to 1 Samuel again. First hour,
we looked at Christ, our King. In this hour, I would like for
us to look at Christ, our High Priest. 1 Samuel 2. Eli was the high priest at this
time, and Samuel had been born of Hannah and brought to the
house of God and left at the doorstep, literally. She gave
Samuel unto the service of the Lord from the time he was weaned.
That took incredible faith, didn't it? The faith of Christ is the
only reason why this woman would have brought her child and gave
him to Eli to raise as soon as he was weaned. Eli was the priest. He was the high priest, and he
was old. His eyes were dim, and he allowed
his sons to carry out the sacrifice unto the Lord in a profaned way. The people were to bring their
sacrifice unto the Lord, and the sacrifice was to be burnt
with fire, consuming the fat, and these men did not allow that
to happen. They were taking of the raw meat. So what it would be likened unto
is ordering a steak being medium rare in order for it being well
done. And they were treating it as it was a meal time rather
than being a sacrifice unto the Lord. They were also profaning
the temple by laying with the women that were bringing the
sacrifices unto the Lord. And so we see that the abominable
acts that they're doing unto the Lord, the Lord was wroth
with them. tells Eli by way of a preacher, he says that you're
no longer going to be a priest before me. And right before that
man comes to tell Eli that, Eli goes to his sons and he rebukes
them just by slapping them on the hand more or less. He should
have handled it in a very different regard because the worship of
the Lord is holy and we know this. We take it seriously and
these men were not taking it seriously. And the Lord pronounces
judgment upon them, which was death. I'm going to kill them,
is what the Lord says. I'm going to put them to death.
They are going to die because of what they're doing. Aren't
you glad that the Lord died in our stead? He put away our sin
and died in our stead. For if it had been us, necessary
for us to accomplish worship unto the Lord properly in and
of ourself, we could have never done that, could we? We know
that we would have profaned the temple and that we would have
tried to fill our bellies with the sacrifices these men do,
just as they did. We know that that's what we would
have ended up doing, but Christ died in our stead, and now we
feast upon the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. So God pronounces
judgment in 1 Samuel 2, and look at verse 31. Behold, the days come that I
will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father's house, and
there shall not be an old man in thy house. Look at verse 34.
It says, this shall be a silence of thee that shall come upon
thy two sons on Hophni and Phinehas. In one day, they shall both die.
Now, what he doesn't tell you here is that the day that Hophni
and Phinehas died, Eli died also. When he received word It wasn't
because of hearing of his son's death that caused him to fall
backwards off of his horse and die. It was because the children
of Israel lost the Ark of God to the Philistines. That's what
happens later on. The children of Israel are warring
against the Philistines, and they bring the Ark out. They
said, okay, well, the Lord can fight for us, and they bring
out the Ark. foolish of them to do because
the Philistines take the Ark. They destroyed the children of
Israel, not utterly of course, but they won the battle and they
took the Ark and God smoked the two men, Phinehas and Hophni,
by the hands of the Philistines. And whenever Eli heard this,
he had some form of godly fear and reverence because he wasn't,
he even professes that he wasn't concerned necessarily with his
sons dying. He was professing and confessing that what are
we to do if we can't worship? And he fell off the horse backwards
and he dies. So we see here that God's prophecy does come to pass
later on. He says, I'll cut off that arm.
And he's talking about the priesthood that he has. He's talking about
getting away of the priesthood here. Now think about if the
Lord would have left us right here without a priest. If he
had just left us right there. But the good news of the gospel
comes in verse 35. I will raise up me. a faithful high priest, a faithful
high priest. I love the I wills of scripture.
When the Lord says, I will, it happens. It happens because of
who he is. He can only speak truth. And
he says, I will raise up a high priest. He did raise up a high
priest, didn't he? We're looking at Christ, our high priest this
morning. I will raise me up a faithful high priest that shall do according
to that which is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build
him a sure house He shall walk before mine anointed forever. That's our hope this morning,
brethren, is that the Lord, the Lord raised up a high priest
for him, unto him, and he did. Now, we know that this must be
the Lord Jesus Christ because it says he'll walk before his
anointed forever. We know that a high priest is
necessary in order for us to have communion with God and to
worship. Do we know why? Because God is holy. God is other
than we are. God is not the same as we. Not everyone could go and offer
sacrifice unto the Lord. It had to come through the line
of the Levites. The Levites were the ones that
was ordained of God to offer up sacrifice unto the Lord. They
were the only ones that could do it. And you remember whenever
the, The one man named Korah in the scripture approaches Moses
with 200 men and they said, we can burn incense the same that
you can burn incense. Why are you making yourself a Lord and
a King over us? And Moses, I mean, he's nuts. They were wrong, not
only in the accusation of Moses, but Moses didn't even defend
himself. He just was like, I didn't do this, the Lord did this. It
wasn't me putting myself upon this priesthood. This is God's
ordained priesthood. This is how he has made it to
be. account that happens, the rest of it, the Lord opened up
the earth and swallowed them with their boots on, rained down
fire from heaven and destroyed all 200 of them completely. Everything
that they possessed, everything that they were. What does that
mean? We need a high priest. That's what that means. We need
one that is ordained of God, that qualifies. Now, there was
a man just recently came by here while I was studying one day,
and he asked me, what do you all believe? And I don't know
how many of you all have had that question asked to you. simply
try to use scripture. It's the easiest way I've found.
I showed him on the back of the bulletin that, uh, second Timothy
chapter one, verse nine, that we have written on the back of
the bulletin. And I try to explain to him that we believe in the
sovereignty of God and we believe in a different thing. He said,
well, who do you confess your sins to? And I said, Christ God. And he says, so you don't use
a high priest or you don't need a priest is what he said. I said,
no, Christ is our high priest. He says, Hmm, that's interesting.
He says, I'm Catholic. And I said, okay, I understand
what you're saying. Then you confess to a man. He says, yeah.
I said, I questioned him and perhaps maybe I shouldn't have
said, it ended well, but I simply said, is that man perfect that
you're confessing to? Because he has to be perfect
in order for God to hear him. I said, Christ is perfect and
we confess unto Christ. He says, I've never really thought
of it that way before. Conversation ended well, the man left, never
heard from him again. But the point I'm making is some men believe
They are high priests in and of themselves. They believe they're
confessing to a man or looking to another man to be a priest
unto the Lord, but the Lord Jesus Christ is God's high priest.
He is the one that entered within the veil by his own blood. He
is the one that successfully redeemed his people as the lamb
and the high priest, as the sacrifice and as the substitute. That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. Let's look at
the responsibilities of a high priest in Leviticus chapter 16. God is holy, brethren, and we
don't understand. It's not possible for us to understand
what that means because we are not holy. We just know that it's
other than what we are. It's just totally opposite of
what we are. And we see in order for them
to worship, this was the ordinances that had to take place. Leviticus 16, verse one says,
and the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons
of Aaron. Now, you all remember the death of the two sons of
Aaron. That was because they let the
fire of God go out. The priest had one job to do,
or he had several jobs to do, but he had one very important,
very significant job to do in that don't let the fire go out
of God. Don't let it go out. And they
did, didn't they? And then they brought strange fire before the
Lord. And what did the Lord do? He
treated them the exact same way that he treated the man named
Korah and the 200. He killed them, fire from heaven
fell on them right at that moment and he utterly consumed them
too because they brought strange fire. Now we can learn something
from this because both times that we've saw that I've just
mentioned about men trying to approach the Lord, not God's
ways, they're consumed by the fire of his wrath. Do we see
that? We have to be sinless. We have
to be sinless. We have to have a high priest,
one that touched God and was not destroyed and touched man
and not defiled. Do we see that? And that's what
Christ, our high priest is. That's what he did for his people.
Now, Leviticus chapter 16, verse one again. And the Lord spake
unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they
offered before the Lord and died. And the Lord said unto Moses,
speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times
of the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which
is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy seat, Thus Aaron shall come into the holy
place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for
a burn offering. And he shall put on a holy linen coat and
he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh and he shall be
girded with the linen girdle and with the linen miter shall
he be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore
shall he wash his flesh in water and so put them on. And he shall
take of the congregation of the children of Israel, two kids
of the goats for the sin offering and one ram or a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself. Don't miss that.
It's for himself and make an atonement for himself and his
house. So the Lord is ordaining worship here by saying, you can
only come into the holy place one time per year. Any other
time that you come in, you will be destroyed. Now that's where
the Lord has promised to meet his people is at the mercy seat.
But this veil was separation from God and man. This veil is
what prevented us from utterly being destroyed. And it's Jesus
Christ is who the veil is. The scripture even tells us that
within the veil, that is to say his flesh. But Aaron would go
in and he was dressed in these holy garments. This is the man
that's ordained of God, the first high priest in the scripture,
the one that God ordained, Aaron. We see Moses as the representation
of the law. We see Aaron as representation of the high priest. ceremony, if you want to call
it that, gives us some insight to the holiness of our Lord.
He had to wash himself with water before he ever put the garments
on. What is that a picture of? That's
the washing of water by the word. That's the washing of Jesus Christ. That's what the representation
is there. It's the gospel that goes forth. And that's how the
Lord reveals himself unto his people is by the word of God,
the water washing. We see that he is now girded
with these holy garments. He's washed himself. He has the
sacrifice. He's prepared to enter in, but
he has to make atonement for his sin first, then the sin of
the congregation. Do we see how the Lord demands
perfection? The Lord demands purity? There
cannot be one spot. There cannot be one blemish to
the lamb whatsoever. and the priest has to wash himself,
gird himself in holy garments, make an offering for himself,
and then he can approach the Lord only one time per year.
We have a little bit of insight of what holiness is in that regard. Now, look at verse 12 with me. Verse 12 says, and he shall take
a censer. Now, remember we learned about censers whenever we were
studying in this, I believe this is exactly what we looked at,
The censer is a round vessel that was on a chain they would
carry and it was what they would put the incense in and they would
burn. You've probably even seen it in today's time. I know the
Catholics still carry them around with them. Perhaps you've seen
them. He says, he shall take a censer full of burning coals
of fire from off the altar before the Lord and his hands full of
sweet incense, beaten small and bring it within the veil. Now
we know that these coals represent the wrath of God, don't we? And
we know that this smoke that's taking place right here is the
representation of the sweet smelling savor going up to the father
and being pleased with his son. And he tells us, verse 13, he
shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord that the
cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the
testimony that he die not. He shall take of the blood of
the bullock and sprinkle it with his fingers upon the mercy seat
eastward. And before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle the blood
with his finger seven times. Now on top of the garments that
he's wearing, being washed, having the holy garments upon himself,
having taken the incense with him, having done all this, there
has to be a smoke in the room or he'll be destroyed. He still
cannot look upon God, even though all of this ceremony has taken
place. That's what he tells us here. that the cloud of the incense
may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony that he
die not. So if it's not covered, if this
mercy seat is not covered with this cloud of smoke, the Lord's
gonna strike him dead immediately. The Lord will not be looked upon
by any man, he can't be. The scripture says, no man look
upon the Lord and live. Every man that's looked upon
the Lord must die because of what we are. So we see that this
covering, brethren, this cloud of smoke, This is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. This is the sweet smelling saber. This is our covering before God. This is the only way we can approach
God is by our high priest, our covering, the one that we hide
under the shadow of his wing, lest we die. I find it interesting
here that he tells him to sprinkle facing eastward. The sun rises
in the east, don't it? I liked that. It's obvious that
the Lord, everything that he does points to Christ. Everything
that this priest is doing, the covering that he has is the covering,
the same covering that he gives to his people. It's the covering
that he had from birth. It was his birthright to be high
priest. He was perfect. He was holy. He was separate
from sinners. He was undefiled. He was the perfect high priest.
He is the perfect high priest. Only the Lord can make us to
know he is holy. Only the Lord can make us to
know He is high and lifted up. Men do not take God seriously
unless God makes them to do so. He gives you repentance. He gives
me repentance. That's our hope is He's given
us repentance. He's given us faith. Men by nature do not take
God wholly. They believe they can approach
God on their own merits, by what they've accomplished, by what
they've done. They don't need the high priest Christ. They
can come in themselves. That's what men are doing. by
saying, let God do this, let God do that. They are bypassing
a substitute. Do we see that? They are bypassing
Jesus Christ, literally. Just as the men wouldn't pick
David, they would have picked Saul to be their king, and they
did. But the Lord looks at the heart, doesn't he? As we said
the first hour, the Lord looks at the heart, and he gives a
heart to his people to see him high and lifted up, to see him
as holy, and causes us to realize we need a high priest. We need
a substitute. We need a savior. Verse 16 says, and he shall make an atonement
for the holy place. He shall make an atonement for
the holy place. Think about that. The place where
God's gonna meet with them, why? Because it was made with man's
hands. This holy place was made with man's hands. Now the one
seated in the heavenlies is not, it's made by God himself. But
because this place was made with the man's hands, it was tainted,
it was polluted. It doesn't matter how you slice
it. It was something that had to be atoned for, and it was. This priest made atonement for
the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of
Israel and because of their transgressions in all their sins, and so shall
he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth among
them in the midst of their uncleanness. And there shall be no man in
the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement
in the holy place until he come out and have made atonement for
himself and for his household and for the congregation of the
Lord, or for the congregation of Israel. This tells us something,
brethren, The business aspect, whenever our Lord died on the
cross, the doing business with his father was just him and his
father. He's telling us clearly, there
shall be no man in the tabernacle or the congregation. It was just
the high priest and God, just the high priest and God. That's
when the atonement was made. And it was made for his household. First of all, it's for himself.
Then it was for his household. and then it was for the congregation.
Can we see how unapproachable God is if we approach him in
and of ourself? If we try to come before him
in his holiness, do we not see we would be executed immediately?
We would be struck down. And it doesn't matter what good
works we've done. The scripture says there's gonna be men approach
him and say, have we not done all these wonderful works in
thy name? Have we not cast out demons? Judas, we was talking
the other day, me and Al, I believe it was, Judas cast out demons. Think about that and still went
to heaven. Judas kissed the face of God and went to hell. So what
makes us to differ? It's the Lord himself that reveals
unto us he is holy. He is other than we are. He's
not approachable in and of ourself. There is no merits. There is
no earnings. There's no anything that we can
do that would allow us to please him in and of ourself. He gives
us faith and we confess Christ is all. And he's pleased with
the faith of Christ, isn't he? He's pleased with our high priest.
He's pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It's no wonder
that. Revelation they cried daily.
All it says daily. There's no time. There's no time
in glory. That means continually is what
that means. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty which was
which is which is to come. They constantly cry that why
there's no other. There's no other way that you
can glorify the Lord other than calling him holy. That's literally,
by definition, that's who he is, is holy, perfect, set apart,
sanctified. He's glorious in his person and
he is unapproachable without a high priest. Aren't you glad
you have a high priest? Aren't you glad you have the
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the one that was holy, holy
enough to not only enter in one time, but to ring the bell from
top to bottom so that you and I can enter boldly into the throne
of grace, having obtained mercy to find grace to help us in the
time of need. What does that mean? You and I can enter into
the holiest of holies by the blood of Christ. The priest did
this once a year, the priest was, arrayed in his garments. I've already read everything
to us that was needed to take place in order for him to accomplish
this. Do we understand that in order for you and I to approach
everything that was required, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
it. He's robed us in righteousness. He's robed us in the priest.
He has a priestly attire. He's given us himself. We are
in Christ. Do we see that? He provided the
blood for the sacrifice and making atonement for ourself. He hath
sanctified us. We are seen as perfect. before
God in so much that we can enter into the very throne room of
our King. We can enter into the very holy
place of God and not be destroyed in Christ. That's the salvation
our high priest wrought. That's why it's foolish to say
he tried to do something. He didn't try to do anything.
He did it, didn't he? He saved his people from their sin. In verse 34, And this shall be an everlasting
statute unto you to make an atonement for the children of Israel in
all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded
Moses. I mentioned the first hour about
our Lord being high and lifted up as Isaiah saw. And I'll mention
that to us again. It's a glorious picture to see
us complaining and grumbling and fussing to the Lord with
all of our problems. And yet when we see Christ lifted
up, What do we say? We put our hand over our mouth,
don't we? What did Job say unto the Lord? Remember the Lord,
he was complaining, he was giving his case. He said, I've done
this right, and I've done this right. He was saying everything
that he had did. And what did the Lord say? Where
were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the world? Where
were you when I hung the stars in the sky? We're talking about
the holy God, the holy high priest that we have. He's complaining
to him. And he says, where were you?
When did I counsel with you? When did we have a, it's just,
you know what, the response, the only response that you'll
have, if the Lord does that, if the Lord reveals to you, if
he comes to you in that way, saying, where was you? Where
were you when I laid the foundation of the world? If he does that,
he's giving you repentance. Do we see that? You immediately
have to put your hand over your mouth as Job did and said, I'm
vile. I'm vile. Just as Isaiah said, I'm unclean. I'm the man of unclean lips.
Nathan looked at David and said, David, you're the man. You're
the man that trespassed against God. You're the man that's guilty
before him. When the Lord does that, he gives you faith to look
at our high priest also, doesn't he? He gives you the ability
in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ to immediately see yourself,
see yourself as the chief of sinners and see Christ as your
high priest, your substitute. To see him high lifted up, and
to see Christ is all you need in salvation. It's not a natural
occurrence for a man to do that. It's not something that we attain
by knowledge. Men are constantly trying to
get more knowledge of God and constantly trying to give different
explanations of Him. And they're looking at something
now called the God particle in evolution, thinking that, and
it's all in belief, isn't it? It's all in belief. Men do not
want to acknowledge God is holy. And if he's holy, there's only
one kind of holiness, and it's a perfect holiness. Not trying
to speak as an oxymoron there, but that's the best way I can
put it. He only has one sovereignty. It's not many different kinds
of sovereignty. It's just sovereign, period.
It's just is. He just is because of who he
is. That's just good news to the
believer, isn't it? To know that he is. And everything
that he purposed, he accomplished. First Corinthians 2.14 says,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned. Men are foolish in
believing that they can approach God on their own merits or on
their own works or their own self-righteousness. If there's
one thing that you are clinging to or one thing that I am clinging
to as part of my salvation, It makes null and void everything
Christ did on my behalf. If he did it on my behalf, it
will not void it. But you understand, you will
not approach the Holy God in seeing him. If you've been given
repentance, you've been given faith, and you will not approach
him as such. You will not approach him with
something in your hand. We will not, we know not to approach
him that way, don't we? We know not to come before the
Lord saying, I have merited this salvation, or I have added to,
or I have done this part and allowed God to do this. We don't
do that as the Lord's people, do we? We know better. We've
been made to know that he is holy, and therefore we've been
made to see our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful
high priest of God. This is exactly what Saul did. I mentioned this the first hour,
but let's turn and look at it. In 1 Samuel 13, Saul came before
the Lord on his own merits, thinking that he did not need a substitute
as his high priest. He said, well, if Samuel can
sacrifice unto the Lord, I can sacrifice unto the Lord. 1 Samuel 13 and verse eight says,
and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had
appointed. Samuel came not up from Gilgal, and the people were
scattered from him. Saul said, bring hither a burnt
offering to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering
and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering,
the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet
him and that he might salute him. Samuel said, what hast thou
done? And Saul said, because I saw
that the people were scattered from me and that thou camest
not within the days appointed and that Philistines gathered
themselves together against Michmash Therefore said I, the Philistines
will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore. I forced myself therefore and
offered a burnt offering. Samuel said to Saul, thou hast
done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee, for now "'Would
the Lord have established thy kingdom "'upon Israel forever,
"'but now thy kingdom shall not continue, "'and the Lord hath
sought him a man after his own heart.'" That's our high priest,
isn't it? I know he's talking about David
here, but David prophetically is Christ. "'The Lord hath sought
a man after his own heart, "'and the Lord hath commanded him "'to
be captain over his people, "'because thou hast not kept that "'which
the Lord commanded thee.'" Saul took matters into his own hands,
didn't he? And he lies to Samuel and says, well, I had to force
myself to do it. He didn't force himself to do it. He did not
see God as holy. He saw God as approachable. If
he hadn't, if he would not have offered up sacrifice, would he?
He refused to wait on the priest. He refused to wait according
to the word of the Lord. He bypassed the high priest. He refused God's word, and in
doing so, he rejected Christ is what he was doing. He was
literally taking matters into his own hands. What do men say
about Christ? What did they say about him when
he was on the earth? We will not have this man reign over
us. The only way that you and I will come to the Lord is if
he causes us to come to him. The only way that we'll love
Christ is because he's first loved us. The only way that we
need a high priest is because, the only way that we'll see that
we need a high priest is if he causes us to see ourself as a
sinner. If he causes us to see our depravity,
our depraved nature, that sin's not what we do, it's what we
are. Certainly sin is what we do as well, but that's not the
root of the problem. We can't get better, and then get better,
and then get better, and then approach the Lord. It's not gonna
happen. We are what we are from birth, as dead dog sinners needing
a substitute. Dead dog sinners needing a savior.
Men will hear that and say, we will not have that man reign
over us. We will take matters into our own hands. We'll give
our heart to Jesus. That's what they'll say. We're
going to have part in this. We're going to get praise and
glory out of this. And they may not even realize
that's what they're saying. I certainly didn't have that mentality when
I was religion, but everything I just confessed to you is exactly
what I was saying. I just wasn't saying it by my
actions. That's what I was declaring that
I didn't need a substitute, that I didn't need a high priest,
that I could approach God on my own merits. and it's latching
hold of salvation by doing something. It's salvation by works then,
brethren. Salvation's by grace, isn't it? For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The Lord gives us a heart to
approach unto Him, a new nature, a new man that clings to the
grace of God, that clings to Christ alone for all, a heart
that desires to worship Him, Did you know that the only worship,
there's only one worship, it's true worship, it's godly worship,
and it's only done by the believer. It's only done by the elect of
God. Not just anybody can worship God. It takes God-given faith
to worship God. God is a spirit, and they that
worship must worship in spirit and in truth. If you're spiritually
dead, you can't worship, can you? God gives us the ability
to approach Him. God gives us the ability to worship
Him. God hears us when we pray. The Lord does not hear every
man, woman, boy, and girl when they pray. Did you know that?
The Lord only hears his people when they pray. Why? Because
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Because we have a high priest that stood in our stead, that
offered up atonement for us. We have been made perfect. We've
been made righteous before him. Therefore, he hears us on the
merits of his son. On the merits of what Christ
did, that's why he hears his people. Hebrews 2, verse 16 says, wherefore,
in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. We've been reconciled. We've
been reconciled. That means we've been brought
back in union, brought back into oneness with the Father, being
in Christ Jesus. We are one. with the Lord Jesus
Christ and one with the Father, because we are in the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the salvation our high
priest has accomplished. We have this blessed hope. Christ,
our high priest. Christ, our high priest, took
our sin and gave us his righteousness. Christ, our high priest. took
our sin, our transgression, our iniquity, and gave us his righteousness,
his perfection, and his holiness. Hebrews chapter six, verse 19
says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entered into the veil, that within the
veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter seven. This Melchizedek was the incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to Abraham. Hebrews chapter
seven. Verse one says, for this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
to whom also Abraham gave 10th part of all, first being by interpretation,
king of righteousness, and after also king of Salem, which is
king of peace. Now, I was gonna look at this
the first hour too, because this high priest here is the Lord's
high priest, Melchizedek, but he's also the king of the Lord
as well. So we have both hours in one
sentence or one verse right here being the King, our King and
our High Priest right here. Now, I want us to notice verse
three in the description of this, our High Priest. He's without
father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning
of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God,
abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man
was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the 10th of the
spoils. There can be no doubt, brethren,
that this Melchizedek was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's
our high priest. It's the one that set up his
everlasting priesthood from before the foundation of the world.
He abideth a priest continually. That means he's never gonna stop.
For his people, he's their high priest eternally. Look in verse
11. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people receive
the law. What further need was there that another priest should
rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order
of Aaron? For the priesthood made change, For the priesthood
being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of
the law. For he of whom these things are
spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance
at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord
sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning
the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident
that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another
priest who is made not after the law, of a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. For he testified, for he
testifieth, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof." What is the Lord telling us here? He's not speaking in
riddles. He's not trying to, he's not
confusing in his words. It's very simple. The first priesthood
was established, Melchizedek, before the foundation of the
world. And yet the Lord gives a priesthood unto the Levites. But the Levites could never put
away sin, could they? No matter how many sacrifices
the Levites would do, year after year, day after day, all the
blood that was shed could never put away sin. It was merely a
covering, wasn't it? It was merely a type. of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was not the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so therefore the Lord established a covenant before the foundation
of the world with his high priest, our high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he would put away the sin of his people. And he
did so by the order of Melchizedek. He did so by the death of his
own person. Our high priest died in our stead
as the substitute, as the surety, putting away our sin. And therefore,
Abolishing, the word anul. He anulled the old ways. He anulled the old commandment.
Why? Because it was unprofitable to
you and I. It didn't put away our sin, but
Christ did. It was unprofitable to us. It
didn't bring union back to God and unite us back to him, but
Christ did. It didn't make us one with the Father, but Christ
did. This is what he's talking to us about here. He's showing
us that this disannulling of the Levitical priesthood was
because of the imperfections thereof. But yet Christ Jesus,
our high priest, is perfect. And he entered into the veil
and satisfied the Father. He established the priesthood
of Judah forever. Remember whenever John wept in
Revelation. Scripture says that they were
asking who's worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof.
And it said, I looked in heaven and the earth and under the earth
and none was found worthy. And I wept, I wept, none was
found worthy to redeem. That's the Lamb's book of life,
wasn't it? None was found worthy. And the elder touched me and
said, weep not John, for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed and is worthy to loose the seals and open the
book thereof. He's worthy to give eternal life
unto his people. He's worthy to put away their
sin. He's worthy to be a priest unto
the Father forever. He's worthy to go within the
veil and touch God and not be destroyed and touch man and not
be defiled. He rent the veil in two from
top to bottom by his own death. And now we can enter into the
throne room of God boldly His priesthood's unchangeable.
That gives me hope. His priesthood's unchangeable.
It can't be tempered with. It can't be altered in any way.
It can't be added to. It can't be taken away. His priesthood
is forever. That means it has no beginning.
It has no end. It's everlasting. So what whatsoever
he accomplished is forever. Whatsoever he hath done, it's
settled. It's finished. He closed the
book. All those who he died, lived
and died for, have been written in the Lamb's book of life. The
book is now, it's finished. It's finished. Everyone that
he died for has been successfully redeemed. And look in verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety. Now we know what a surety is,
right? You remember whenever Judah, Judah was going back with
his brothers when Joseph had been sold into Egyptian bondage,
Joseph was the second in the land of Egypt and Joseph interpreted
the dream of Pharaoh about the famine that was going to come.
And the Lord had provincially caused Joseph to know how to
handle the situation by taking part of the grain and putting
it up for the times of famine that was gonna come, the seven
years of famine. Well, during that time, the famine was everywhere.
It wasn't limited, it was everybody. And the only people that had
grain or corn was Egypt. So the children of Israel, They
were the 12 sons of Jacob. At this time, it wasn't a mass
quantity of people like it was when they came out of Egypt.
But the sons of Jacob go down to Egypt in order to buy corn
from Joseph. They didn't know it was Joseph,
did they? They went to buy corn from Egypt. But when they get
there, Joseph turns out, did not reveal himself to them until
the very end of this account. But when they went, they were
telling him they had another brother. And Joseph thought that
they were lying. Joseph believed that they were
telling him a lie. You don't have another brother.
I am the brother you're talking about. I believe that would be
exactly what he was doing. He said, well, okay, if that's
true, bring your other brother. Well, you know the account. Jacob
didn't want them to allow Benjamin to go down there because he had
already lost Joseph, which Joseph was the son of his love with
Rachel. He never loved Leah. He was tricked
into marrying Leah. So now that Joseph was gone,
he had Benjamin and there was no chance There were no hope
that she could have another son unto him. Benjamin was it, that
was the end of it. And so you can imagine, he did
not want these brothers who died under, Joseph died under their
watch whenever they were together. They were the ones that came
back to Jacob and said, Joseph has died. We know he didn't really
die, he got sold into slavery. So what happens? What happens?
Judah speaks up. Judah says, I'll be surety for
him. Now, what does that mean? He
said, whatever happens to him, it'll be my charge. If I bring
him not back, if I bring him not back into you, it will be
my head, be my head. It'll be my responsibility to
bear the burden or to bear the guilt or to bear the penalty
of his death. And the scripture says that Jacob
allowed them to bring Benjamin down to Egypt because of Joseph's
word. So what is the Lord telling us here? The Lord's saying in
verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament. All those whom he went to fetch,
all those whom he was born for, all those who he lived for, as
our surety, he brought us back unto the Father and presented
us as perfectly righteous. Verse 23 says, and they truly
were many priests because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. But this man, our high priest, brethren,
this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to him, that come to God
by him." See, there it is. We have to come to God by him,
on his merits, on his behalf, or we cannot approach seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens. Our high priest, brother, needeth
not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for
their own sins, as we saw Aaron doing, and then for the people's.
For this he did once when he offered up himself. For the law
maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the word
of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated
forevermore. Because of this, brethren, he
is able to save to the uttermost. He is able to save and he did
save his people. He needs not make atonement for
himself as Aaron did. He doesn't need to put on special
garments because he's robed in righteousness. He is righteousness
embodied and he has given us his righteousness. Our high priest. I want to I hope the Lord will
cause us to enter into this. Our high priest, just as Aaron,
he would take that lamb. I didn't read this to us, but
he would take that lamb. and he would put his hands upon
that lamb and he would confess all the iniquity, all the transgression,
and all of the sin of himself and the people before he would
kill that lamb. And he would take it and offer up another
one as a scapegoat that would go out and bear the sin and iniquity
of the people. So what is the Lord telling us
here? Our high priest, our high priest, he had to confess every
sin, all the transgression that we are, all of our iniquity,
He had to own them as His. He had to confess that He was
guilty. He was made sin for us. And God killed His Son because
He was bearing our sin. God was satisfied with the death
of Christ. He owned our sin. He bore them
in His body. There's no way that we could
have laid our hands on Christ, is there? But now the scripture
says, come unto me. That's what we're doing, is we're
grabbing hold of him, our lamb. We're confessing that we are
nothing, that we are iniquitous, that we're false, that we're
full of sin, that we need a substitute. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
high priest, is that substitute. He is the one that got the victory,
that got our salvation. As his soul was made an offering
for sin, he purged us of our unrighteousness. He made us righteous
before the Lord. He took away our unholiness,
our other than Him, and He made us likened to Him. He made us
in Him as perfectly righteous. Scripture says, neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered
once into the holy place, having obtained. I love the wording
the Lord uses there, having obtained, that's past tense. He entered
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He
came on His own merits, He entered into the holiest of holies by
his own blood, that within the veil, the scripture says, as
the eternal high priest for his people. He put his blood upon
the mercy seat as the lamb and the priest, as the sacrifice
and as the mediator, as the sinner substitute and as the scapegoat,
all at the same time, brethren, in Christ, our high priest, successfully
accomplished salvation for his people. All the ceremonies, all
the, Religious ceremonies they had, all of it's accomplished.
All the requirements of holiness, Christ accomplished it. Every
I dotted, every T crossed, nothing left undone. We are seen as perfectly
righteous before the Lord. We see that the smoke that was
in the temple, the priest had to have the smoke around the
mercy seat whenever he would enter in or the Lord would kill
him on the spot, Reminded that in the ninth hour, when the Lord
lifted up his voice and cried, it is finished. The whole earth
was black, it was blacked out. The scripture says he blacked
out the sun, blacked out the sky. It was the black abyss. It was a darkness you could feel. And we see that that is the smoke
right there, isn't it? That the Lord required. We couldn't
see what business was transpiring there. We couldn't see what actions
were taking place, but we have an account of knowing what happened.
Christ's soul was being offered up for the sin of his people,
and God was satisfied. How do we know? Christ said,
it is finished. And Christ cannot lie because
he's God. And God resurrected him on the
third day, as we know. And he is now seated. He's seated
as our conquering king, And he's seated as our successful high
priest making intercession for you and I. He put away our sin
by the death of himself. Turn over two pages to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12. But this man, but this
man. Let's read verse 11 also. And
every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this
man, our high priest, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one
offering He hath perfected." He hath perfected. That's past
tense, isn't it? He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Our high priest perfected His
people by His own blood. He hath sat down. It is finished. Father, thank You for being a
faithful high priest Thank you for blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. That was contrary to us and
by your blood purged us from our sin. Satisfied the father. Thank you for Christ. To his
name we pray, Amen.