Our Great High Priest

I can't repeat those two simple words too many times. We are so prone to want to add something to Christ. How we need to be reminded, Jesus only, Jesus only. As we were singing that hymn, I was thinking about Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. when the veil of our Lord's humanity was removed, and the radiance of his deity shined forth as the noonday sun, and Peter, James, and John were forced to the ground.

And Peter foolishly said, because Moses and Elijah, you remember, appeared there, and they discussed with the Lord that which he would accomplish at the cross. He would fulfill the law, Moses, And he would answer all the promises of the prophets, Elijah. And Moses and Peter wanted to build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. But when he looked up, the scripture says he saw Jesus only. Moses and Elijah weren't there. Jesus only. our great high priest. I want to try to bring a message this morning from Hebrews chapter 5, but before we get to our text I'd like to ask you to move to open your Bibles to 2nd Chronicles chapter 26. 2nd Chronicles chapter 26.

Uzziah reigned in the lineage of David over the nation of Judah for 52 years. And in so many ways, he was a good king. He built up their military so that it was the number one power of the world. He built their defenses. He strengthened the hand of God's people as their leader. for 52 years.

But something happened at the end of his life, and this is scary for all of us, that we could fall away. But at the end of his life, he interpreted all the successes that he had as something that he had done. And his power went to his head. And he thought that he no longer needed a priest to intercede for him.

He was the king, well-respected not only in Judah, but all the world, and that he could approach God without a priest. And here in 2 Chronicles 26, we have that story. Verse 16, But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of the Lord. The burning incense was was prayer. I can approach the throne of grace without a priest, without an advocate, without a substitute. Look at me. Look what I've achieved. Look what I've accomplished. Look how strong I am. Surely God will give me access into his presence without the aid of a priest.

And Azariah, the priest, went in after him, and with him four score priests of the Lord. That's 80 men, 80 valiant men, strong men, following after the king. And they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him, it appertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priest, the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed. Neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth. He was angry. Who are you to stand up against me? I'm the king. And he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. He was determined to offer prayers to God without the aid of those men.

And while he was wroth with the priest, the leprosy rose even up on his forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death and dwelt in a several house being a leper. And he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Jotham, his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

One of my favorite passages, Isaiah was the prophet during the life of Uzziah. And one of my favorite passages in scripture is found in Isaiah chapter six. And that chapter begins with in the year that Uzziah died. So sometime after Uzziah did this and was stricken with leprosy and put into a, to a house of lepers or at least into a a house of seclusion. He died sometime after that in shame.

And Isaiah, fearful that the king's death was representative of God removing his blessings from Israel, his presence from Israel, Isaiah went to the temple to pray. And Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 starts with, in the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord. Isaiah was grieved over the thought that perhaps the blessings of God were removed from Israel as a result of what their king did, trying to approach God without a priest. But God's mercy provided grace. And the Lord, and Isaiah said, I also saw the Lord.

Men of strength believe that they can approach God on the merits of their own righteousness. They believe that they have works that are sufficient to recommend them to God. They believe that their free will is enough to be able to come before God and offer gifts and prayers.

That's what he was doing. The censer and the incense was prayers that were offered up to God. I can go before God and pray without a priest. When he was strong, his heart was lifted up. The gospel is not for the strong. The gospel is for the poor and the needy. The gospel is for the weak, the sick, the halt, the blind, the naked. That's who the gospel's for. The gospel is for sinners, not for men who stand on their own two feet and believe themselves to be qualified to approach the God of glory. But for those who know that unless they have a priest to go before them and to offer gifts and sacrifices that are acceptable to God, that they would never be able to approach they would never be able to approach God Almighty.

And so beginning with Aaron, turn with me if you will, to Hebrews chapter five now. Beginning with Aaron, the Lord gave the children of Israel priests in the tribe of Levi. And one of the priests in the tribe of Levi would have been the high priest. And the primary responsibility of the high priest was to go into the holies of holies.

Now, God gave to Moses very specific instructions on how the tabernacle was to be built. And in the inner sanctum of that tabernacle was a room. that was called the Holies of Holies. And inside that room was the Ark of the Covenant. A small box made of Shittem wood, a wood that would not decay, that wood representing the humanity of Christ, overlaid completely in gold, and that gold representing the deity of Christ. Within the ark was the rod of Moses that budded, speaking of Christ as the high priest. Within that ark was the two tablets of stone that Moses brought down from the mountain, the law of God, representing the Lord Jesus Christ as king. And within that ark was an ophar of manna, a jar of manna. representing the Lord Jesus Christ as the priest.

The prophet, the one who brought the Word of God from heaven, the one who himself is the prophet and is the Word of God. The priest, the high priest who went into the Holies of Holies on the Day of Atonement once a year and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, That mercy seat being covered by the wings of the seraphim. There were two seraphim, one on each side, and their wings touched at the middle of that mercy seat. And Aaron would go in and put the blood on the mercy seat.

And God said, here I will meet with you. And this is the only place I will meet with you. When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. And once a year on the day of atonement, the high priest would go into that holies of holies and put the blood on the mercy seat. And the presence of God would be demonstrated in what's called the Shekinah glory. The smoke and the presence and the fire of God would come. And it was representative of what the Lord Jesus would do when he came. Got to have a priest. There's got to be an atoning sacrifice. There's got to be an ark. The priest would go in and make that sacrifice.

Now, By the time of the Lord Jesus, that holies of holies, that inner sanctum where the covenant, where the Ark of the Covenant was, was separated from the rest of the tabernacle by a veil. Now, the tabernacle was replaced by Solomon's temple. And then Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. And when Ezra and Nehemiah came back from Babylonian captivity, About 500 BC, they rebuilt the temple. And prior to the Babylonian captivity, all worship surrounded that ark.

And the ark is mentioned time and time again in the worship of Israel as the central point They were looking at that ark for what it represented, the coming of the Messiah, the prophet, priest, and king who would shed his own blood so that they would have access into the presence of God.

But I want you to turn with me to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the prophet during the Babylonian captivity. When the Babylonians came in, Jeremiah was a prophet of Judah. And Jeremiah was carried off into Babylonian captivity as well. And here's what Jeremiah prophesies in Jeremiah chapter three. This is important. Jeremiah chapter three, verse 16. And it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land. Now, Jeremiah is prophesying of what's going to happen when the people come back.

In those days, saith the Lord, they shall no more say the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Neither shall it even come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. Why not? because the Ark of the Covenant was either stolen, melted down, destroyed when the Babylonians came in and destroyed Solomon's temple. In the book of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, those are all books written after the return of the children of Israel from Babylon As often as the Ark of the Covenant is mentioned before the Babylonian captivity, it's never mentioned again afterwards. And Jeremiah prophesied that they'll forget about it. They won't have it. So when Nehemiah and Ezra rebuilt the temple, they rebuilt the Holies of Holies, but it was empty. There was nothing in there.

And in 20 BC, when Herod, trying to befriend the Jews, expanded the temple, now this is the temple that existed at the time of Christ, was Herod's temple, and it was magnificent. Even the apostles were impressed with the temple when they sat with the Lord on the Mount of Olives and they pointed out the temple and they pointed out its magnificence. And the Lord said to the disciples, not one stone will be left upon another. And only 40 years later, the Romans came in and destroyed that temple.

And it's been said that Herod's temple, the Holies of Holies, It was so large, so magnificent that the veil that covered the Holies of Holies during the time of Christ, that veil that was rent when the Lord Jesus bowed his mighty head and cried, it is finished, was 60 feet tall and 30 feet wide and a hand breath thick.

That's the curtain. that covered the holies of holies during the time of Christ. And it was empty. There was nothing in there. The priest, we know from extra biblical writings that the priest would go in for these 500 years. The priest would go in and sprinkle the blood on the floor. The Ark of the Covenant wasn't there.

So when that massive veil was rent, 60 feet, this is 20 feet, 60 feet tall. And when it was rent by the very hand of God from top to bottom, yes, the Lord Jesus was saying unto us, God was saying unto us, the veil has been rent, which is the body of Christ, and the way has been opened for you. Come, come. But there's something else that the Lord was revealing in the renting of that veil.

You remember the high priest only went in once a year. No one else ever knew what was in there or what was not in there. What is God revealing in the renting of that massive veil? The hypocrisy of man-made religion. God is pulling the curtain back. on the rules and regulations of what man says is required in order for you to be saved. The pretended sacrifices that were going on year after year after year. And like the Wizard of Oz, the veil is, the curtain's been pulled back and it's been exposed for what man has done to God's religion.

And the Lord Jesus has come now as the Ark of the Covenant of God, fulfilling everything that is required in order for us to be able to come before the throne of grace and find help in our time of need. He is our High Priest. And whatever men contrive and whatever they imagine to do and whatever sleight of hand and whatever pretended forms of worship they go through is no different than what those Jews were doing in the very time of Christ when he died on the cross, pretending to make atonement, but none of it satisfying God. Now, when the writer of Hebrews tells us about the Lord Jesus being our high priest, he is likening Christ to those Old Testament types and shadows. And so we have, in Hebrews chapter 5, a very orderly layout. Let me preface what I want to say by saying this.

God owes us no explanation whatsoever. God could speak one word and demand obedience to that word. Matter of fact, we saw in the previous hour that what God has impressed on our conscience and on our hearts and what he's written for us in nature alone leaves us without excuse, whether we ever hear the gospel or not. Because we have worshiped not God for who he is, we worship ourselves. That having been said, the Lord lays out for us a very logical argument proving the legitimacy of the Lord's priesthood. And in this, we see his mercy.

Lord, you didn't have to go through. You don't have to defend yourself. You don't have to prove yourself. And yet, he doesn't just say this is the way it is. He gives us evidence on top of evidence, proof on top of proof. Number one, as judgment to the unbeliever who denies the clear evidence that God has given, but number two, as comfort and assurance to his people to know that these things are so. This is true. You know, I chuckle a little bit when men get all excited about the intelligence of an octopus or a chimpanzee or a dolphin when they are able to do problem solving on the scale of a one-year-old.

And the truth is there's no animal in this world that's been made like us. Yes, the image of God has been greatly marred by the fall. And that's the reason why the Lord was so marred at the cross that he didn't even look like a man anymore, burying our sins in his body. That having been said, we are made in the image of God.

And that we're able to reason, we're able to think, we're able to process things like no other creature. We're able to have some concept of there being a God and of His laws and of His nature where no other creature can do that. And the Lord, mercifully and mindful of how he made us lays out for us very clear evidence of who the Lord Jesus is and how he qualifies and how he fulfills and how it is that he is the legitimate high priest before God so that all of these arguments Yes, they lead men without excuse, but they give to us such great assurance of what the Lord's saying. Again, we don't understand anything as it fully is, and we confess that.

But the Lord is reasoning with us. He tells us in the book of Isaiah. to come. And listen to Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be made like wool. Come, The Lord is calling on us to come before Him and before His Word and think through these things and understand these things as they're revealed in Scripture. This is not, can the gospel be understood by logic? Is that what I'm suggesting? Not at all. But is the gospel illogical? Is it unreasonable?

No. No. The Lord is reasoning with us. So that we can read these words and we can say, that's so clear, that's so simple, how can I not believe it? How could I ever be like those priests who stood in the very presence of Lazarus being raised from the dead and say, we're gonna get rid of the evidence. The evidence is overwhelming, brethren. And it's clear, and it's simple, and it's true. And to deny it is purposeful. It's purposeful. It's just saying, I'm not going to bow. I'm not going to believe. I'm going to have it my own way. It's willing blindness.

Now, all of that to get to our text, which is so clear and so simple. For a priest to be qualified, he must offer gifts and sacrifices that are acceptable to God. Verse 5, chapter 5, verse 1. The Lord is reasoning with us. He is comparing and contrasting the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, that high priest. Now let me say this also. By the time of the Lord Jesus, Azariah, a high priest during the days of Uzziah, was of the lineage of Aaron.

The high priest was still in its in its descent as it was supposed to be. By the time of Christ, the high priest position was a position of political power and was bought and sold to the highest bidder. That's how degenerate the religion of the Jews had become. And the high priest would go into the holies of holies and pretend to be offering sacrifices on the ark, which wasn't even there. And he had bought himself into that position of power. Verse 1, for every high priest taken from among God is ordained for men in things pertaining to God.

He was making sacrifices to God. God's not making himself a sacrifice to us in the gospel for us to accept or reject, for us to make a decision. No, Christ went into the holies of holies and he put his blood on the mercy seat. Not a holies of holies that was built by the hands of men, but that holies of holies in heaven. And He made gifts and offerings to His Father of His own blood. That He may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. For sins.

No sacrifice that we make. No gift that we make. No suffering. You know, you hear people say after suffering a long-term illness in this life, well, they're in a better place. Well, not if they're not in Christ, they're not. Their suffering in this life was nothing compared to the suffering that will come. You don't earn heaven by suffering in this world. No amount of suffering. That's why hell is eternal. No amount of suffering in hell will be sufficient to atone for your sins.

We need a high priest and he must offer gifts and sacrifices to God that will atone for our sins. And only the Lord Jesus could do that. And even the legitimate priests and even the time when the Ark was there in the Holies of Holies, they were doing it as a type, as a shadow of what the Lord would accomplish when he came.

Verse 2, who can have compassion on the ignorant? In the Lord Jesus, we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was touched in all ways that we are. He sympathizes with us. He knows the weakness of flesh.

He knows the evils of sin. He cried in the garden, Father, if there be any way this cup can pass from me. He knew that when he went to the cross that he was going to experience his separation from the Father. He was going to drink the bitter dregs of sin And his crying to the Father is evidence of his holiness.

You know, we're not so bothered by our sin, but sin to him was, you know, words to describe what it was to him. And on them that are out of the way, we're out of the way. All we like sheep have gone our own way. And there is a way that seems right unto man, but in the end, that way leads to death. What's the way that seems right unto man? That I should be able to enter into the holies of holies. I'm strong. I'm Uzziah. I've got something that'll qualify me to present to God. He himself also is compassed with infirmities.

Now, in here at the next verse, the Lord is contrasting the Lord Jesus to those priests in the Old Testament, because all the priests in the Old Testament had to first make sacrifice for their own sins before they can make sacrifice for the sins of the people.

And the Lord Jesus, when he made sacrifice of himself for the sins of his people, he had no need to make sacrifice for his own sins. He had no sin. And by reason hereof, he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins. So he had to offer sins for his own sins, sacrifice for his own sins before he could make sacrifice. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

Caiaphas, the high priest during the time of Christ, Annas, these men that bought and sold the position of high priest for their own power, they weren't chosen of God. So also Christ. You see the logic that our Lord is using in his word to show us how all of these patterns were fulfilled in Christ. And to not believe on Christ and to not come to Christ is to ignore the obvious, is to deny the obvious.

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. And he said also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He was called of God. He was sent of his father as our high priest to open the veil that we might be able to come. In verse seven, this high priest not only had to offer gifts and sacrifices, he not only had to be called of God as was the Lord Jesus, but he must be qualified in his character to be diligent and sincere in what he's doing.

If he's going to go without making sacrifices for his own sin, then he must be without sin. Who in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. The Lord is obviously connecting this to our Lord's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is given to us in great detail in all four gospel accounts. When he went off on his own, sweat-draped drops of blood cried out to his father, Father, if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. So when the writer of Hebrews says, with great cries and tears, he called out to the one who was able to save him and was heard.

Well, what exactly was the Lord praying in the Garden of Gethsemane? Was he praying to be delivered from drinking the cup? No, he was praying for the Father's will to be done. and for his death to be successful in saving his people. That's what he was praying for. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Was he feeling the weight of being made sin? Yes. Yes. But that wasn't his prayer.

His prayer. was that the offer that he was going to make of himself would be effectual to his father in saving his people. That's the only way we can understand this verse. With prayers, let's read it again. With prayers and supplications, with strong cryings and tears, he prayed unto the Father who was able to save him from death.

Not the death of the cross. He wasn't praying to be saved from the death of the cross. He was praying to be saved from the eternal death of damnation. And as he prayed for himself, he's praying for his church. If he was praying to be saved from the death of the cross and was heard because he believed, well, he obviously wasn't heard. He died. He wasn't praying for that death.

Brethren, we have a high priest who ever lives, who makes intercession for us. And his prayers are heard by his father. Why? Because he feared, because he believed God. Every prayer that he prayed. to be saved from death, from eternal death, from judgment, from separation from God, from hell. That's his prayer for us.

We have a high priest who's gone before his father and he was heard in that he feared, he believed God. Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered." The things which he suffered was the demonstration of his obedience to his father. And it was the perfection of his obedience that performed the sacrifice that he made as our high priest to be effectual for our salvation.

Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. This is the perfection. Verse 7, Philippians chapter 2. He made of himself no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What the Lord Jesus was praying for his church was that the father would accept his obedience his sacrifice, and that his shed blood would be put on that mercy seat in heaven, and that it would be effectual to save his people from death. So that now we're able to say, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the resurrection and the life, and that he that believeth on thee, though he die, yet shall he live. And he that believeth and liveth shall never die.

I am the resurrection and the life. I am your high priest. What a simple declaration. I want to call it an argument. God doesn't argue with us, but you understand what I mean by that. He's laying these things out for us so that they are undeniable. And look at the last verse in our text in Hebrews chapter five.

And being made perfect, for him to be a successful high priest, his offering had to be acceptable to God. It had to be a perfect offering. And being made perfect, he became the author of salvation, the cause of our salvation, the origin of our salvation, to everyone that obey. that believe on him, that cry out to him, that look to him, that follow him. Lord, you, you're my priest.

The veil's been rent. All the hopes of my false gospel have been exposed as an empty room. The only ark that exists is that one that's in heaven. And you perfected the sacrifice that God required. And I believe, I believe you. We got no place else to go.

And to not believe is to willfully ignore the simple truths that God has revealed over and over and over again. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for the revelation of Christ. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Lord, make us willing now and cause us to cry, Hosanna, save us, Lord, even now. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 232. 232. And hard back to him to let stand together. Christ our Redeemer died on the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due.

Sprinkle your soul with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will save. All he has promised, that he will do. Wash in the fountain, open for sin. And I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgment is coming. All will be there. Each one receiving justly his due.

Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing blood, and I will pass, will pass over you when I see the blood, when I see the blood. When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Oh, great compassion. Oh, boundless love. Oh, loving kindness, faithful and true. Find peace and shelter under the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you when I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Please be seated. For the Lord's table today, we'll sing hymn 191, also in the hardback timbrel, 191.

Our Great High Priest

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