Hebrews chapter 5. I'm sorry,
chapter 4. Chapter 4. Getting ahead of myself. Getting ahead of myself. I don't
want to do that. And we'll be looking at verses 14 through
16 this morning. Let's read this together. 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 feelings 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. The title of the message is Our
Great High Priest, Our Great High Priest. The Apostle Paul
says, seeing then we have a great high priest, the Apostle having
declared the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ That he is the express
image of God. That he is the, in his person,
God manifest in the flesh. That he is the brightness and
express image of God's person, upholding all things by the word
of his power. Seeing then, we have this great
high priest. This great high priest is not
just any man. This is not just any person who
offers sacrifices to God. This is the great high priest
because he is God. He is God. The high priest of
all who are born again of the Spirit of God to faith in Christ,
we know this, that Jesus Christ is God. He is God. He has a better name than angels. Because God said not to the angels,
but to Him, He said, Thou art my Son this day. What day? The eternal day. Forever. This day have I begotten Thee. Thou art my Son. And He says
to the Son, Thy throne, O God. This is the prophecy concerning
this great high priest who is God. Our high priest was also
declared to be born the seed of Abraham because he was the
seed of promise. This great high priest is the
seed of Abraham because it was to Abraham the promise seed was
given. He said, in thy seed, Christ. In this one person, in this one
man, the God-man, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In this one great High Priest.
Whose High Priest is that? That's our High Priest. That's
my High Priest. That's my Mediator, Jesus Christ,
the God-man. He's a great High Priest. And
our Great High Priest is greater than Moses, who received the
law as a picture of Jesus Christ. A picture of this Great High
Priest. Jesus didn't come with the message of the law, but He
came with a message of grace. He said to those on the Sermon
on the Mount, He said, I am come not to destroy the law, but to
fulfill the law. To fulfill the law. And he has
fulfilled the law. This was his message. Except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of
heaven. That was his message. But his message was a good message
because he himself was providing the righteousness. He himself
was obeying the law in our stead. So that our righteousness does
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, because
our righteousness is His righteousness. His holiness is our holiness.
His perfections are our perfections. Why? Because He is the mediator. He is the one that stands between
us and God. And when God sees Him, guess
what? God sees me. God sees me in my
mediator, my high priest. And I'll tell you, we should
believe this today, seeing we have a great high priest. We have a great high priest,
and he is worthy of our trust. He is worthy of our faith. And if you hear his voice today, If you hear His voice today,
believe and trust Him. Be confident, believer, in this
great High Priest. You can have great confidence
and it not be presumption. I'm not presuming anything concerning
my righteousness. I'm trusting Christ as all my
righteousness. And I'm not presuming anything
because God said it was so. You don't have to guess at this
word. You don't have to guess at this
message. I love it. He doesn't leave blanks for us to fill in. He tells us what it means. He
tells us what it says. Therefore, the just shall live
by faith, the Scripture says. We should always live by faith.
This is how we're to walk daily, is by faith in Christ, seeing
we have a great high priest. What confidence would we have
and assurance would we have if we constantly would set ourselves
to see Him, constantly set Him before us as our great high priest? We would have great confidence.
But because of our old flesh, we must labor to put this old
nature off. We must labor To get rid of every
thought of righteousness in ourselves and find all our righteousness
in Christ. The Son of God. We trust in Him
because He loved us and as our great High Priest, He gave Himself
for us. For us. Believer, therefore,
let us hold fast to this by faith." Hold fast. We must hold fast. Just as sure as we are preserved,
we must persevere. How? By faith. By faith. And we are to encourage one another
in faith. My faith ought to encourage your
faith, and your faith ought to encourage my faith. My faithfulness
should encourage your faithfulness, and your faithfulness should
encourage my faithfulness. Do you see how it works together?
We work together. We are of the same body. We are
in union with Christ. He is our head, and we are His
body. We are one with Him and one with
each other. And we should encourage each
other in the faith to see our great high priest. Now, Jesus
is here in our text said to be our great high priest because
he is a victorious high priest, a successful high priest. When the day of atonement, that
great day of atonement, the people were without. They had no part
in the offering. It was only the high priest. It was only the high priest that
did this offering. And the people were outside.
And when he offered that sacrifice, it was in sight of all the people. But you know what wasn't in sight?
When he went in. When he went in with the blood. Their atonement rested on the
high priest coming out. They never saw the blood applied
to the mercy seat. They knew it because the Word
of God said it, but they never saw it. And friends, I never
saw the blood of Jesus Christ being brought before the presence
of God. But I know this, we know that
our high priest has passed into the heavens because they saw him rise from
the dead. He is risen from the dead. We
know he was acceptable because our high priest came back and
took His body, and God raised Him from the dead, and we are
sure that He was successful. That's how. We know. We know. We know that we are accepted
in the Beloved because He was risen. We trust in a successful
living Savior. Living Savior. Go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse
1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received
wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
This gospel that we preach, this gospel that I preach to you this
morning, which you have received and wherein you stand right now. You who believe, you stand on
this right now. And we must keep this in memory. In other words, we must keep
believing this, keep trusting this. Keep trusting what? What
I preach, the Gospel. How that Christ died according
to the Scriptures. According to the Word of God.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins. This speaks
of His high priestly office. We needed a sacrifice for sin
that we could not provide for ourselves. The same was true
in Tithe of the nation of Israel. They needed an atonement. But
only God appointed a high priest to make that atonement. And so
God has only appointed Jesus Christ alone to make the atonement
for our sins. How? By the offering of Himself
the offering of himself for our sins. This is what a high priest does.
Look at verse... Hold your place here, but just look back, glance
back at your text. He said, in verse 1 of chapter
5, he said, For every high priest is taken from among men, is ordained
for men in things pertaining to God that he might offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sin. You see, that's the job of a
high priest. He was to offer what God demanded. Blood. Blood. If you remember, what
is the first offering that was given? Who gave the first offering? It was God. God gave the first
offering. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse
21, it says, unto Adam also and to
his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them. You see, God offered the first
sacrifice in order to cover the nakedness of the sinner. What a beautiful time. You see,
the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself so that we might have
righteousness. He offered His blood so that
we might have the righteousness of God given to us. This was the purpose of the high
priest to offer sacrifices acceptable for an atonement. This was pictured
in Abel's offering. It was pictured in Noah's offering.
It was pictured in Job's offering. It was pictured in all of the
offerings of the law. For without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. No remission. There's no forgiveness,
no pardon without the shedding of blood. Well, how much greater
is our high priest than these? How much greater is it than having
an animal and having his blood shed day in and day out over
and over and over and it never stopping? I mean, the blood never
stopped flowing. Year after year that high priest
had to continue to offer that same offering. How great is our
high priest and that he offered this sacrifice once. Once and
it was finished. Once and it was done. How much
greater is our high priest because he was without sin. He had no
need of a sacrifice for himself. Leviticus 16 tells us that the
high priest that he must first make a sacrifice for himself.
Why? He was a sinner. He needed a
sacrifice just like everyone else needed a sacrifice. But
Jesus Christ is a great high priest. He needed no sacrifice
for himself. He needed no righteousness for
himself. Yet he accomplished both for
us. as our High Priest. He accomplished
both righteousness and atonement. And friends, we could not have
righteousness without atonement. Just take that picture of the
animals and the slain animals that the Lord slain so He would
cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. Do you suppose that there
would be a way to get that skin off the animals without shedding
their blood? No. It's impossible. You couldn't
do that. But yet, how can we have righteousness
without the shedding of blood? There must be the shedding of
blood, and then the imputation of righteousness is given to
us. Christ shed His blood in our
place, being made sin for us, so that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Go to Psalm 69. Psalm 69. This is a prophetic suffering
of our Lord Jesus Christ as he was on the cross. Our Lord said, Save me, O God,
for the waters are come in unto my soul, I sink down Sink in
deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty Then I restored that
which I took not away. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from Thee." Is that not the most amazing
thing? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
owned our sins as His own. This is true imputation. He bore
all the guilt and shame of our sin, having committed none of
it. Yet, as our High Priest, God
imputed it to Him, just as much as He imputed His righteousness
to us. What grace! What mercy for the
Lord Jesus Christ to suffer such a shameful death. Why would he
do that? What benefit could he gain from
us? What could we add? If we make a sacrifice that great,
then we would expect something. We would expect something. Somebody
to give to us so they could add to us. God did it because He
would do it. God did it not for our sakes, but for His own namesake. He did it for Himself. Don't
look to you and me to try to find a reason why God would save
us, why God would take our sins and impute them to His Son. There's
no reason. There's no reason to be found
in us. The only reason is God says, I did it for My name's
sake. You see this in Isaiah chapter 48. Isaiah chapter 48.
Verse 8. This is us in verse 8. Yea, thou
heardest not. That's us. Yea, thou knowest
not. That's us. Yea, from the time
that thine ear was not opened, for I knew that thou wouldest
deal treacherously and was called a transgressor from the womb. That's us. Rebels. When he says your ear's not open,
in other words, you're not a servant. You have not yielded as a bondservant
to Christ. Look at this, verse 9. For my
name's sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise will
I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. I have refined
thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction for mine own sake, even for mine own sake." He says
it twice, just to make sure that we understand it was for his
own namesake. He said, for my namesake, for
mine own namesake, will I do it? For how should
my name be polluted, and I will not give my glory to another?" God will not share in the glory
of his salvation. There is only two religions,
works and grace. There are no other religions. All religions fall into those
two categories. It is either of works or it is
of grace. It is either that God did it for his own glory, or
man gets the glory for himself. There's no middle ground. There's
no in-between where you split the glory. No. Paul says if it's of works, there's
no more of grace. If it's of grace, there's no
more works. Otherwise, the definitions have no meaning. Child of God, we are saved by
the free grace of God. For His own sake, He delivered
Christ up as our great High Priest, as our great offering for sin. And this was according to the
Scriptures. We don't have to guess. If He's
the Christ, do it. We have the whole revelation
of God to show us who He is. He is the Christ, and it was
according to the Scriptures. How great is that that this whole
book is about Him? Is that not wonderful? Is that
not great that the whole of historic That all of the future that is
yet to remain in mankind all centers around this man, this
God-man, this high priest who died for our sins. Second of
all, we preach the resurrection of this high priest according
to the Scriptures. Because Jesus is our great high
priest and has merited our righteousness, And He has put away all our sins
by His death. Jesus suffered the wrath of God for all of our sins. And when
He died, sin was no more. Our sin was no more. It was gone. Father, into Thy hands I commend
my spirit." And He gave up the ghost and sin was gone. It was paid. It was paid in full. He had immediately offered His
blood in the presence of God for us. And sin, all my sin,
is gone. Gone. And after he had offered himself
once for sin, the scripture says he passed into the heavens and
is now seated at the right hand of God ever living to do what? Make intercession for us. So wonderful. His wounds plead
for us. Who then will condemn us? Who then will charge us with
sin? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again. You see, our Lord was buried.
He was buried in a borrowed tomb. And I like this because He said
He shall make His grave, He shall make His death His grave among
the wicked and his death among the rich. Talking about that
tomb that Joseph of Arimathea would give him. See, Joseph of
Arimathea and Nicodemus were wealthy men. They were powerful
men. And when they came and begged
the body of Christ, they took that body and wrapped it up in
the sweet-smelling perfumes and performed the ceremony of burial
and they put him inside of this beautiful You see, He had spent
all His life in poverty. He had spent all of His life.
He said, The Son of Man hath not wear to lay His head. But
now the Son of Man hath wear to lay His head. Why? Sin is
gone. He is a successful Savior. God said, No more will My Son
be punished. No more will My Son be trampled
under the foot of men. My Son is rich and He will be
glorified among men. See, he was rich in his death. Rich. Because sin was no more,
he buried it in that borrowed tomb. What a wonderful thing. I was reading a message by Spurgeon
concerning looking inside the tomb. Just, he said, come and
see where he lay. See where he lay. Look, there's
nothing in there. He's gone. It's a borrowed tomb. He had no sin left. And death
could hold him no longer. What a great high priest. What
a great high priest. And friends, our high priest
is so great that when he rose from the dead, he was the first
fruits of the resurrection wherein we have hope. that we too will
be raised from the dead. You see, death won't hold you.
The grave won't hold you. Scripture says, it is appointed
unto men once to die and after that to judgment. Immediately,
we are either in the presence of God or if you're lost, you'll
be cast into eternal torment. It's immediate. So, death doesn't
hold our spirit, but friends, death doesn't hold this body
either. The grave can't hold us because when he comes again,
our great high priest will raise us from the dead just like he
was raised from the dead. Jesus Christ is our great high
priest. Have you any troubles? Have you
any difficulties? Have you any trials? And look
back at your text and see this. Our great high priest is touched with your troubles. God give me the grace to truly
believe that. That He actually understands
more about suffering than we do. We assume we understand more
than He does. We say, Lord, don't you understand
what I'm going through? Isn't that silly? My son comes in with his homework
and he's stressed. He says, Dad, you just don't
understand. Yeah, I've been I've been there, I understand that.
How much more does our great high priest understand our sufferings? And not only does he understand,
he cares. That's what's so amazing. That
he cares. False religion puts up a gods
that either are cold or powerless. They're either monsters or they
have no No way to help. That's a false God. You see,
our God's not either not cold and indifferent, nor is he without
power. He understands. Matter of fact,
he puts you where you are. And he puts you there because
he loves you. And it's the best thing for you
right now. The best thing for you. Do you
have need of help? You bet. I have need of help
every single day. I am a needy man. And I'll tell you the truth, I don't
know half. I don't know half of what I actually need. But I know this. Let us approach
the throne of grace and we shall obtain mercy from our high priest. You shall. That's not a question. It's a statement. You will. You
will. You that hold fast and believe
in Christ, you will obtain mercy. I pray that God would bless this
and honor our great high priest. We're dismissed.