in every minute. Not just every
hour, every minute. Look with me now in Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2. I want to
show you. When you get to Hebrews, we're
going to go through a couple of places. And we're going to
continue Bible doctrine. And I told you last week we started
with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ at His work as our of
God, and that's our high priest, and I'm going to continue with
him as our great high priest. There's so much to be said about
Christ being the priest, great high priest. All the others were
called priest, high priest, priest or high priest. Only one high
priest. But he's the only one that's ever been called the great,
our great high priest. And you know, and he's made three
references here in Hebrews 2, 16, 17. Look what he says about
Christ. being our high priest, our great
high priest. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Now, why did he take on the seed of Abraham? Wherefore, in all
things it behooved him to be made like unto his brother, related
Abraham, his brother, that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in thanks pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. You see, his priesthood has to
do with propitiation. It says here, you know, he's
going to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. He has to appease the wrath of
God, put away the wrath of God, bear the wrath of God. And he
was made like unto us, made like unto us that he might be a merciful,
merciful priest. I mean, he is able to be merciful
to us. You know how many priests under
the law did not, were not merciful? A lot of them were not merciful. I mean the ones that crucified
Christ. They didn't know anything about mercy. Did they? Did they
know anything about mercy when they turned on John the Baptist?
Did they know anything about mercy when they turned on all
the prophets? They didn't know anything about
mercy. All they knew about law. He was a man, might be a merciful
and faithful. Faithful to His Father and faithful
to us. That's why He was made like unto
His people, His brethren. And then over here, down there
in Hebrews 3.1, look what it says. He is the Apostle, worth for
holy brethren, the takers of the heavenly calling. Consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. He's the Apostle and High Priest
of our profession. And it says here, consider him.
That means thoroughly ponder who he is. Thoroughly ponder
what he is. To weigh his dignity. To weigh
his excellency. To see his authority. To think
what is due of him. What's due of him? What dignity
does he have? What authority does he have?
What excellency does he have? And he says, consider these things.
And we've done this. We've considered. We've thoroughly
weighed the dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ as our great High
Priest. We have considered His authority. We see the excellency
of His Holy Person. And what we've done, we've considered
these things, and we do this, and we give consent, and we confess
that He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. And
we look to Him and Him alone. I've considered it, and yes,
he's my high priest. Yes, that's my profession. And not only that, beloved, but
we're not ashamed on him because he's not ashamed on us. Look
over there in verse 11 of chapter 2. That's why we're not ashamed
under any circumstances or time to ever, ever be ashamed of him
because he says, for both he that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren. Look out over us tonight, and
he looks at all of us that's related to him. I'm not ashamed
to call them my brethren. And then look over here in Hebrews
4.14. Three things the apostle speaks
about our high priesthood, our Lord Jesus Christ and his priesthood,
and then we'll get into it here in a minute. Hebrews 4 and verse
14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed
into the heavens, oh my, you know, did we pass that holy place? Passed into heaven. Which is
passed into the heavens Jesus, the Son of God, let's hold fast
to what we confess about Him. Let's hold fast to what we consent
to about Him. And He's passed into the heavens.
That's the kind of high priest we have. You know, those high
priests under the law, they just passed away. They were allowed
to continue by reason of death. Our Lord Jesus Christ passed
into the heavens. Now, over here in Hebrews 5,
our Lord is called a great high priest. A great high priest. And that emphasizes His excellency,
His preeminency over all the other priests and everything
about the priesthood. Our Lord Jesus Christ was great
in His birth. That's what they said, you know,
He shall be called great. He shall be called the Son of
the Highest. And at His return, we're looking
for the glorious and blessed appearance of the great God in
our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is great
in every way. And we consider the greatness
of our high priest when you consider the dignity of his person. Now,
you know, preachers go by reverend, they go by right reverend, they
go by high reverend, they go by father, they go by priest,
they go by a thousand names. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who has some dignity to each person. Everybody talks
about dignity, but I tell you what, it's one of the hardest
things you'll ever find on this earth. But our Lord Jesus Christ
is the Son of God and Son of Man. That's what makes His greatness
of His outpouring. He's the Son of Man, identified
with the Son of God because He passed into the heavens. And
then he's the greatest of his high priests as seen from the
purity of his nature. The purity of his nature. Look
what it says there in verse 16, or 15, excuse me, of chapter
4. It says, For we now have not a high priest which cannot be
touched with the fillings of our infirmities. Oh my, he can
be touched. But watch this. But was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet he was without sin. There never was a high priest
without sin. But this one is. This one is. And so we see from the purity
of His nature, He's without sin. And we see the greatness of a
high priest from the preeminence of His order. Look here in Hebrews
5 and verse 6. You know, there was an order
to the priesthood. And this is what God said about
it. And I read it to you there in Psalm 110. As He said, also
in another place, died a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, what was the order of Melchizedek? Well, it tells us that Melchizedek
had no beginning of days or end of days. He had no father, no
mother, no descent. And Abraham met him coming from
the slaughter of the kings and fell down before him And they
had bread and wine and he worshipped him and paid tithes to him of
everything that he possessed. And Christ says, you are forever
a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And count Melchizedek
means king of righteousness and king of peace. And our Lord Jesus
Christ is both. Ain't that right? And then look
what else it says, I'm telling you, beloved. And then we see
the greatness of our high priest from the solemnity of his ordination. Over here in Hebrews 7 with me
just a moment. From the solemnity of his ordination. Hebrews 7 in verse 20. And inasmuch as not without an
oath, he was made priest. Now listen. For those priests
were made without an oath. God never swore to any of them.
But this, Melchizedek, the high priest after the order of Melchizedek,
for those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath
by him that said unto him, The Lord swear, and will not repent,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." God
swore that you'd be a high priest forever. Aaron wasn't sworn to
be a high priest forever. Eliezer wasn't sworn to be a
high priest forever. And his sons, God killed two
of them at the same time for bringing strange fire before. But God swore, and he entered
into his priesthood with an oath. And then, beloved, in the greatness
of our high priest comes from the excellency and the effectualness
of his sacrifice. You know, every high priest has
to offer a sacrifice. He has to come with gifts of
sacrifice. Well, I tell you what, he offered himself without spot
to God and obtained eternal redemption for us. And then we see the greatness
of our high priest because of the perfection of how he administered
his office. Look over again in Hebrews 7.11. I mean, you know, that was perfection
as he administered his office. We have offices. I have office
here of pastor. You know good and well there's
no perfection in that. Far from it, a million miles
from that. But our Lord Jesus Christ, in administering His
office as our high priest, our great high priest, He had perfection
in Him. He was perfect in administering
that office. It's said here in verse 11, Hebrews
7, 11, If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
For under it the people received the law. But for their need was
there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek,
and not to be called after the order of Aaron." You see? If there had to be a perfection
of that, why would we need another priest? Why would we need one
who could do perfection? And down in verse 25 it says
this, now this is something another priest couldn't do. Wherefore
he is able to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God
by Him, from the uttermost of their sins, to the uttermost
of eternity, to the uttermost of holiness, to the uttermost
of righteousness, to the uttermost of what God requires and what
we need, He is able to save to the uttermost them that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives, to make intercession for
them. You see, that's what our Lord, when He prayed in John
17, He says, Father, glorify Thou me. I finished the work. that you gave me to do." Finished
him. He has satisfied divine justice. God's not angry. Made us accepted
in the Beloved. Gives us access to the throne
of grace and obtained eternal redemption for us. And he's the
only priest who ever did that. No wonder he's called our great
high priest. And then, Beloved, to see the greatness of it from
the perpetuity of his office. He says, you know, he ever lives,
this man, it says here in verse 24, but this man, because he
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. He ain't going to
pass it on, and nobody will pass it on to him. His priesthood
is forever. Now, here we are in Hebrews chapter
5. Hebrews chapter 5. In these first four verses here,
Let me read them to you. For every high priest, taken
from among men, is ordained for men, in thanks pertaining to
God, 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 accomplished with affirmity,
and by reason hereof he ought as for the people, so for himself
to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour
unto him that he that is called of God, as was Aaron." You know,
in these first four verses, we have a description of the Levitical
priesthood. And Aaron was the first high
priest, Moses' brother. But before Aaron, the heads of
the houses, the heads of the home, were the high priests.
You find Job in Job chapter 1. to offer sacrifices for his children,
and maybe they had sinned. And then, you know, you find
Abraham. He offered sacrifices. And Noah, when he come off the
ark, he offered sacrifices. See, the head of the house was
the one, and the head of the family was the one who was the
priest. And that's what it meant when it said Esau sold his birthright.
He sold his right to be head over his house and to approach
God on behalf of his whole household. He sold that right. He didn't
think it was worthy of having. And there's five things here,
and I dealt with them a little last week, but there's much more
to be seen here tonight. First of all, it says he must
be taken from among men. For every high priest taken from
among men, he must be taken from among men. He must partake of
the nature of those whom he represents. He must be a man. An angel couldn't
be a priest. Angel don't know nothing about
being a human being. Angel don't know nothing about
having our nature. An angel don't know nothing about
being subject to temptations. He knows nothing of the sufferings
of us as human beings. He's an angel who's incapable
of having compassion. An angel who's incapable of having
heartfelt sympathy. So we need someone taken from
among men who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
And this is the primary qualification of a priest. He must be personally
related to and possess the same nature of those he represents. I mean, beloved, in what it says,
you know, seeing then that we have a great high priest who
can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. In Isaiah
53, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But yet, as we saw that, why was he stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted? Because he was wounded for our
transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. And oh, that's what he meant,
you know, and I'll read it to you. And for as much then as
the children are protectors of flesh and blood, he likewise
also himself took part of the same. And oh, I tell you, he
must be taken from among men. And I say, you know, God prepared
him a body, a body that he could be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities and bear our nature. You see, it's as men
that we are far off from God. And so we must have a man who
can come and reconcile us to God. A man who can come and stand
in our stead and represent us and us stand in him. And so it
was necessary for our Lord Jesus Christ to become a man, because
our great high priest must be taken from among men. If that's
what God required for a natural and for Israel, how much more
spiritual Israel? And then secondly, not only taken
from among men, but is ordained for men. Oh, listen to me now. He didn't
act as a private individual. The priest never acted as a private
individual, but he acted as a public official. And our Lord Jesus
Christ never acted as a private individual, but as a public official. And what he done as he was ordained
for men, he stood in the stead of on the behalf of men. And
he was ordained of God and appointed to this. This idea that men can
just waltz up into the presence of God and call Him the old man
and the fellow upstairs, and all of those kind of things,
and refer to Him any way they want to, that's as far as is
foreign as anything there is in the Bible. This idea that you know you can
call Him Allah, you can call Him Buddha, you can call Him
Mr. or Mrs., or Mother Earth, or call Him whatever you want
to, there's only one person ordained of men. for men to represent
us before God. And that's Jesus Christ. And
He's ordained to be our priest. And beloved, and men cannot directly
or personally approach unto God. When God gave the law, He pissed
off the whole mountain and said, don't even let nobody get near
the mountain. And if that's what's given the law, and if anybody
does, I want them dead now. You can't get in my presence.
I dwell in a light that no man can approach unto. You see, we're
sinful. He's holy. Men are unrighteous. He's infinitely unrighteous.
And man by nature is alienated from the life of God. And when
God put that flaming sword standing at the Garden of Eden, at the
East of Eden, to keep the way to the Tree of Life, that Tree
of Life was emblematic of God. And you can't get there. Unless
that sword is sheathed and somebody takes it. And oh, he says, your
iniquities and your sins have separated you and your God. And
oh, beloved, when the tabernacle, they weren't allowed, the people
weren't allowed only on the outer court. And the priest was only
allowed into the holy place. And the high priest into the
holiest of holies only once a year. And he couldn't go there without
blood. So He's ordained for men. And, oh, thank God He's ordained
for men, not angels. And listen, in the person of
our High Priest, all of Israel, all of us who go into God's presence,
into the holiest of holies. I want you to see this. You keep
Hebrews 5 and look at Exodus 28 with me. Exodus 28. You see, we couldn't approach
God by ourselves, but He's ordained of men. And look here in Exodus
28 and verse 9. But in the person of the high
priest, all of Israel could go into God's presence, right into
the Holy Sepulchre. How could they do that? Well,
God has some stones made. Look what it says here in verse
9. They made the ephod. Put some epaulets up here. And it says in verse 9, And thou
shalt take two arctic stones, and grave on them the names of
the children of Israel, six of their names on one stone, and
the other six names of the rest of the other stone, according
to their birth, from Reuben all the way down to Benjamin. Start
over here with Reuben, get the oldest six over here, and come
over here, and go down until you get to Benjamin, the last
one on that side. Now watch this, "...with the
work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet,
thou shalt engrave the two stones with the names of the children
of Israel. Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold,
and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod
for stones of a memorial unto the children of Israel." And
watch this, "...and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord
upon his two shoulders for a memorial." And then you read on down here,
and now they pick out 12 stones, and each stone has one name on
it. And they put those in 3, 3, 3, 3. And they put the names on it,
and come down here to verse 21, look what it says. And the stones
shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve according
to the names, like the engravings of a signet. Every one with his
name shall they be according to the twelve tribes. Now down
to verse 29, look here. And Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon
his heart when he goeth in unto the holy place for a memorial
before the Lord continually. So Israel got to go into the
holiest of holies. How? in the high priesthood. We're just going to the holiest
of holies out in our high priesthood. And listen, it's more than just
a stone on his shoulders. More than that, he engraved our
names on his hands is what the Scriptures tells us that he did
for us. And that's why he's ordained
for men. And he says, you know, but all
the people that God gave him, he offered to sacrifice and put
away all their sins once for all. And then it says back over
here in Hebrews 5, not only taken from among men, not only ordained
for men, taken from among men and ordained for men, but in
thanks, ordained for men in thanks pertaining to God. Now, what
does that mean? That means meeting the requirements of God's holiness,
meeting the requirements of God's character and nature. You see,
he had to approach God. And what the priest did, and
what our great high priest did, they had God as their object.
When they went in there, they understood that everything they
did, they had to do it according to God's nature, God's order,
and God's character. God says, if you approach me,
you'll be sanctified. And here you know what the priest
did, he did as the object, his character was his object. He
says, oh my, God is holy, infinitely holy and righteous, and his claims. I cannot be approached without
the shedding of blood. There'll be no remission of sins.
If you're going to stand before me, sins must be paid for. Sins
must be atoned. And oh my, I tell you, come before
me, you must be the only one that can come. And then His glory. They went in there and done everything
they done for His glory. And oh my, and God's will and
God's glory and God's honor and God's character. is whom the
Lord deals with on our behalf. What would God do with us and
do to us when we, at the best thought we ever had about His
character and His nature, and none of us, none of us ever for
one moment in our lives has done anything completely and absolutely
for the glory of God. Not one time have we. Well, I
don't have the ability to do it. But our Lord Jesus Christ, He knew God's character. He knew
God's claim. He came for the glory of God. And so you see, we've got someone,
we've got a great high priest who has went into God's presence
for us and met all the claims. And then look what else it says
here in verse 1. Take it from among men, and ordain for men,
and ordain for these men and things pertaining to God, that
he may offer gifts and sacrifices. You know, if a priest, the reason
he existed was to offer gifts and sacrifices. To offer. And that's the chief thing the
priest does. Every morning they have to offer a morning lamb.
And every evening he offered an evening lamb. And there, beloved,
to offer is the chief thing the priest does. And what he does
is he offers to God what men have. Gifts and sacrifices. If you have a gift, you take
it to the priest. If you have a sacrifice, it's
taken to the priest. And, beloved, the gift of thanksgiving
is sacrifice. And they offered sacrifice to
atone. Now, what gift could we give
to God that would satisfy Him? What sacrifice could we give
if those sacrifices put away sin? Why would they continually
offer over and over and over again? But this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down at the
right hand of God, and he said, expecting thy enemies to be made
your footstool. And the sacrificial death of
our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was a priestly act by our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When our Lord died on that cross,
it was a priestly act, what He was doing as our great high priest
was offering a sacrifice to God Himself. And our Lord's death
actually accomplished something at the cross. Our Lord was the
Lamb of God. At the cross, our Lord Jesus
Christ was banned the sins of His people. On the cross, our
Lord Jesus Christ was banned the judgment of God for them.
But He also was the priest who officiated at the altar and
offered the sacrifices. Look here at chapter 8 and verse
3. says this about our Lord Jesus
Christ, our great high priest. He says, for every high priest
is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of
necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. And we
know what his offering was. And this is one of the most blessed
things for us as believers, right here now, in verse 2. Here, in
chapter 5, verse 2. Oh, He's taken from among men,
one with us, ordained for men. Oh, we need somebody to approach
God for us. And secondly, in thanks pertaining
to God, in the offered gifts and sacrifices He offered Himself,
and listen to this, who can have compassion on the ignorant and
on them that are out of the way. Anybody here fit that bill? Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the
way? And if you'll notice there in the margin, it says who can
have compassion, that means can reasonably bear with. Can reasonably bear with. That's
all a high priest could do. Because he said he himself also
was compassionate with infirmity. And the high priest of Israel,
they felt at this point miserably like we do. It's like Hannah,
she was down praying, she went to the temple to pray, and she
was praying, and her lips was moving, and Eli, the high priest,
was sitting there watching her, and he says, Woman, what is the
matter with you up here drunk in the holy place praying? He had no compassion on her.
She was there praying, God give me a child. If you give me a
child, I'll give him right back to you. When he gets of age,
I'll turn him over to you." And that was Samson, yes. And he thought she was drunk
and berated her. Instead of saying that, he says,
what is it that you want? What are you praying for? But
oh, he had no compassion. He had no mercy. And beloved,
when it talks about this great high priest can have compassion,
on the ignorant and them that are out of the way. This shows
the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ over the earthly and temporal
priesthood. And that shows us the necessity
of our Lord becoming a man and able to sympathize with us. I mean, He can really, that's
why we can go to Him and weep. That's why we can go to Him and
tell Him and cry our hearts and tell Him our needs, tell Him
our fears. Because we really understand
that He knows us, and He can be in touch with us, and be in
touch with what we need, and what we feel, and what we desire.
We won't have to be worried about, well, He's aggravating me to
death. He's drunk. He's too ignorant. No, no, we can never be too ignorant
for Christ. And that's one of the things
he says so many times about our Lord in the Gospel. And he's
seeing them having compassion. Having compassion. Oh, my. The pity and compassion for sinners
can only be found in a perfect, sinless man. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our sins make us more impatient
and hard towards others. Our vanity finds the vantages
of other individuals intolerable. Our pride finds the pride of
others just to be too much to bear. We're blind to the guilt
of our own sins, and we're shocked with the sins of others. But
listen to what our Master says over here in Psalm 103 and verse
10. 103 and verse 10. That's the way
we are, but that's not the way our priest is. Psalm 103, verse
10. Oh my, we'll all thank You, Lord
Jesus, for Your compassion. It says, Psalm 103, verse 10,
He hath not dealt with us after our sins. He hath not rewarded
us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great, so great is His mercy toward them. that fear him, as far as the
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth him that fear him, for he knoweth
our faith, he remembers that we done him." Oh, we have a high priest. can
have compassion on the ignorant and out of the way. Little old
Riley, I'll tell you this, it'll sound like I'm bragging on myself,
and I am, I guess. But I was thinking today, you
know, she just reaches for me all the time, wants me to carry
her around all the time. And she'll just stand and she
sits in my lap, walks up and lays her head on my lap and lays
it on my leg and just hugs me and just wants to be with me
all the time. And I was thinking today on my way up here, I thought,
well, I said, it ain't something to be loved by somebody so much,
needed by somebody so much. Somebody had that much confidence
in them, you can give them some rest, you can give them some
confidence, you can give them some assurance, you can give
them some peace, you can give them some comfort, and they just
look to you for all that. And I thought that's exactly
the way I wished I was looking to my Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, just standing like this all the time. Because who else is going to
comfort us and uphold us and give us rest and confidence and
peace and assurance? And so that's why every time
she reaches for me, I pick her up. And every time we reach for the
Lord Jesus, He's going to pick us up. Ain't you grateful for
that? These babes, you know, out of
the mouth of babes, He hath perfected praise. And then it talks about
the ignorant out of the way. This is one and the same person.
There ain't two different people here. Ignorant, the ignorant,
and then those who are out of the way. No, no, this is the
same person. One and the same person. Willful
ignorance. Shameful ignorance. Painful ignorance. And out of the way. I tell you
something, beloved, we're not in Christ, we're out of the way.
We're not in God's way. And then let me hurry on here
and move on. It says this, and back over here in Hebrews 5 and
verse 3. And so he's going to have compassion
on the hating of them out of the way. By reason hereof, he
ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifice
for sins. You see, because of these infirmities,
because of this sinfulness, because of this ignorance of being out
of the way, he must offer a sacrifice. The priest had to offer a sacrifice
for his own sins before he could be acceptable before God. Before
he could ever represent another, he must have no guilt, and he
must be an object of God's approval. And that's why the Levitical
priesthood was just a ceremonial thing. But our great high priest,
He didn't have to offer sacrifice for sins, because he had no sins. He could only offer sacrifice
for the sins of his people. They're the only ones who had
sins. And look what it says here, last of all, in verse four, And
no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called
of God. Aaron was called of God. And no matter who you are or
how well qualified you are, you have to be called of God. And
this honor, this honor, no man takes this honor unto himself,
this honor to come before God, this honor to represent others,
this honor to offer sacrifice, this honor to have personal dealings
with God. And in doing that, to gain favor
and the grace of God and to put away sin for others, What a blessed
privilege, and our Lord Jesus Christ was chosen and ordained
to this office. You see, God chooses and wills,
and what He will accept, what He wills, that's all He'll accept.
And let me show you this in closing, in John chapter 8. God chooses
and wills for our Lord Jesus Christ. And what He wills is
what He'll accept and who He'll accept. Nobody else. You remember Cora and Abram and
them, they tried to enter into the priesthood and God opened
up the earth and swallowed them? And look what our Lord Jesus
Christ, God only will accept what He Himself wills and what
He Himself chooses. In John 8, in verse 52, and I'm
through. Then said the Jews unto him,
Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets,
and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste
of death. Art thou greater than our father
Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets which are dead? Whom
makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself,
no man takes this honour unto himself. If I honor myself, my
honor is nothing. It is my Father, what's this
say now, that honors me. Of whom you say He is your God. I tell you, if He's your God,
God honored me, and you're going to have to do the same thing.
Amen. What a great high priest we are.
And he's passed into the heavens and can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities.