As announced, we are preaching. Well, I received a couple of amens and requests to carry on
with the subject of Christ our prophet, priest, and king. Remember Wednesday I said someone
would just request that we go on with this. And several did. Prophet, priest, and king. I
asked myself before preaching a message why I preached this. these offices of Christ. Why
I preach this. What's the purpose here? And
I'm not just trying to show you how much I've studied. I'm not
trying to show you what I know. I'm not just trying to bring
out deep theology. Salvation, our Lord said, is
to know Him. Who He is. And what he did, where he is
now. Salvation, Peter says, is that
we might grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Know Him. And if we can know,
or that is, really enter into Christ being our High Priest,
It will give us such peace and such joy, such hope that we have
a high priest is far better, so much better. How much better,
Paul, is he than these other fellows? We sang his oath and
his covenant, his blood, support me in the overwhelming flood. of sorrows and troubles and trials. When you come to your deathbed,
if the Lord will show you Himself, your Great High Priest, when
you come to your deathbed, you won't call for a priest. You'll know you have one. You'll know you don't need last
rites. You know those were made 2,000
years ago on Calvary's tree. And you will have rest. You'll enter into rest. He giveth his mark, the end of
that man, that righteous man, the end will be peace. Why? Because
he has a high priest, not a man. He's seated in the heavens. I've
just practically preached this whole message just now. That's
the Son. That's the Son. Prophet, priest,
and king. There were three rulers in Israel,
three offices. Prophet, great man, called of
God to bring the Word of God. He ruled. Samuel, remember? Samuel
ruled. Moses was a prophet, remember?
Ruled the people. Great man. People followed that
prophet. He came with the Word of God.
I meant to say Wednesday night. Christ didn't bring the Word
of God. He is the Word of God. Oh, how much better is he? Brother
Charles, he didn't have to bring a copy with him of the Word. He is it. The priests of old. God gave
to Moses this office of the priest. He said, Aaron is going to be
him. The tribe of Levi, Abraham long before Moses, and then he
was a tribe of Levi. So was Moses. Aaron was the first
priest. God said, we're going to have
a priest, a high priest. All his sons are common priests. High priests. House of Levi,
chosen first. He was, this priest would perform
duties that only he could do. One man. Go into the tabernacle,
the tent, later on the temple, into the presence of God and
offer up blood sacrifices for these sinful people. And himself. And then there was King. That priest, you see, everybody
came to the prophet, everybody came to the priest and a king.
There wasn't a king, a real king, until David. That is an officially
crowned king. A sovereign, a monarch, one having
all authority to do as he pleases, with whom he pleases, what he
pleases, because he pleases. I can't wait to get to that.
That's next Sunday, Lord willing. King, reigning, great man. Now,
no one man ever had all three of these offices. No one man
who lived ever was prophet, priest, and king. No one man had that
much power given him. No one man had that much preeminence
in all things that pertain to both God and man. Not one man. Now, some were prophet and priest. Moses was a prophet and a Levitical
priest. Samuel was a prophet and a priest. Some were prophets and kings.
David, Solomon, prophets and kings. Some tried to be all three
and God killed them. King Saul It says he prophesied
one time. He was a king. And then one time
he offered up sacrifice. He didn't wait on Samuel to pray.
And God said, you're gone. Uzziah. Remember Isaiah 6? Isaiah 6. When King Uzziah died,
King Uzziah went into the temple to offer sacrifices. The priest
said, this doesn't pertain to you. He did it anyway. God smote
him a leper. And he died without the camp.
Remember? And since then, men have tried
to do that. And I've got to call it like it is.
These popes down through the years call themselves prophet,
priest, and king. Their word is the word of God. They are the priests, the high
priests they say, and they reign as kings over a kingdom. No one man ever, and God has
dealt with them and shall, but no one man ever, all three, prophet,
priest, and king, until one man walked this planet. There was a mysterious fellow
years before that named Melchizedek, called King of Peace. It says he was the high priest
and he blessed Abraham, prophesied of the blessings of Abraham.
A mysterious fellow. Nobody knows where he came from
or where he went. Doesn't know who his father or
mother was. Don't know when he was born. Nobody saw him die. He just came and left. And who was that? And he blessed
Abraham, the first, the faithful, the father. Who's that? Well,
we're going to touch on that. But one man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
or you could take his name like this, Christ Jesus the Lord,
prophet, Jesus, priest, Lord, King. He's all three. Only one having preeminence.
in all things pertaining both to God and man." The only one
who had absolute authority, reign and rule over church and state. Spiritual kingdom and a heavenly
kingdom. All right. This morning we're
going to look at our great High Priest. Christ, our High Priest. Go to Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8, I
told you if you read chapter 3, verse 1, it says, let's consider
the apostle and high priest. Well, chapter 8 says, now, verse
1, of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have
such a high priest. Such a great subject is greater
than my ability to tell it, greater than your ability to hear it,
Because it is such a great person we're speaking of and so great
a salvation. But this will be a great message
because of the subject. Because we're speaking of such
a high priest. He said, the things which we
have spoken. We read several verses, didn't we? We didn't
read half of it. It began in chapter one. You
don't know how bad I wanted to start there. About the express image of God's
prayer, the brightness of His glory, much better than the angels,
and on and on. The Son, yet God said to Him,
You're God. Such things, of the things which
we have spoken, that is, things concerning God's Son. You see,
that's what this gospel is all about. That's what this book
is all about. This is the Gospel of God, the
Word of God concerning His Son. It says made a little lower than
the angels, prophesied, made a little lower than the angels,
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Who's
that? Well, stay tuned. Now, the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum, this is the substance, this is what
it's all about. We have such a high priest. We have a high priest. And I said, the high priest,
verse 2, is a minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched, Now here it is. He mentions three things. The Lord help us. Three things
that you have to have to worship God. Way back when God gave to
Moses up on the mountain, the pattern of things. God said, this is how you're
going to work forever, forever. This is an ordinance forever.
This is how you're going to worship me. Don't do it in any other
way. You're going to have a high priest. You're going to have a tabernacle
place. You're going to have a man. You're
going to have a place. You're going to have a thing.
You're going to have an animal, a blood, a sacrifice of an animal.
These three got to heaven. And people, these three are one. One person. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is all these things. He does
all these things. Christ is all and in all things. God ordained priests. God is the one that ordained
one high priest and the other fellows were just out cutting
wood and making bread. That's all they did. Cleaning
pots and pans. Taking ashes outside. That's
all they did. They didn't do anything pertaining
to forgiveness of sins. One man did that. He's called
the high priest. These are low fellows. He's the
high priest. He's above the rest of them.
Even he dressed differently. God put on his head a mitre. That's a crown. Holiness to the
Lord. Put on special garments on him. They just had linen ephods and
robes. This fellow though, oh man, he
was decked out, all these gorgeously arrayed high priests. But the rest of these fellows
just cut wood. He's going to do something that only he could
do. He's going to go in, he's going to take lamb's blood into
the very presence of God himself. And God said, now there's going
to be a tabernacle. A tent at first, badger skin and goat skin. Don't you wish we had time for
all that? Go into this brown skin place. Go into the inner
and into the holiest holy. And everything in that tent,
later a temple, a permanent building. Go into that tent. and go into
the very holy of holies where God said, that's where I'm going
to be. Only there. There's an ark. There's a mercy
seat. That's where I dwell. Between
the cherubs over the mercy seat. That's where I'll meet with you.
That's where this holy God meets with sinful man on the mercy
seat. And he would go in there not
without blood. The high priest, one man. A tabernacle,
one place, and a sacrifice, one thing, blood. And he would go
in. Christ is all these times. The
tabernacle, place of worship, the sacrifice of lambs, blood,
animals, blood. Why did God say bring blood? You know, God never told them
to offer human sacrifices. Ever. Never did that. God's not
like that. It wasn't possible for animals'
blood to put away sin, let alone human blood. But animal blood,
you know, those sacrifices They were, everybody ate the meat. It didn't go to waste. None of
it's sand. And the blood didn't go to waste either. But blood
is death. The life of the flesh is in the
blood, isn't it? If you cut yourself deeply enough and bleed long
enough, you'll die. And God said, the soul that sinneth
most surely dies. The wages of sin, God is holy,
by no means clear of the guilty, must punish sin. He says, so
the wages of sin is what? Death. Eternal separation. So this was all a symbol only,
a picture only, a type only of someone coming to shed his blood,
precious blood. holy blood, without spot and
blemish blood, sinless blood, the blood of God. He would come and put away all
the sin, pay for the wages of their sin by this one sacrifice
for everyone. Who is that? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. So he came with
his own precious blood. But God ordered these sacrifices and accepted them only as the
people were thinking of the Christ, he said. When they came with
these sacrifices, it was just symbolic. They couldn't put away
sin. Not once the animal blood. How
can an animal forgive? It can't. These were just symbolic. The people were to come saying,
I know that Christ has come, the Messiah has come, my substitute
is coming to put away sin by himself. I don't fully understand,
but I know this is so. This is what this all represents.
So here, I come by faith in the coming Christ. Here, that scapegoat,
oh boy, I'd like to deal with that a while. Scapegoat. Confess their sins on his head.
That's Christ. It's all Christ. It's all Christ. Alright, this high priest, this
is our subject, this high priest, he did two things. The high priest
did two things, basically. He made an atonement for sin,
and then he prayed for the people, made intercession for them. Two
things, that's what the high priest was to do. Nobody else. The high priest did not. He made
atonement for sin, he'd go into the Holy of Holy, where God is,
and offer up this blood to put away the sins of the people.
And then he would intercede, pray for the people. Back then,
the people, and this is where they got this confession, where
people confessed to a priest. Now, God never told the people
to do that. I looked it up. And it seems
to imply, but no, they never did confess their sins to that
priest. Never. God said in Exodus 5, I believe
it is, didn't write it down, He said, tell the people to confess
their sins and then come to the priest with that offering. Have
him offer up an offering. They confess it to God. It's
repentance toward God. We don't confess our sins to
men because they can't do a thing about it. They have their own
to confess. We don't confess our sins to
men. People are still doing that today, aren't they? They've been
doing it for years. It's not scriptural. However, this one high priest,
we do confess our sins to him. And we're going to see where
he is. He's not in a little booth. We're going to see where he is.
But the people would come to this high priest And to offer
up this atonement. Now, Paul said, we have a high
priest. We don't come to this high priest
to confess, we don't come to men to confess our sin. But we
do come to the Lord Jesus Christ to confess. Let me give an illustration
of that. Over in Mark chapter 2, they
brought to him a man sick of the palsy. The Lord was preaching
in this house, and there was a man sick of the palsy, and
they wanted him healed so badly, and they couldn't get in because
of the crowd, and so they took him up on the roof and uncovered
the tiles or the grass of the roof and let him down, his whole
bed and all, down into the middle right at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
standing there preaching to the people, a crowd full of people.
Here He lay. And the first thing He said,
or to the man anyway, He said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And all those Pharisees, you
know, those so-called priests that were there, they said, Who
can forgive sins but God? No truer words have ever been
spoken. Because this man is God. He's the only high priest that
can actually put away sin with a word. Listen to this. Over
in Luke chapter 7, there was a woman weeping at his feet.
The Lord was in a house with a bunch of Pharisees, a bunch
of these religious Pharisees, They just wanted to hold a discussion
on doctrine. And in came a sinner, and everybody
knew she was a sinner. And she stood at his feet, lay
at his feet, weeping. It says, washed his feet with
the tears of her eyes, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
She was so grief-stricken and sorrowful over her life, her
sinful life, And she came to this one man. She knew this one
man. The only man. This is the only
person. I know she had gone to the temple.
I know she had gone to these other places. And nobody could
give her any help, but somebody told her about this man. Maybe
she heard him preach before that. She came to this one man at his
feet and held him by the feet, weeping. What did he say? Thy sins be forgiven." Amen. And you know what? Many have
said that down through the years, but not one sin was forgiven. But you know, every one of her
sins. He said, her sins, which are many, are gone. How? We have such a high priest, who
with a word, they said it at that time, they said, who is
this that forgiveth sins also? You don't know? This is the great
high priest. God's high priest. I said that
the high priest is not for confession, but ours is. Here's how he's
much better. But he's for atonement. Go to
Hebrews 9 with me. Hebrews 9. John, you were hoping
we were going to read from Hebrews 9 and 10, weren't you? We can't
deal with this without it. Hebrews 9. All those priests
throughout the years offering blood of animals which never
put away one's sin. Do you remember the message preached
by Brother Dan Parks? I'm the only priest who ever
sat down. You remember he listed all the
sacrifices that those priests made down through the years?
He added it all up for you. I just looked at that again.
He sent me his notes. Sacrifice after sacrifice, daily,
evening, sacrifice every day, every year for fourteen hundred
and some years until Christ came and did away with it all. 1,400 years and he added up and
it was up to a couple of million sacrifices, rivers of blood,
sacrifice after sacrifice. What's that showing? That it's
going to take not just a lot of blood, but great blood, great
sacrifice. Put it all together, you have
great sacrifice. Now look at this. Hebrews chapter 9, that's what
they did. They went in, alright, Christ. Chapter 9, verse 11, Christ being
come, and high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, a building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood, entered in one time into the holy place,
that's heaven itself, not a tent, But the Shekinah Glory of God
had been, what did He do with this one sacrifice He made forever? What did He do? He obtained,
actually got the job done. Eternal redemption. The payment
of every sin of every one of God's people from Adam to the
last elect son of Adam on this earth by one sacrifice. Look at chapter 10. Chapter 10. Verse 10, by the witch will,
God's will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. You see, every priest stands
daily ministering, oftentimes the same sacrifice. They can
never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down, where is it? Where
is our high priest? At the right hand of God. Sat
down. The only priest who ever sat
down. Why do you sit down? The job
is done. You don't need to make one more. For by one offering, verse 14,
he hath perfected forever. One offering. Oh, my. My, my, my. And then the high priest, go
back to chapter 5, and I'm going to close with it. Chapter 5. Chapter 5. Then the high priest
would make intercession. That's pray for the people. People would come confessing
to the Lord and repenting, and they would come to the high priest
who would go in and make this. And that's what Christ did on
Calvary's tree. See, when He went to Calvary's
tree, that's where His blood was shed, the Lamb of God, for
the remission of their sin. And then when He was buried,
and rose again, where did he go? He went to the very presence
of God. Whether he actually poured his
blood on, I don't know, but I just know the blood is before the
Lord on the mercy seat. He got the job done. And he sat
down. That's where he is now. And the
high priest in the Old Testament would go into the tabernacle
with blood, not without blood now, but with blood and incense. Incense. And it's called particular
incense, particular spices, of which I would really love to
go into. But he called it a perpetual incense. That incense was supposed
to be burning day and night, all the time. before the Lord. He would go in and it would be
right in front of the veil, right in front of the veil and into
the Holy of Holies would be this altar of incense, burning sweet
incense, God's smell, sweet smelling savor, this incense going up
into the presence of God. And then when the high priest
would go in with that blood, a basin of blood, he would also
take that laver of incense. Go under the veil. Take that
incense in with him. And a little thing of incense
inside. And that smoke of that incense
would fill that holy place. And while he took that blood,
what is this? These are the prayers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, which are called a perpetual incense before
God. Before he went into that holy
place, those prayers were right here. When Christ came, he prayed. They saw him praying all the
time. All the time. He prayed without
ceasing. That's what the high priest is
supposed to do. Perpetual incense. You know, we need a mediator. That's what this high priest
was. He's a mediator. He's an intercessor. He's one
man who went to God for these sinful people and prayed to God. Now, we need somebody that God
will hear. Don't we? Did I tell you to turn
to chapter 5? Yeah. Chapter 5. Now, it says
here in verse 6, he's a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
who in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and
supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that was able
to say, that's God, from death he was heard. God heard him. One time at Lazarus' tomb, he
said, I know that they'll always cheer at faith. And I said this
for their sake. God always heard his prayer.
This is the great high priest. And he said, I said this for
their sake, Brother Kelly, Brother Stan, Brother Stan. God always
hears him. We need a high priest to go to
God for us and pray for us. Mary can't pray for us. You see,
there's one man, one mediator between God and men. The man,
Christ Jesus. Christopher can't do it, Saint
whatever he is. Francis, that guy who's nothing
but a sissy, he can't do that. St. Thomas, these fellas can't
do it. One can. One priest. One priest. One man. God says,
I always hear him. Every time he calls upon me,
I hear every prayer he ever says. Everything he asks of me, I grant
it to him. One high priest. Who is it? Jesus
Christ, the righteous. He's with the Father. Like our
advocate. Picture this. Here's another
text. We have an advocate, like this
high priest who offers a mediator. Here's your advocate. You're
guilty. Everybody knows you're guilty. You're sentenced to die,
and your advocate goes before the judge for you, pleads your case for you, takes
your place for you, substitutes for you. Sentenced, carried out,
dies on it. But then, you see, you need forgiveness
from the judge. So what he does is goes right
up in and sits down on the seat. Now he's the judge. Your advocate is also the judge. Yeah, he can say, all judgment
is committed unto me in heaven and earth. All judgment. Come
unto me. I'll give you rest. I'll absolve
you of all your sins. Come unto me, I'm able to save."
I'm able, with a word, to forgive you of all your sins forever,
with a word. And intercede, he ever lives
to make intercession for his people. The Father always hears
every prayer. John 17, he said, Father, I will. The only man who could say, this
is my will. according to my will be this
done. I will that they whom you have
given me be with me where I am." The Father said, so let it be
written, so let it be done. I will. I will. We have such a high priest. Isn't he better? Why would anybody
want another one? Where is he? He's seated in the heavens on
his throne. The only throne, I've said this
before, that those fellows over in Rome can sit on is made by
American Standard Plumbing. Go tell them I said that. on the throne of grace, the right
hand of the majesty on high. You can't get any higher than
that. Go confess all your sins. That's the supreme court. You don't need one of these little
fellers. That's where He is. How is He?
Who can come? How is He? And this whole book
of Hebrews says He's merciful, He's compassionate, He can succor
those that come to Him. He's touched with a feeling of
our infirmities. Oh, he's too high. I can't approach
him. No, you're not coming to Mount Sinai. You're not coming
to these places. You're not coming to some big
fellow with a fancy hat on like that. You're coming to a man. A God man, a great man, a high
man, but a compassionate man, a merciful man, a loving man,
a kind man, a man who's touched with a feeling of your infirmities.
He says, come boldly. Doors open! Come on! Come one! Come all! Whosoever! Come! No! Come! How can you say that? I
said, come. The veil is open. That's how He is. How long is
He going to be there on this throne? Forever. He has an unchangeable priesthood.
He's like that Melchizedek. I've got a secret for you. That
was him, Melchizedek. That was him. Without father
or mother, without beginning of days or end of days, an unchangeable
priesthood, that was him. And that is Him, whoever lives. His priesthood hadn't changed.
Peter didn't take that priesthood, nor did a line or succession
of men take that. No! We have one high priest since
Jesus Christ came. He'd taken away the first to
establish the second. What's that? Himself. It's established,
John. We have a priest forever, right
now, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. No more
priest. But preacher, why does it say
we're kings and priests? We're just cutting wood. Washing
pots. Nobody puts away one sin, nor
does one person offer up one sacrifice for sin. No sir. We're
just ministering about... I just bake bread. That's all
I do. Bake bread. He is the bread. Alright? How long is he going
to be there? Forever. Who is he? Who is he again? Well, there is one name given
among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. One prophet,
that prophet. One great high priest who is
able to save to the uttermost. One king on the throne. His name?
I love to tell it, is Christ Jesus the Lord. Prophet, priest,
and King.