you tonight, if you will, to
open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Tonight we are obeying our Lord's
command as we eat and drink this which pictures the sacrifice
of our high priest. The bread and wine picture or
represent his broken body and his blood poured out for his
people on the cross. In verse 17, We read, 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. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted or tested, he is
able to succor them that are tempted. He, in verse 16, is the only
begotten Son of God. For verily He, the only begotten
Son of God, who came into this world to do the will of God. He took on Him the seed of Abraham. For verily He took not on Him
the nature of angels. but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. In other words, the body which
God the Holy Spirit prepared the eternal Son of God, when
he came into this world as a man, that body was made from Mary,
who was in the lineage of David, who was in the lineage of Abraham. As this verse tells us, he did
not take upon him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. He was a Jew. Keep your places
here, but look back with me to Romans chapter 9. Just a moment. Romans chapter 9 and verses 4
and 5. The apostle Paul is dealing with
the fact that many of the Jews, many of the physical descendants
of Abraham rejected Christ as the Messiah. And he says in verse
three, for I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsmen, he was a Jew, my brethren, my
kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth
the adoption the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, and the
service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ
came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. He took not on
him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. He was a descendant of Abraham. According to the flesh, he was
an Israelite. He was made like his brethren. He is truly man. Like us, like
you and like myself, he is truly man in having a physical body
and human soul, but unlike us in having no sin. He was like us in having a body
and soul, but unlike us in the fact that he had no sin. He was born of the Virgin Mary
and he was a sinless man. As the God-man mediator, he has
three offices. He's the prophet. There's three
offices that the mediator has, prophet, priest, and king. If
you look back in chapter one here in Hebrews, we see that
he is the prophet. Not just a prophet, he is the
prophet. In verses one and two, we read,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by or in his son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. He is the
prophet. He's also the king. If you notice
in chapter one of Hebrews, verse eight, We read, but unto the
Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter. A king has a scepter, a symbol
of authority, of power. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. And now here in chapter two,
in our text this evening, he is declared to be Our high priest. Our high priest. Now, in this
letter of Hebrews, the apostle is going to say much more later
on about the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest. Those offices,
prophet, priest, and king in the Old Testament, men were anointed
to those offices with oil. And all was assembled a picture
of God the Holy Spirit. Moses anointed Aaron with the
holy anointing oil. Samuel anointed David from a
horn of oil to be the king. Elijah anointed Elisha to be
the prophet. So those men of old, those three
offices were anointed with oil. oil pictured the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Christ, we know he was not anointed to these
offices by oil, but rather by that which the oil pictured,
that is God the Holy Spirit. At his baptism, John recorded
that he witnessed the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form
of a dove, and what is important about this, I think, is in John's
account, the Gospel of John's account of this, it remained
on him. It not only came upon him, God
the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but it remained
upon him. And all through his life, he
went about doing good, the scripture says, anointed, teaching, working
miracles, by the power of God the Holy Spirit. And we know
that he suffered and died in the stead and in the place of
his people. It is as a priest, as a priest,
not as a king, not as a prophet now tonight, it is as a priest
that he offered this sacrifice that we commemorate in the Lord's
Supper. his own body, which was sacrificed
for us. But I want to mention to us this
evening before we observe the Lord's table, four truths that
we are told in this passage of scripture about our high priest,
our high priest. First of all, our high priest
is merciful. Notice that in our text tonight. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brother, that he might be a merciful,
a merciful high priest. This is the first thing that
the Apostle tells us about Christ and his priesthood in this letter. And that speaks to me because
this being first, a merciful high priest, this is what we
need to hear first. This is what we as sinners, as
fallen individuals, this is what we need to hear first of all,
that we have a high priest who's merciful, who's merciful. We don't have a high priest that
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We have a
high priest who is merciful. We, you and I, by our sin, we
have forfeited any and every right that we might have had
by being his creatures. We forfeited those rights by
sin. The wages of sin is death. And
that is what we've all earned. And what we all need is mercy. Mercy. And he is a merciful high
priest. Look at this example in the gospel
of Luke, if you will, Luke chapter 7. I think this is one of the
finest examples that we find or that we could ever see in
the scripture, Luke chapter 9. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 7, Luke
chapter 7 and verses 1 through 9. Now, when he had ended all his
sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum,
and a certain centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick
and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he
sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he
would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus,
they besought him instantly, saying that he was worthy. Now, that's not the way to obtain
mercy. They come. What are they asking
for? They're not asking for mercy.
They're not telling our Lord that this centurion, he needs
your mercy. Know what they are saying? He's
worthy. He's worthy that you do this
for him. Well, when you bring worthiness
into the equation, it's no longer mercy. What this man needed was
mercy. And that's what you need, and
that's what I need, mercy. These who interceded for this
centurion, they come to the Lord and say, He's worthy. He's a
fine fellow. He's done some wonderful things
for our nation. He's built us a synagogue. He's
really somebody. And if anybody deserves your
consideration, it's this man. That's not the way to obtain
mercy, not at all. If we deserve it, it's not mercy. If we earn it, it's not mercy,
it's justice. You see what I'm saying? Then
Jesus went with them, and when he was now not far from the house,
the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, now
this is the word of the centurion, by the mouth of his friends,
And they acknowledge He does not feel that He's worthy. He's
not worthy that you even come under His roof. He's not asking that you do this
for His servant because He's worthy. No, no. He's asking for mercy. Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I'm not There it is. I'm not worthy that thou shouldest enter under
my roof. When a man or woman sees himself in the eyes of the
Holy Lord God, we all say the same thing as Job did. Behold,
I am thou. I'm not worthy. Anyone who believes
themselves worthy is not asking for mercy. But every sinner,
like you and I, that's what we need. We need a merciful high
priest. Thank God he's a merciful high
priest. Our high priest is merciful.
Come to him, whatever the need is for mercy, because He is merciful. Whatever the need is, whatever
the need is that we have for mercy, come to Him simply because
He is merciful. Merciful. Doesn't this fact that
He is merciful encourage all of us to call upon Him Doesn't it? It should. When we
read that we have a high priest who is merciful, it should encourage
us, no matter what our need is, no matter what our situation
is, to go to him, to come to him. Why? Because he's merciful. Because he's merciful. Because
he will have compassion, the scripture says, on them who are
out of the way. Listen to David in Psalm 25. He said, Turn thou unto me, and
have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. I am
desolate and afflicted. Have mercy upon me. Now, the
second thing that we read about our priest, if I just stopped
here, I'm not going to, but if I just stopped here, And that's
something to cause us to rejoice in, isn't it? He's merciful.
He's merciful. Secondly, he's faithful. Our
high priest is faithful. Our faithful high priest. If
you look in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 2, we read of him, who
refers back to Christ Jesus, our high priest, apostle and
high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful,
who was faithful. He was faithful to him that appointed
him. Now, who appointed him? God did. God did. He took not this honor
upon himself. He was appointed, and he was
made our high priest. If you look in Hebrews 5 and
verses 5 and 6, The writer said, 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. It was God the Father who appointed
him, and he was faithful to him who appointed him. When we read
that He was faithful to Him, faithful to Him in doing and
finishing all that the Father sent Him to do. All the work
which was given Him to do. And that will or that work, if
you still have your Bible open here to Hebrews chapter 2, what
was that will? What was that work that He was
given to do in which He was faithful? It was to bring many sons to
glory. Notice that in verse 10 of chapter
2. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom all things are all things, in bringing many
sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. He was faithful. He is faithful. He is our faithful high priest.
How, we might ask, well how is his faithfulness unto God shown
in bringing many sons unto glory? Well, each and every one of the
sons brought to glory, each and every one must have a righteousness,
must have a perfect righteousness which will allow them into the
presence of the Holy Lord God. How was he faithful to him in
bringing many sons to glory? This righteousness that everyone
needs, everyone must have, that he brings to glory. He earned,
he earned this righteousness by his perfect obedience to God,
his perfect obedience to God's law. This righteousness becomes
freely the righteousness unto all that believe in Christ. That's what we read in Romans
chapter 3, and I believe it's verse 20. It's free to us, but
it wasn't free to Him. Free to us, comes freely to us,
those of us who trust in Him, who believe in Him. We don't
earn it, we don't deserve it, we don't merit it, we don't buy
it. It's a free grace gift. this righteousness that we all
need. And this is a stumbling block
to many. It was to the Jews, those Jews
that Paul writes about in Romans chapter 10. It was a stumbling
block to them. Why? Because they were going
about to establish their own righteousness, not having submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness unto all them that believe. The first thing in becoming a
disciple of Christ, our Lord said this several times in the
gospel, if any man would be my disciple, Let him deny himself. That's the first. Deny himself.
You say, deny sinful self? Absolutely. But don't forget,
deny righteous self as well. Deny himself, both righteous
self and sinful self. Deny that you have any righteousness
of your own that would please God. Deny that. Accept that. Understand that. Know that, deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. I must have the
righteousness that he as a servant of Jehovah brought by him magnifying
the law and making it honorable. He magnified God's law by just
being subject to God's law. His person, who he is. He magnified
God's law and he made it honorable in his obedience. I was telling
the man back in the office before the service, I remember reading
in a commentary recently again on Galatians, this man told the
story of a company that produces food products and they put out
a cake mix And they advertised it as being a mix that you don't
have to do anything to. I mean, you just, I guess, open
it and stir it up, put some water in it or something, milk. And
nobody would buy it. No one would buy it. And this
company, they were convinced, we've got a good cake mix here.
This makes an excellent cake. But no one wanted to buy it.
No one would buy it. It sat on the shelves in the
grocery store. And so finally someone said,
well, put on the front of the box, add one egg. Add one egg. In other words, give the person
something to do. And when they did that, the cake
mix began to sell. And you know, one of the most
difficult things for any of us to understand is that we do not
contribute one iota to the righteousness that we need and that Christ
has provided for his people. Not one, not one thing do we
contribute. So first of all, he's a merciful
high priest. Second, he's a faithful high
priest. But third, our high priest has reconciled us to God by his
blood. Notice that he's a merciful and
faithful high priest and thanks pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. Look back to Romans chapter five,
just a moment. This is one of my favorite passages
of scripture. When I was in the Air Force years
ago, and I worked out on the flight line, and those jets,
they made a lot of noise. Back then, they didn't protect
our ears like they later learned to do, I guess. But anyway, I
learned by memory these verses. They've always been a blessing
to me. To see who Christ died for, beginning
with verse six. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. I'm glad of that. He died for
the ungodly. People like to argue over about
the death of Christ, don't they? Who did he die for? I'll tell
you who he died for. He died for the ungodly. Notice
the next verse. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Who did he die for? He died for
sinners. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies, enemies, We were reconciled to God by
the death of his son. Who did he die for? He died for
the ungodly. He died for sinners. He died
for those who were by nature enmity with him. We were reconciled to God by
the death of his son. Our great high priest, as we
read here, he is merciful, he's faithful, and he made reconciliation
for the sins of the people. How did he make reconciliation?
By the blood of his cross. Reconciliation simply means to
establish peace. We have peace with God. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Now here's the last thing. And
this is really what I wanted to talk to us the most about.
The fourth thing about our high priest. He's able to succor. We don't use that word, do we?
I don't guess I've ever used that word in a sentence. You
probably, maybe you have, I haven't, but I'll tell you what it means.
It means to help. That's what it means. He's able
to help. He's able to help those that
are tempted. And this word tempted here, in
our day, when we think of temptation, most of the time we think to
sin. Temptation to sin. And that's
true. And yes, He's able to help us
when we are tempted to sin. No doubt about that. But this
word temptation, it means testing or trying. To put to the test,
look in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse
13. What a wonderful promise this
is. We sing that hymn sometimes, standing on the promises. Christ
my Savior. Amen. We've got so many wonderful
promises in God's Word. We only hurt ourselves by not
spending more time in the Word of God and looking at the precious
promises. First Corinthians 10 and verse
13. There hath no temptation. Same
word, basically, that we have there. Sucker. Same word that's
translated sucker to hell. Or not sucker, but tempted. He's
able to sucker them that are tempted. That word tempted. Same
word, basically. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. God is faithful. who will not
suffer you to be tested, to be tried. Above that you are able. But will with the trial, with
the temptation, with the affliction, whatever it is, also make a way
to escape that you may be able to bear it. Now this has to be true. Because of the way this verse
reads, look at it again. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you are able. This means that every temptation,
every trial, every adversity, every affliction, no matter what
it is, is permitted by God. One of Job's friends told him,
that's trouble. It just doesn't spring up out
of the ground. It really doesn't. It really
doesn't. have adversity, and we all do.
You know, as pastor of a church, we know the congregation, and
I don't know of any family in this church that is not going
through some struggle at this time, some trial, some affliction,
some difficulty, adversity. But we must recognize this, whatever
it is, this is part of God's plan for me. It is. This didn't just happen by accident. This is part of God's plan for
me. I'm not able in myself to handle
this, whatever it is, but it's not necessary. It's not necessary
that I be able. Why? Because we have a merciful,
faithful high priest who is able to help us. Who's able to help
us. You know, I love those three
promises in Isaiah chapter 41. We won't turn there, but I'm
sure you're familiar with them. Three times God said, I will
help you. I will help you. I will help
you. And that last time, it reads
like this. Fear not, thou worm Jacob. I will help thee. Think about
that. Here you've got a worm. and you've
got omnipotency. A worm so easily squashed, nothing
we can think of any weaker than a worm. Fear not thou worm, Jacob,
I will help thee. And the psalmist said, call upon
me in the day of trouble, and I will help thee, and thou shalt
glorify me. Praise God, tonight we have a
faithful, merciful high priest who made reconciliation for the
sins of the people, and he's able to help us. I pray that this would be a blessing,
God would make this message a blessing to all of us. I know, well, I'm not going to repeat
this. I started saying, I'm not going
to say, I know you know all this, but you know, we need to hear
it, don't we? Even though we know it, we need
to hear it. We need to hear it again and hear it again. Paul
wrote to the church at Philippi, and he said, it doesn't trouble
me to write you the same thing. He said, it's needful. It's needful. And we need to hear again and
refresh our memories that we have a merciful and faithful
high priest. Now, I'll ask the meeting to
be adjourned.