Scripture reading will be taken
from Hebrews chapter five, Hebrews the fifth chapter. We'll read the first 10 verses. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men and 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 was 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 also Christ glorified not himself to be made in 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 forever after the order 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 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 obeyed him, called of God and
high priest after the order of Melchizedek." Thank God for his
word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before your throne of
grace this morning. We bow reverently. We bow with
hearts of worship. praise, adoration, and wonder. We bow before the King of all
the earth. Almighty God, Lord, we bow. And yet how thankful we are to
be able to come boldly before your throne of grace. Not a throne
of justice, but a throne of grace in the person of Christ our Savior. Father, we also bow thankfully
how we thank you for all your untold, unnumbered blessings
to your people in our Lord Jesus Christ. Chiefly, how we thank
you for him. How we thank you for a savior
who became one with his people to make them righteous through
his obedience and to put their sin away by the sacrifice of
himself. How we thank you for such an
high priest that makes his people accepted. Oh, how we thank you. Father, I pray this morning that
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up and magnified in
everything that we do here today. Cause the name of Christ to be
lifted up so high that he's on the hearts and minds of your
people. Let us lay aside every other
thing that's going on in this world and our lives, let us lay
them aside, forget about them for at least this hour. And let us think only on Christ
our Savior. Father, bless the hearts of your
people through the preaching of Christ this morning. Cause
your gospel, I pray, to go forth in the power of your spirit,
to reach the hearts of your people, to give repentance and faith,
to feed and comfort and strengthen and edify the hearts of your
people, to strengthen our faith and our love in Christ our Savior. Father, what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people who are meeting together today
to worship. Get glory to your name through
the preaching of your word this morning, everywhere where it's
preached. Father, we thank you for the
blessings of this life that you've given us. You've blessed us beyond
measure. We thank you and we ask your forgiveness for not
being as grateful as we should. Thank you, Father, for our children,
all these little ones that you've given to us. Father, as we do
every day, how I pray mercy for their souls. We know that they
certainly did receive the nature of their fathers, sinful, fallen,
defiled nature. Father, we beg for mercy. Don't
give them what they deserve. Be merciful, Father. I pray you
give their parents wisdom to teach them and raise them in
the fear and admonition of the Lord. I pray that you'd make
us as a church body faithful to them, to teach them the scriptures,
to point them to Christ. Father, we dare not sin against
you in forgetting to pray for your people that you brought
into the time of trouble and trial. Those who are sick, who
are heartbroken, who are hurting, Father, I pray that you'd that
You'd heal, that You'd comfort, that You'd provide a way out
as soon as it could be Thy will. Father, again, bless us. Bless
us as we look into Your Word. Bless us with the sight of Christ
our Savior. Enable us to leave here rejoicing
in Him. For it's in His precious name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All things worked out for good,
we know, such is God's great design. He orders all our steps
below for purposes divine, for purposes divine. This is the faith that keeps
me still, no matter what the test, and lets me glory in His
will. For well I know tis best. For well I know tis best. So now the future holds no fear. God guards the work begun. And mortals are immortal here. Until their work is done. Until their work is done. Someday the path he chose for
me will all be understood. In heaven's clearer light I'll
see all things worked out for good. ? All things worked out
for good ? So from our Bibles again to Hebrews
chapter five. I've got a title this morning
that I hope will each of us will apply to our own hearts. Why
should I trust Christ? Most of you probably can't count
the number of times you've been told, trust Christ, look to Him,
run to Him. But why should I trust Christ? Now two of the most important
men of Israel of old were the prophet and the high priest.
Sometimes they were the same man. was so vital to Israel because
he spoke for God to the people. If you're going to hear from
God, you had to hear from the prophet that God gave him the
message for the people. And the second man was the high
priest. He was vitally important to Israel. He represented the
people to God. He offered the sacrifices that
God required. And he must be very important.
The writer to the Hebrews devotes two whole chapters to this high
priest. He's important because if you
would come to God, you must come through the high priest. God
would not accept any man any other way than through the high
priest. God struck King Uzziah with leprosy
because he tried it. He came to God without a high
priest. He went in and tried to burn
incense before the Lord and only the high priest could do that.
God struck him with leprosy because he tried to come to God without
a high priest. God killed Uzzah for just reaching out to touch
the ark. Remember, they were bringing it back on that cart
instead of the priest carrying it and the mules stumbled. He just reached up to steady
the ark. You don't want the ark of the covenant falling on the
ground, do you? He just reached up to touch it, to steady it.
God killed him for it. Reaching out to touch that ark
is coming to God without a high priest between you and God. Well,
you know, nothing's changed. You and I still cannot come to
God without a high priest. Can't do it. And there's only
one high priest God will accept. He's not a mere man. He's the
God man. The Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is the only priest that God will accept. He's the only way to
come before God accepted. And any other man who holds himself
up as a priest between the people and God is an abomination. You stay away from him. He's
putting something between you and God. You stay away from him.
He's putting himself, he's pretending to stand in the place of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who's the only high priest. You stay away
from him. He's a liar. If you and I would
come to God, we must come to God in Christ, our great high
priest. We must. All right, someone may
be wondering, well, why should I trust Christ? Why should I
have such confidence, a sinful person like me, to come before
God in Him? How do I know I still won't be
killed and cast into hell even if I do come in Christ? How do
I know that? Well, I'm glad you asked. I got seven reasons that each
of us should leave here this morning trusting in Christ as
our High Priest. Seven reasons to trust Christ
as the way to come to God and be accepted. And the first one
is this, now trust Christ, come to God by him, because Christ
satisfies our greatest need. He's taken care of the sin of
his people. Verse one, Hebrews five, 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 sin. Now all of us are sin. Now, yes,
we're sinners. but a more accurate description
of us is we are sin. We have a sin nature. Everything
we are, everything we say, do, and think is sin. It's the opposite
of God. And we must have a sacrifice
for that sin or we can never come to God. We cannot come to
God as we are. God will never accept us in our
sin. We need a high priest to offer
a sacrifice that'll put that sin away. Well, Christ, is our
great high priest. He's the perfect, sinless priest. And since he has no sin of his
own, he can take the sin of his people away from him. And he
has something to offer. He has a sacrifice. He can make
an atonement to God. He's got something to offer.
His own perfect blood, his own sinless self. And the Father
accepted that sacrifice. And he accepts everyone for whom
that sacrifice was offered. Now come to God by Christ. No
other priest can do what Christ, our high priest has done. Look
over a few pages of Hebrews chapter nine. This is the high priest
we need who can put sin away. Hebrews chapter nine, verse six. Now these things were thus ordained.
The priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. But into the second went the
high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. The
Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest whilst the first tabernacle was yet
standing, which was a figure, just a picture for the time then
present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. which stood only in meats and
drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on
them until the time of reformation. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. for us. No other priest could
do that. He's the only one. By His own
blood, He put away the sin of His people and brought in eternal
redemption for them. Now come to God by Him. He's
the only one who can pay for your sin. He's the only one who's
got anything to offer. And He also takes care of this need.
Not only did Christ pay for the sin of His people, He has compassion. You think of that. He has compassion
on his people and their sin. Does that make you want to run
to him? His compassion. Look at verse
2 in our text. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and them that are out of the way? For that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, was made flesh. He limited himself to the weakness
of our flesh, yet without sin. And when he was made flesh, he
compassed himself, just surrounded himself with all the infirmities
of our flesh. So he knows what it feels like.
He knows what sin feels like, what the weight of it, the guilt
of it. He knows the weakness of flesh. He knows what the sorrow
and the fears of the flesh. because he was tempted in all
points like as we are. Whatever it is you're tempted
with, whatever it is you suffer with, he was tempted with it.
He was suffered with it, yet without sin, yet without sin. So he can sympathize with us
in our weakness. He can sympathize with us when
we're tempted to sin. Now every time we're tempted
to sin, we sin. He never did that. But he can
sympathize with us in the temptation And He has compassion. He has
compassion on us. He doesn't look down His nose
at His people because they sinned when He didn't. No, He has compassion
on them in their sin. Now, you come to Him just as
you are. He's not going to turn you away
because you're sinning. He's not going to turn you away because
of your weakness. He'll accept you because of it. And He'll
comfort you in it. He has compassion. And He's the
one we need because we're all born out of the way. We're born
out of Christ who's the way of salvation. We're born out of
Christ who's the way to God. We're out of him. But Christ,
our great high priest, came to put his people back in the way
and to keep them there so they'll never get out of it again. He
came to find that weak, lost, ignorant, rebellious sheep that
wandered out in the wilderness and got lost. He came to find
that lost sheep. And when he finds them, He doesn't
beat him up for being ignorant. He doesn't beat him up for being
lost and being rebellious. No, he tenderly and compassion
picks that sheep up, puts that sheep, that little lamb on his
great shoulders and carries him all the way home in compassion
and tenderness. Now that compassion, that tenderness
ought to drive us to Christ. trusting in him. He is the one
we need. He meets our every need. Number
two, trust Christ. Come to God by him because he's
the sinless high priest. Verse three, and by reason hereof,
he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for
sins. Now, in order for sinners to
be saved, we've got to have a high priest who can satisfy both God
and men. Now we've just seen how Christ
satisfies the needs of men. He came and he put the sin of
his elect away. He made them perfect by his sacrifice. And he has compassion on their
sin, on their weakness, on their frailty. He's the high priest
we need, isn't he? Well, Christ, our great high
priest, also satisfies the Father by being sinless, by being holy. He satisfied God's holiness.
He satisfied God's justice. by his sinless perfect life and
by his perfect sacrifice for sin. Now the sons of Aaron could
never do that because they themselves were sinful men. See, all they
could do is give us a picture. They could never put the sin
of somebody else away because number one, they just offered
an animal sacrifice. Animal blood can't pay for our
sin. But number two, they're also sinful men. So they can't
do anything to put our sin away. What they did was a picture of
Christ. And before they could offer sacrifices for the sins
of the people, the first thing they had to do is offer sacrifice
for their own sins. See, they couldn't be a picture
of Christ, our great high priest, until they offered a sacrifice
for their sin, that ceremonially put their sin away, let them
be a picture of Christ and his sinlessness, because they were
not. You remember on the day of atonement, the very first
thing that day the high priest did, is he washed his body. Then ceremonially to give us
a picture of the purity of Christ our high priest. Then he went
and took that bullet and he sacrificed that bullet for his sin. See
that was ceremonially to show us the sinlessness of Christ
our high priest. Then and only then could that
high priest now be a picture of Christ and offer a sacrifice
for the sins of Israel. Now they did that year after
year after year, day after day after day. But we know now none
of those sacrifices put any sin away, did they? None of those
ceremonies put sin away. But then Christ came. Oh, then
he came. And he fulfilled the picture.
He did put the sin of his people away once and for all. And he
could do it because he's the sinless high priest. And he's
the sinless sacrifice. Christ didn't have to come offer
first a sacrifice for his own sin, because he never did sin. He had no sin. He didn't have
to offer a sacrifice first for his own sin. He just came to
offer a sacrifice for God's elect. And his sinlessness, his perfection,
is what allowed him to take the sin of his people away from him.
I can't take your sin away from you. I'm full of my own sin. I can't take your sin away from
you. Christ had no sin. He did no sin. He's perfect.
That let Him take the sin of His people away from Him. Put
it onto Himself and become the sacrifice for their sins. And
that one sacrifice is all He needed to offer. How many sacrifices
do you reckon Aaron offered? And his sons and grandsons and
great-grandsons. How many? Millions. Christ offered
one. Look over a page here in Hebrews
7 verse 26. For such an high priest became
us. This is the high priest we need, who's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices
first for his own sins and then for the people. For this he did
once when he offered up himself, and that put an end to the need
of the sacrifices. No more sacrifices need to be
offered because the one sacrifice of Christ perfected forever. them that believe. Now, there's
no more need for sacrifices. So there's no more need for a
priest on this earth. I mean, the priest's only job
was to offer sacrifice. If no more sacrifices need to
be offered, we don't need a priest on this earth. That's why I said
a man who sets himself up as a priest on this earth is a liar.
Christ is our great high priest. Friend, he is all we need. He's all we need. Now you go
to God by Him. Don't try to find some sinful
man this earth is going to make, you know, do something for you,
whatever it is he's pretending to do. You come to God by Christ. You'll be accepted, made holy
and perfect in Him. All right? Thirdly, you can trust
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can come to God by Him because
of who appointed Him High Priest. Look back at verse 4 in Hebrews
5. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is
called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made in a high priest, but he that said unto
him, thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. Now Aaron was
the first high priest and he became the first high priest
because God chose him. God chose Aaron out of all the
men of the tribe of Levi, he chose him and appointed him to
be the high priest. Aaron didn't take that responsibility
upon himself. God said, Aaron is my high priest.
And then he gave Moses all those instructions for the, the, what
Aaron was supposed to do and his, his clothing and all these
things he was supposed to have because he said, Aaron is the
high priest. And then Aaron's sons will become high priest
after him. Their sons will become high priest
after them. All right. That's how men became high priest.
Those men who are just pictures of Christ. Well, how did Christ
become the high priest? How did He become the great high
priest? Well, He didn't take that honor
on Himself. He didn't just come and say, I'm the high priest.
The Father appointed Him to be the great high priest. You know,
I am occasionally asked to write a letter of reference. And I
don't know if that ever does any good or not. I would hope
if somebody knows me You know, they would think, well, Frank's
word, you know, means something. He might, he might know something,
you know, whether it's positive or negative or not. You can trust Christ to be your
high priest because who appointed him? The father. The father appointed
him. He didn't, he didn't pick somebody
that's going to fail the job. He didn't pick somebody who's
not going to have compassion. He's not going to be an offer
of sacrifice. The father appointed him high priest. And he's going
to get the job done. Look back at Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
thy holy one and said, I've laid up help upon one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant,
and with my holy oil have I anointed him. I have laid help upon one
who is mighty." He's powerful. He's going to get the job done.
Now you come to God by him. Now the Lord Jesus didn't become
high priest because he inherited the job from an earthly father.
But it is important for us to know he is somebody's son. He's the Son of the Eternal Father. Christ, our great High Priest,
is the Son of God. And because He's the Son of God,
He's God Himself. He won with the Father. Isaiah
said His name is the Everlasting Father. The Son is the Everlasting
Father. Now you can trust Him because
He's God. He's God who cannot lie. He's
God who cannot fail. I can't think of a better reason
to trust Him. other than he's God. He said, trust him, now
trust him. He will not fail. All right,
fourthly, come to Christ. Trust him, come to God by him,
because he's the eternal high priest. Verse six, as he saith
also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. Now the sons of Aaron just had
a temporary priesthood. You know, they had a high priest,
but when that Old one died, they had to get a new one. Well, maybe
the new one won't be as good as the old one. And frequently
they weren't. Well, it seemed like they just
kept going down and down and down in quality and the people suffered. Well, you don't ever have to
worry about that happening in spiritual history. I know that
happened in national history. It'll never happen to spiritual
history because Christ, our high priest, has an eternal priesthood. Now he did die, but he rose again,
didn't he? And He has an eternal priesthood. He ever lives making intercession
with the blood that He offered. And we never have to worry about
that priesthood being turned over to someone inferior. Because
no one can take His place. No one ever will take His place.
Christ our High Priest stands eternally. He eternally loves
His people. He eternally will represent His
people. He'll eternally plead His blood
for His people. He's never going to change. I
mean, just when we talk about the eternality of God, that doesn't
just mean He doesn't have any beginning, He doesn't have any
ending. He never changes. So He's never going to change
and decide to cast His people out because they're sin. He chose
them in their sin. He sent His Son to die for them
in their sin. He's not going to cast him out
because of it. Everything he does is eternal. He'll never
quit loving. He'll never quit representing
his people. Now trust him. Come to God by
him. Then fifthly, trust Christ. Come to God by him because he
is utterly unique. He's the king priest. Never been
another one like him. Verse six, as he saith also in
another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
one of a kind, utterly unique, and you can trust him. Now, there
are three important offices in Israel, prophet, priest, and
king. Now, a man could hold two of
those offices, but he can never hold all three. You could be
the prophet and the priest, like Samuel was. You could be the
prophet and the king like David was, but no one could ever be
the priest and the king, only the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Christ
could be the king priest. He could hold, he holds all three
of those offices because he's not a priest after the order
of Aaron. The Lord Jesus was from the tribe
of Judah. He wasn't from the tribe of Levi. So earthly speaking,
he could never be a priest. He was not a son, a grandson
of Aaron. And you know what, isn't that
a good thing? We need a better high priest than the sons of
Aaron. Christ didn't come after the order of Aaron. Christ is
the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now we'll spend
some more time on Melchizedek when we get to chapter seven,
but today I want us to see this. That Christ being a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek means that Christ is the king
priest. The only one who was ever both.
Now, who was Melchizedek? Well, I am very, very confident
that Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. We won't
split over it if you disagree with that, but I'm just confident
that this man, Melchizedek, he is a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. He was the king of Salem, king
of peace. He didn't have beginning of days.
He doesn't have end of life. Eric sure sounds like Christ,
doesn't he? Sure sounds like him. The Lord Jesus Christ is
so utterly unique. He's a high priest after the
order of himself. Now just let that sink in for
a minute. He's the high priest after the order of himself. It's so much better than Aaron,
isn't it? Melchizedek is the king, the
king of peace. Well, if the Lord Jesus Christ
is in the line of Melchizedek, he's a king too. And we already
seen he's the priest. So he's the king priest. Now
you can trust Christ. He's the king priest. He's the
priest with the power of the king to not just proclaim his
people righteous, but to make them righteous, to make them
holy in his sacrifice. Now you come to God by him and
you'll be accepted. All right. Sixthly, trust Christ. Come to
God by him because his obedience, is the obedience of his people.
Verse seven, who in the days of his flesh, we had 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 though he were a son yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered. Now, when the writer here talks
about the days of his flesh, those are the days that the Lord
Jesus appeared here on earth in the flesh in his earthly ministry.
But it didn't end when he ascended back on high, the days of his
flesh. He's still in human flesh right now. Right now, there's
a man in glory, the Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon the throne
of glory. He sits there as the salvation
of his people. He's still in the flesh. But
what he's talking about here is the days of his earthly ministry
when he was establishing righteousness for his people. Now, even though
he was in the flesh, the son of God never ceased to be God. Even though he was a real man,
he never ceased to be God. Now, don't try to figure that
out. Don't try to understand that. Just believe it. That's
just so from scripture. And as God, he couldn't learn
anything good. He's God. He knows everything.
But as a man, he learned. I can't explain that, but that's
what scripture says, isn't it? But he learned, he learned, he
learned by experience. He learned by experience the
weakness of our flesh. He learned by experience what
it is to feel solid. He learned by experience what
it feels like to have a broken heart. He learned by experience
what it feels like to be hungry and tired and thirsty. He learned
by experience what it means to have sleepless nights. He learned
what it feels like to be in pain. He learned by experience what
it feels like to have your friends turn their back on you and leave
you all alone. And he learned by experience
what it felt like to be totally dependent upon his father. And
since he learned all those things by experience, he's able to comfort
his people when we go through all those things. Isn't that
wonderful? He can comfort the hearts of
his people because he knows what it feels like to be going through
what you're going through. And more than that, more than
knowing what it feels like to be going through what we're going
through. He cares. Christ also learned by experience
what it is to be made under the law and to have to be obedient
to it. He learned by experience what
it is to be tempted to sin. Now, he never gave in. He never
sinned, but he knows what it's like to be tempted. And that's
good news. I mean, that's not just, you
know, some real good sounding point of doctrine. This is good
news. Christ was tempted to sin, but he never did. His obedience
is the obedience of his people. When he never gave in, you who
believe him never gave in either. See, that's the righteousness
of his people. His obedience is our obedience. It belongs
to us because he gave it to us and made it made it ours. He
learned what it's like to be made under the law. Get all your
seats now. Christ, our Savior, learned by
experience. The guilt of sin. He learned
it by experience. Now he did no sin. He never committed
any sin. but he was made sin for his people. And when he was made sin, he
felt the awful, awful guilt of sin. That's why he said, I'm
so ashamed, I cannot look up. He wouldn't be ashamed if he
suffered for somebody else's sin. He'd be a hero, wouldn't
he? No, he felt the guilt of that sin. That's why he's ashamed
he couldn't look up. Now, here's the good news. Again,
this is not just some point of doctrine we want to stand on.
This is good news for God's people. Since Christ literally, actually,
in reality, took the sin of His people away from them, He felt
the guilt of it, He felt the shame of it. He took it away
from them. Or all their sin could never
hurt Him again. Christ took it away. Put it all away under His
blood. That's good news. His obedience
is the obedience of His people. His obedience makes Him the perfect
sacrifice which can give us what we need. Blood to atone for our
sins. And Christ our Savior also learned
by experience what fear is. Now again, I can't explain this.
I just, I can't explain it. I do know our Savior never feared
going to the cross in the sense he wanted to avoid it. He didn't
fear it in that sense. But the man feared the agony
of being made sin. He feared the agony of suffering
for it. He feared the agony of being
separated from His Father. And that just shows you how real
Him being made sin was. The weight of it was so enormous
upon Him that it made the Son of God cry for help. The man was totally dependent
upon His Father to strengthen Him. And if the Father hadn't
strengthened Him in the garden, He'd have died wherever He got
to the cross and we'd have had no hope. The Father strengthened
He cried in that he feared and that word that he feared was
he was perfect. He was heard because he's perfect
and sinless. Now he wasn't delivered from
dying. He still must go to the cross and suffer and die. He
wasn't, he wasn't delivered from dying on the cross. He had to
suffer that in order to redeem his elect. But I'll tell you
what he was delivered from. He was delivered from the grave.
He was delivered from the power of death because he was sinless. His sacrifice put away all that
sin that was laid on Him. The grave could not hold Him.
Death could not hold Him in that He was perfect. He was delivered
from the power of death. He was delivered from the grave.
And when He rose again, He rose again as evidence. He justified
His people from their sin. That's good news, isn't it? Now
we know Christ had no sin of His own. And that's what let
Him take the sin of His people away from them. But when he took
it, now he must suffer for it. God is just. God must punish
sin. And even though the Lord Jesus
Christ was God's son, he was not exempt from God's justice. He must suffer for the sin that
was laid on him. He had to suffer everything he
suffered from the cradle to the grave. He had to suffer everything
he suffered in order to save his people from their sin. He
had to suffer the humiliation of being made flesh. He had to
suffer that. So we'd have a high priest in
our nature who could put away our sin. We had to have a sacrifice
in our nature. He had to suffer that humiliation
of being made flesh. He had to suffer the awful, horrible
transaction of being made sin. He had to suffer and die alone
on the cross, abandoned by his Father, for the sin laid upon
him, so that his elect would be redeemed. And he suffered
every bit of it. He didn't shy away from one speck,
if that's the right word, one speck of that suffering, so that
his people would be redeemed from their sin. Now that ought
to make us confident to run to Christ, be accepted in him. He's
the savior of sinners. He put away the sin of his people
and with his obedience made them righteous. All right, lastly,
trust Christ, come to God by him because he's the author of
eternal salvation. Verse nine, in being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. Now the words here made perfect
means he completed perfection. And the word author means the
cause of. So since Christ completed perfection, he completed perfect
righteousness and perfect holiness. He became the cause of eternal
salvation, eternal salvation for his people who were made
perfect by his sacrifice for them. It says here for those
who obey him, everybody who obeys him, is made perfect and has
this eternal salvation. Now, what is it to obey Christ? What is it? Is it to obey his
law? Is it to live the good Christian
moral life? What is it to obey Christ? Look at 1 John 3. I like this
verse so much, I put in the lesson and the message both. 1 John
3. This is what it is to obey Christ and to have eternal redemption,
eternal salvation. 1 John 3, verse 23. And this is his commandment.
What is the commandment of God? What is it God will have us do?
That we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. To obey Christ
is to believe him. It's to believe. that he is enough,
that he is all it takes to save your sorry soul. You don't have
to add any of your own works. You don't have to add any of
your own morality. You don't have to do this, that, or the
other, whatever. All the different hoops men make you have to jump
through. You don't have to jump through not one of them. One thing God
commands, believe. To believe on Christ means I
quit doing all those works of the law. Trying to establish
my own righteousness. Quit doing things that make God
think I'm a good little boy and He'll accept me. It's to quit
doing that. It's not trusting those things at all. And to trust
Christ is all of my salvation. Now listen. God commands us to
believe on Christ. He commands it. You believe Him
and God won't cast you out. He'll accept you in Christ. What
a wonderful reason to come to Christ, trust Him. I'm accepted in Him. He's the
author of eternal salvation. He's the author of the story
of salvation. It amazes me how people write
these great big thick books. How do they sit down and plan
all that out? I mean, that's just a skill. I can't imagine. Eternal
salvation. Now there's a book. There's a
book for you. Christ is the author of it. He planned it in eternity. He purposed it in his mind. And
then he wrote it. He wrote this story out. He put
it on paper. He's the word of God. He came
to this earth as the word of God. So everybody can see the
story, read it. He's the one who published the
story. He's the apostle of our profession. He came and made
it known. It's not hidden in the types and shadows of the
Old Testament. You don't have to see that high priest going
off into the Holy of Holies once a year to try to get a picture. That picture of Christ is hidden
there. It's not hidden now. He published the story. He's
the apostle of it. He came and made it known. He
stood before men. He stands before us right now
in His Word and says, here's the story of redemption. It's
all in me. Come to me and have it. Oh, what
a high priest. And try as I might, I can't believe
that. I can't make myself trust Him. I've told you so many times,
I spent years and years and years trying. But He's the one who applies
that story to His heart, the hearts of His people, and makes
them believe it. Makes them know and love this
story of redemption in Christ and gives us a heart to run to
Him. And you come to Him and you will
have eternal salvation. Eternal! It's eternal because
God purposed it in eternity. Before He ever created anything,
God purposed this salvation for His people individually by name. He purposed it. Christ the Son
came and He worked that salvation out for those people in time.
And He suffered and He died for them individually by name, written
on His heart. He died for those people. He
made them righteous. He put their sin away. Brethren,
that salvation is eternal. It cannot be lost. The sacrifice
never has to be made again. We can't lose it because God
didn't put it in our hands to keep. It's in the hand of Christ
our Savior, Christ our mediator, sitting at the right hand of
the throne of God. It's in Him. It's in His hand. It's in His perfection. It's
in His power. It'll never be lost. It's eternal. You see that? He's the only high
priest we need. Oh, I hope you see that. He is
the only high priest we need. Now trust him. God, give us the
grace to trust him and come to God by him. And we will be saved
with this eternal salvation. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for this glorious gospel. Christ, our savior that you've
given to us to hear. Father, I pray. that you'd give
each one here this morning a heart of faith that would believe Him. Give us eyes of faith. Get rid
of these old blind eyes. Give us eyes of faith that see
Him. And if we see Him, or if we just
give us a glimpse of Him by faith, we'll run to Him. Cause us, each
one of us, to come to Christ and be accepted in Him. loving
him, clinging to him, wanting and needing nothing other than
Christ, our great high priest. Father, I pray you bless your
word. Bless it to the hearts of your people. Cause it to go
forth to bring glory to the name of your dear son, Christ our
Savior. It's in his precious name we pray.