If you would, open your Bibles
with me back to the book of Zechariah chapter six. Zechariah chapter six. Now tonight, from this portion
of scripture in Zechariah chapter six, I want to talk to you a
little bit about this subject, a priest upon his throne. a priest upon his throne." And
this portion of Scripture is a word from God through the prophet
Zechariah to the people of his day who were in the process of
returning out of a 70-year captivity to Jerusalem and in the process
of rebuilding the temple. They had been working on it for
about two years. The foundation had been laid,
the foundation of the temple. And as you know, the first temple,
the Temple of Solomon, had been totally destroyed. There was
nothing left of it. And so, in rebuilding, they had
to rebuild the foundation and then begin rebuilding the walls.
And it would take them two years more to finish the temple. And
in that process, people back then, same as people today, they
get tired, they get lazy, they lose sight of what they're all
about, and they have to be encouraged. That's why we meet on Sunday
and Wednesday to be encouraged, to feed upon the Word of God,
to get our spiritual food, to be comforted, to be assured,
and to be encouraged so that we faint not. And so, God sent
them prophets. He sent them the prophet Haggai,
sent them the prophet Zechariah, later on Malachi, to bring to
them the Word of God, to call them to repentance, to call them
to wake up, and to teach them as prophets And, of course, the
priests were to teach them, too. In fact, the priests... One thing
about the prophets brought revelation from God. The priests were responsible
to guide the people in the understanding of the law, more so than the
prophets. But through these men, the people
were to be encouraged. And, as you know, God gave Zechariah
the prophet eight visions in one night. And these visions
proclaimed the certainty of God's wrath upon all the enemies of
Israel and also the certainty of the salvation of His people. And He showed in those visions
that that salvation was not to come through any earthly covenant
or any earthly temple or any earthly priesthood or the blood
of animals which were sacrificed in that temple. All of those
things pictured and typified, foreshadowed and prophesied of
someone greater to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout
Israel's history under the Old Covenant, God used men, He used
objects, He used ceremonies to lead sinners to Christ, to lead
sinners to look forward to the future. Christ had not yet come. You see, we look back to the
past, the cross of Christ, as our salvation. But they were
looking forward by promise in prophecy, type, and picture.
And so, at the end of the eight visions, God gave Zechariah this
word. Look at verse 9. Remember, we
read this, and I'm going to pick up where we left off. It says,
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Take of them of the
captivity, even of Haldan, Tobijah, and Jeddah. Now these were three
men who had just recently returned from Babylon. And God is telling Zechariah,
you get these three men, which are come from Babylon, And cometh
thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of
Zephaniah." Take these men and go to this house of Josiah the
son of Zephaniah. And these men apparently were
bringing silver and gold to bring to the temple as an offering. And he says in verse 11, then,
take silver and gold and make crowns. Take that silver and
gold and make crowns. This is something that you're
to do, Zechariah. and set these crowns upon the
head of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest." Now, Joshua
was the high priest of Israel, not Josedek, but Joshua. Remember, we studied a little
about Joshua back in Zechariah 3, in one of the night visions
that he gave Zechariah. Now, that high priesthood, that's
the high priest Joshua, you put these crowns on his head, and
this is what he says in verse twelve and speak unto him and
say this thus speaketh the Lord of hosts now right away we're
confronted with the sovereignty and the awesome power of God
that cannot be defeated this is who's speaking thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts Zechariah is not preaching his own word he's
preaching the Lord he's preaching the word of the Lord God the
awesome indestructible God who cannot be defeated and whose
purpose cannot be defeated. And here's what you say, behold
the man whose name is the branch. Now that's a reference, a direct
reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called a man here whose
name is the branch because in his humanity he was born of the
seed of David. He was the branch of David, the
offshoot of Jesse, David's father. In the Bible, it speaks of him
as the seed of woman. Now, this is speaking of his
humanity. We were talking a couple weeks ago, you know, when the
Bible calls us the branches, plural, when Christ, for example,
in John 15 said, I'm the vine, you're the branches, what that's
saying is we're the offspring of Christ in his death on the
cross. We're the children of God in
Christ. But when the Bible speaks of
Christ himself as the branch, singular, it's speaking of his
humanity which had a beginning. You see, he was conceived in
the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. He is the seed of
woman, not of man. He was not born of Adam. He was
not of Adam's lineage. and therefore he in his, even
in his human, it's really foolish for us to talk about his sinlessness
in his deity, that goes without saying. You can't attribute sin
to deity, not to the true and living God, because God by definition
is holy and pure in everything. that he is and everything that
he does but when you talk about his humanity you must make that
distinction and I'll show you that in just a moment as it is
in connection with his high priesthood he is without sin period and
yet he had a beginning his human body and soul were created for
him in the womb of the Virgin Mary he said in Hebrews chapter
10 when he was praying to the father he said a body hast thou
prepared me So that body was prepared by God the Holy Spirit
in the womb of the Virgin. And so when we speak of His humanity,
we speak of Him as the offspring or the seed or the branch. And
remember we went over some scripture there that where Christ in the
Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah, in the book of Jeremiah,
He's called the branch, the seed. And then it says in verse 12,
it says, He shall grow up out of His place. Well, what is his
place? Well, he's the God-man mediator. He was born in Bethlehem. He
was born. He has a child now. Unto us a
child is born. Unto us a son is given. And he
grew in wisdom and stature. Isaiah 53 says he grew up as
a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. And that's to
be attributed to his humanity. Now, right away you're confronted,
here in this vision of Zechariah, this word of God, that this person,
whoever it is he's talking about, this is someone that is high
above us. This is someone who's glorious. Someone we can't really explain. Think about it. He will grow
up out of his place, and it says, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord. Now, what temple do you suppose
he's talking about? Now, here they are building the temple.
I mean, couldn't they have just as well said, well, what do you
mean? He's going to come and build the temple. That's what
we're doing. Well, he's not talking about that physical temple. He's
not talking about that place in Judea, in Jerusalem. He's
not talking about a building made with stones. He's talking
about Christ building His church, the people of God. He told Peter
and the apostles, the other disciples, he said, upon this rock himself,
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. This is the building of the Lord. And except the Lord
build it, it's not gonna be any good. It's worthless. So he is
going to build his church. How did he build it? He laid
the foundation. What was the foundation? That's
his obedience unto death. Christ died. He said in John
chapter 12, except a seed of wheat, he's using that same analogy
of the branch and farming, except a seed of wheat go into the ground
and die, it won't bring forth any fruit. It must go into the
ground, it must die. Christ must die so that his church
can live. And so he's going to build the
temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord is the
dwelling place of God. We'll see that in just a moment.
And the dwelling place of God for the people of God is Christ.
He told Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. You want to have fellowship with
deity, with the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you must
come through Christ. And then look at verse 13. He
says, even he shall build the temple of the Lord. Now, the
reason he repeats that is, here's what he's saying. Listen to it
this way. In verse 12, he says, he shall build the temple of
the Lord, but only he shall build the temple of the Lord. Only
he. Christ is the builder of this
church. He laid the foundation. He set the cornerstone. He is
the chief cornerstone. He's the heart of the church.
He said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I'll
be in the midst of them. He's the head of the church.
All right. And then he says, even he shall build the temple
of the Lord and he shall bear the glory. I love that. Don't
you? He gets the glory. The power
is all his. The grace is all his. The worthiness
is all His. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
It's not ours. I like in one of the Psalms where
it talks about how we'll testify of Him and we'll tell people
of His doings. The glory is all His. We're not
here to tell you of our doings. I'm not here to tell you of my
accomplishments and I'm not here to brag about your accomplishments.
I'm telling you, I'm here to tell you about Christ. and what
he's accomplished and what he is accomplishing he built, he
laid the foundation, he secured the eternal salvation and final
glory of his church and he's building that church and when
that last top stone is laid that's when he'll come back again to
receive his people unto himself and bring his enemies down to
his feet so he shall bear the glory he bore the shame the scripture
says He bore the guilt. He was made sin. Christ, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. He bore the reproach. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks of
that. He bore the reproach of men. Or Hebrews 13. He bears the glory
too. He gets all the credit. He's
to be worshiped. That's what we're here for. That's
what a worship service is. It's not here to entertain you.
It's not here to have cantatas and plays and make you laugh.
It's, we're here to worship Christ. He bears the glory. And then
it says, and shall sit and rule upon his throne. Now they knew,
now listen, they knew that Messiah, who was promised from all the
way back to Genesis, they knew that Messiah is to be king. They
didn't have any problem with that. Now they didn't understand
what kind of a king he was to be. I believe I mentioned this
last time how the people of Israel during the time of our Lord's
actual coming to earth in his incarnation, in his birth, in
his youth, and then in his public ministry, they saw their great
enemy as Rome. And therefore they expected Messiah
to come as a king and as a conqueror to conquer Rome. They expected
him to come and defeat all their enemies, conquer Rome, and pat
them on the back and say, well done, fellas, you've kept it
together until I got here. It's kind of the way they're
thinking today about the second coming of Christ. I had a Jewish
rabbi in Louisville tell me one time, he said, well, the reason
they don't sacrifice and the reason that all that stuff is
not going on is that the people were in disobedience and the
Lord was just waiting till the people got obedient to send his
Messiah. And I said, well, that'll never
be. I'm gonna show you that in the next message from this same
passage right here. Do you know that if the Lord's
purpose of salvation were conditioned on men and women at any stage,
to any degree, it would be a total, total failure. And the only way
you can think any different than that, I'll just challenge your
thinking right now, I know how most of you all think, because
we think like the scripture. The only way you can think any
different than that is to say, well, I'm just not like those
fellas. I'm a little better, I'm a cut
above. That's right. And I'll show you
that in the next message, but I don't have time to get into
all that tonight. But, but what he's saying here, listen, listen,
he shall, he shall rule upon his throne. There's no contingency
here. There's no, there's no conditions
here upon man. This, this branch who's going
to build his temple is going to rule. Now, as God absolutely
considered, He always has been ruling, but He's going to rule
in a specific way, a special way, and this is so key to understanding
the Bible, to understanding the Old Covenant, to understanding
God's dealings with Israel, to understanding what we are in
the New Covenant. Listen to what He says, verse
13. Listen to it again. Even He shall build the temple
of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon His throne, Now this Messiah's coming, he's going
to conquer sin. That's what he's going to conquer.
That's what he did. He's going to establish righteousness because
his scepter, his ruling scepter is a scepter of righteousness.
But look here, and he shall be a priest upon his throne. Now, put yourself back in their day.
A priest. They knew what a priest was.
They knew Joshua, the high priest. They knew about King David, they
knew about King Solomon. They even probably in this day
and age, at the time President, they knew about Zerubbabel, the
governor. Zerubbabel was of the line of Judah. He did not occupy
a throne in Jerusalem, but he was in essence, you could say,
in that office of king, the type of Christ the king. They knew
about Zerubbabel, they knew about Joshua, they knew about Levi.
They knew that this right here, when Zachariah makes his statement,
he shall be a priest upon his throne, there's something different
there. That speaks of something we've
never heard of before. That speaks of something that's
not in the same order of things as they exist here on earth right
now. Talking about in their minds
now. Here's your priest, here's Joshua, here's the king. Never
the twain shall meet, as far as offices go. Now, of course,
the king and the priest were to be supportive of each other,
and they were both to be leaders of the people in the things of
God. But in interchanging or uniting of these offices, that
was totally unheard of in the Old Covenant. It wasn't totally
unheard of, but it was totally unheard of in the Old Covenant.
You know there was a fellow who was a priest and a king before
the Old Covenant? Anybody know his name? Somebody
whispered. Melchizedek. He was a king and
a priest. But that was before the Old Covenant.
That was before Israel was established as a nation. But never under
this Old Covenant since Sinai, since Moses, was there a king
who was a priest or a priest who was a king. This is a new
order. So you mean to tell me this branch
This one who's going to rule, who's going to build his temple
now. You mean to tell me he's going
to be both? That's exactly what Zechariah
is saying. He's telling them that Christ, the Messiah, when
he comes, he's going to do what Daniel said. He's going to seal
up the vision and the prophecy. Now that means this. That means
more than just saying that when Christ came, all visions and
all prophecies stopped. It didn't stop. Because there
were visions and prophecies to come. What about the book of
Revelation? It doesn't mean He sealed up the vision and the
prophecy. That's Daniel 9, 24. It means He fulfilled it. That
means He was it. That prophecy was about Him.
He's that prophet that Moses spoke of back in Deuteronomy. He's the king of kings. He's
the one who would rule. The scepter would not depart
from Judah until Shiloh come. That's him. And he's the great high priest
of his people who represents us before God, who takes our
place as the sacrifice, shedding his own precious blood as the
complete and full and final and eternal and unchangeable payment
of all our sins. He's prophet, he's priest, he's
king. He's the one mediator between
God and men. The man Christ Jesus, God and
man in one person. He's man, but he's more than
man. And he shall be a priest upon
his throne. And look at verse 13, he says,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them. In other words,
these two offices, which never ran together under the old covenant,
which never united, these two offices would be united in Christ. That's what that means, peace
between them. There'd be a reconciliation of
these offices in one person. Wouldn't be a human being, just
a mere man. It'd be the man Christ Jesus.
That's a new order. And then look at verse 14, he
says, and the crowns shall be to Helam. Now, Helam is another
name for the man Heldi, who's mentioned back up here in verse
10. Remember, Heldi means moved or led through the world. You
know, in Heldi and Tobijah and Judiah, led through the world
by the grace of God for those whom God knows. Nevertheless,
the foundation of the Lord stands assured, the Lord knoweth them
that are his." Well, Helam here is another name for Haldai, and
Helam means strength, strength. And what I think he's saying
here, you know, and these people were just like us, you know,
there might be several of you who have different names. known
to in your families you know that's the way it is but the
Lord's making a point he's sending a message here and he's saying
that as we're led through this world it's not by our own strength
it's by the strength of God we stand in the power and might
of the Lord that's his message there Christ leads us we don't
stand by our own goodness our own power our own righteousness
our own might it's by Christ And then he mentions another
one here in verse 14. He says, Helam and then to Tobijah,
he has the same name because that's talking about grace, and
to Judiah, and to Hen, H-E-N, the son of Zephaniah. Hen means
grace. That's probably another name
for Josiah. Remember, Josiah means whom the
Lord finds and heals. And it's all of grace. And so
what he's showing here is that God's people under this branch,
under this king-priest, this priest who is crowned and occupies
the throne. God's people are identified by
many names. We are, aren't we? Sometimes
we're called the sheep. Sometimes we're called the church.
Sometimes we're called the saints. Sometimes we're called the justified. You could go on and on, couldn't
you? But it's all, all to the praise of the glory of His grace. All under the headship. of Christ,
our king, our prophet, our priest, and our king. Now let me read
verse 15. He says, And they that are far
off shall come to build in the temple of the Lord. Now, he's
talking about the Gentiles there. Under this branch, under this
new order, it's not just going to be for Jews. It's for God's
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, even those
who... Where it mentions those who are far off, it's talking
about Gentiles. Let me prove that to you. Turn to Ephesians
chapter 2. Give you a New Testament commentary on that one. In Ephesians chapter 2, this
is when the Apostle Paul, speaking of our salvation as being brought
from the dead, and you, Hathe Quicken, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, and he talks about how we were raised up together
with Christ. You see, our salvation, our eternal
life, our resurrected life is because Christ lived, died, was
buried, and rose again the third day. Righteousness established,
the blood shed, righteousness established. And so he says,
for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
you notice there in verse 10, he says, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. So he says, look at
verse 11, he says, now part of this new creation, he says, wherefore
remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who
are called uncircumcision. That's uncircumcision is just
another way of referring to Gentiles. By that which is called the circumcision,
circumcision is just another way of referring to the Jews
in the flesh made by hands. In other words, there was that
fleshly distinction, that physical distinction. And he says in verse
12, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But
now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ. That's what we were. We were
far off, but we were brought near. Because we made a decision? Because we walked an eye or got
baptized or joined the church? No sir, we were brought nigh
by the blood of the Lamb of God. That's near to God. Nothing comes
near to God except that which is honoring to God. Nothing comes
near to God except that which is sinless. How can I claim any
sinlessness one way by the blood and righteousness of Christ.
And that's it. That's it. And you know something? Now you see how this applies
in this new order now. We call it a new order, but I'm
gonna tell you something, it's really eternal. And that's hard
to explain, but it's, well, it's really not. The covenant of grace
is eternal. It's everlasting. But the actual
accomplishment in time of that covenant by the coming of Christ
and His obedience unto death. That's the new order. That's
the new covenant. But you see, that's the whole thing. We're
brought nigh unto God by His blood and righteousness. So go
back to Zechariah 6, now verse 50. And they that are far off
shall come and build in the temple of the Lord. And what he's talking
about is they'll occupy their place in the temple of the Lord.
We'll take our place in the temple of the Lord. What is our place?
Sinners saved by the grace of God. Sinners washed in the blood
of Christ. Sinners made righteous in him.
Sinners made alive by the Holy Spirit and called into the family
of God. That's another name for the people
of God. And he says, and you shall know
that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. You're gonna know
this. Now listen to me. God says that
when he brings you into the temple, when he brings you into the church,
you're going to know some things. God says that. It doesn't mean
you have to have an IQ of 180 or more. It doesn't mean you
have to be an intellectual or some kind of genius. The gospel
is a simple message of God's salvation freely provided by
his grace in Christ. You're gonna know something about
your sin. You're gonna know something about
your impotence and depravity. Lord, have mercy upon me. I know this, I know this much
about myself. I don't have anything that I
am or have ever done or trying to do or ever will do that'll
recommend me unto God. There's nothing I've ever done
or ever will do that is good enough to put away my sins. or
make me righteous before God. I know that. I didn't know that
before. I was like Cain. I was bringing my offerings of
the flesh, of works, because I was ignorant, you see. But
God the Holy Spirit convinced me of sin and showed me what
I am. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips. I know that now. And I know the holiness of God.
I know that if God were to mark iniquities, if He were to judge
me based upon my best efforts, I would be damned forever and
deservedly so. God would be right to damn me. He would be. That's what it is
to take sides with God against ourselves. But then He showed
me something else that I need to know. I need to know Christ.
I need to know the Savior. I need to know what He accomplished
on Calvary's cross to cleanse me from my sins and to justify
me before God. You shall know that the Lord
of hosts has sent me unto you, and he says in verse 15, and
this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice
of the Lord your God. Now what he's saying there is
not, he's not saying that all this is gonna happen if you will
diligently obey. Because if that's the case, then
it hasn't happened, it won't happen. What he's saying is this
is gonna bring about a willing obedience, but I'm gonna deal
with that in the next message. Now what I want us to do, I want
you to turn to the book of Hebrews with me. Turn over to Hebrews,
start with chapter three. And I just wanna show you a few
passages here, because these passages are really an expansion
and a commentary on what Zachariah was preaching in his day concerning
this priest who would sit on a throne now in chapter three
of the book of Hebrews we're told here in verse one he says
wherefore holy brethren that's another name for the people of
God so we have many names holy brethren does that describe us? you have a hard time with it
don't you? I mean, if I know my sin, how can I say I'm holy?
I'm holy in Christ. Now understand that. That's not
a pretense now. Christ is real. If my saying
I'm holy in Christ, yet I'm a sinner in myself, if that's a pretense,
then you might as well say Christ is a pretense. He's real. You know, the Bible says that
right now He is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to do what? to make intercession for us.
Do you know that's the reason that you won't leave him? Because
he's holding on to you. That's the reason that you can
say honestly with the Apostle Paul in passages like Ephesians
1, 7, I'm accepted in the beloved. I'm accepted in the beloved.
And you know something? Because this priest is on the
throne, that'll never change. Now tomorrow, you may wake up
and just be the worst person that you could ever be, have
the worst day, but you still unchangeably accepted, how? Thank God for prepositional phrases,
in the beloved. That's how. So wherefore holy
brethren, we're part of a family, partakers of the heavenly calling,
if we're in Christ, We've been called into the fellowship of
a heavenly calling. It's the calling of grace. It's
the calling of the gospel. It's the calling of sinners seeking
mercy in Christ and nowhere else. Because you remember he said,
he's gonna build the temple, even him, only him. You'll come
only to Christ. If you come to anyone else, you
come to the preacher, you're coming to the wrong one. You
come to the denomination or some human priest or you come to Mary,
as blessed and as admired as she is and was. She's not to
be worshipped, she's no mediator, she cannot save you, she cannot
intercede for you before God. There's only one mediator between
God and man. So it's a heavenly calling. And
he says, consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus. Now, it's established that under
the new covenant, who is the high priest? The Lord Jesus Christ
himself, the branch. Nobody else. All right now look
over at Hebrews chapter 4 and look at verse 14 now I'm skipping
a lot of verses you read them all yourself But look here now
verse 14 who's he talking about the Lord Jesus Christ He says
in verse 14 seeing then that we have a great high priest Not
just an average one We have a great one that is passed into the heavens. Literally, that would read this,
he's passed through into the heavenlies. What's that mean? He went to God. He went directly
to God. And he says, who is it? Jesus,
the Son of God. Now because of that, let's hold
fast our profession. Now what is our profession? Christ
and him crucified and risen again. He's my hope. Our profession
is the same as old Simeon's that we read this morning. Mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. He's my salvation. He's my righteousness. He's my forgiveness. All right. Four, we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Infirmities there are weaknesses. It's weakness of a created human
being. Limitations. In his humanity,
he had the same feelings that we had. He got hungry just like
we get hungry. He got tired just like we got
tired. He wasn't a sinner. He wasn't made a sinner. But
because of the nature of created physical nature, there's weaknesses,
there's limitations, you see. Even Adam, before the fall, had
those limitations. I don't know how to explain all
that he went through before the fall, but I know he was still
human. He was a righteous human being and a creature of righteousness. And I don't know how it will
be when we get to heaven or when we occupy the new heavens and
the new earth. I can't tell you a lot about that. But I know
we're not going to be deity. We're not going to be gods. We're
not going to be divine. And so Christ in this earth,
he suffered the infirmities, the weakness, the feelings of
our infirmities, sorrow. He sorrowed. Jesus wept. Isn't that right? In John chapter
11, Jesus wept. You weep. I weep. Bible says in heaven there'll
be no weeping. There'll be no sorrow. But he says, but was
in all points tempted, tested like as we are. Now look at it
there, yet without what? without sin. Now, what does that
mean? I've heard people say, well, how could he be tempted
like we are if there was no possibility of him sinning? And I've often
explained it this way. Think about Christ upon the mount
of temptation. You know, after he was baptized,
the Holy Spirit led him up into the mount to be tempted of the
devil. And how long was he up there? 40 days and 40 nights,
right? Didn't eat, did he? Didn't eat
a bite. Now picture yourself going 40
days and 40 nights without eating. Would you be hungry at the end
of that? You'd be real hungry, wouldn't you? So was he. So was
he. And he was tested. Remember? The devil came and tested him.
Tested him on his power. Turn these stones into bread.
Get you something to eat. And he was tested. Tempted. Like as we are, except one difference.
There is flesh within us, sin within us, selfishness within
us, that we would have a real struggle within, whether or not
to deny God and eat that bread. Isn't that right? We've already
sinned when we have to struggle that way, even the thought. But
there was nothing in Christ. to cause him to even consider
denying his father in order to relieve that hunger. He was hungry,
just like you, just like me, but there was nothing in him
that would even cause him to even consider or entertain a
thought of denying his father to relieve that hunger. There
is an us. Remember he said, but when Satan
comes, Satan has nothing in me, he said that. He don't have an
ally in Christ, he has one in us, it's the flesh. But he was
without sin. So verse 16, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Well, he goes on to
talk about the office of high priest. Let me just read a few
passages. Verse one of chapter five, he says, for every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things
pertaining to God. There he's speaking of that old
covenant priesthood. that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion on the ignorant
and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself is also
encompassed with infirmity, weaknesses, and by reason thereof, he ought
as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins." You
see, that human high priest was a sinner himself. He had to offer
sacrifices for himself and for the people. And he says in verse
4, And no man taketh his honor unto himself, but he that is
called of God, as was Aaron. Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about the priesthood of Aaron and the lineage thereof. But
look at verse 5, So also Christ glorified not himself to be made
an high priest. You see, under that old covenant,
men could not make themselves high priest. They couldn't do
that. You had to be appointed of God.
Well, Christ, as the high priest of the new covenant, he didn't
make himself, he was appointed by the Father, that's the covenant
of grace. But he that said unto him, thou
art my son, to they have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another
place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek was a type of Christ in the time of Abraham. He was
king of Salem, king of righteousness. a priest of the Most High God.
He was not of the order of Aaron. And in that sense, he typified
the priesthood of Christ, who was not of the order of Aaron. And so, Christ was out of this
order. He was not of the tribe of Levi.
He was not of the human lineage of Aaron. He was of the tribe
of Judah, the kingly tribe. And yet, he was made a priest.
He was appointed to be a priest. Look over at Hebrews chapter
9. Now, that's what's being spoken of here, talking about that old
covenant and the tabernacle and the temple and all the elements
of it. And here's what he's saying, verse 8. We'll just start there.
He's saying this. He's saying, while all that was
going on under the commandment of God, that temple, that tabernacle,
that priesthood, those animal sacrifices, What was the message? Well, verse 8, the Holy Ghost,
this signifying, this is what the Holy Ghost was teaching while
all that was going on, that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest. What does that mean? Christ had
not yet come. You see, as long as that stuff was going on, that
was a message from God to the people that the Messiah had not
yet come, the branch had not yet come. and did his work. While as the first tabernacle
was yet standing, look at verse 9, which was a figure, a type,
for the time then present, for that time now, not for our time,
but for that time, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make him that did the service perfect or complete
as pertaining to the conscience. Now, it could ceremonially accomplish
some things, set people apart ceremonially and physically.
Just like circumcision, physically. Circumcision could set a man
apart physically from other men who weren't circumcised. But
what it couldn't do, it couldn't change the heart. You can cut a man's arm off,
but it still won't change his heart to God. You see, physical
exercises and ceremonies won't accomplish that. It will not
clear the guilty conscience. That's what he's saying. What
clears the guilty conscious? Well, look on. He says in verse
10, "...which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings,
carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation."
Zechariah, what he's talking about in Zechariah 6 is this
time of reformation. That's a time of change. And
what is the change? Change in the priesthood. What
does that mean? That means a change of the whole
covenant. He taketh away the first, that he may establish
the second." Look at verse 11, "...but Christ being come, and
high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands..." Not a physical tabernacle. That
is to say, not of this building. That is referring to the physical
temple. "...neither by the blood of goats
and calves..." The blood of goats and calves cannot take away sin.
But by his own blood, he entered in once, not every year, as the
old covenant priest, into the holy place, the very presence
of God, not a physical holy of holies like the old covenant
priest, having obtained eternal redemption for us. That back
then was just a picture, you see. It lasted a year until the
next day of atonement. This is eternal, what Christ
did. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of
an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify or set it apart to the
purifying of the flesh. If it set that physical nation
apart in a physical ceremonial way, that's what the blood of
bulls and goats did. How much more? This is what Zechariah's
preaching back then in Zechariah 6. How much more? shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God he was he offered himself as a sin bearer a sin
offering having our sins imputed to him and he did he offered
himself without spot to God just like the lamb that was offered
was without spot and blemish purge your conscience from dead
works You know what the dead works are? That's all those old
covenant ceremonies and sacrifices. They had a value now as they
pictured in Templified Christ, but they couldn't take away sin.
As far as taking away sin, as far as opening the way to God,
as far as making a sinner righteous, they were dead. But he purged
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. That's
the whole point of Zechariah chapter 6 verses 9 through 15. He shall be a priest upon his
throne. That's the new covenant. We're
not into carnal ordinances and ceremonies and earthly priesthood. We have Christ. He's our high
priest. He's our king. He's our prophet.
He's our lamb. He's our Sabbath. He's our law
keeper. He's our tabernacle. He's our
all in all. And we're complete in Him. Perfect
in Him. Alright.