Hebrews chapter 5. Now let me
read the last three verses of chapter 4. It says, Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things 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 also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason hereof he ought as for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So Christ glorified not himself
to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art
my son, today have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another
place, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek,
who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers
and supplications, was strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. Call of God and high priest after
the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say
and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when
for a time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are
become such of need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every
one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are
of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of
baptisms, or washings, and of laying on of hands, and of the
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this
will we do if God permit. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they
shall fall away to renew them again to repentance, seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to
an open shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain, that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs,
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak." I want to stop right there and
of course there is quite a bit here and no doubt we are not
going to cover everything that is in this passage, but keeping
with the general theme of what the writer is writing
here to the Hebrews, pointing out the fact that we have a high
priest who can be touched with our infirmities, He was one,
is one, who was tempted in all points like as we are, that He
is one who is like us. He's not someone who came from
afar, who was just interjected into the mix here, who has no
concept of what's going on or whatever, but He became man and
walking among us, and therefore we have a high priest which can
be touched. And then he goes on to give the
same illustration. He says, For every high priest
taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
That is the purpose of having a priest. is that he might offer
gifts and sacrifices for sins. Now, notice that it says every
high priest taken from among men is ordained for men. Now, it does not say he is ordained
of men. And this is the problem that
arises when men think they can appoint to themselves a priest. And of course we know some religious
orders, that's what they have in mind to do is that they appoint
men to be priests. Well, you can't do that because
the priest is ordained for men but not by men in things pertaining
to God. Now this is true even of those
priests of the Order of Aaron. They weren't appointed by men.
Men couldn't just decide he was going to be a priest. And a man
can't, in the present time, as in those religious orders that
would observe this, he couldn't study to be a priest, not according
to what the Scripture says. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. Now, the priests that were appointed
by God, they were just normal men. They weren't anything special. And they were compassionate with
infirmity. They had sins of their own, so they could surely understand
what it was to be a sinner. And by reason hereof, as for
the people, so also for himself to offer for sin. So it was a
normal thing that the priest knew that when he went into the
holy place, he went there not just for himself, or not just
for the people, but he went there for himself because he was a
sinner. In fact, that's why the bells were sewed around the hem
of the priest's garment so that whenever he went into the holy
place, the only way they knew that God hadn't struck him dead
while he was in there was because they heard the bells ringing
in the bottom of his garment. And he was moving around and
he went in there with a rope tied to his foot. So that if
indeed he did die while he was in there, they could drag him
out. Because if he died while he was
in there, who could go in there and get him? Who would be a man
enough to do it? Who would not be fearful to go
in there and get him? Because only the high priest
could enter there. But he had to offer for himself. He was a sinner. And so it was
possible that he could go into that place and be struck down
before Almighty God in the ministration that he did. So he had to offer
for his own sins. And then he says, No man taketh
this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was
Aaron. So if a man wasn't of the Aaronic
tribe, he could not be a priest. It was impossible that he would. So Christ also glorified not
Himself to be made an high priest. Now one thing that is true as
you look into Scripture is the fact that the Lord said He was
not a priest after the order of Aaron. He did not come through
Aaron's line, but He was the line of the tribe of Judah. And
there is no lineage that goes back through Aaron from that
it is the Lord's lineage. He was not a Levite. And so he
couldn't be a priest in that fashion. But yet he didn't come
claiming to be a priest. He didn't come saying, I am a
priest. But he was the priest, was he
not? Why? Because he wasn't one appointed
by men, but he was one appointed by God. So Christ also glorified
Himself, not Himself, to be made an high priest. He didn't come
into town and say, hey, I can go into the Holy of Holies, though
He was really the only one that could, was He not? But He didn't
have any interest in going into the Holy of Holies. That was
in a temple constructed by men. That wasn't his purpose. There was no purpose in him going
into that temple because that temple was just an illustration. That temple was not the place
where men's sins would be taken away. The Lord never intended
that it would be. So Christ glorified not Himself
to be made a high priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art
My Son, today have I begotten Thee. As He said also in another
place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world not claiming to be a priest after the order
of Aaron. But he came into the world knowing
that he was a priest who was after the order of Melchizedek.
Now we've talked about Melchizedek before. Melchizedek was kind
of a mysterious character that just kind of appears on the scene.
And then we hear about him in one place where when he met Abraham
coming back from the slaughter of the kings, And Abraham met
him and paid tithes to him and the Melchizedek blessed him. But he didn't. Melchizedek, we
don't know a whole lot about him and the scripture says that
he had neither beginning of days nor ending of life. Now, again,
we don't know exactly if that means he was an eternal character
or if it's just pointing out the fact that he didn't have
any earthly lineage that would make him a priest in the sense
that the Aaronic priests were. Many have said they believe Melchizedek
to be simply a theophany or a pre-incarnate appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself that he was Melchizedek. Now,
I don't know about that. I have to plead ignorance on
it. I certainly believe it could
be that. But I don't know that it was.
But nonetheless, we do know that Melchizedek was brought on the
scene to point to Christ, and whether or not that actually
was Christ who met Abraham, or whether it was some man who was
of the order that Melchizedek was a priest, he is typical,
at least, of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It had
no beginning of days. That is, nobody knows where it
came from, and nobody knows where it went. because he was not after
the order of Aaronic priesthood. He did not pass his priesthood
on to his sons. Now that was what happened in
the Aaronic priesthood. The priest's sons would come
on and they would be the next line of priests and they would
be appointed in that fashion. But not the Lord Jesus Christ
who in the days of His flesh, speaking of Melchizedek, who
in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able
to save him from death, was heard in that he feared." Now, this
is speaking about Melchizedek, but of course, obviously, it
is also speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it says here
that he was delivered from death. Well, wait a minute. The Lord
Jesus Christ died. Did he not? Well, he did die
in the mortal flesh in which he came into the world as a man.
Most surely he did, as dead as any man has ever been. But you
see, he was delivered from death because he said on the third
day, I will rise. And it is his deliverance from
death is the basis upon which the whole hope of the children
of God rests. And he says here that in his
days with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, he was heard in that he feared. That is, he
had regard unto the one who was that one who was the giver of
life and death, his heavenly Father whom he prayed to as a
man, and he was delivered from death. And we are delivered from
death. Now, we can pray, Lord don't
let us die in this world, but that's probably a prayer that's
not going to be answered. Now it may be, you know, if the
Lord tarries, surely some will be caught up without going through
death, but the likelihood is that every one of us in this
room is going to taste death regardless of how sincere we
may be or how strong we might cry for deliverance from death
in this world, we are going to experience it. But you see, the
Lord Jesus Christ didn't pray for deliverance from death in
this world, as some have said and thought when He prayed, Father,
not my will but Thine, when He prayed, Father, remove this cup
from me. Some have opined that when He
was saying, remove this cup from me, that He was saying, Father,
don't let me have to go through this death. That was not it at
all. What he was crying to be delivered
from was separation from his father. He said, nevertheless, not my
will but thine be done. And he gave himself up to that
separation. But yet the father delivered
him. He heard his prayer, did he not? And he delivered him from death,
even though he underwent death as a man, he delivered him from
death. to manifest the fact that he
is the very life of God Himself. He was heard in that he feared,
though he were a son, even though he was the only begotten Son
of God, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
Now, did he learn it in the sense that he didn't know about it?
No, you see, you can learn something if you don't know something.
He knows all things. It would be impossible for the
Lord Jesus Christ to have learned anything in the sense that you
and I as ignorant people learn things. He knows all things.
He knew what was in Philip's heart when he was... or Andrew's
heart. I always get that messed up.
But anyway, somebody that was under the fig tree, Nathaniel.
Wasn't it? It was under the fig tree. And
he said, I saw thee when thou wast under the fig tree. He knew. He knew what was in men's hearts. So he was not ignorant. He didn't
learn things as an ignorant man. But when the Scripture says he
learned it, it means he went through it. That is, he experienced
it. Just like when we learn things,
we go through it. You can't really know something
until you've experienced it, can you? in the sense of having
learned it in that fashion. That is the way in which you
go. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
manifested His Sonship and manifested His humanity by subjecting Himself
to the very same things that all men are subjected to. And
in that sense, He went through that. And He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered and being made perfect. Now again,
how can he who is perfect be made perfect? He can't be in
that way. There was nothing added to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing could be taken from Him.
Nothing could be added to Him. He had perfection upon Him from
the beginning. Had He not been perfect from
the beginning, we wouldn't have salvation. But He came into the
world as a perfect Savior. But the Scripture means that
he, and being made perfect, that is, he was manifested, he was
made perfect in the eyes of men. He was set forth as perfect. He's shown to be perfect, being
made perfect as the Savior. Because you see, when we preach
the gospel, we're not trying to convince God to do something.
We're seeking to show men what God has done. And we're seeking
that it might be manifested that He is the perfect Savior. And
so He is made the perfect Savior. And we are those who preach Him. And being made perfect, He became
the author of salvation to all them that obey Him. So He is the perfect Savior. And the declaration that we set
forth before men is the fact that He is that. Now keep in
mind, who it is and is writing to here, these Jews who still
in the back of their mind remember they had billions of sugar plums
dancing in their head because from the time they were this
old they were raised up in this Jewish religion and they had
all these Jewish theories and Jewish practices rolling in their
mind. And so he is pointing out the
fact that Jesus Christ is the perfect Savior, that He is that
One who is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey
Him. Not all them that obey Moses'
law, but all them that obey Him. He is that One. He is perfect. You don't need something else.
If something is perfect, that's it, is it not? I mean, when something
is perfect, you can't get it any better than that. And He
is that perfect Savior, being made perfect, set forth before
our eyes, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek,
an eternal priesthood, one which has not come through the lineage
of men, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be
uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. They said, there
are a lot of things that we can preach and set forth about Christ,
but He said, you are dull of hearing. Now again, who is He
writing to? He is writing to these Hebrews who are steeped
in these traditions. And He said, you are dull of
hearing. You don't want to listen to Me. Now, we could speak that
to the traditional world of Christianity today. They're dull of hearing. They don't want to hear it. You
can preach to somebody the free grace of God, and if they've
been taught some other gospel, which is no gospel, from the
time they're in Nehi, they don't want to hear it. They're dull
of hearing. You can't preach to them these
things and they embrace them because their mind is closed. They see what they want to see.
For when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that
one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles
of God." He said, you've been taught these things from the
time that you were this high, but somebody needs to go back
and teach you the very basic things because you're not seeing
that all these things are pointing to Christ. Now keep that in mind
as we go a little further, for he says, For when for the time
being ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every
one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe. Now what is the milk that he
is talking about? He is talking about the Jewish
traditions. He is talking about those things
that they held on to. He said, you think that you are
ready to move on, but he said you are not ready to move on
because you are still babies. Because you look at your traditions
and you think that they are the important things. He said they
are milk. He said they were those things
that the Lord set forth in the earth to bring you to the place
where you might see Christ. Everything that is in the Old
Testament points to Christ. Now whenever a man has been given
eyes to see the glory of God in Jesus Christ and he goes back
and reads the Old Testament, he can clearly see Christ in
all these things. When Adam and Eve were clothed
with garments in the garden, what does he see? He sees the
covering of Christ's righteousness. He can see it when he sees Noah
in an ark floating upon the waves. What does he see? He sees Christ,
the Deliverer, that One who sets him free. And so in all those
things that these Jews held on to and thought they saw in, he
said, you don't see it. You need somebody to go back
and teach you the first principles. You need Brother Al to go back
and teach you what is in the book of Genesis because from
the very beginning you don't see it. You don't understand
it. You don't see that it's Christ. He said, you're unskillful. For
everyone that uses milk is unskillful. Now brethren, anybody that comes
preaching out of this book and they're not preaching Jesus Christ,
I don't care what else they know. I don't care how smart they are.
I don't care what school they went to. I don't care how many
degrees they've got. I don't care how long they've
been at it. If they're not preaching Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, they are unskillful in the Word of
God. It doesn't make any difference. If they're preaching something
else other than Christ, for strong meat belongs to them that are
of full age. You see, those that are made
men in Christ to them that are of full age, even those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil." Isn't that what Paul wrote to the Ephesians about
the need for sound doctrine and teaching when he said that you
be not tossed about by every wind of doctrine? Dear brethren,
we need to see this. And what is the one doctrine which keeps God's people from
being tossed about. It's Christ. You see, when you
see that it's just Christ, if you know that it's just Christ,
then no deceiver can come along and lead you down some other
path. Why? Because you say, wait a minute,
it's Christ. It's not this, it's not that. It's not understanding this mysterious
prophecy over here. It's not coming into some deeper
life or whatever. It's Christ by reason of use. You see, you've
had the experience of knowing that you cannot be saved by any
other means than through the blood and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ alone, and nothing else will suffice. And no amount
of wisdom purporting to be wisdom, but no wisdom at all can help
you. None of the psychologists. See,
that's basically what we have today in masquerading as preaching
is psychology. I mean, you turn the radio and
the TV on and you've got a bunch of psychologists. Dear brethren,
that's to be unskillful in the Word of God. It's Christ. When
you go away from having heard something and the name of Christ
is not ringing in your ears, then it's not the gospel of Christ. It may be good. It may be useful
in some way. I'm not saying that you can't
have some benefit from it. But don't tell people you're
preaching the gospel of Christ. If you are not preaching Christ,
He is the One, and He is that One where our senses are exercised
to discern good and evil. Where do we see good and evil? Christ. How do you know something
is evil if it is not magnifying Christ? That's what it is. What's good
when Christ is magnified? That's it. That's very simplistic,
isn't it? I mean, that's pretty straightforward,
is it not? But how can a man be deceived
from that if he knows that to be true? It's only if he questions
it. And that's what the Jews did.
You see, they were saying, well, wait. Now, it's okay to talk
about Christ. You ever heard anybody tell you,
you know it's alright to believe in free grace, but... Too many words. But's too big
of a word when you're talking about Christ and grace. There's
nothing else. There's no but involved. It is
Christ. It is grace. It's Christ's grace. And now, he says something here,
and I want to touch on this before we finish, and we'll probably
have to take this up next week. In chapter 6, he says something
that I think is often misconstrued by well-meaning teachers because
they do not take the context of what it is that he is saying
into account. And he says, therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection,
not laying again these things. Now, we'll talk about those in
a minute. Now, he says, leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ. Now, who is it that he's writing
to? The Hebrews. Now, is he telling them, all
right, we don't need to talk about salvation through Christ
anymore. Let's leave the principles of
the doctrines of Christ. We're going to go on to bigger
and better things. Is that what he's talking about? No. He said, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ. What are the principles of the
doctrine of Christ? They're found in the Old Testament.
They're found throughout those things. Now, there's not a thing
in the world wrong with those things unless we're camping there. And unless we're talking about
those things and not Christ, because you see, Christ is in
all these things. But if we're not seeing that,
he says, if you're not seeing that, you've got to move forward. You've got to come to Christ
and then look back. I had a fellow one time told
me that the Old Testament was a commentary on the New Testament.
And I told him he had it backwards. He says, you can't understand
the New Testament until you understand the Old Testament. I said, you
are exactly wrong, because you can't understand the Old Testament
until you understand the New Testament, dear brethren, because
it's in the revelation of Christ that all these other things come
to pass and you can see what's actually going on. And until
you see that, until you see God's purpose, in redemption. It doesn't have anything to do
with the natural people walking on the earth. It has to do with
the spiritual people given to Christ before the foundation
of the world. And if you can't see that, you
can't possibly understand what it meant when the Lord gave a
promise to Abraham and his seed. I mean, Paul clears that up in
the book of Galatians. He said, it is not to seeds as
of many, but to the seed as of one, even Jesus Christ. Who is
the promises of God given to? To His Son. He gave Him His promise. And He is the One who has brought
the promise to us. So He said, therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Let's move on to maturity. Not
staying back there in these carnal washings. He said, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works. What was the
law about? Repentance from dead works. I
mean, that's all the law. That's all Moses' law could do
was point out that you're a sinner. Now, it serves that purpose.
It's a good purpose. But you're going to camp at the
feet of Mount Sinai? No, that's not repentance from
dead works. You see, the gospel is not about
repentance. Now, there is repentance in the
gospel, don't get me wrong. In other words, there is repentance
that's brought about through the preaching of the gospel.
There is repentance that is brought about through the work of the
Spirit as He unfolds the gospel to men. But the gospel is not
about repentance. It's about completion. It is
about justification. It is about sanctification. It is about that which Christ
has performed in our behalf. Now, repentance is but the manifestation
of the Spirit of God bringing God's people to Himself. But
you see, we are not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works. Remember what he goes on to say
in this book. In the offering of the priest,
there was what? A remembrance of sin. Why? Because we knew next year
we were going to be right back in the same place doing the exact
same thing again. There is a remembrance of it.
We are not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works.
Every year, what did they do? Offer to sacrifice. Why did they
do that? Because they were sorry for their
sins. and they wanted to make atonement before God. And so
we're not laying that again. We're not coming back and covering
that same ground. We're leaving that. You see,
we've gone on to something that's greater. We're not laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith
for God. Are we departed from faith? No. But we see what faith is. Faith
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
we're not laying again saying, okay, brethren, you all got to
have faith. We're not laying that groundwork, dear brethren.
But we're now seeing that Christ is the object of faith, that
He is our faith. Who is the one in whom our confidence
is? It's Christ, because He is the
foundation of our faith. We live by the faith, would Paul
say, of Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, of the
doctrine of baptisms. Now again, this is not, speaking
of New Testament baptism, he's not saying, let's not worry about
being baptized. But rather he's saying the doctrine
of washings, See, there was a washings. You realize that in the temple,
and if you go back and read this, there was a bronze basin that
they made. I forget the dimensions of it,
but it seems like it was 30 feet across, I think. That's correct. But now, I may have those dimensions
wrong. You remember? It was big. There was a lot of
water in there. And what did they use that water
for? baptisms, washings, they took that water, because everything
that the priests, they had to wash their hands, they had to
clean the elements of the temple, everything was constantly being
cleaned and washed. He said, we're not interested
in all these washings, the doctrine of washings. Now the Pharisees,
they said, your people eat with unwashed hands, but not us. I mean, we wash. We're clean. See, we wouldn't think of eating
without washing our hands because they were caught up in
the doctrine of washings. They thought that in these things
that there was that which was beneficial to the people of God,
the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. See,
the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. That was the difference between
the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees, they rejected
the notion of the resurrection of the dead. But the Pharisees
believed that there was, and the Pharisees were right. The
Sadducees were wrong, but even the Pharisees had a very carnal
view of the resurrection of the dead, even as many do today. You know, they think that the
resurrection of the dead is just a resurrection under this same
life. Brethren, we'd be of all men
most miserable if we just went into the ground and came back
out and was in the same shape we were in when we went in there.
What would be the point in that? But you see, that's what most
men want. When you talk about the resurrection
and their eyes light up and they think about that, what they're
thinking about is just being able to pursue the same old things
they've always pursued. He said going on to perfection.
to maturity. Let's leave these things behind.
And of eternal judgment. Dear brethren, there is eternal
judgment. But that's not the basis of what we're preaching.
It's appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.
But you see, that's not our stock in trade. That's not the thing
that we're dwelling upon. No, we're dwelling upon Him who
is the answer to eternal judgment. I mean, if we had to sit around
and worry about, are we going to go into judgment on it? In
fact, you've got a lot of people calling themselves Christians
today that are constantly worried about the judgment. Well, dear
brethren, you cannot be resting in Christ and be fearful of the
judgment of God. Those two things are mutually
exclusive. Now, does that mean I don't think I'm worthy to be
judged? Well, I sure do. I know if left
to myself, I'll be destroyed in a heartbeat. But see, that's
not my hope. That's not my expectation. I'm
not thinking, well, what am I going to tell the Lord? If it ever
gets to that, I won't be saying nothing. There's nothing to say.
But you see, it's Christ. It's to be found in Christ, like
we sang in that song a moment ago. But if I should die with
mercy sought, when I, the King, have tried, this were to die
a delightful thought, a sinner never died. Oh, you see, that
man who is resting in Christ, now this old flesh will tell
you to be fearful, because it will reverse you back to the
law. I mean, it will always bring you back to the law. But you
see, the man, that spiritual man, the spiritual mind that
is resting in Christ is not fearful of death. He is not fearful of
the law. Why? Because Jesus has died and
there is remission. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind today to be the who's who. are perfected in Christ. We're growing up into Him. We're
seeing Christ in all things. We're seeing Christ as the Redeemer.
We're not walking around with a rain cloud hanging over our
head. But we're walking with the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And He's our hope. And He's our expectation. And
we're not thinking of what we can do. know what we have done,
but rather what Christ has done, because He is that One who is
perfect in all of His ways.