I will find you, Savior. Yea, living, dying, let me drink
my spring. My soul is from the spring that
He who lives to be my King once tried to be my Savior. Thank you, John, and thank you,
Sherry. Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4. Look at verses 14 and 15 with
me. Hebrews 4, verses 14 and 15. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest. that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast or lay hold of our
profession, Him. 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. Read the next verse. Let us,
therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Any time of need. Any time you need. Now, some
people are going to hear about the message going to be on the
high priest reading the title. Maybe on sermon audio, you know,
they're going to see the title. We'll pass over. Not interested. This whole book is about that.
The whole book of Hebrews. The whole Bible. And someone who thinks that reveals
their ignorance of God Ignorance of sin, ignorance of the Bible,
ignorance of Christ. This is why Christ came. Came
to be the great high priest. Priest. The word priest is mentioned
over 900 times in the scriptures. The first time, you want to know
when the first time was? Melchizedek. If you're listening, that's significant. The very first mention. of the
very first preach was Genesis 14, Melchizedek. And here he
says, that's Jesus Christ. From beginning to end. The word
sin is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible. The word righteousness
over 500 times. It's significant that the world,
that religion, you don't hear those words here. You don't hear
them. I hear them talk about sin. It's
very damning that you don't hear that. Righteousness, you don't hear
that word. Priest. About the only concept that modern religion
or man, society has of a priest is all wrong. Listen carefully
now. This is the only concept, I need
to say this because, well, because I need to say it,
because this is what this is all about. The only concept most
people have is of Catholicism and their so-called priests.
The Pope, which appears to be some kind of high priest. And
all of that, people, is the seat of Antichrist. It's the very
seat of Antichrist. Men pretending to be and do what
only Christ does and is. This is vital. It's vital that
you understand this. It's vital. I hope someone will
hear this on Sermon Audio, perhaps. Well, whoever. Catholic or non-Catholic. 1 John 2, he said, now there
are many antichrists. John said that. Now there are
many antichrists. And that was then, and there
are more now. The many false prophets and preachers
and priests who pretend to be of God, sent from God, in the
name of God and go to God with their prayers or whatever these
little things that they're doing and so forth. It's the very seat
of antichrist. Even now, there are many from
Catholic priests who take people's confession, who sit in these
little booths and allow people to come confess their sin to
sinners. We confess our sins to one. One, there's one high priest. One thing is certain, you know,
men and women by nature think they need a priest. Well, we
do. We do. And this is what so many millions
of people the world overfeel, some manner of relief or freedom
from their guilt, and if they confess their sins, To this priest,
they feel like, well, they feel a little bit better. But one
thing is certain, we do need to confess our sins. But not
to man, not to men. The ones they're confessing to
are worse than the confessors. But we do have a high priest.
I'm getting way ahead of myself here. But, you know, something
might happen here. I've got to say this. If you
confess your sins to Jesus Christ, He can cut them away. Not just
feel sorry for you. Blot them out. Erase them. Boy, I couldn't wait to get to
that. That's about three pages later.
We do need a priest. But you know, this is just Antichrist
is no different than the in Catholicism and in a free will Baptist to
allow people come down front to this altar. Now, this fellow
stands there like a Protestant Pope. So now repeat after me. Take confession, repeat after
me, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner. Christ, I believe in Jesus, I
believe in Jesus. Now you're saved. That's what he says. Now you're saved. Now send me
your money. It's Antichrist. Taking the glory. It's letting people come to them. They don't come to men. They don't come to an altar. We have
an altar. And it's not a thing. It's a
person. It's all Antichrist claiming
to do what only Christ can and must do. But all of God's children,
listen to this, All of God's children shall be taught of God,
of the Lord. And our Lord said, every single
one of them that has heard and learned of the Father, where
do they come? Who do they come to? Who does God teach them about? You have a high priest. Go to
him. Christ said, they come to me.
This is how you know that you're one of God's elect. This is how
you know that God has called you. This is how you know God
loves you. This is how you know a child of God. You have a high
priest, God tells you, there's one you need to go to. It really is that simple. We
confess our sins to him. We go to him. We go to Christ. He's the only one that can go
to. He's the only one that really came from God. He's the only
one that can go to God. Only one that can go to God.
People think that Pope has some favor with God. People, I'm here
to tell you that man's under the wrath of God, under the judgment
of God. He's a beast. He's under the
control of Satan. Is that too hard? It's just so. We do need a high priest. We
do need a priest to confess to. We do need someone with favor
with God. One time I went into a, and I'm
going to get off this in a minute. I went into a young lady's home
who was Catholic, and I saw this picture on her wall, whatever,
and I couldn't help but notice it. And it said this was Pope,
whichever one it was, one of these guys. Pope so-and-so said
conferred heavenly favors. This is to confer heavenly favors
upon and has her name under it for whatever. He says he can
confer heavenly favors on that person. It was a crucifix said. I remember telling that, you
know, start talking to her about it. And I said, that's an idol
and so on and so forth. Finally, I told her, I said,
You say, oh, I don't worship that. Then we're going to throw
it in the trash can. I can't do that. And he worshiped it. Well, anyway, go on. Billions
of people fall for that. We do need someone to confer
heaven and heaven upon us. We do need someone to go to God
for us. Now, people, I'm here to tell
you. That's why I'm here. This is my job every time I stand
up. I'm here to tell you that there
is one, and there's only one. But I'm here to tell you that
God has said every single one that comes unto God by Him, excepted,
blotted out, that could move, or what? Isabella looked up at me one
time, I fixed her a little smoothie, and she looked up at me, she's
about three years old, and she said, is that good or what? I
said, or what? That's what we ought to name
this, or what? Is this good or what? We have
a great high priest, and the only one, and that's Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God. Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under
heaven, whereby we must be saved, given among men, whereby we must
be saved. He must save us. The one mediated
between God and men, the man, not a woman, but the man, the
only man, Christ Jesus, who hath appeared once in the end of the
world to do what? To put away sin. by the sacrifice of himself,
who by his own blood entered what? Into the holy place, not
made with hands, having obtained eternal redemption for his people. It's time to end. It's time to
end. Man, oh man. I could quit right now. But I want
to give you two points, OK? That was the introduction. We have two points here. Very
easy. It's found in the text. We have
a high priest. And secondly, he's touched. He's
touched. We have a high priest. Who's
the we? Well, all through Hebrews, I was going to have you turn
back there. It talks about the brethren, the holy brethren,
the protectors of the heavenly calling, the elect of God. who God is their Father, called
brethren. We read it in chapter 2. Brethren. It's not a shame to
call them brethren. They're born of God. They must
be born of God. Not your free will, not the will
of man, the will of flesh, not of blood, but of God, the Father,
His birth through Christ, the seed, the gospel. Brethren, born
of God, called by the gospel. Children of God, He said in Galatians,
by faith. adoption. I hope you're asking, am I a
child of God? Am I one of the elect? Can I
know that? How can I know that I'm a child
of God, that I'm one of the elect? Let me ask you this. Are you a sinner? I mean, do you feel like if God gave you
exactly what you deserve, Do you feel completely hopeless
in yourself to do anything to save yourself? To do anything whereby God can
look on you with favor and say, you've done well and I'll let
you in to anything. How much faith do you have? Do
you see your need? Here it is. Do you see your need
of Jesus Christ? Smile. I believe you're one of the elect.
If you have no need of Christ, if it just doesn't interest you,
you're not a sinner, don't need mercy and all that, then, oh
my, you're not one of the elect. But here it says we. We, I'm
talking to you, if you're one of these we, we have a high priest
right now, right now. Chapter five, verse one says,
every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men
and things pertaining to God to offer gifts and sacrifice
for sin. Now, let me just tell a little
bit about the high priest in the Old Testament. OK, just very
briefly. And this is where the priesthood
came from, the Old Testament, not men, not pagan religion.
It came from the Lord in Leviticus and Exodus. Men were raised up by God. The first one was Melchizedek,
of which there's not enough times done yet, Paul said. Long came Levi, the son of Jacob,
you know. And through his line, Aaron and
his son Levi were made free. God chose that tribe. And that's
what this chapter goes on to say. Men didn't, weren't voted
in for. Kind of like this pope, you know,
thing. How ridiculous is it that a man
can be just any ordinary senator like the rest of the cardinals
and the bishops, and yet they all decide one day they're going
to get together and take a vote who's going to be holy. They all take a vote, Stephen,
don't they, get together in this little room, and they all decide
we're going to make one of them whoever, I guess, paid the most
money. And they all get together and they decide, well, We vote
on him, and from here on, he's going to be infallible and holy.
He's going to be our father. And smoke rises from this little
building, probably marijuana smoke. Honestly, people, you don't know
how corrupt it is. And this fellow walks out, now
he's the Pope. This high priest, God made it,
I pray you. God made it, I pray you. And God said, this is the only
one ever. Those other fellows, even in
the Old Testament, were just types and pictures. They were
infallible. In fact, it goes on to say they had to offer sin
for themselves. They had sinned, but not this
one. Not Christ. But here it is. They were sent
by God, ordained by God, to offer gifts and sacrifices. Sacrifices of blood and bullets
and turtle doves and so on and so forth. People would come to
this place, this temple or tabernacle, and whatever their sins were,
they'd come and they'd confess to God, not this man, not the
man. They never confessed to those high prayers. No, no, no,
no, no. Confess to God, but the man would would take their confession
and go in and sometimes he'd lay his head on his hands on
the scapegoat. I love that story. But he'd lay
his hands on the head of a lamb. And that high priest would, and
he confessed those sins, that high priest would kill that lamb
and pour out that blood in a basin and he would take a censer full
of incense, sweet-smelling oil. There's not enough time. Sweet-smelling
incense. And inside the veil, there's
a veil in a holy of holies where there's an ark, a covenant, a
mercy seat, and there's just not enough time. But he would
take that incense and that blood and go under that veil and that
sweet-smelling incense to God, and he would forgive him. And he would take this sacrifice,
this animal, this innocent animal, died for the sins of these guilty
rebels. And he would take that blood
and pour it as an offering. God, be merciful to these sinners. Let the blood be propitiation
on this mercy seat. Let it cover the broken law that
the people have broken. Lord, accept this sacrifice as
faith in the one who's coming to do this. And one man would do that, the
high priest. The high priest. God ordained him. He would go
in. And oh, there's not enough time.
And there's veils and pomegranates. Anyway, he'd come out. If he
came out, if he came out of that veil, the people are waiting,
the sinners are waiting. Will God be merciful to them?
And he came out. Well, he was relieved. And they
were relieved. And he said, He's not hungry. He accepted the blood. Now, it's
not possible for blood of bulls and goats and animals to put
away sin. It's not possible. That's all
typical. That's all a picture. That's
all a shadow of good things to come, of Christ. That man has
no special favors with God, but now, once in the end of the world,
lo, I come, a body, a man, a great high priest, to offer gifts. What? holiness under the Lord. The high priest of old had that
holiness under the Lord. Christ didn't wear it on his
garment. It wasn't him. Holiness under the Lord. And
he went before God to offer gifts like I was talking about righteousness.
For his people. God accepted my righteousness
on their behalf. And he did. God did. But he had
to offer a sacrifice. Blood. Without the shedding of
blood. No remission of sin. The high priest, our Lord Jesus
Christ, had to lay down his life as a sinless substance, as the
Lamb looked unto the Lamb of God. This is it. He is it. Christ is the Lamb. Christ is
the high priest. The incense is his prayers. The mercy feet is Christ. Christ
is all and in all. And in the Hebrews, it talks
about when Christ did this work, went into the very, not the holy
flesh made with hands, but in the heaven itself to offer this
blood, his own precious blood. Father, forgive them. These people,
these sinners, these rebels, forgive them. And God said, I
will. And to show it, he took that
veil, ripped it from the top to bottom, said, now, let them
all just come on in. And all these sinners just come
right on in. Why? They have a great high priest. We have a great high priest. I had written down how to talk
about his greatness. Well, I guess I just did. A great
work, only he could do it. A great man. Great in his person. Great in his character. Great
in his love. Great in his mercy. Great in
his grace. Great in his character. Oh, that God statistic, my beloved. God is well pleased, highly pleased. Did this so great work of salvation. We have a great high priest. High priest. People think if they can just
get to the, and this is the last time I'm going to mention the
Pope, I promise. But people think, but just go over there to St.
Peter's and just see him or maybe touch the hem of his garment. You see why that's so anti-Christ? Because that's what, that's who Christ is. They think if they just see him,
their life is complete. No, you're not complete in him.
But I'm here to tell you, if you see Christ, if you touch
the hem of His garment, you're complete. Your life is complete. Accept it. Christ is higher than Rome. He fired and rolled. Scripture
says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he went back. Where'd he go? Not to St. Peter's
Basilica, but in heaven itself and sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high, right beside God. Now, you can't get
any higher than that. How great are your sins? You
know, if you create, you know, the worst crimes you can commit
are felonies. They're misdemeanors, which most
senators think that's all they're guilty of. When a felony is against the
government, high crime, worst punishment is reserved for felons. Hard time spent by felons. You know, if you commit a felony,
there's only one person that can pardon you of that. It's
only one person, the President of the United States. He has
that ability. He's allowed, it's a good illustration,
he's allowed to pardon, how many is it? Not many. This is a good illustration.
He's allowed to pardon, he's the only one that can, but he's
allowed to pardon only like five or six people in his administration,
in his term. Because his term ends. This is
a good illustration. His term ends, and he's going
to pardon five people. He's on what he can. But man, he can't erase the crime. He cannot blot it out of the
books. You're still a felon from then
on. He just lets you go. I'm here to say about one higher
than that. The highest court, supreme, who
not only pardons where it's never on your record
again, ever. And not only five, five trillion, every single person,
every single person that comes to him. Every single person, no matter
how bad the crime, forgive me, done. blotted out, wiped out. If you don't need this now, you
will. But remember this message, okay? Because if you can get
in real deep trouble, and the Lord reminds you to come to Christ,
you'll be thankful you tried. You'll be thankful for that blood.
A good Calvinist believes in the blood. Boy, an old low center. And it says here in verse, we have
a great high priest and verse 15 says, we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feet of our infirmities.
We have a high priest that is touched. Touched in verse 16
says we can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy.
find grace to help in time of need. Come boldly, come freely,
always, anytime, in prayer, in confession, in need, asking,
pleading, anytime, we can come to Him boldly. That
means as a sinner, but believing, fully believing, with the assurance
that no matter who you are or what you've done, That you can come and He'll forgive you. My daughter, Hannah, used
to... I'd let it pretty much be known
if the door to my study was closed that no one was to disturb me.
But you know, she never paid one bit of attention to that
door. Ever. I mean, she just came right on
in. It just came right on in. What did I do? Nothing. I let her come on in. She can
come forward freely. Her daughter, my other daughter,
and one of my other daughters, Sophia, still nothing. But I have a study at home up
in the attic now, and she came in one Sunday morning. They were
with us, and she came in, she opened the door, and she came
in, she said, Papa, she said, I'm here to tell you that Meemaw
said I'm not supposed to come up here and bother you. Meemaw said I'm not supposed
to come in here. I'm here to tell you that I can't come in
here. What do you think I did? What do you think I did? I said, come here, honey. Sit on my lap. You've come any
old time. But I'm such a sinner. Come here, honey. Come unto me. That's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ said. Come up here. and sit with thee
in the heavenly. See, it's the greatness of a
man to pardon great sins. And we
just don't understand this because we're not like him. I'm here
to tell you this is the greatest glory of our God, Moses asked Him, Lord, show me
your glory. He said, I will. I'm going to
make my goodness known. I'm going to be merciful. To who? You just won't believe
it, though I tell you. You just won't believe how bad
the fellows are that I'm going to show mercy to. You wouldn't
do it. Because you're not me. Because
my mercy, he said, is I'm not like you. I'm higher than I am. And you watch as I'm hanging
on the cross one day that the most vile and despicable fellow
to ever walk this planet is going into heaven in my arm. He can't get there otherwise. Touch. with the feeling of our
infirmities. Listen just a few more minutes,
would you? This is glorious. This is glorious. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. This is his glory. It means he's moved. Anything ever touched you before? It means you were greatly affected
by it. Touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. Deep feeling. I love that story
of Joseph when his sinful brethren came to him. Oh, don't you love
that? His bowels yearned. His bowels yearned. His innermost
being yearned for them. Touched with a feeling, deep,
inward love and pity and compassion for our infirmities, our weaknesses. Infirmities. This is what Paul
meant. when he said, I have glory in my affirmative. God is so
merciful to our affirmative feelings. He knows our frame. The reason
the Lord knows our frame is because He took our frame. He experienced
flesh. He felt every single thing we
have ever or will ever feel. Without sin, in all points, listen
to me, he felt need that he who is the eternal God who needs
nothing became bound by flesh. Why? Because we are. He needs
to feel this. Bound by need, dependent as a
child. Needed as parents. Why didn't Christ come as a full
grown adult and just do this work? He couldn't enter in. And we would think he doesn't understand
where I'm going. Oh, yes he does. As a little
boy, you know, small boy, there's nobody that has more independence
than me, I think. Nobody, you know, I just don't
ask anybody to do anything for me if I do it myself. The Lord made the heavens and
the earth. And he needed his parents to
do something for him. Why? Because we're so poor and
needy. He became poor. Wanting, needing,
poor in poverty. None more poorer than he. None
poorer than him. No one. Weariness. None more weary than
our Lord. None became more weary. He walked
everywhere. He worked. He worked every day
of His life. From sunrise to sundown. Do you
hear me? Hard. He wearied himself, Scripture
says, with the journey. He walked a long way to sit on
a well to meet one woman, a forlorn woman. He went a long ways, and
Scripture says he wearied with the journey. Oh, Lord, she's
not worth walking that far. Hold on now. She may not be worth
it, but guess how great I am! You see, that's how great he
is. No, she's not worth it. But this is his glory. He'll not lose one sheep. He
became weary with his journey. He knew hunger and thirst like
no one else, people like no one else. When our Lord hung on that
cross bearing the fires of God's wrath and justice, he said, I
thirst. Oh, there's a two-hour message
right there. The fires of hell. You
know, when you're guilty and you're thirsty, fearful, you're
thirsty, and the moisture all dries up. Our Lord said, I thirst. He knows. Pain. Body and soul. With no medicinal
release. He hung on that cross. Physical
pain was great. Spiritual, greater. They offered
him some vinegar with gall, which was kind of a numbing thing.
Why? To know the deepest pain anybody
could possibly have. Deeper than that. He knows. Loneliness? To be forsaken? We don't know
what it's like to be completely forsaken. But he knows. The loneliness
we feel. Hate? Oh, it hurts to know. Rejection. To be rejected and
hated without a cause. Betrayal by a friend. That's
the hardest thing there is. One of the hardest things to
do. For a friend to betray. They all did. Burdens. You bear any heavy weight, any
burdens, people, responsibilities. on your shoulders, anybody you
care deeply about that you feel responsible for. Anybody? Do
you know how many people our Lord is responsible for? Ever felt pressure because of
those responsibilities? Ever felt all these responsibilities
weighing down on you heavily and you think, I'm overwhelmed
by this, I can't take it anymore? Do you know how many people were
pulling at sleeping with, demanding his time, his help. You know
how many people, all the time, every day, day in, day out, every
hour, people pulling at him, Lord, Lord this, Lord this, Lord
this. He never, never was... Do you know anything about pressure?
Do you know anything about responsibility? Huh? Oh, that's just why I say
His greatness was never irritated, never bothered, never imposed
upon, ever! This is a great man and a great
high priest. Touch, pressure, temptation. He knows, he feels. Forty days
he went through it in a row. Forty days. In the weakest state,
with no food, water. And ultimately, and I say this
with great care, reverence on the cross as he was made sin,
he felt guilt and shame and sin. He felt it. His whole being was
filled with it. And he thinks, Lord knows. So he can have compassion. You understand? He touched. And you come to Him. And I close with this. You see,
our Lord knows from experience on earth how ignorant we are,
how poor we are, how weak we are, how sinful, how corrupt
we are. And He loves us and watches over
us with unwearied patience. He knows perfectly better than
we know. He remembers when he was flesh. Never forgets that. He knows,
listen to this, listen, listen. He knows what it is to overcome
Satan. He knows that it takes constant
thought, meditation, and prayer to overcome Satan. And he knows
you and I are not capable. He knows that. He was tempted
by it. He knows how powerful he is.
He knows how weak we are. Isn't that good? And he's ever
ready to strengthen and comfort. He's able to succor, the scripture
said, aid. And this is why the Lord knows,
and this is why it's even greater for us. Listen to it. The reason
we can't have compassion more compassion on one another is
because of our sin. See, our pride prevents us from forgiving the pride of others. Our pride prevents us from forgiving
the pride of others. We're so full of pride, we think
their pride is worse than ours. Our very sins keep us from pardoning
the sins of others. We're so sinful that we're so
ignorant and so blind to ourselves and so sinful and so proud and
all of this that we think other people, that's got to be worse
than that. But our Lord knows. Only a perfect
man can show perfect forgiveness. That makes sense. Only a perfect
man, perfect in love and mercy and grace, can have perfect love
and perfect mercy and perfect grace upon an imperfect person. Are you with me? He's the only
one who really knows. People, you think, oh, the Lord's
going to catch me up because of my sin, because I'm so sinful. You don't know how sinful you
are. But he does. You see, this is wonderful. This is a wonderful thought.
And it ought to make us more hopeful, more lenient toward
others, you know, and the more we see of Christ being this way,
the more it will make us so. But he's not only touched with
the theme of our firmness, but he knows us perfectly better
than we know ourselves. He knows what we're going to
do. And we haven't done yet. seen, then, that we have such
a great high priest who is passing by. Come boldly. You better come. You need to
come to the Lord Jesus Christ to find grace to help in time
of need. Mercy. Find mercy and grace to
help in time of need. He's the life of a show mercenary.
Oh, boy. Well, the half sure wasn't told
for them. All right, Doug John, you come,
please.