Hebrews chapter 5, and we'll
be looking at verses 1 through 10 this morning. The title of
the message is, Christ Jesus, the Superior High Priest. The Superior High Priest. The
scripture says, For every high priest taken from among men is
ordained for men in things pertaining to God. that he may offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sin. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way? For that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof, he ought
as for the people, he so also for himself to offer for sin. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron."
Now, in these first four verses here, we see that the nature
of the high priest, we see the office and how it is that a high
priest is called. And he uses Aaron as the primary
example of a high priest. As we've studied in Hebrews,
I want us to again recognize that this book, this book of
Hebrews, what it is doing is it showing Christ to be better
or superior to all things, to all things. He's already shown
us that he's superior to angels, that he's superior to all men,
that he is superior, that Christ is superior to The Sabbath day,
he is our rest. And now he is alluding to the
high priest, how Christ is superior over the Aaronic high priest. And that's what we want to see
first, what the writer here tells us about the priesthood, the
earthly priesthood of Aaron. First of all, he was to be taken
from among men, a high priest must have been taken from among
men, as was Aaron. Aaron was taken from the tribe
of Levi who were to be the priestly tribe, but yet more specifically,
only the sons of Aaron were ordained to the office of the high priest. You see, the priests, the Levites,
took care of all of the servile things. There was a lot to do
when you had to sacrifice two times a day, every day, minimum
two times a day, not to mention all of the sacrifices that were
being brought. You think of all of the labor
that went into that. You see, the Levites were to
support The family of Aaron, which was the high priest. And they were to provide for
him. And he was taken from among men. He was taken from among
men to be a mediator of men. To be a mediator for men. And that's what the Scripture
says here. Every high priest is taken from among men, is ordained
for men. A high priest must be divinely
appointed. He cannot be just anyone. He
must be ordained to this office. It is not something that men
are qualified for by natural means. It is something that is
supernatural. It is something that God must
call a man to do, must call him to be the high priest And he
is to be a high priest for men by offering the proper gifts
and sacrifices to please God. To please God. And friends, there
is no gift or sacrifice that is accepted without a high priest.
We don't see high priests today. If you see the beauty of the
picture of the high priest in his beautiful garment, I mean,
these things were made with golden threads. Beautiful! These men
were set apart. But friends, we don't see high
priests. But I'll tell you this, every
man must have one. He must be a man. He must be
ordained of God. And he must offer the proper
gifts and sacrifices for sin. If you remember Aaron's sons,
Nadab and Abihu, these men were of the priestly tribe of Aaron.
They were high priests. But they offered strange fire
before the Lord. And fire came down from heaven
and destroyed these men. And this is the way it is. If
a high priest is ordained of God, he must also offer what
God specifically demands. I'll tell you, men by nature
offer everything but what God demands. They'll do anything. They'll do anything but believe
on Christ. Men will do anything but believe
on Him to be their high priest. Men seem to like to be their
own high priest. But we know this, that if you
offer anything but the blood and righteousness of Christ,
if there's anything offered in your stead that is not from the
high priest that God has ordained from among men for men, which
is Jesus Christ, then you have no acceptance with God. And these men were ordained to
this office of high priest. They were sinners. Look at that down in verse 3.
It says, "...by reason thereof he ought, as for the people,
so also for himself to offer for sins." Aaron's high priestly
line was of the race of Adam. A sinful race. And so if you
agreed on the great day of atonement, you remember that Aaron must
offer first a sacrifice for himself and then for the people. But friends, we have a greater,
a greater high priest than Aaron. We have a superior priest to
Aaron. Where is Aaron? He's dead. Where's his line? They're dead. But we have one superior high
priest, which is Jesus Christ. Our Lord look at verse 5 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 as he saith in another place thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
superior high priest because he was ordained, he was made
a high priest, and he did not take the office for himself.
He was made a high priest of God. Now his priesthood was not
of the line of Aaron. As we know, the Lord Jesus Christ
was born of the tribe of Judah. He was not of the line of Aaron. He was of the kingly tribe of
Judah. But in accordance with the Word
of God, he was also of the high priestly lineage of Melchizedek. It was after the order, not of
Aaron, but of Melchizedek, that Jesus Christ was made a high
priest. See, our Lord Jesus was from eternity the Son of
God. He was from eternity the son
of God. Thou art my son this day. When's
that day? What was that day? It was an
eternal day. God declared him to be the son
of God. But yet God that ordained that
declared him to be the son also ordained him to be the priest
of his people. And this high priest, when we
think about Melchizedek, Matter of fact, go over to Genesis 14.
I want you to see this. How brief this man comes in on
the scene and goes away, but yet in this book you'll see the
great significance of this man. Genesis chapter 14. If you remember,
Abram had just come from defeating those five kings. And look at
verse 18. It says, And Melchizedek, king
of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest
of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth. And he blessed the Most High
God. which hath delivered thine enemies
into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."
Abraham gave tithes to this man. In other words, when he gave
those tithes, when he gave that gift to this man, he recognized
that this man was superior to himself. This man was superior. This man was the priest. And
what did he offer? Well, he offered bread. And we
can see clearly, clearly that this is a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ and His offering. As Abram was a picture of God's
elect, so Melchizedek was a picture of the high priest, Jesus Christ.
And so, when Abram's line, which included Levi and Aaron, When
he had paid tithes unto Melchizedek, he and his whole line recognized
that there was a greater high priest than Aaron. There was
a greater high priest than the one in the law. It was after
the order of Melchizedek. And notice this, that this priestly
order was forever. Thou art forever. a priest. Jesus Christ is not
a priest. In time, He was made a priest
from eternity. His priesthood extends far beyond,
way before the foundation of the world. God had determined
Him to be the only mediator between us and God, to offer the gifts
and sacrifices to God for us. Thou art a priest forever. But
yet the purpose of God, when God purposes something, it must
stand. It must come to pass. Because
if it doesn't come to pass, God didn't purpose it. But Jesus Christ being purposed
to be a high priest, he must be taken from among men. He was. He was made a man. Our priest became a man for us. Oh, not just any man. He was
a superior man because he was the God-man. You see, Aaron and
his line, they needed to offer sacrifice for themselves first,
and then for the people. No, not this high priest. Not
our high priest. Our high priest was without sin. He was a man without sin. And
what then did he offer? What did this man, our Lord and
Savior, offer? Look at verse 7. 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." You know what he
offered? All the days of his life. That's what we should have done.
Is that not worthy of God to offer all the days of our life
and worship to Him who made us and created us, sustains us and
gives us everything we should have. It was just right for us
to do that. And yet we did not do that. We
did everything but that. We lived our lives for ourselves. But this man did not live his
life for himself. Every moment of every day, Christ
was always in constant prayer and supplication with strong crying. The Scripture tells us our Lord's
days on this earth, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. And what did we do? We hid our
faces from Him. esteemed him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted." This high priest, he came and
offered the days of his life so that he might provide a righteousness
for us. A righteousness that no other
high priest could offer. Because they were sinners. They
demanded the sacrifice of another. This high priest demanded no
sacrifice for himself. He was already righteous. And
so by his sacrifice of righteous obedience to God, he has given
us his righteousness. What a high priest. You know,
I don't want the righteousness of Aaron. Aaron's a sinner like
I am. I need the righteousness of God.
And that's what the high priest has offered his life as a sacrifice
to God. And this is greatest seen in
John chapter 17. Look over John 17. This is the
high priestly prayer of our Lord. When Christ offered his life
in prayer and supplication, what did he pray? What was his prayer? First of
all, the glory of God. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee. The glory of God. If we don't understand this,
that all things are for the glory of God, we're going to be very sad and
frightened people. All things are of God. All things
are for the glory of God. Our salvation. Christ came, not
first of all to save us, but first of all to glorify God. And by glorifying Him, He saved
us. All things are of God, and all
things glorify God. There's not one thing that ever
happens in this world that does not ultimately give God the glory. Not one thing. I'll tell you,
all men will give God the glory. All men will. Either by Jesus
Christ or your yell for His glory in hell burning forever, you'll suffer because He must
be glorified. His justice must be glorified. Therefore, the great High Priest
of Jesus Christ has come to restore for us what we robbed God of,
and that was His glory. And when Jesus accomplished this
as our High Priest, God testified of Him by raising Him from the
dead. God said, this is My High Priest.
He has offered the acceptable sacrifice, and He raised Him
from the dead to testify to every one of us. that this is His High
Priest, Jesus Christ. Have you ever questioned why
God allows things to happen? You hold on to this. Don't be
bashful of this and don't be shameful of this, because this
is the truth. All things are for God's glory. All things. If it's not for God's
glory, it won't happen. God does all things for Himself,
regardless of what men think. And all who know the true and
living God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, has eternal
life. Why? Because this is why the
priest came. Look at John 17, 2. As thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Do you
know God? Do you know Christ whom He has
sent? Isn't it wonderful to have such
a superior High Priest to intercede for us on our behalf? Because He has finished the work.
He's finished the work of God by His life and by His death. And because He has finished the
Word, because He was taken from among men, because He was ordained
of God from eternity, because He has offered the acceptable
sacrifice for our sins, He is also able to have compassion. I like this one. I need compassion. Why? Because I'm ignorant. and out of the way. God is so gracious and compassionate
to us. I don't love him like I should. I don't worship him as I should.
I'm so glad that he's got compassion for such an ignorant man as myself. He does have compassion. On every
one of our infirmities. Because He understands what it
is to be a man. He knows everything that you've
experienced. Because He experienced it infinitely
more. Whatever it is. even the guilt of our sins. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. He was made the very thing that sent Adam's race into ruin. You remember when Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. What was to be lifted up? It was the brazen serpent. It was made in the image of the
very thing that bit the nation of Israel and was killing them.
Christ was made sin for us, who knew no sin, who committed no
sin. But it was imputed to Him and
He felt the guilt. He felt that in Psalm 69. He even owns it as his own. What a transaction. What a sacrifice
that He would offer His own blood for our souls. He was lifted up to die to be
offered as a sacrifice He was to be consumed. Isn't
that what the picture of the burn offering is? It was consumed
with fire. Burn up. But yet Christ is more
like that burning bush. Moses saw the bush and it burned
and was not consumed. You see, Jesus Christ experienced
all the wrath of God, and yet because He was the sinless Son
of God, He was sustained. He was sustained. And He come
forth fresh and pure out of the grave with no sin. And friends, let us learn this,
that Jesus Christ Our high priest learned obedience
by suffering. Look at that in verse 8. Through
though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things he
suffered. Though he was the son of God,
though he was the son of God incarnate, yet he learned obedience
by suffering. Suffering. How foolish are we to think we
are exempt from such suffering, though we are sons. We are the
sons of God. But friends, our sonship is never
based on how much or how little we suffer in this life. God doesn't love us because we
suffer much, or He doesn't show His love to us because we suffer
little. There's nobody He loved more
than Christ, and He suffered the most. We should also expect
to learn through suffering. And it was necessary for Christ
to experience suffering, so that He might be able to succor us,
so that He might be able to comfort us in our infirmities. He must have suffered the rejection Even so, too, we will be rejected
by this world. Scripture says that the world
hates Christ. And it will also hate you. If
any man be a friend of the world, he is an enemy to Christ. Believer in Christ, we know that
we have no need of any so-called high priest here on this earth.
We don't have any need for those people. I don't have need for
a priest, do you? I've got one. I've got one that
God picked. I've got one that satisfied God
for me. And I've got one that lives forever. And I have one that has suffered
and knows what it is to be a man. And when we obey Him as He obeyed
God, we will suffer. What is obedience? Faith. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Faith. Faith. We trust God. Not what we see. Not what we feel. We don't trust
our experiences. We trust Christ. who gives us
these experiences of grace. We trust Him as our great and
faithful High Priest because in verse 9 it says, being made
perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all them
that obey Him. Perfect. Perfect. How's your salvation today? Oh,
it's perfect. Why? My High Priest made it perfect. You see, I don't add anything
to it. It's done. Done. Done. Finished. The high priest already offered
it. What else is there to offer? But Thanksgiving, I can offer
that. I can offer prayers. Thanksgiving,
praise, and be accepted. If we were to weigh our worship
this morning, How much do you suppose it would
weigh? But friends, I'm not putting
my worship on the scale. Christ has made it perfect, though
it be small. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. And we obey Him by faith who
is called of God to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And Lord willing, we'll get into
this man and how the Lord pictures Melchizedek more in this book.
But I want us to recognize just the superiority of Christ. Praise
God we don't have to go through men to be forgiven. Man, if you had to go through
me and you did something to me, maybe I wouldn't forgive you. That's not so with Christ. He's
made our salvation perfect, and you and I are accepted in Him. I pray that the Lord would bless
you with this and maintain our vision, our understanding of
His superior high priesthood. We're dismissed.