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. I 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 preach this? These offices
of Christ, why preach this? What's the purpose here and I?
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 the 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, to 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. But how much
better Paul is he than these other fellows? We sang His oath
and his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood, the
overwhelming flood of sorrows and troubles and trials. And
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
rights. You know, those were made two
thousand years ago. On Calvary's trip. 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 heaven. Not just
practically preach this whole message, just that. That's the
son. That's the son. Prophet, priest,
and king. God, 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
proper he he came with the word of God. I meant to say Wednesday
night. Christ just didn't bring the
word of God. He is. 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's going to be him.
Tribe of Levi, Abraham long before Moses, and then he was 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. has to leave a chosen part. He
was this priest would perform duties that only he could do
one night. Go into the tabernacle, the tent
later on the temple into the presence of God and offer up
blood sacrifices for these simple people. And himself. Then there was King. That priest,
you see, everybody came to the prophet. Everybody came to the
and a king. It wasn't a king until, a real
king until David. That is an officially crowned
king, a sovereign, a monarch, one having all authority to do
with as he please, with whom he please, what he please, because
he please. I can't wait to get to that.
That's next Sunday, Lord 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 Says he prophesied
one time he was a king and in one time he offered up sacrifice. He didn't wait on Samuel the
priest and he offered and God said, you're gone. Uzziah, remember
Isaiah 6? Isaiah 6, when I, 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 king. Remember? And since then, men have tried
to do that and. I 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 they are
the priest, the high priest, 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 name Melchizedek called King of Peace. It says he was the high priest
and he blessed Abraham prophesied of the blessings of Abraham.
He had a mysterious fellow. Nobody knows where it came from
or where he went. Doesn't know who his father,
his mother was. Don't know when he was born and nobody saw him
die. Just came and left. Who was that? And he blessed
Abraham, the first, the faithful, the father. Who's that? We will
touch on that. 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. All right. 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 eight says now, verse one of the things which
we have spoken. This is the son. We have such
an high. Such a great subject. It's 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 and high
praise, he said, the things which we have spoken. We read several
verses, didn't. We didn't read half of. It began
in chapter one, and you don't know how bad I wanted to start
there. About the express image of God's
birth, the brightness of his glory, much better than the angels
and on and on. The son, yet God said to him,
your 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. All right, 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 these the high priest.
Verse two is a minister of the sanctuary. The true tabernacle,
which the Lord. And not. Here it is. He mentions three
things. 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. This,
God said, this is how you're going to work forever, forever.
This is an ordinance for ever. 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 have a man, you're going to have a place, you're
going to have a thing, you're going to have an animal, the
blood, a sacrifice of man, these three. got to have. People, these three, are one. One person. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is all these things. He does
all these things. All things. Christ is all. And
in all things. All right? God ordained priests. God's 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 miter,
that's a crown. Holiness to the Lord. Put on
special garments on him. They just had linen epaulets
and robes. On 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 only he can do.
He's going to go and he's going to take lamb's blood. Into the
very presence of God himself, God said, now it will be a tabernacle.
A tent at first, badger skin, goat skin, dead rat. Don't you
wish we had time for all that? Go into this brown skin place. Go into the inner and into the
holy of 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 he said, that's
where I dwell. Between the cherubs over the mercy seat. That's where
I'll meet with, that's where this holy God meets with sinful
man on the mercy seat. And he would go in there not
without. High priest one man. A tabernacle
one place. And a sacrifice one thing. And
going. Crisis. Tabernacle place of worship to
the sacrifice of lamb blood. Animal blood. Why did God say
bring blood? You know, God never told them
to offer human sacrifice 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 it,
ate the meat. It didn't go to waste. None of
it stands. The blood, what, 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
must surely die. The wages of sin, God has sold
it. by no means clear the guilt must
punish things as though the wages of sin is what death. Eternal
separation. So this was all a symbol of a
picture on a type only of someone coming to share 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, you said when they came with
these sacrifices, it was just symbolic. They couldn't put away
sin, not once an animal blood. How can an animal forgive? You
can't. These were just symbolic. The
people were to come saying, I know the 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, let's 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. All right, this high priest,
this is our subject, this high priest was one. 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.
Never. God said in Exodus five, I believe
it didn't write it down, he said, tell the people to confess their
sins and then come to the priest with that offering and have him
offer up an offering. They confess it to God. It's
repentance toward God. You don't confess our sins to
me because they can't do a thing about it. They have their own
to confess. We don't confess our sins to
me. 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 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, 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 two, they brought to him a man sick
of the palsy. The Lord was preaching in this
house, and there was a man sick with a 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, Lord Jesus Christ is standing
there preaching to the people, a crowd full of people. Here
he lay. And the first thing he said to the man, 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 seven, 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, and 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 her feet, his feet, washed
his feet with the tears of her eyes and wiped them with the
hairs of her head. She was so griefed. stricken and sorrowful over her
life or 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'd gone to the temple. I know she'd 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? And you know what many have said
that down through the years, but it. Not one sin was forgiven. But you know, every one of hers,
he said her sins, which are many are gone. How I said so. We have such a high priest. Who with the word who can they
said it took that time they said who is this that forgiveth sins
also. You don't know this is the great
high. 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 chapter 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. Remember, he kept he listed all
the sacrifices that those priests made down through the year. He
added it all up for it. I just looked at that again.
He sent me his note. Forty seven pages. I can. Forty seven page. He said I looked
it up and it he sacrifice after sacrifice daily evening sacrifice
every day every year for fourteen hundred and some years until
Christ came and did away with fourteen hundred years and he
added that he was up to a couple of millions of rivers of blood
sacrifice after sacrifice. What's that showing this going
to take Not just a lot of blood, but great blood, a 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, all right, 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 of 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.
Having, what did he do with this one sacrifice he made forever? What did he do? He obtained,
actually, got the job, the eternal redemption, the payment, everything,
everyone 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 ten, 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 job done. Don't need to make one more for
by one offering first fourteen he had perfected for. And then the high priest go back
to chapter five and I will close with the fact. Chapter 5. Then the high priest
would make intercession. That's praying for the people. People would come confessing
to the Lord, 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 is called particular
in particular spices of which I would really love to go into.
But he called it a perpetual incident that instance was supposed
to be burning day and night all the time. Before the law it was. He'd go in and it would be right
in front of the veil, right in front of the veil, and in 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
was going in with that blood, basin of blood, he'd also take
that labor 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, weren't they? When Christ
came, he prayed constantly. They saw him praying all the
time, all the time. He prayed without ceasing. It's
supposed to be. That's what the high priest is
supposed to do. Perpetual incense and God, you know, we need a
mediator. That's what this high priest
was, is 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. I tell you to turn to chapter
five, yeah, chapter five. Now it says here in verse six,
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 hear me. 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 Sam. 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 man. The man,
Christ Jesus. Christopher can't do it. Saint,
whatever he is. Saint Francis, that guy who's
nothing but a sissy. He can't do that. Saint 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 asked 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 up 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, substitute for you, sentence carried out
diagonally. 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, I think it's all judgment
is committed. Come on to me. I'll absolve you
of all your sin. Come on to me. I'm able to say
to the other month. I'm able with a word to forgive
you all your sins forever. 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. 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 him I said that. That
he's seated 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 it?
Who can come? How is it? 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 infirmity. 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. Oh, 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 to the feeling of your
heart. He said, Come! Boldly! Doors open! Come on! Come one! Come all! Whosoever! Come! Oh, they're
not the... No! Come! How can you say that? I said, Come. open. That's how he is. How long is
he going to be there? On this throne? Ever. He has an unchangeable priesthood.
He's like that Melchizedek. I 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. Nobody, Peter didn't take that
priesthood, nor did a latter 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 priests. But, but, but
preacher, why does it say we're kings and free? 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. Make bread. He is the bread. All right. 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. I love
to tell it is Christ Jesus, the law of the priest. All right, let's sing that to
know what is arise my soul to twenty three to twenty three
hundred twenty three. Stand with me as we try this
again. Two hundred twenty three will
sing the first, second, And last verse, OK? Oh, no, we can't leave
out the fourth. All right, first, second, fourth,
and fifth, 223. Arise, my soul, arise. Take off thy guilty gear, for
we shall not die in thy