McPheat, Robert: Christ's Priestly Sympathy ~ Heb 2

Can you turn with me this evening to the Epistle to the Hebrews and in chapter two, The Epistle to the Hebrews and in chapter two. Reading from verse sixteen to the end of the chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in chapter two. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, wherefore in all things it behoved 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 propitiation for the sins of the people, and for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. We'll read the last verse as our text, verse eighteen of chapter two of Hebrews. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. May the Lord bless the reading of his precious word to all our souls. In the epistle to the Hebrews, it would be well if we understood that the people to whom the writer is writing understands clearly that these people have suffered great loss and have come under a measure of shame that it would be difficult for us actually to put ourselves in their shoes. It is said of these people that they had suffered the loss of their goods, and it is quite clear from the word of God that they had been scattered on many occasions. But the ones to whom the writer is addressing, they have stayed at Jerusalem or in Judea, and it's to them this letter is written to in particular. These people have suffered the spoiling of their goods. These people have been ostracized by their families. These people possibly, like Paul in Philippians, can say, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. We're dealing with a people that are not out in the country of Galilee or in the wildernesses of Judea. We're dealing with a group of people that have been brought up in Jerusalem and the surrounding district of Judea. And these men and women have ceased to attend upon the temple. These men and women have ceased to attend upon the set piece of Jehovah. And that possibly is the reason for that passage, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. I cannot see that day as the day of Christ, nor the day of the Lord, nor the day of God. I can only see that day as the recurring day of atonement that came to pass right up to the year AD seventy. For when the year of, when the time of the atonement came round, every year there was always a drawing power from those that had once believed in the Lord Jesus back again into Judaism. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, I suggest to you tonight that that day is the yearly occurrence of the Day of Atonement. It was not easy to be what we'll call tonight a Hebrew Christian. And so I wish to suggest to you that in their minds and hearts there were always constant fears, constant fears of the enemy and of the en- envy of their brethren, fears lest they should be so persecuted like the Lord that they had come to trust and take their place with him outside the gate and outside the camp. And so these verses are written in Hebrews chapter two that we might understand that there is a high priest at God's right hand, and that he not only has the ability, but he has the moral fitness to be our great high priest, in that he himself hath suffered being tempted. He is able to succor them that are tempted. And what I want to preach tonight is simply this, that Christ has all the fitness, and Christ has all the qualifications to succor me in whatever circumstance of life that I do find myself in. Just in case you have that kind of mind like steel that never is ruffled by anything, and you hardly know what fear is, I want to suggest to the others that fear is a common thing amongst the Lord's people. Now, I know that fear and faith don't agree, and I know that one is the antithesis of the other, but I want to tell you that some of the holiest people and the godliest people have had their fears. You remember there was a man of a blameless life. You remember Zacharias the priest, that the angel Gabriel came in, came in unto him, and he was doing the right thing, and he was in the right place, and he was doing it according to his course, and his home life was right, and everything was right. But when he got a revelation of the angel, these were the words of Zacharias to him. Fear, these were the words of Gabriel to him. Fear not Zacharias. Fear not Zacharias. Now he was a, a, an old man, but it says they were both well stricken in years. And here was a man doing the right thing, had a lot of experience, a blameless life, a good wife, and everything was to his advantage. And yet the angel has to say to that old priestly man, fear not, Zacharias. When you come to someone at the other spectrum of the age, the same Gabriel goes to a hovel down in Nazareth, and not now the temple with all its ostentation and all its incense, but the Gabriel goes down to speak to a maiden, just a young maiden, and he has to say to her, fear not, Mary. You see, when the angels are speaking to the fi- to the, to the shepherds, fear not. Men that were generally unafraid, and yet there was fears there. You remember even to fishermen that face the waves regularly, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. What am I saying? There are fears come into the lives of the aged, of the mature, of the young, and what had Mary to fear? Wasn't she pure? Wasn't she a glorious vessel for the incoming of the Lord Jesus? And yet she had fears, the shepherds had fears, the fishermen had fears. And I want to suggest to you tonight that you and I at times have fears. Oh, I wish you to understand that before these matters I bring to you, we notice that Christ came not in the form of an angel. Notice these words, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but laid hold upon the lowly despised seed of Abraham. That thrilled my soul in contemplation of this, that had the Lord Jesus Christ taken one step from the throne of glory, it would have meant abject humility to him. Had he taken on archangel form, or taken on angel form, or had he come to be born in the mansions of the mighty, or had he come to riches and glory of earth, it would have all been humility to him. But he laid hold upon the lowly, despised seed of Abraham that no one counted to be of any worth. It was of that seed that he was born, and not only was he born where he was, but the place where he was reared, the job that occupied his hands, the friends that were his companions, the hillside that he slept upon, the meager means that he had at his hand, and finally to be lowered still, to go to the garden and be prostrate upon the ground, to go to the cross and there to be given a slave's death in the end, and finally to be put in the bowels of the earth. Oh, what a humbling experience everything was to Christ. For you know, God raised him from the dead, and he that traveled all the distance in his dire humility, coming down and down and down and down. God hath raised him, and no higher can he sit. You know, before he come into time in the body, in the body of flesh, he couldn't move any other way but move downward. I hope you understand that. There was no other way he could move but move downward into manhood. So great was his glory, so grand and majestic and mighty and strong was he that he had to move downwards. Down from the glory the Savior came. And so he's come into circumstances that the most in this meeting know nothing about. And he's traveled a road and has suffered and has bled and has been pained and hungered and thirst and been despised and rejected in a way that few of us know anything about. And so the passage opens up with him laying hold upon the seed of Abraham. Generally, when we are humbled, it is because we can't do anything about it. Usually when we drop our heads, unless we're deeply spiritual to take the blame. Usually it is with a resistance. We don't want to do it really by nature, but Christ actually chose to lay hold on the seed of Abraham. He chose to be flesh, he chose to be poor, and he chose to die. Oh, this brings Christ before us in a wonderful way. No one in here would leave glory for such death and darkness and gloom and pain as earth. No one in here would actually choose to be poor, and few would ever make it a choice to die. But that enhances Christ in our hearts tonight, that he actually laid hold upon the seed of Abraham, and that being a despised seed indeed. Sympathy is something that we all need at some time or another. We don't need sympathy all the time, but we do need sympathy some of the time. Some people don't believe in sympathy. Well, they don't believe in it until they need a little bit of it. But sympathy is something that everyone succor, strength. We need at times someone, that's the meaning of the word succor here. It's one to come alongside us. It's one to gird us up. It's one to walk with us. It's one to take our hand in his. It's one to lift us up a little bit from the depth of our spiritual depression. That's the idea. He is able to succor them that are tried or tempted. There are two things that are so necessary in the Christian life to clearly understand that when we sin, that is, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Now, that is to be clearly understood that it's if we sin. It is not the common practice of Christians to be sinning. It is not the habit of their life, but if they do sin, then there is an advocate with the Father. And notice, for the advocate to plead our cause, he has to be without the guilt that he's pleading about. And the blessed person of the Lord Jesus Christ has that blessed competence before the throne. Though he's pleading my guilt, he is guiltless himself. And on the basis of his guiltless person, and on the basis of his work at the cross, he can, in a righteous manner, plead my case before his Father in heaven. Now, advocacy is always linked with sin that is caused by the Christian in the passage of his Christian life. But high priesthood is nothing at all to do with sin. In that deep sense, it has to do with succor. It has to do with support, it has to do with helping and aiding and coming to our rescue in times of our trial. A high priest. I noticed that there are three things a priest must have. I hinted at two of them last night. We'll put them in another form tonight. The first thing that a priest must be, he must be. That is, he must be human. He must be of her family. He must be of her kind. That's why he laid hold upon the despised seed of Ra- Abraham. He's human. The next thing I noticed is that he's knowledgeable. The priest lips must speak knowledge, and he must have a compassion on them that are out of the way. So the priest must be human, the priest must be knowledgeable, and the priest must be merciful. These are three things that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, these are three beautiful things clustered together, just like the grapes of Esco. He's human, he's knowledgeable, and he's merciful. Oh, there are some people, and they're human, but they're not too knowledgeable. There are some people that are human and knowledgeable, and they're not too merciful. But in God's presence tonight, there's a man that's a real man. You see, when Christ accepted humanity, he shall retain that humanity while the endless ages roll along. It will not make him anything inferior to God, but in taking humanity, he has raised humanity, and it is an indication that humanity is going to populate the very heavens. And so tonight in heaven is a real man. May I suggest to you there's only one man in heaven. There are many in heaven in spirit, but there's only one real man in heaven. It's not always going to be like that. Blessed be his name. Heaven is going to be populated with people exactly like Christ. We'll have the thoughts of Christ. We'll have the mind of Christ. We'll have the, the glory of Christ, everything about us. We'll retain our personalities and things like that, but oh, God has great things in mind through the representative, the divine representative for man, our Lord Jesus Christ. You will have seen in the close reading that I made of verse eighteen m that his able to succor is linked with his own suffering. That is that his competence is linked with his own experience. It's not that he can't be competent without that, but it makes him so much different because in that he himself hath suffered. You see, when someone speaks to you, they may have pity for you, but there are very few people can feel for you unless they've come that way that you've come. They're sincere. They're absolutely sincere in their sympathy, but really, unless a man has come that way, he really can't enter into the feelings of another. But our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, in every aspect of human experience, he's touched it all, in every face, in every pain, in every disappointment, in everything, he has come that way before us. I noticed that before, after the doubt, you remember, we were taught in the readings that the snares of the devil are so dreadful that after the doubt came the devil. After the doubt came the devil. And you remember in those three main occasions, those three main items, that the Blessed Lord was tried in the wilderness alone, and walk alongside and take our hand like Christ. And because he himself was tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Shall we pray? Our Father, we come to thee, and bless thee that we have thee to come to. We're more emboldened to address thee because of thy Son in thy presence. We thank thee that he was our representative upon the tree. Well, we thank thee tonight he's our representative at the throne. We adore thee, O God, for the work that he did at the cross. We're equally as grateful for the work that he now is doing for us in thy presence. We thank thee for salvation, and we thank thee for daily preservation. We thank thee, O God, for him that is keeping us by his own power, and we give thee thanks again for him that sits in the glory above. We thank thee for every listener tonight, and we thank thee for every heart that's present, and pray that something might have been said to console us and to comfort us and to give us to understand his interest in us down here. We remember that he still remembers in the skies his own tears and griefs and agonies. O God, we do thank thee for him and bless thee for our sweet consideration of him, and we pray that our minds might be enlarged about him, and we pray that our hearts might be enlarged towards him and his cause and his ways, that in the few years that are left to us, if there be as many, that we might live to the praise of the glory of his. We give thanks and praise in his worthy name. Amen. I thought tonight to sing a prayer meeting hymn before we go. Hymn number sixty eight. Hymn number sixty eight. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. We're going to sing verses one and two, rising to sing of number sixty-eight.