Turn back to Hebrews chapter
4. The priesthood of Christ is the
title of this message. Back here in chapter 4, verse
14, seeing then that we have a great
high priest. Now we do not have a great high
priest on this earth anymore, as Israel had in the temple,
going about those services. And this is very important to
these Hebrews that Paul is writing to. They were steeped in this. They grew up with this. This
was their life. They grew up with it. And Paul
is telling them, he's going to teach them and us, that we still
have a high priest. We still have a high priest.
It seems then that we have a great high priest. As Frank emphasized,
great. He is great. And that is passed
into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our perfection. Who is this priest? that we have,
this great high priest. He tells us here that it's Jesus,
that one who hung on the cross. He first uses his name of humiliation. He uses his name that the angel
said, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people, his people. You see, the high priest represented
a people, a certain people. The high priest did not represent
the Canaanites, the Hittites, that he represented the Israelites,
God's people, God's people. And this one is Jesus of Nazareth,
the one that was nailed to a cross, crucified, died, buried, risen,
and ascended to heaven. He is our high priest. This morning,
apart from him, Apart from our high priest this morning, this
service would not be accepted. He makes everything we do, our
prayers, our singing, preaching, accepted. He represents us before
God. You see, the job or responsibility
of the high priest was to represent the people before God. He was to offer up those things
that God requires. and the things that the people
needed. And we'll see this in a minute. But this one who is
the priest is Jesus, a real man in every way, a real man. But he's also the Son of God. The Son of God. He's no ordinary
man. He's the Son of God. which makes
his priesthood superior to all that ever went before him. All
those that went before him, this is the one they represented.
This is the high priest. This is our high priest, Jesus,
the Son of God. And that being so, seeing that
we have a high priest, The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son
of God, let us hold fast our profession, our confession of
Him. Let us continue on to follow
Him, though we cannot see Him. You see, they could see their
high priest. They could see Aaron, Eli, Sam. They could see them. We can't
see Him physically. Does that mean we don't have
one? No, we have one. We have one. Jesus, the Son of
God, who has passed into the heavens. He didn't go into the
temple. He didn't rise from the grave
and go back to the temple. He rose from the grave and went
into the Holy of Holies. And that's where he offered the
sacrifice. That's where the sacrifice and
the blood. He went before God. He went into
the presence of God Almighty. That's where he is, that's where
he went, that's where he is. This is where our high priest
is this morning. So let us not get discouraged or sidetracked,
but let us follow on to know him. Let's follow on to know
the Lord. And note the encouragement he
gives here in verse 15. I don't know how far I'll get
through this. I've learned one thing over the
years, I've missed a lot of opportunities to stop. And as I get older,
I hope I get wise enough to pick up on that. For we have not an
high priest. The high priest we have is not
one that you cannot approach, even though he's the son of God.
Yes, he's the son of God, but he can be approached, and he
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. That woman
with the issue of blood said, if I can but touch the hem of
his garment, I will be made whole. And she touched him. She touched
him and was made whole. You see, we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Even though he's God, he was a man, and as a man he suffered. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And it was our sorrows and our
grief that he was acquainted with. But was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Without sin, without giving in
to sin, without yielding to it, he was perfect. Perfect. And this is the key here, that
the high priest we have is the perfect Savior. He is the perfect,
complete Savior that God sent into this world. And he's ours. He's ours. This morning, he's
ours. Now, here's our Aunt Kirtland. He can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, being tempted in all points as we are yet without
sin. Let us, therefore, seeing this is so, come boldly, come with confidence. Any other
way is to doubt him. Really, it's not doubting me.
It's not because I'm so bad that I think he won't accept me. No,
it might be I'm so bad I don't think he can do it. Well, that's
not faith. That's absolutely doubting his
ability to save, his grace to save, his mercy to save. That's
doubting him. Come boldly unto the throne of
grace. And that's the throne he sits
on. That's the throne we approach. Our king-priest sits on a throne. He rules and reigns, but it's
a throne of grace. And his grace reigns through
his righteousness. not yours, His. His grace reigns
through His righteousness. So come boldly, come with confidence
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. That's a promise, and it says
do it. Now, in chapter 5, Paul, I'm going to say Paul, begins
to elaborate on the priesthood He's going to set forth the qualifications
of a priest. You see, every priest whom God
appointed had to have certain qualifications. And he's going to set these qualifications
forth, and then he's going to apply them to the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he truly is our high priest. Now, he says here,
For every priest is taken from among men, not angels. God did not take any angel and
make that angel a priest on our behalf. God took men. He took a man from among his
people, and he made him a priest, and he ordained him. He ordained
this man in thanks pertaining to God that he may offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sins. You see, this priest must have
what God needs, what God requires. He must have and be able to offer
the gifts and the sacrifice that God requires. This is what the
priest is to do. But here's what our Lord has.
First of all, he is a real man. He was taken from among his brethren.
He is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. At all points,
he was tempted as we are yet without sin. He's a man who could
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. You see, Aaron
and those priests, they could identify with the people they
were offering sacrifices for because they were sinners. They
were sinners. Now, our Lord, our Lord knew
no sin. It said right there that like
as we are yet without sin, this is where he differs. This is
where he knew no sin. But I tell you this. The Scripture
teaches us this. He was made to be sent for us.
I'll tell you what, He knew more about it than what we understand
about it. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He's
crying, look over here in verse 7. We'll get to this in a minute.
But who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers
and supplication with strong crying and tears. I believe that's
speaking also here of the Garden of Gethsemane. When He offered
up strong prayers with crying and tears and supplications.
When He was being made sin for us. He knows a whole lot more about
it than you and I know about it. I assure you that. And He
sure knows God's hatred of it. He knows what the wrath of God
is against sin. More than we know it. More than
we know it. So we have a priest. We have
a priest. It was taken from among men.
We have a priest who can identify with us, and we have a priest
who can offer up gifts and sacrifices. Aaron would offer up the incense.
He'd offer up the sacrifice. What did our Lord have to offer
up? He offered up a perfect life. He offered up a perfect life
and a perfect sacrifice. He offered up the true blood
of atonement. He had far more to offer up than
any priest before him. He offered up himself. Himself. He has what God requires, what
God needs. That is, the gifts and sacrifice,
the perfect life, His righteousness, His perfect sacrifice, and He
has what we need. What is it I need? First of all, verse 2, compassion. Compassion. I need a priest that
I can come to that can truly have compassion on me this morning. I need a priest who can have
compassion on the ignorant. Ignorant. Paul said they'd be
ignorant of God's righteousness. At one time, before he believed
the gospel, before God revealed the gospel to us, we were truly
ignorant of God's righteousness. We were ignorant of Jesus Christ.
Ignorant of who God is. That's offensive, isn't it? That's
offensive to human nature. We do not like to be thought
of as ignorant, nor do we like to be called ignorant. We like
to be thought of as intelligent and wise and sharp and got it
together. This priest can have compassion
on the ignorant. Well, I fit in there. I fit in
there. And on them that are out of the
way, I fit in there. Oh, that makes me want to come.
That opens the door for me. That opens the door for a sinner
like me, that I can come in. For that he himself also was
encompassed with infirmities. Aaron was encompassed with infirmities,
same infirmities of the people. But you know what? Our Lord was
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That's what it says
over in Isaiah 53. He was a man of sorrow and acquainted
with grief. Well, the sorrow and the grief
he's acquainted with is mine. It was mine. Yours, you believe
the gospel, is yours. He's acquainted with ours. And
this, how a priest can identify with us in a way that we can't
comprehend. Because I know this, he knew
no sin. He did no sin. He couldn't fall into sin. But I tell you what, he knows
a whole lot more about it than we do. He knows a whole lot more about
it than we do. I've never sweat great drops of blood over sin.
In that garden, when he was being made sin, he sweat great drops
of blood. He knew something of the vileness
of it. He never committed one sin, but
he understood and he knew the vileness of it. And when he was
made to be sent for us, he sweat great drops of blood over it.
He cried with strong crying and tears. He said, Father, if you
will, let this cup pass from me. He knows. He knows. And then he says here in verse
3, And by reason hereof, He ought, as for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins. Now this is where he differs.
Christ knew no sin. The offering that he made, the
sacrifice he made, was for the sins of his people. But he was
so identified with them. He was so identified with his
people. Look over in Psalm 40, I believe it is. Let me see if
I can find it. Over here in Psalm 40. That may be the wrong psalm,
but I think it's this one. Look here, verse 11,
Psalm 40. This is speaking of Christ. This
is a Messianic psalm. In verse 11, withhold not thou
thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have encompassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me. He knew no sin, and yet mine
became his. Can I explain that? No, I cannot. He said, mine iniquities have
taken hold of me so that I am not able to look up. They are
more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart fails me.
Oh, we have one that can identify with us. He can truly identify
with us. And no man, no man takes this
honor to himself. But he that is called of God,
as was Aaron. He had, he possessed, he had
what God needed. He had and has what we need. And listen, here's thirdly. He
was appointed. Here's the third thing. He was
appointed to this office. You see, that's another qualification. A qualification is this. He had
to have what God needed, gifts and sacrifices. He had to offer
what God required. He had to offer and provide what
we need. And third qualification is this,
he had to be appointed. He had to be appointed. No high
priest took this honor to himself. Just as no real preacher of the
gospel takes that honor to himself. There's a lot of phonies out
there. There's a lot of phonies who say, I'm called of God. I
had a man tell me one time, this has been some years ago, He said,
the Lord's called me to preach. And I said, no, he hasn't. And
it stunned him. It really stunned him. He was
like, how did you know? And he looked at me real puzzled.
And he asked me, what would you say then? I said, you don't believe
or preach the gospel of God's grace. God's not going to call a man
to preach a false gospel. God calls a man to preach, that
man's going to preach the gospel. That man's going to believe the
gospel, and he's going to preach the gospel of God's grace. He's
not going to be an Arminian preaching Arminianism. He's going to preach
the gospel. And I told that man, I said,
no he hasn't. You don't even know him. You don't even know
who he is. So the priest must be appointed. He cannot take this honor for
himself, even as Christ, even though he is the Son of God,
glorified not himself. He did not make himself the priest. The Father made him the priest.
He was appointed by God, who said, You are my Son, today have
I begotten you. The same one that said, you are
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This is the one
who anointed, who appointed him to be the high priest of God.
That's so important. It's so important. It validates
his priesthood. Validates it. And then fourthly,
here's another qualification. He performed the duties of the
priest. He performed the duties of a
priest. Paul argues the legitimacy of
Christ's priesthood by the way he diligently fulfilled his office. A man can be called to an office,
a high office, and not fulfill it. A man can be called to a high
office and fail. But he points out here that Christ,
who was appointed the high priest, fulfilled his office perfectly
in every way. In every way, he fulfilled his
office. It's one thing to hold an office.
It's another thing to fulfill that office. And Christ fulfilled
the office of a priest. He says here in verse 7, who
in the days of his flesh, he's going to show here how he fulfilled
his office, and this is speaking here of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers
and supplications, that's the responsibility, that's the office
of the priest. He used to offer up prayers and
supplications for the people. But look how Christ did it, with
strong crying, strong crying and tears, tears unto him that
was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Now, it can be read like this,
and was heard for the holiness and righteousness of his life. He was heard. When he cried in
the Garden of Gethsemane, the angels were sent to minister
to him. He was delivered from death. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, in the grave. It wasn't. He rose. We looked
at that a couple of weeks ago. He's risen. He's not here. He
was heard. And I tell you what, that strong
crying and supplications is also on our behalf. What a priest
we have. What a priest we have. Not only
did he offer up prayers and supplications with strong cryings, but it was
also heard. He was heard because of the holiness
and righteousness of his life. And though he were a son, listen,
though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. He was not spared suffering.
To be a perfect Savior, to be the perfect Savior, he had to
suffer. And he had to suffer perfectly.
When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was hanging
on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know
what they're doing. When Pilate was amazed that he
opened not his mouth, he said, Don't you know I have the power
to crucify you or let you go? Of course, we know the Lord said,
you don't have any power against me at all. He said, be given you from above.
But he stood in that hall, and he took the lashes. He took the
accusations. And he opened out his mouth.
He suffered perfectly. He was willing to suffer. He
was willing to die. He didn't regret it. He didn't
want to get away from it or quit or stop. He suffered perfectly, though he were a son, though
he were the son of God. Now this is, I'm not giving you
the full meaning, this is over my head, I'm telling you, it's
over my head. Yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. Frank read it in the class. He grew in wisdom and in stature. As God, you see, He's God, right? He's the Son of God. How can
He grow in wisdom? How can He, who is infinite in
wisdom, infinite in knowledge, infinite in understanding, how
can He grow in wisdom? Oh, how that shows us His manhood. As God, He knew it all. As a
man, He had to learn it all. This is Christ. This is our Savior. This is our perfect Savior. I wrote this down and, you know,
we'll see how it applies. This is just over my head. As a man, he learned through
his sufferings, or as a man, he learned through his experience,
the true results of obedience. He learned it. And his obedience was perfect.
It was perfect. And because of this, because
of his perfect obedience, he became the author of eternal
salvation. Because of who he is. And in verse 9, and being
made perfect, as I said, that word is the same word in Greek
as the word finished. over in John chapter 19 when
Christ cried from the cross, it is finished. When he said
that, when he made that cry from the cross, it is finished. He finished the work that his
father gave him to do. He finished redemption. He offered
up the blood of atonement. There's no other sacrifice for
sin. No more sacrifices. None of this is going to happen
again. This is the perfect sacrifice. And here, he's now said to be
the perfect savior. He's the perfect savior. And being made perfect. And that
word is also translated complete. Complete. In him you are what?
Complete. Perfect. You're perfect. Complete. Finished. And being made perfect, he became
the author, not just of salvation, eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him. We have not only a perfect priest,
a perfect sacrifice, perfect blood, the blood of atonement,
we have a perfect Savior. And because of this, because
of this, the salvation that we have in Him is eternal. It's eternal. Oh, what a priest God has given
us. God sent His Son into the world. He became incarnate, bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh, bore our sorrows, our sicknesses.
He can identify with us whatever we go through. He can identify
with us. He represents us before God. He's offered up his perfect
life and his perfect sacrifice. In Him, in our perfect Savior,
in our perfect priest, we have eternal life. We have eternal
salvation. It's called eternal life, eternal
salvation, eternal covenant, eternal redemption. We have it
in this priest. We didn't have it in Aaron. We
didn't have it in any of these other priests who represented
Him. We have it in this one. This is Him. This is the one.