All right, let's turn together
to Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. In the first four chapters of
this epistle, The Holy Spirit has shown us the superiority
of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as our Redeemer.
He sets forth that this is his purpose in verses 1, 2, and 3,
showing him as our creator, our substitute, our sin-atoning sacrifice,
who has by himself purged our sins and now sits as our king
at the right hand of the majesty on high. And then he shows us
Christ's superiority over the angels and over Moses and over
Joshua. And he does this because the
Jews particularly highly esteemed and venerated the angels and
Moses and Joshua. In fact, if there was anything
they esteemed more highly than these, it would have been Aaron,
their great high priest, or their Sabbath day observance. And so
in chapter 4, as he shows us Christ's superiority over Moses
and over Joshua, He shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ is
also superior to the Sabbath of the Old Testament. What he's
doing is declaring that all the ordinances and ceremonies and
types and shadows and pictures in the carnal legal dispensation
have been perfectly fulfilled in Christ and that those things
being fulfilled now no longer have any place in the church
and kingdom of God. He's showing us that Moses is
no savior. The law is no savior, but Christ
alone is. Canaan was not the promised land,
but heavenly glory and eternal salvation is. He's showing us
that the seventh day was not really the day of rest, but the
rest of faith in Jesus Christ is the true Sabbath. Now when
we come to chapter five, The Apostle is showing us that Jesus
Christ is superior as our great High Priest, superior to Aaron
and all the Levitical priests of the Levitical or Aaronic order
of the priesthood. In this chapter, Paul comes to
this, but it seems that this has been in the back of his mind
all along. You remember in chapter two, when it tells us Christ
was, it was necessary for him to become a man, it was necessary
in order that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. And
then in chapter four, he urges us to come to the throne of grace
because we have a high priest who is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. All right, now with that in mind,
let's read verses one through 10, and we'll look at this work
of Christ as our high priest together in these verses. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul
to give us this fulfillment of the type in two ways. He shows
us in these verses how that Christ is superior to Aaron, superior
to all the Aaronic priesthood by showing us first how that
Aaron was a type of Christ and then showing us the contrast
between Aaron and or between Christ and all of those earthly
priests. In verses 1 through 4 he shows us the type and then
in verses 5 through 10 the contrast. Every high priest is taken from
among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, who
can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason hereof, he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself, to offer for sins. And no man takes this honor unto
himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron, 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. 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 obey him.
called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now, when God gave the law to
Moses, he established a human order of priests. A human order
of priests designed specifically to offer gifts and sacrifices
to God for the people, so that those priests being ordained
of God were chosen out of the tribe of Levi. Therefore, they're
called either the Levitical priesthood or the Aaronic priesthood. And
the priest could only come from that tribe, from that particular
descendancy. They could not be taken from
any other group of men. These priests were the men who
led Israel in the worship of God in the holy place. They're
the ones who functioned in the tabernacle and in the temple,
offering daily sacrifices, evening sacrifices, and then of course,
the high priest offering the sacrifice on the day of atonement
once every year in the Holy of Holies. There was one other order
of priesthood, however, in the Old Testament, an order established
and set forth before the giving of the law, set forth before
God gave the law at Sinai, before God chose the tribes of Levi
to be his priest in the nation of Israel. You'll recall back
in Genesis chapter 14, when Abraham returned from the slaughter of
the kings, there was a man by the name of Melchizedek, who
came to the Lord Jesus, having neither father nor mother, neither
beginning of days nor end of years, who was described as the
king of righteousness and the king of peace, who's described
as both a priest and a king. He brought Abraham bread and
wine. And Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek
of all that he had. Now this is important. It's important
because this fifth chapter shows us that the Lord Jesus is a priest
like Melchizedek. altogether superior to Aaron
and the Levitical priest. Now we will look more at Melchizedek
when we come to chapter 7, but here the Apostle Paul, being
inspired by the Holy Spirit, introduces this matter because
from here throughout now he's going to be dealing with our
Lord's superiority over Aaron in the fulfilling of the covenant
and in the priesthood relationship. All right, first let's look at
the type in verses 1 through 5. Every high priest, we are
told, is taken from among men and is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sins. Here's the first thing to see.
The priest in the Old Testament, the priest under the law, the
priest according to the command and ordinance of God was to be
a man, a common ordinary man taken out from among men. Turn
back to Exodus 28. Let me show you this. Exodus 28 verse 1. The Lord commands Moses saying,
take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him
from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me
in the priest office, even Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, Edith,
and Mar, Aaron's sons. Now the priest was ordained and
invested as a man with this great office by a special anointing
oil which God also described. He told Moses exactly what kind
of oil was to be used and how the anointing was to take place.
He was made a priest so that he might deal with God on the
behalf of Israel in things pertaining to God. because no man could
approach God on his own. That was the picture. That was
the reason for giving the priesthood. He presided over Israel in the
name of God. He appeared before God in their
stead to offer any gift they brought. They could not bring
a gift to God, except they bring it by the priest through the
tabernacle in the priestly function. And he was the one who came and
brought a sacrifice to God to make atonement for sin as well.
It was the priest who lifted up his hands and blessed Israel
ceremonially. Now understand, he could not
confer a blessing. He could not put away sin. He
could not make men acceptable to God except ceremonially. He had no power, no efficacy
in himself. The power and efficacy was what
was represented in him and in the sacrifices he made and the
work he performed, which pictured the Lord Jesus Christ and the
gospel of God's grace. The high priest stood between
God and man. That's the picture. The Lord
God is hereby showing us that He who is the holy, ineffably
holy, ineffably glorious God of light, that God who is a consuming
fire to men, that God whom no man can see and no man has seen,
that God whom no man can approach unto, can be approached. but only the way he says, and
only by a mediator, only by a substitute, only by a priest whom he has
ordained and whom he will accept. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
great high priest. We must never attempt or even
think of attempting to worship God Almighty or expect any favor
from God except through the mediation of Jesus Christ, the one mediator
between God and man. that man, Christ Jesus. All right,
now look at verse two. Israel's high priest was a man,
and he was just a man, who can have compassion on the ignorant,
and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also
is compassed with infirmity. Not just weakness, sin, Lindsay. This priest in Israel, all of
them, Aaron included, was compassed with infirmity. Now there's no
question, Aaron was a worshiper of God. Aaron was a remarkable
man. But he was a man compassed with
the infirmity of sin. You remember it was Aaron who
told Israel when Moses was for a long time on the mountain and
they were afraid something had happened to Moses, he said, well,
why don't you give me your gold? and we'll make us some calves.
And led Israel, dancing naked around golden calves, and said,
these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought you up out
of Egypt. And yet this man Aaron is God's high priest. Now, there
are many reasons for the Lord displaying this to us. He does
so to make us understand that no man is without sin. And he
does so to make us understand that this Aaronic priesthood
was not in itself God's priesthood and Aaron was not really God's
priest. He only pictured God's priest. He only pictured God's priesthood. You see, there has never been
and never can be any priest, any daysman between God Almighty
and sinful men except that man who is Jesus Christ our Savior
who is himself God in human flesh. He's a man who's compassed with
infirmity. But being such a man, we're told
in verse three, by reason hereof, he ought, as for the people,
also for himself to offer for sins. Those priests in the Old
Testament were sinful men, and yet they were to be, they should
have been, and Aaron certainly was a compassionate priest. And
when he saw God's judgment coming against Israel, he ran and stood
between God and his people and called on God on their behalf.
Aaron was a compassionate priest. And men who are sinful human
beings ought to be compassionate human beings. We ought to be
tender toward one another. I had a young pastor write to
me today. I haven't answered his letter yet because it deserves
more time than I could give it. He said, how do we deal with
people who are involved in sin, unbelieving people? Do we separate
ourselves from them, not eat with them, not have anything
to do with them? And I'm going to write to him because I want
him to understand, without compromising the gospel in the least, we deal
with sinful human beings in compassion and in tenderness. That's not
a matter of compromising. That's not a matter of nodding
at them and giving approval to what they do. That's not a matter
of saying, this is all right. We don't participate in their
wickedness, but we don't stand back and look at them with a
sense of, self-righteousness that says I'm holier than you,
if I get close to you you're going to contaminate me. That's
terribly ungodly. These priests were men of sinful
nature and they ought to have, therefore, compassion upon their
fellow sinners. Our Lord Jesus Christ, however,
was not such a priest as this. Here he differs from Aaron infinitely. Our Lord Jesus Christ became
a man. And because he became a man,
he suffered all the things that men suffer. And though he himself
knew no sin, he was made to be sin. And even thereby, he is
compassionate toward his people as sinners, because he himself
was made to be sin for us. But our Lord Jesus, Knowing our
frame now is yet compassionate and tender. This one is a man,
a high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Isn't that amazing? He uses the
same word here, Lindsay, in chapter five, verse two, to describe
infirmity as it does in chapter 2 or chapter 4 rather in verse
15 infirmity he's talking about sin Christ is touched with the
feeling of our infirmity because Bobby we have no greater infirmity
than sin and the Lord Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us oh
what a high priest what a great high priest we have when the
high priest of Israel brought an offering and made atonement
for sin. He first had to make atonement
for his own sins and then for the people's. In fact, we're
told in Exodus 28 that he must come and he must bear the iniquity
of the holy things. So that this high priest, whose
business it was to represent the people before God in everything
he did, in all that he did, was just a sinful man. And atonement
must be made not only for the priest, but even for the iniquity
of the holy things he was engaged in, because he was just a tyrant.
But our Lord Jesus, Larry, he became a man. A man altogether
like we are. And bears our iniquity, even
the iniquity of our holy things. Even the iniquity of what's going
on right here, right now, as we endeavor to worship God. But
this man knew no sin. He had no sin. Aaron came in
and made sacrifice for himself. The Lord Jesus made sacrifice
only for us. We're told in, Hebrews chapter
seven in verse 27. He needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. Our Lord Jesus made one great
sacrifice for our sins and now has put away sin. Now look at
verse four. No man volunteered for this work. No man. No man. No man volunteered for this work. We're told in verse 4, no man
takes this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God
as was Aaron. Not even Christ. So also, Christ
glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said
to him, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The
Lord Jesus Christ as a man did not assume this thing, but rather
was called to it by God the Father in covenant grace before the
world began. And in the fullness of time was
set up on the throne of heaven as a priest upon his throne,
as a priest who is king after the order of Melchizedek, because
the Father ordained him to it. The Father set him to it. The
office of the priest was an office of the highest honor. It involved
the work of representing the people before God. Any man who
dared like Uzziah, the king in Israel, that great king, any
man who dared like that great king, great in his place, great
in his position, great in the work which God gave him to do,
but his heart was lifted up with pride and he dared take on himself
a work God didn't call him to. He dared to enter into the priest
office and he is smitten with shame and embarrassment. Oh,
there's an application to that. There's an application to that.
Any man who dares assume a work in the name of God that God hasn't
called him to is headed for trouble. He's headed for trouble. The
Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, like Aaron and all
the other priests of the Old Testament serving God, was called
to this work, anointed for this work by the holy anointing oil
of the Holy Spirit of God, given without measure unto him. Now
look at the contrast. Again, look at verse five. So
also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, But
he that said to him, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Here is the priest who is God
the Son begotten of the Father. There's a unique thing here.
It speaks of Christ's glorious eternal sonship and yet it speaks
of Christ's humanity as well. It speaks of his incarnation
and of his session at the right hand of God as God the Son in
human flesh. This day have I begotten thee.
It's spoken in Psalm chapter 2 verse 7 I believe it is. This
day have I begotten you, my son. He is the eternally begotten
Son of God. And yet he is said to be begotten
of God when he came into the world as the incarnate Son of
God brought forth from the virgin's womb. And he's said to be begotten
of God on that day when he was raised up from the grave as our
great high priest. So he is that one who is God
the Son, eternally begotten of the Father, and yet begotten
as a man of the Father by the Holy Spirit, and begotten again
from the dead, the firstborn from the dead, as our representative
and substitute. This day have I begotten thee,
verse six. As he saith also in another place,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now
we have seen in many ways how that Aaron and the other priests
were types of Christ in Israel in the Old Testament. They were
men of flesh, thereby understanding and pitying their fellow creatures.
They were chosen and ordained of God as high priests, making
intercession between God and men. And they offered blood sacrifices
for sin. But they were many. Christ is
one. Just one priest, just one priest.
Those who pretend to be priests are imposters. I don't care what
religious order they have. Those who pretend to be priests
or who attempt to function as priests are imposters. There's
just one priest between God and men, one with whom we must do
business, and that's Jesus Christ the Lord. Their priesthood was
a temporary priesthood, but his is here described as an eternal
priesthood. They offered up many sacrifices every morning, every
evening, every year. They offered their sacrifices
to God. The Lord Jesus with his own blood entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. They
offered the blood of animals. He offered his own blood. Their
work was never finished. Never. The Lord Jesus, when he
comes to God in prayer as our great high priest, you read a
portion of it in John 17. He said, I finished the work
you gave me to do. I finished my work, a work of
righteousness and a work of atonement. I finished my work as prophet,
priest, and king. Their work was never finished.
His was done. Look at verse seven. This is
a remarkable text. Who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears. What a word. Our Lord Jesus was a real man. As he lived on this earth, he
lived by faith, just like we do, only perfectly. He not only
prayed for us as our priest, but he prayed for himself as
our priest. And the place that this must
refer to, there are many places where our Lord offered prayers.
When he broke the loaves and fishes, he offered thanks to
God. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, he called on the name
of God. When he prayed in John 17, his
great high priestly prayer, when he hung on the cross, he called
on God that the Father would receive him. He said, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. He called on God to forgive us
of our sins. But this particular passage,
can only refer to his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
As far as anything recorded in scripture, it can only speak
of him when he knelt and cried unto God, praying three times
with great heaviness of heart until his blood, his sweat was
as blood falling to the ground. And he cried, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Now, he wasn't praying, Rex,
that he would be saved from dying. I know that's not the case. I
know that's not the case. He came into this world to be
made sin for us. The reason he came was so that
he might bear in his body our sins on the tree. So he's not
praying that he might be saved from dying, but he's praying
that he might be delivered from death. Now the text says he was
heard in that he feared. Not that he was afraid. That
wasn't it. The word really is the word piety.
He was heard because he was worthy to be heard. And the father delivered
him from death. What happened when he raised
him from the dead? He delivered him from death.
What happened when he said, set thou at my right hand till I
make thy foes thy footstool? He delivered him from death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died as our substitute because of
his perfect obedience to the Father, was heard. Now listen
to me, if you heard him, When he was about to be made sin for
us for his perfect obedience, he'll still hear him as he makes
intercession for us, sitting on the right hand of God for
the same reason, because he's worthy to be heard. Let's see
if the text will continue to bear this out. Look at verse
eight. Though he were a son. Actually, that's not really a
good translation. It's not supposing that Christ
is one son of God among many. A better translation would be
this, son though he were, son though he was, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered. The Lord Jesus Christ
as a man learned obedience experimentally through his suffering and death. And the fact is, You and I, as
the sons of God, learn obedience only by the things we suffer. Did you ever learn any other
way? I can't think of a thing, Sammy,
I ever learned in my life that stuck with me. So that means
they're learned. Because if it didn't stick with
you, you hadn't learned it. I can't think of anything I've ever learned
in my life except by pain. Nothing. Nothing. He learned obedience by the things
he suffered. And being made perfect. Now,
perfect. How? As our priest, as our mediator,
as our intercessor, as our substitute. He became author of eternal salvation. The Lord Jesus, by his obedience,
by his suffering and death, by his sacrifice, by his righteousness,
is now the author of eternal salvation. He obtained eternal
redemption. It's that salvation which was
ordained and fixed from eternity. It is that salvation which he
obtained for eternity. It is that salvation which shall
be ours to eternity. His salvation is an eternal salvation. A salvation unto all them that
obey him. Now isn't that an interesting
word? Obey? That's what he said. That's what he said. If you would
be saved, you must obey him. It's exactly right. Oh boy, that
sure doesn't fit with predestination and sovereignty. Well, you better
learn to read this book the way it reads. He became author of
eternal salvation to all them that obey him. The obedience
is his gift, yes. The obedience is that which he
bestows upon us. But no sinner ever obtained salvation
without the obedience of faith, election, predestination, and
redemption notwithstanding. Amen. That's just exactly right. That's exactly right. Though
Christ was a son, he wasn't exempt from suffering to redeem us,
neither are we. Though he is the son of God,
he could execute righteousness to the full extent of the law
and justice of God only by satisfying the justice of God in his suffering
and death. And this salvation is given to
those and only to those who are given the obedience of faith.
Being obedient now, seated at the right hand of the Father,
having satisfied righteousness and justice, having put away
sins, our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the throne of God like no
other priest ever did, as a king. There were those in the Old Testament
who were both kings and prophets, but there were none who were
priests and kings, except one fellow. Melchizedek. And that
Melchizedek, we'll look at a little later, he is the imminent type
of Christ as our high priest, because he is. He's not just
a picture of him, he is a pre-incarnate revelation of Christ walking
on this earth, who brought bread and wine, his own sacrifice to
Abraham, and said, by these, men worship God. And Abraham
said, all right, here I'll worship him, and gave tithes of all that
he had, worshiping God. If you would worship God, hear
Christ in the gospel, believe him, bow to him as your priest
on his throne, as your only access to God, as your only king, your
only ruler. The whole purpose then of this
is to show us that sinners have access to God only one way, by
faith in Christ. That's all. That's all. Can't
come to God any other way except in Him. It is given to us to
demonstrate that this one, who is our great High Priest, is
a priest who rules. He's a perfect man with a perfect
sacrifice himself. to offer on a perfect altar his
divinity. His sacrifice is his humanity.
The altar on which he offers the sacrifice is his divinity.
He offers it in a perfect holy place, not made with hands, in
heaven itself. And this man has obtained eternal
salvation for all who believe God. Amen. All right, Lindsay, you come
lead us in the hymn, if you will.