Now, going back to Hebrews chapter
5, I'm not going to go back through all these verses. In fact, this
morning, I want to mainly focus on verses 8 and 9, really verses
7, 8, and 9 concerning the finished work of Christ as the great,
eternal High Priest of His people. And as you know, the writer of
Hebrews here is inspired by the Holy Spirit. is showing the greater
superiority of the priesthood of Christ over and above the
human priesthood of Aaron and the Levitical priest under the
Old Covenant. Showing there that we have one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He starts out here talking about
the glory of Christ in his person. Verse one, 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. Here we have the glorious person
and the purpose of Christ as the one mediator, the one go
between, between God and men. In other words, he's shown us
that Christ is both God and man in one person. He represents
God to men and men to God, His people to God. And in order to
do that properly, He had to be both God and man in one person. That's an awesome truth, isn't
it? That's something, you know, that we just cannot really grasp
with our limited human minds. But He is Immanuel. We just sang
about that. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Who is Emmanuel? He's God with
us. And he had to die for the sins
of his people. That's why he had to become flesh
without sin. to not only be our representative,
our high priest, but to be our sacrifice, to be our substitute,
to take our place, having our sins, the sins of his people,
the sins of his sheep. You remember the high priest
of Israel, he went in there for Israel, not for everybody without
exception. He had 12 names on that breastplate,
12 names, six and six on those amulets. And that's who he brought
the blood of the Lamb into the holiest of all for. That's what
our great high priest Christ, he entered into the holiest of
all, the very presence of God, with his own blood, the Lamb
that was slain. Satisfaction to his justice for
our sins charged to him. And that's what he did. He offers
gifts and sacrifices. The sacrifices are the blood
sacrifices, showing that God must be just when he justifies.
The gifts are the gifts of praise and worship and service to God
that can only be accepted with God based on the merits of Christ. We're accepted in the Beloved.
Praise is acceptable to God through Christ. And then it says in verse
2, he had compassion on the ignorant. The high priest of Israel was
not to be lifted up with pride as if he was better than everybody
else. He was to view himself as a sinner
who needed salvation by God's grace. Well, that's a picture
of Christ who had compassion on his people. The Bible says
in John 13, 1, he loved his own until the end. This describes
the magnitude of his love for his people. He gave himself. He told them, he said, nobody
takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. And
why did he do that? The joy that was set before him.
It was the glory of his father and the salvation of his people.
And notice who he had compassion on, the ignorant and those that
are out of the way. That describes his lost sheep, doesn't it? Ignorant
and out of the way. We've all gone our own way. But
he's gonna find his sheep. The good shepherd gave his life
for the sheep, and he's gonna have them. He bought them lock,
stock, and barrel with the price of his blood. he's going to have
me. He said, he said, them I, other
sheep I have which are not of this fold, this Jewish fold,
he said, them I must bring. That's God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. That's who he died for. And it
says in verse three, by reason hereof he ought as for the people
so also for himself to offer for sins. When the high priest
of Israel went into the holiest of all bearing the blood, he
went in not only for the sins of the people, but for his own
sins, for he himself was a sinner. But here's the greater superiority
of our high priest, Christ was never a sinner. He was never,
people talk about this word in 2 Corinthians 5.20, he was made
sin. Yes, he was made sin. How? By God charging the sins of his
elect to Christ, legally. And he became guilty, not because
of his own sins, and I'm gonna talk about that in just a moment
when I get down to here to verse nine. But Christ went in for
the sins of his people. And it tells us that he was the
sinless, spotless sacrifice. He offered himself without spot
to God. And yet he was charged with the
sins of his people. He was made sin, but he wasn't
made a sinner. He wasn't corrupted like you
and I are. He wasn't damaged goods like
you and I are. He was the perfect, sinless sacrifice. And let me tell you something,
that's the only way he could have been qualified to stand
in our place before God and satisfy justice. He is God in human flesh. Verse four, no man taketh this
honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.
This speaks of the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption
made before the foundation of the world, wherein Christ was
set up and appointed and chosen by the Father to be the surety
of his people. In fact, in Isaiah 42, I believe
it's there, that he's called God's elect. He's the chosen
of God. He's the anointed one. Well this
thing didn't happen in a vacuum. This thing didn't happen as an
afterthought. This was not God's plan B. This
took place in the everlasting covenant of grace before the
world began. Now chew on that for a while. Isn't that something? What a
great God we have. All of this. And so he didn't
take it upon himself to do this. He was the servant of the covenant. The servant of the Father. And
it says in verse five, so also 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? It's talking about the
covenant where God the Father chose the Son. You see, the Trinity
is another concept that's just mind-boggling, but we know it's
true because God's word says it's true. Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit co-equal in every attribute of deity, But in order for us
to be saved from our sins, the son made himself subservient
to the father as the servant of the covenant. That's why he
said, he came to serve. He came to do a work. He came
to complete it. And it says in verse six, as
he saith also in another place, thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Now I'm gonna get to Melchizedek
later on. In fact, it's not until chapter
7 that we get into detail. But the point that's being made
here is that Christ's priesthood, his high priesthood, was not
after the human priesthood of Aaron and the Levitical priest
under the Old Covenant. In order to be a priest in the
Old Covenant, to be a high priest, you had to be a direct descendant
of Aaron, and to be a priest in the tabernacle and in the
temple, you had to be born of the tribe of Levi. Christ, in
his humanity, was not born of the tribe of Levi, he was born
of the tribe of Judah. which is the royal tribe, the
kingly tribe, the scepter will not depart from Judah till Shiloh
come. So he had, think about this,
that which gloriously in that human and ceremonial and temporal
way typified his priesthood, typified his substitutionary
work, he had no right to be a priest according to that covenant. But
he was after another order. And it's described as the Order
of Melchizedek. And I won't go into detail on
that, but you know the name Melchizedek, you know what it means, don't
you? King of Righteousness. Melchizedek was a glorious type
of Christ. Some commentators even say he
was a pre-incarnate visitation. Christ I I don't I'm not going
to get into all that today, but I know this Melchizedek he met
Abraham when Abraham was traveling Back from the war and he blessed
Abraham and this was recorded in Genesis 14 We'll get to that
later but look at verse 7 who in the days of his flesh when
he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears speaking of Christ in the days of his flesh when
he was going through the sufferings of that he went through for his
people because of our sins imputed to him. He said he offered up
prayers, supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared.
This is speaking of Christ, for example, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You remember that as it's recorded in the book of Matthew and Mark
and Luke, how he agonized in his humanity, in the infirmities
of the flesh. No sinfulness there. No unbelief
there. But you remember he said, if
it be possible for this cup to pass from me, he said, nevertheless,
thy will be done. He was going through things in
his humanity that he had never experienced before. Pain and
suffering like we could never imagine. Sweating great drops
of blood. And that's what that's talking
about, you see. He offered up with strong crying and tears,
and he knew that it was the Father. He was dependent on the Father.
He made himself of no reputation, a servant dependent on the Father. He knew the Father would make
good on His promise to deliver him from the grave, able to save
him from death. And verse 8 says, though he were
a son, yet learned he obeys. Now this is where I want to get
to this morning. And this is so appropriate, I
thought today, this is so appropriate for the Lord's Supper. You know,
the Lord's Supper is a memorial ordinance. That's what it is. It's really not a sacrament.
You ought to understand the word sacrament means that it would
have some salvific value, some saving value. You're not going
to be saved by drinking the wine or eating the unleavened bread. We're saved by God's grace based
upon the merits of the person whom this represents. The unleavened
bread represents his perfect humanity, his perfect body, which
was offered upon the cross for our sins. and his blood, the
wine represents his blood, which cannot be corrupted, but which
indicates his death to satisfy justice. Well, this is what this
is talking about. Verse eight, though he were a
son, the son of God, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. Now what this is talking about
is his experience of going through the agonies of the cross, the
agonies of the derision of sinful men like us. The agonies of being
nailed to the tree. Think about it. He was experiencing,
when it says he's learning, it's not talking about learning knowledge
or anything like that, like he was ignorant, but he's going
through things that he never experienced before. Pain and
suffering like, you know, our Lord, look over at chapter four,
verse 15. It says, for we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Now these infirmities are the weaknesses of human flesh. They're not necessarily sinful,
though it is in us because we're sinners. But in Christ, he experienced
the same kind of weaknesses in his created humanity. For example,
he got hungry. He had to eat. You remember when
he was on the Mount of Temptation? Having not eaten 40 days and
40 nights, he was hungry. Remember how Satan tempted him,
you know, make these stones bread to fill your hunger. You say,
well, was he like us? In every way except one. Look
at verse 15. But was in all points tempted
or tested like as we are, yet without sin. And I always kind
of explain it this way. If you and I, decide we're gonna
go on a 40 day and night fast. Can you imagine how hungry we
would be after that 40 night fast? Oh, we'd be, I've never
done that. And I'm not suggesting you do
that now. But could you imagine, well Christ, in his humanity,
was just as hungry as you and I would be. But here's the difference. When Satan tempted him, it never
entered his mind. to deny or compromise the glory
of his father to relieve that hunger. But now in us, it would
enter our minds, wouldn't it? I'll do anything to get a piece
of bread. I'll do anything to get a good
steak or whatever. That's the flesh, isn't it? That's
sinful flesh. But Christ didn't have any of
that. But yet he learned obedience. In other words, what he went
through and experienced as he began to near the cross and go
to the cross, and it says here, it says, verse eight, though
he were a son, he's still the son of God incarnate. He's still
the perfect God-man. But he learned obedience by the
things which he suffered. And then it says in verse nine,
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all of them that obey him. Being made perfect. Well, you
know, normally when we think of the word perfect, we apply
that to some idea of moral perfection. But that's not what it's talking
about here. Christ was always and is always morally perfect. There was no sin in him, He committed
no sin. Moral perfection was the glory
of his person, the spotless lamb of God. There was no thoughts
of sin in his mind. There were no desires that were
sinful, sinful thoughts, sinful desires. See, this is the corruption
of sin. The corruption of the flesh is
what we have. Sinful thoughts. Sinful desires. Sinful motives. Sinful goals. Sometimes working themselves
into sinful actions. And that's why we need to be
saved from our sins. That's what our depravity is
all about. Coming from ignorance and deception
and darkness. Christ had none of that. He had
none of that. But, what does it mean being
made perfect? As the mediator, as our great
high priest, as the mediator between God and men, as the savior
of his people, he had a work to complete and finish. And that's what that means, being
made perfect. As our high priest, completing
a perfect work, What happened? He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him. You see, Christ finished
the work. Let me show you a passage here.
I heard a message on this a few weeks back, very disappointing
message. And it's in Luke chapter 13.
Turn to Luke chapter 13. The Bible teaches us plainly that
the reason the Lord Jesus Christ came into this earth was to fulfill
all righteousness. Remember, that's what he said
at his baptism. He said, suffer it to be so for us to fulfill
all righteousness. The Bible teaches us, and you
look at Luke 13, but in Hebrews chapter two and verse 10, that
the captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings.
Not that it changed him in his morality or his thought. No,
he was always morally perfect, but he was made perfect through
sufferings in that through his sufferings, he perfected a work. He completed a work. He finished
a work. Remember on the cross, John 19.30,
what did he say? It is what? Finished. Same word. Hebrews 10, 14 says that by one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He
completed, finished all righteousness. He put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. He satisfied the justice of God
as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. He bought and paid
for his sheep and he'll have them, every one of them. And
that work is even completed as he brings his lost sheep into
the fold, for he's not only the author of eternal salvation,
he's the finisher. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. But look at this passage in Luke
13. And look at, oh, verse 11. I may have the wrong one, yeah.
No, over in verse 31. Luke 13, verse 31, I'm sorry. It says, the same day there came
certain of the Pharisees saying unto him, get thee out and depart
hence for Herod will kill thee. Talking to the Lord, Herod will
kill thee. Verse 32, and he said unto them,
go ye and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils, I do cures
today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. I heard a man preaching on that
talking about how Christ had to be perfected in the same way
that a fire burning perfects gold by burning the dross out
of it. In other words, he had to be
perfected, he had to be made incorrupted by the removing of
sin which contaminated him. That's not what this is saying,
folks. He was never corrupted or contaminated with the sins
of God's people that were imputed, charged, accounted to him. I
mean, on that cross, when he was dying for it, suffering and
pain and agony, he never, this is what I believe the Bible teaches
and I believe it's necessary for us to know this. On that
cross, Christ died, could you imagine the pain? The agony,
it really is unimaginable. But while he was on that cross,
he never had a sinful thought. He never had a sinful desire. He never had a sinful motive
or goal in mind. Look at the seven sayings on
the cross, that proves it. Somebody made the state one time
that When he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And isn't that mind boggling? They said that he expressed unbelief
there. And that he expressed alienation
in the way of unbelief. But notice what he said there.
He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he
wasn't asking that for information. He wasn't asking that because
he didn't understand what was going on. He was making a point.
Why did the father forsake the son? Because of the sins of God's
elect sheep laid upon him. And he bore those iniquities.
And he went through all the pain and suffering that anyone could
go through. to satisfy the justice of God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, scripture says. And why did he do it? To put
away the sins of his people. Well, when he says the third
day, I shall be perfected, he's simply saying on the third day,
he's gonna finish the work. He's gonna complete it. He's
going to do everything that's necessary to save sinners from
their sin. He's going to secure the entire
complete salvation of every sinner whom God the Father gave him
before the foundation of the world. Isn't that what he said? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out and this is the will of him that sent me that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing. but raise it up
again at the last day. Isn't that beautiful? That's
what the Lord's Supper's all about. And in this, Christ established
the covenant of grace and fulfilled all of its conditions by his
suffering and obedience unto death, which was all required
to satisfy the justice of God, though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. Christ learning
obedience is not the same way that we learn obedience, is it?
We learn obedience because we're by nature disobedient. We have to learn obedience because
we by nature are disobedient. That's why we have to be chastised. That's why we have to be continually
taught, corrected, Constantly. But Christ, Christ, He learned
obedience because He was and is by nature obedient. That's
a difference. And I'll tell you what, all of
this, when it talks about Him being a priest, look at verse
10 of Hebrews 8. Called of God and high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. You know what that proves? That
proves the abolishment of that earthly priesthood and the whole
Old Covenant by way of fulfillment. You remember when he said it's
finished? What happened? The veil was torn in two, from
top to bottom, not from bottom to top. God did this, see, not
man. And this is why we are dogmatic,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God. Again, one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You know, I think
that's probably, if not the most, one of the most hated doctrines
of true Christianity. The singularity of Jesus Christ
as the one way of salvation, the one way of righteousness,
the one way of salvation and glory. Because people by nature,
we want to believe there's many ways, different ways. You got
your way. I got my way. My way's just as
good as yours. No. One way, Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And his way is the way of suffering
unto death. And in this, In this way, he
made an end of sin. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. He made an end of the law. The
Bible says in Romans 10, 4, that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. There's no other
way. There's no other avenue. He established and completed
the work of redemption, which is the righteousness by which
God justifies the ungodly, and there's no other way. And that's
why his priesthood is so much, think about it, people wanting
to go back under this covenant or that, we have something so
much better, don't we? We have Christ. Bible says that
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him. The reason we're complete in
Him is because He perfected the work. He finished the work. He
brought in righteousness, and that's the righteousness of God
revealed in the Gospel. There is no other way.