Hebrews chapter 5. It's on page
1305 if you have a few Bibles. Hebrews chapter 5, and let me
read maybe the first nine verses. 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 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 infirmities. 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. And he said also in another place,
Thou art a priest for ever 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 that obey him." I want
to skim over some of this in verse 1 here mainly. I want us
to look at this. I was thinking about this as
we studied on this verse the other day. some things pertaining
to it, every high priest taken from among men is ordained, he
set aside for men, in things pertaining to God, that he may
offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Of course, this is speaking
here of the Aaronic priesthood. When the Lord chose a family
of priests to minister unto Him on behalf of the people and for
the people, He chose the house of Aaron. Aaron and his sons
were the first priests. And every priest that was chosen
since then in Israel ever since that was chosen out of the house
of Aaron. You had to belong to that house.
And he said the purpose of it here was to offer gifts and sacrifices
for sins. And of course God gave them special
instructions on where they had to offer, what they had to offer,
when they had to offer, for whom they had to offer. They were
to offer gifts and sacrifices according to the pattern that
was already showed to Moses in the mouth. But you know, before
God ever instructed Moses what these priests should offer and
when they should offer and so on, He had already revealed to
saints before that that he would accept a sacrifice as an offering
for sin, that he could be worshiped through a sacrifice, he could
be approached through a sacrifice. You go all the way back to Abel
and you remember the scripture said Abel was a keeper of the
sheep and in process of time he brought sacrifices of his
lambs split their throats and bled them out and brought the
sacrifices to the Lord. And the Lord had respect unto
His offering. He placed those sacrifices between
Himself and God, between His guilt and God's justice, and
God sold those sacrifices. And the Bible says He accepted
Abel's sacrifice. He accepted Abel and his sacrifices. I wonder where Abel heard that
God would accept a sacrifice. I bet his mom and dad told him.
You know, faith comes by hearing and he offered to God by faith.
And his parents probably knew because God Himself was the first
one that sacrificed animals, wasn't He? He made coats of skin
for Adam and Eve to clothe them. In Genesis chapter 8, just after
the flood, the Bible says that Noah built an altar and he offered
it to God. two of every clean beast. Was
it two or seven? Of every clean beast and every
fowl. He offered the sacrifice, a burnt
sacrifice, and God smelled that sweet-smelling Savior and said,
I'll never smile again. So they all offered sacrifices.
Genesis 22, remember when Abraham took his son Isaac off the altar
and put a ram and offered the ram as a burnt sacrifice to the
Lord? So you go back even before the
Aaronic priesthood and you see that they offered gifts and sacrifices
for sin. But all of this before the law
and after the law pointed to one human sacrifice. All of those
animal sacrifices pointed to one human sacrifice and that
was the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says He gave Himself
for our sins according to the will of God. Once in the end
of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. But you know, and this is one
of the things I wanted to mention just for a minute, All of those
sacrifices that the Lord's people offered from the very beginning,
gifts and sacrifices for sin. You know this got in the mind
of the heathen? We don't know for sure where
they learned it, if it was watching God's people, if it was handed
down from Cain and even the ungodly. We don't know how, but it got
in the whole mental state of the heathen and they began to
offer sacrifice. They offered them to for sins.
They offered to appease their God for their sins. I was down
in, when we went down to the Yucatan, we went down to the Mayan ruins
And one of the things that we saw everywhere were these little
carved, well some of them weren't small, they were huge, three
or four foot high, carved statues of an eagle with a human heart
in its claw. And they don't know for sure,
but they're pretty certain that they used to offer human sacrifices. They lit us up on top of some
of the pyramids and it's black. You can still see the big pits
there where it's black and that's where they said they offered
human sacrifices. I have a couple of books on demonology
that Greg gave me, very, very scriptural good books. But he
did some extensive research on sacrifices that heathen nations
offered. He goes way back and does some
extensive research. But he talked about some of their
offerings and they offered everything from vegetables to fruit to meats
and human sacrifices. It wasn't long until the heathen
began to catch on. The more precious the sacrifice
was, the more apt their God was to be appeased. He has several
pages of this, but let me just read you one quote from one page,
just to give you an idea. The Lacedonians, to avert the
plague in their day, sacrificed a virgin. The Atheans, by the
advice of Apollos, sent yearly to King Minos seven males and
so many female people to be sacrificed to appease the wrath of the God
for their killing of Androges. The Carthians, being vanquished
by Aegeculus, king of Sicily, sacrificed 200 nobles of children,
200 noblemen's children at once. Romans have every year such sacrifices
of men and women of each sex, too, for a long time. And this
was so common among the wiser pagan nations that whensoever
they fell into danger, either of war or sickness or any other
calamity, they presently, to expiate their offenses against
their supposed incensed gods, and declare themselves of their
present miseries and dangers, sacrificed some mean persons,
and get this, who for this reason these persons were called expiation."
That's a scriptural term. Christ is the expiation of our
sin, propitiation, expiation for our sin. They used that term
back in the heathen days. You know, the Bible tells us
about this. This is nothing apart from the
Bible. Let me show you three or four places. Look over in
2 Kings chapter 3 and verse 26. 2 Kings chapter 3 and verse 26. When the Lord instructed Israel
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin, it got in the whole
psyche of the heathen and they began to do that too to appease
their gods. In 2 Kings chapter 3, this is
where Jehoshaphat and the king of Israel came against the king
of Moab, Mesha. And they had him surrounded,
was going to wipe out the whole city. He could not defeat them.
And look what happened in verse 26 of 2 Kings 3. And when the
king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took
with him seven hundred men that drew swords to break through
even unto the king of Edom, but he could not. Then he took his
eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him
for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation
against Israel, and they departed from him. and return to their
own land. And the reason He offered Him
was for His God, to appease His God, for the God to help them. There is another place I want
to turn to, over in Psalms 106. Look over in Psalms 106. You know, Paul said, you know,
what the heathen, what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils. And he said, I wouldn't have
you to have fellowship with devils. And what we learn from the study
of Scriptures is that the devil is the chief imitator of God. What he sees God do, he wants
to do himself, but doing this, he corrupts the ways of God.
He saw that God required sacrifices. He knew that Jesus Christ was
going to give Himself a human sacrifice. So what does He do? He puts this in the mind and
heart of men to offer sacrifices to their gods. He's worshipped
this way. Listen to Deuteronomy 12. 30
before we look at Psalms 106. Deuteronomy 12, 30. This is before
the children of Israel went into the land of Canaan. And the Lord
said to Moses, Speak to the children of Israel, that they take heed
to themselves, that they be not snared by following the nations. That's the nations of Canaan
that the Lord destroyed. And that thou inquire not after
their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even
so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do unto the Lord
your God. For every abomination to the
Lord which he hates have they done unto their gods. For even
their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to
their gods." Now why would you burn your precious daughter or
son in the fire to your God? To appease Him. Satan has taken
advantage of this feeling that even the heathen have of guilt.
And he takes advantage of that feeling, so to appease that guilt,
they try to appease their gods. So what they do is the same thing
that God required, a sacrifice. And the more precious, the more
appeasing their god is by their sacrifice. But you know it wasn't
just the heathen that did this. The Lord warned them not to take
up the ways of the heathen, but you know they did. They started
learning their ways. Look here in Psalms 106 and look
in verse 35. Psalms 106 and verse 35. They were mingled. The chastening
rod of the Lord fell upon the evil. And they were mingled among
the heathen and learned their works, their ways of worship. And they served their idols which
were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons
and their daughters Look at this, unto devils. Unto devils. They shed innocent blood, even
the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed
unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with their
blood. Listen to Jeremiah 7.31. They
have built the high places of Popat, which is in the valley
of the son of Hanom, to burn their sons and their daughters
in the fire, which I commanded them not." And he said, it never
came into my heart. They caused their sons and daughters
to pass through the fire to Molech. Molech. Dr. Lightfoot said this
Molech had the body of a man. He was a huge statue and had
his hands outstretched like this, had a huge pan inside those hands. and he had the face of an ox.
And they would set fire underneath that huge pan and they would
put their infants, their little children, inside that pan and
cook them, literally cook them alive. And so they couldn't hear
the screams, they had the drums playing, sacrificing their children. But where did they get that?
God required a sacrifice for sin. gifts and sacrifices for
sin. Satan wanted to be worshipped
as God. So what did he do? He moved upon
the hearts and minds of men to corrupt the ways of God, the
sacrifices of God, and offer their little children in the
fire. He was tempted to do that. But
you know, Satan, even though he has used this, there has only
been one sacrifice that God has commanded. There's only been
one that He will ever accept, and that's Jesus Christ, His
Son. That has been the only human sacrifice that God has accepted. the human sacrifice of His own
Son in our humanity. This is My blood of the new covenant
which is shed for many for the remission of their sin. Now when
you and I think about these heathens offering their children and burning
their children, that's repulsive, isn't it? That is repulsive because
we see the hand of Satan in it. But when we see the loving, eternal
God send down His Son to shed His blood to expiate our sins,
I tell you that fills us with gratitude, doesn't it? That fills
us with love and gratitude to Him for what He's done. You know
Satan is still tempting men to offer gifts and sacrifices for
sin. He still tells men, he whispers,
you can offer this and you'll appease God. If you'll do this,
you will appease God. I was listening the other night
to Mayor Bloomberg, I think is his name. He used to be mayor
of New York City. And a fellow was interviewing
him. He's got like $50 billion, and
he's given away billions of dollars. And he said he wanted to give
away most of his money before he died. And they was asking
him about what he believed and everything. He said, Well, I
believe in heaven. And he said, I'll tell you this. I'm earning
my way there. And he said, I don't expect I'll
be stopped and interviewed. I'll go straight in. You think the devil still isn't
telling people there's a way to appease God? There's a way
to be accepted with God? Give your money! Somebody needs
to read to him I Peter 1.18, don't they? You're not redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold. That means nothing
to the Lord. Men try every imaginable way
to appease God. If I can just do this, if I can
just do that, if I can just be this or be that, if I can feel. You know, some people even trust
in their humility, their tears. If my tears could ever flow,
the top lady said, could my zeal no longer know, these for sin
cannot atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. There's never been but one sacrifice
to atone for sin. And that's like I said, the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know something? Our text
says here in verse 5 that He didn't choose Himself to be a
hypocrite. He didn't choose what sacrifice
to offer. He didn't take that honor to
Himself. He left that to the Father. I came not of myself. He said,
My Father sent Me. In verse 5 of our text it says,
He glorified not Himself to be made that I preached. He gave
Himself for our sins according to the will of God. And you know every aspect of
our salvation. This applies to every aspect
of our salvation. We glorify not ourselves. God
gets all the glory for our salvation, doesn't He? Who chose you to
salvation? Who elected you? Did you choose
yourself? Christ said, you didn't choose Me. Who gets the glory
for that? We don't glorify ourselves. Who redeemed us? Did you redeem
yourself? What could you have offered?
We're redeemed by another. Who called you to salvation?
Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light? Who
granted you faith? Who gave you repentance? Who
works in you? We don't glorify ourselves, do
we? We cast contempt upon ourselves and we honor Him and praise Him
for every aspect of our salvation. I mean every aspect of it. Just
as the Lord Jesus glorified not Himself. We don't glorify ourselves
either. We're chosen. We're redeemed.
We're called. We're regenerated. We continue.
We'll be glorified all by the will of God, all by His will. Now look back at our text again.
Look in chapter 5 and look here in verses 7 through 9 of chapter
5. I want us to see four mysteries
here of the reality of the Incarnation. There are four wonderful things
here that speaks to the Son of God being incarnate. He says
here in verse 7, who in the days of His flesh, that is what He
is talking about, the days of His flesh, Jesus Christ was born
of a virgin, the Son of God. You know, He just called Him
in chapter 1, He called Him God, didn't He? Unto the Son, He said,
Thy throne, O God. Jesus Christ is God. And He says
He is the Creator. He made all things. And He upholds
all things. But look at these four things
that can only be said about a man. This is the man, Christ Jesus.
First of all, look at what He says. Who in the days of His
flesh, when He offered up prayers and supplications, pleadings,
the word sometimes can be used as begging, with strong crying
and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was
heard in that he feared." Now let me ask you something. Have
you ever read anywhere where God prayed? Have you ever read
where God shed a tear? Have you ever read where God
was afraid of anybody, anything? You never do, do you? But here
is God in flesh. Here is a real man and these
things are attributed to Him. He feared. You never read that
he ever feared anything or anybody, but one thing. One thing made
the Son of God tremble. He wasn't afraid of man. He wasn't
afraid of devils. He wasn't afraid of nature, storms. One thing that made him tremble,
do you remember what it was? That cup in the garden. The only time you ever see Him
crying like a baby, tears running down His face under such agony,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Down on the
ground sweating drops of blood. And you know why He feared? You
know why He was afraid? Our sins and the judgment of
God. The sins of His people. standing
before a holy God to judge Him. I tell you, if a man don't fear
that, he's a fool, isn't he? A man is a fool to think he can
stand before God with one sin charged against him. And this
proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was 100% man. He could pray, He could cry,
He could fear and tremble, things that God has never been attributed
to Him. He is indeed in our humanity,
without sin, but in our humanity. I tell you, a man better fear
one thing, and that is fear standing before God, yet in his sins. David said, Lord, if you mark
a neck with it, who could stand? Man, the Lord Jesus knew what
was coming, didn't He? He knew it. He knew God was going
to judge him. God was going to hide His face
from him. And man, that made Him tremble. that made Him tremble.
A man's a fool if he doesn't tremble over his sin. The only
time that we ever seen Him flinch was there in the garden. He feared. He feared. Look in verse 8 now. Here's another
thing that shows unto us His incarnation. The mystery of it. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered." Though he were
a son, yet learned he. Do you ever know God to learn
anything? He never has learned anything,
has He? He knows everything. And Jesus Christ knew everything. He had knowledge of everything.
But you know what He had to do? He had to learn obedience experimentally. He had to experience what it
was to be obedient. He knew everything that it was
going to take to redeem his people. He knew all about it, but he
had to experience it. And that's what this word here
means. He learned by experience. You know, he learned by experience
to be obedient to his parents, didn't he? He went down and stayed
at the temple to preach the gospel. and to talk with the doctors
of the law. And Mary said, what have you done? Why have you did
this? You've worried me and Joseph to death. And you know what the
Bible said he did? He went home and submitted himself
unto them. It wasn't that he was ever disobedient,
but he experienced what it was to be obedient to his parents,
to the civil authority, to God's law, to God's will, to God's
way, and every step of the way He was perfectly obedient even
unto the death of the cross. He learned that by experience. He learned that by experience.
Not one time did He fail to render perfect obedience. He learned
what temptation was all about. He learned what there was about
in every point He experienced. He learned what it was to be
betrayed of one who said he was his friend. He learned what it
was to be forsaken of all his friends and still be faithful
to God. He learned that. He had to be
a man, didn't he? Verse 9, and look at this. This
is amazing. He became the author of eternal
salvation to all them that will be. Being made perfect. The word
means complete, accomplished. Look back in chapter 2 and verse
10. Look how He was said to be made perfect. For it became Him
for whom are all things and by whom are all things. That's a
big thing to say about the Son of God, isn't it? for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
into glory, to make the captain," same word, Arthur, "...of their
salvation perfect through sufferings." Christ had to meet all the requirements
to be a complete and perfect Savior. And you know how you
accomplish most of that? Through suffering. And I just
got a sneaky hunch that there's going to be a lot of things in
our life concerning us that He's the good example to us for. And we'll never accomplish these
things apart from sufferings. You'll never be perfectly content
except through sufferings. You'll never be perfectly patient
except through sufferings. Sufferings, tribulations, work
of patience. You'll never really know how
to bear somebody else's burden except you learn it by suffering
yourself. You'll never learn how to truly be forgiven and
gracious and merciful except through suffering. Suffering
teaches us that, doesn't it? We'll never learn how to really
forgive unconditionally except through suffering. He was made perfect through sufferings
and Peter said the God of all grace who has called you into
his glory by Jesus Christ after you've suffered a while establish,
strengthen, settle you and make you perfect after you've suffered
for a while. The Bible says of the sacrifice
it must be perfect to be accepted. Will Christ be a perfect sacrifice?
Is He going to be perfect when He hangs on that cross? He's
going to be a perfect... Oh, give Him 33 and a half years.
Put Him to the test and see. And that's what this year is
about. That's what it's about. He was made perfect. He accomplished. He was a complete Savior. He
earned that right, didn't He? He earned the right to be a Savior.
I guess if you earned the right like He did, you could save yourself.
Reckon you could pass the test? Has our obedience been as good
as it? It hasn't, hasn't. Oh, my soul. And our perfect obedience, what
we might think is good obedience, we find sin mixed with it all,
don't we? He was made perfect. And look
at this in verse 9. And being made perfect, He became
the author of eternal salvation. And this word author means the
cause. He's the cause of salvation. He's the cause of salvation.
He became. He became. Do you notice that word? He became
the cause of our salvation. Can God ever become something?
He's everything. But the man Christ Jesus can.
Christ incarnate can. He can become something. He became
what the old Puritans used to call the procuring cause of our
salvation. Which simply means the Father
chose and purpose to save a great host of people out of this world,
Jesus Christ procured that salvation upon the cross. The Holy Spirit
applies that salvation in their hearts. And what kind of salvation
did He procure? What did He accomplish? What
kind of salvation does Jesus Christ give? What? Eternal. Eternal salvation. Brothers and sisters, don't talk
to us. Every one of us hopefully will say this. Don't talk to
us about a temporary salvation. I don't believe it. I don't want
to hear about you. He is not the author of a temporary salvation. He is not the author of being
saved today and lost tomorrow. He is not the author of being
justified today and guilty tomorrow. He's not the author of being
washed today from sin and being filthy and undone again tomorrow. He's not the author of loving
a man everlastingly, covenant love today and hating him tomorrow. He's not the author of being
sealed with the Holy Spirit today and unsealed tomorrow. He's not
the author of giving living water that springs up into everlasting
life today and the well dry up tomorrow. Don't talk to us about
such foolishness. Read our Bibles and what does
it say? He's the author of eternal salvation. Eternal, everlasting salvation. To who? To everybody? Not everybody. There's no such thing as universal
salvation, is there? We preach the gospel universally.
We go into the world and preach the gospel. That's why we support
missionaries. But you know everybody ain't
going to be saved. There's a broad way that leads to destruction.
And how many is on that road? Many. Straight is the gate and
narrow is the way that leads to life. And few, comparably,
are those who find it. But who will be saved? Who is He the author of eternal
salvation for? Well, He says in our text, To
all that obey Him. To all of them that obey Him. Everyone who believes in Jesus
Christ the Son of God has eternal life. Everyone that submits to
Him has eternal life. Everyone that follows Christ
has eternal life. Everybody that keeps His commandments
has eternal life. If they are not saved, who is?
If those who obey Him are not saved, then my soul, who is going
to be saved? A dear man that some of us know,
a kid to some of you, wrote a book about a believer being lost.
Can a believer be lost? And he proceeded to prove supposedly,
according to him, that a believer could be lost. A believer? If
a believer is not saved, my word, who saved? A believer? Can a believer be lost?
Yes. Oh, my goodness. Who is He? The art of eternal salvation
to all those who believe Him, those who obey Him, those who
submit to Him, those who give themselves up to Him, those who
purpose in their heart to be saved by Him, those who cleave
to Him. He's their Savior and they have
a right to live in the assurance of that or He'd have never told
them that would. Now this don't give hypocrites, this don't give
actors and pretenders any hope at all. Those who profess to
follow Him and don't. Those who profess to love Him
and don't. This cuts them off because they don't obey Him.
But I tell you, this gives assurance to those poor children of God,
Wayne, who find their obedience imperfect. And they weep over
it. But I tell you, that's their
aim. That's what they're pressing to. Obey Him in everything. Love Him in every way until someday,
as old Scott used to say, with undimmed eyes and an unsinning
heart, they see Him. And they'll worship Him without
this wretched old nature to have to contend with. But isn't it
in your heart to obey Him? Don't you want to follow Him
as a little sheep follows his shepherd? Well, sure you do.
And it's those people who can live in the assurance and should
live in the assurance. that Christ is indeed the cause,
the author of their salvation. Well, next week we will begin
in verse 10. As I told you a few weeks ago,
he mentions a phrase or he mentions a thought and then he leaves
it. And here he mentions in verse
6 and verse 10 Melchizedek. He just mentions him, but he
leaves him the rest of that whole chapter. Chapter 6. And he goes
back to him again in Chapter 7. So next week we'll begin to
look at a midlife crisis. That's what we'll look at next
week. Midlife crisis. The time you ought to be teachers.
You have need that one teacher. A midlife crisis. What happens
in midlife crisis? I've seen men go half crazy.
They lose all perspective in their life. Go out and start
buying Corvettes. change their whole wardrobe. Women don't do
that, just men. Midlife crisis. Everything changes. I wonder what happened to these
men. The time you ought to be teachers, you have need that
one... There is a danger, there is a
danger somewhere in the middle of our life as a Christian, 15
years, 25 years being a Christian, and you read the history of some
men and some women, that something happened. And they, for a while,
seemingly lose their whole perspective. It happens. It happens. The time
you ought to be teachers, you have a need that won't teach
you again. And this is one of the reasons why I'm glad Colleen
and Wayne moved down here. We've saved him from his midlife
crisis. We put him to studying, boy.
He don't have time. We put him to teaching what he
should have been doing up in Alaska. Nobody can say to him when for
the time you ought to be teachers. Because we put in the teaching
effort. We're working. We act silly sometimes. But this
will be a good study, hopefully, next week.