verse 12. It gives me so much comfort when
I consider Him to be my High Priest. You read in verse 9,
it says, But Christ, being come an High Priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the
blood of goats and of calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once. once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption."
Eternal redemption. When you consider your high priest,
you consider that verse. that He actually obtained your
eternal redemption. There's no more need then for
the high priest to offer His blood. Now they did it. How many times? Once a year.
Every year. Thousands of years they offered
that sacrifice. How much did that blood save
anyone? It didn't save anyone. But this man, Your high priest
entered in one time for you. The veil was rent from the top
to the bottom. The way of access is brought
open. And now you are free to come
and approach unto your God anytime, any day. You can approach to
Him. Why? Because of your high priest.
Because your high priest obtained it. And not only this, I want
you to see this. The high priest had another office.
It was to preach. That was another office of the
priest. If you go to Nehemiah chapter
8, you can read about Ezra, the priest, and how he stood at the
pulpit of wood. And he preached the law. He declared
the law. He read the law to them. Isn't
that how you learn anything? Does not our high priest teach
you? How much have you learned since
you were born again? From the time you were born again
to now, how much have you learned? Is that not all taught of God?
Our High Priest teaches you. Every time you hear this Word,
He teaches you something, something you need. He gives you and He
feeds your soul with this same Word you've heard hundreds of
times and now that He gives you something else for today. He
gives you something to feed on, something to meditate and comfort
your soul. That's what a High Priest does.
And the third thing of a high priest is he intercedes. Intercedes. I'm going to go to the end of
my notes because I want you to see this. Let's see if I can
find it. Numbers 16. Numbers 16. Book
of Numbers chapter 16. Let's see if I can find it. Okay, verse 42. Yeah, Numbers
16. And it came to pass, when the
congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that
they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation, and behold,
a cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses
and Herod came before the tabernacle of the congregation, and the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation,
that I may consume them as in a moment, and they fell on their
faces. See the picture here. Korah,
you remember that evil man who opposed Moses and Aaron, and
they said, they said, you're taking too much on yourself.
We're all children of God. We all can be priests of God. And God said, I bet you can't.
And he swallowed him up. God said, Aaron's my priest and
Moses is my prophet. And he swallowed him up. You
know what the congregation of Israel did? They got mad at Moses
and Aaron. God had just swallowed these
people up. You'd figure that would cause
them to bow. No, they got angry and they said,
well, that's right. How dare you take this upon?
And they were going to kill Moses and Aaron because they wanted
to be the priests. You know, that's exactly what
man by nature wants to be, is his own priest. Well, how dare
you say that Jesus Christ is the only priest? Well, my sacrifice
is just as good as His sacrifice. Well, I know He needs to sacrifice
for me, but I can add to it. Let me put my works to it as
well." You know what God's going to do? He said, get out of the
way. I'm going to consume them. You see, the affront to Moses
and Aaron was really an affront to Christ. They were just a picture,
a type of Christ. Man by nature wants to be his
own priest. And look what Moses and Aaron
said. And Moses said to Aaron, take a censer and put fire thereon
from the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation
and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from
the Lord. The plague is begun. And Aaron
took as Moses commanded and ran in the midst of the congregation.
And behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put
on the incense and made an atonement for the people." And listen,
he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was
stayed. Aaron runs out there and he's
got this pot of fire in his hands. And he makes an atonement, he
makes a sacrifice there in the middle. And you can imagine that
he's standing there with this sacrifice. In front of him is
nothing but dead men. And behind him are the living. He stood between the dead and
the living. What stands between you and the wrath of God daily is our High Priest. Behold, I am God, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. You now see that all around you
are dead men. Why are you living? Because your high priest stands
daily mediating between you and God. Daily he shows his wounds to
the Father. Daily you sin against him. That's why John says, if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and His truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, His faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
little children sin not. But when you sin, we have an advocate with the
Father. We have one pleading His case before us daily and
standing between the dead and the living. My Savior stands
daily between me and the wrath of God, and it will never touch
me." Now wouldn't that give you comfort? Doesn't that give you
comfort? That my sin will never touch
me. The wrath of God has stayed. And it's all because of my apostle
and high priest. And listen, he says he's a faithful.
High Priest. That's what he says in the next
verse in our text. He says he is a faithful high priest. More
faithful than Moses. Moses was a faithful high priest.
But I tell you, Christ is much more faithful. Why? Moses died. Moses had an end. He served God. But I tell you,
Christ doesn't have an end. And he says to you, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. May God give us grace then to
consider holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
Him. In everything you do, consider
Him, who is your apostle and high priest, and His faithfulness.
And you'll find comfort, you'll find peace, only in Him. May God give us grace to look
to Him. The stand will be dismissed.