Jesus Christ is presented as our great high priest, superior to the Levitical priesthood, who has passed into the heavenly sanctuary. Unlike earthly priests, Jesus, the Son of God, ministered in the heavenly tabernacle, offering his own blood as a propitiation for sins, satisfying God's justice. He is a merciful and faithful high priest because he experienced human infirmities, temptations, rejection, and anguish, making him able to sympathize with and succure those who are tempted. Therefore, believers are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, trusting in his finished work and his ongoing intercession.
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This morning I'd like to go into the book of Hebrews and again take up the subject of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'd like to begin reading in Hebrews chapter four and verse fourteen. Hebrews chapter four and verse fourteen. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our professions. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.
Like to go back to chapter two in verse seventeen. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. that he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest. In all sin things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. I suppose if you were to go back and to ask in Israelite in the days of old who was the great high priest, he would tell you Aaron. And you'd ask him, why do you think that Aaron's a high priest or the great high priest?
And he said, he would say, well, because Aaron was called before all his brethren, he was the first. And because all the rest would have had to come out of him, that would have made Aaron the greatest. When we look at the Lord Jesus Christ and see him as a great high priest, we see that his calling was a calling from amongst men, and he was called of God, as was Aaron. but we see also that he was called of God, a high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. And when we view the Lord Jesus Christ, he was called after the order of Aaron. That was an earthly priesthood. It was one that was here and that men operated in, and certainly when the Lord Jesus was here, he came, and he took the seed of Abraham, not the seed of angels.
And when he walked here, He proved himself to be the spotless son of God. He was called also as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. That was one without beginning and ending. The earthly priesthood of Aaron ministered in an earthly sanctuary. Was in a tabernacle that was built in a wilderness and then later in a temple. When it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have him as our great high priest. as one that does not minister in an earthly tabernacle, but ministers in a heavenly one. And we see, first of all, we have this great high priest that has passed into the heavens.
If we ask, why is he great? In what way is he great? And certainly we'd have to consider what he told us in chapter two, that he was great in faith, that he was one great in faithfulness. Moses was great in his house, and he was faithful in it. But the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful in the house of God, whose house are we. And when we see his ministry to us, we see one who stands in a faithful place, in a ministry in every way. He is not only the faithful high priest, but he is as well a merciful high priest.
In the days of old, the faithful high priest would be one who would take the sacrifice who would offer that sacrifice, and then he would take the blood, he would go into the holiest of all. And when he got inside, that blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and about the mercy seat. And then he would come back out, and he would bless the people. And when we look at our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, we see him going into God for us. Not with the blood of animals, of bulls and goats, but he went in and he presented his own blood. He presented the value, the efficacy of his blood, blood that was sufficient to cleanse from all sin.
And when the priest of old Aaron sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat and around about it, he sprinkled it in a place of propitiation. And there it was sufficient for God. and it was sufficient for me. The blood sprinkled the seven times speaks of the fullness of it, and the ability to propitiate to God. Certainly when we look at the word propitiation, we had it as reconciliation in chapter two. Propitiation would be that that could satisfy. If you're here without Christ this morning, I'd like to stop here for just a little moment.
And say to you, the Lord Jesus, in his death and Calvary cross, had a value to that death when he laid down his life for you and me that could satisfy God. Let's look at it in this life. As a sinner, born one, and practicing sin, every one of us are contrary to God. We've just been like Isaiah said. All we like Jesus gone astray. We've turned everyone in our own way. We said no to God, and we went in our own way. But even in that, God was merciful. And he said he laid on him the iniquity of a God.
So while I was going my own way, God took my sin, and he took your sin, and he put it on his trunk. And then he judged his trunk for your sin and mine. And when he judged his son for your sin and mine, and the death, the value of that death of Christ, satisfied the demands of that holy throne, God was satisfied. In Eche this morning, I'm satisfied as well. King, you say this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ has profitiated for me. that the blood was applied and God was satisfied.
The blood was shed for me. Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. That's the blessed news of the gospel, but that's only half of it. The other half was that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. So when I look at the gospel, Christ died for our sins. Can you make it personal this morning? I've never met a lot of you before. And I would be ashamed before God to think that I ever stood here and did not give you a witness of the testimony of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down his life for you. He died for you.
He bore your sin. Can you say this morning, Christ died for my sin? It seems to me it's so easy to say Christ died for our sins. I remember one time going to the west coast on an airplane. And whenever I get on board an airplane or a bus or a train, I say, Lord, put the person in that seat. You want me to talk to you. And so anybody that sits down there, I know God wants me to talk to you. Well, one day there was an Egyptian lady who sat down. And I thought, oh boy, get a chance to do a little missionary worship. And so I began to speak to her about my Savior.
And we got talking about some things. She told me that she was a Christian, and she told me the church she went to. And when we begin to talk about the Savior, it is all we say in our church every Sunday. God is our faith. I said, young lady, can you say this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ is my faith? Can you say this morning that if I was to drop dead on the spot? I would go to be with my Savior. She looked at me astounded. She said, I never heard it like that before. Oh, you see, words are easy to say.
And you can sing this. And you can sing the message. But can you believe the message this morning? Christ died for my Savior. Can you say that? Could you say in the words of Isaiah? He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquity. And the chastisement of my feet was upon him. And with his stripes am I healed. Do you know Christ said you, Savior? Oh, young people, as you sit here, we've got quite a few young and old together. Do you know him as a Savior?
Can you say the Lord Jesus is mine? Then you say, I'm here, and he is mine. Blessed thought, blessed hope, when you can rejoice in him who loved you and gave himself for you. He is a great high priest. He becomes your great high priest the moment you trust in this Savior. That's the moment he becomes your high priest. He is a high priest, a great high priest, because he passed into the heaven. He passed through the heaven, into the heaven of heaven, and that suggests to us that there's more than one heaven, doesn't it?
It speaks to us of the heavens that the birds fly in, and that the clouds move in. We see the atmosphere around about it, speaks to us of that as we call it heaven. Then it speaks to us of the firmament, the declare of his handiwork, And the heaven that shows the glory is God. It speaks to us of those stars that are out there. The kids went out onto the lake the other night in the dark. And they came back and said, Oh, Dad, you should have been out there with us. Come on, let's go. It's out there when you get away from all the trees and everything else. They said, Dad, there's a multitude of stars up there.
Have you ever looked into that heaven? And thought the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth it handily. Day after day of our feast, it's a night unto night, showeth now. Look at the blessedness of the heavens. He said he passed through them. And he went to the heaven of heaven. He went to the holy place, the holiest of all, in before God. Oh. Oh. And that's where he lived. That's where he lived. There's no higher place he could go. No more exalted place he could go.
No more holy place he could go. He's in the presence of God for us. And he's in the presence of God to do a work. But who is the one who passed through the heaven? He's Jesus, the Son of God. That phrase says something to me this morning. It says, first of all, he had an earthly name. He was a man. He had a body of a man. His name meant something, and the angel said when he was to be born, God shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
Blessed name, Jesus. There were others who were named Jesus in that day, so it was an earthly name, even though it had a meaning. And I say to you today, we hear so many people just speaking of Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He's more than Jesus. He's Jesus the Son of God. And that's what the writer of the Book of Hebrews wants to impress our hearts with us. What kind of a Jesus do you have this morning as a Savior? What kind of a Jesus do you have as a high priest this morning? Is he a Jesus who was a man who lived and died? Or is he Jesus the Son of God, the eternal God, who passed through the heavens and is now at the right hand of the majesty on high?
What Jesus do you have? If you only have Jesus as the man, he was only an example. But if you have Jesus the Son of God, then you had one that was a sacrifice who could satisfy the judgment of God. What do you have? Jesus the son of God. You know in the book of Hebrews chapter one he shows us some of the wonders of that son of God. Chapter one of the book of Hebrews. He says, Hasn't he last day spoken unto us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things?
That's first. He says in the book of Romans that the spirit beareth witness with our spirit. that we are sons of God. If sons then heirs, so with sonship there is heirship. And because he's the son of God, he stands as the heir of God. We heard earlier this morning in our worship service. God reminded us that in that sense we enter in through all that he's heir up because he's made us heir to God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Sons of God, and a son's heir.
He said he appointed him heir of all things. It was through the son that he made the world. He tells us that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Not a single thing made without him. He tells us in the book of Colossians that all things were made for him. and by him. Amazing thing. It was all made for him, and it was all made by him. And it is in him that all things consist. Have you ever thought the power that binds this piece of wood together is the power that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when God created the world, and he framed them with the words of his power, it was through the Lord Jesus Christ that it was accomplished. He was heir of all things, but he created all things. He made the world. He framed the world by the Word of God. He was the brightness of his glory. He was the impress of his image. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is, as the Son of God. He's the stamp of God, as our great high priest, not who he is today. I would like you to grasp that so that when you see him as the high priest, you can see him as one who stands in the place of all authority and all power and all life.
He stands in that place for every single one of us. He stands there as the one whose fresh image of the glory of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ walked his down, said, we beheld his glory. What kind of a glory was it? has the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and peace. That's the glory that we beheld. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, he came with all the right and the power of the Father. Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God. He never ceased to be. He never ceased to be. Then he says, he upholds all things by the words of his power.
Everything is upheld by the word of his power. And then wonderful that while he walked here, he said he had power on earth to forgive things. After he was crucified and resurrected, he said, All power is given unto me, go ye therefore. Ah, so many times we hear that great submission, and we always begin it with, go ye therefore. If we really began it the way he began it, he said, All power is given unto me. Go ye therefore. Young people, as we go in the name of the Lord Jesus, it's in the power of that name. And that's what should send us in the way. But now when we view him, that's who he is.
You see, that's the son. That's the son of God that John describes in his gospel. that John the Baptist when he said that the Spirit of God said, the one whom you see the dove descending and resting on, this is the Son of God. And John said, I thought. And he bore witness to you. If you only go a little bit of the way in Nathaniel's day, and Nathaniel says to him, thou art the King of Israel, thou art the Son of God. Over and over we have the confessions. that he was the son of God. You see him in that sense as the great high priest.
He's the son of God. He passed into the heavens and I have there the fact of his immortality. Death had to give him up. Death couldn't hold. He died, but he ascended. And he passed through the heavens and he sat himself down at the right hand of the majesty Anah. He ascended. What is it that he ascended but that he first descended to the lower parts of the earth? And so we see him now ascended in glory, but he once descended. And he went all the way to the cross and to the grave, that he indeed would be able to take us and take us as sons into glory.
We have his immortality. There will never again ever, ever, ever be a time when the Son of God will lay down his life as a ransom for us. He alone, at life and in mortality. You know, I'm so pleased to look at the resurrection and to see this son who ascended. Do you know why? Because I remember that the word of God says the wages of sin is death. That says to me that if the Lord Jesus Christ had failed God in one wish, an evil thought, an evil word, an evil deed had ever passed through him, death would have claimed it.
The grave would have never given him up. He would have been held to this death. But because he ascended and he passed through the heaven, he spoiled principalities and powers. Oh, I rejoice in that. I see him in his ascension through the realm of faith. Satan stood as the one who was the prince of the power of the year, and when Christ descended through that realm, he spoiled us. He put off all principalities in power. He stood as the one who retired and over all. And I said, due to that fact, let's hold fast to our profession. I wonder if there's some this morning who've been a little bit shaken in that profession, who've been wondering Is it really true after all?
And you then wonder, will he say it to the uttermost? He said he would. Oh, you see what he's saying here? Let him see who I am. Jesus, the Son of God, cast through the heavens. Now hold back to that profession. Put your confidence in it. Because he stands ever as the great high priest. Now with this confidence in his person, look at what he'll do for their own heart. We're able to look at him in his intimacy and in his immortality.
Here we can see him in the next verse, in infirmity, but in that he can minister to me because he suffers. We have not a high priest. which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He put it in a double negative, and he put it in that way that he might drive home across here, that we do have a high priest that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Have you ever been weary? Have you ever been weary? And in your weariness, wondered, does he know?
You know, one of old says, Does God know? Yes, he was weary. Remember the night on the boat when he's so weary that he laid down in his turn at that boat and fell asleep. Have you ever been so weary that in a place of danger your eyes would no longer stay open? I remember over in New Guinea, in times during the war when we were under attack, And death was around about us, where the body could no longer hang on and no longer could look ice-failed. When in the wearyness of sleep came any day, fell a thief on a thief, go to sleep.
He was weary. He was weary when he passed through to marry him. And he sat down there at Jacob's well. He was weary. But in his wearyness, He ministered to somebody who had a need. A woman, he must need to go through Samaria. In the weariness of the journey, he ministered to her. You know, when I was over there, and I sat there by Jacob's well, that's one of the places that thrilled my heart. Perhaps Calvary in that empty tomb, the greatest in this moment. Because as I stood there by that well, I should remember my Savior.
One day walking in the body like this one. One day being subjected to, oh, this body is subjected to apartheid sleep. And I remember he was weary. Have you been weary? Are you weary today? He's ready to minister to you as your high priest. Have you ever been hungry? Well, today in our land we don't get too hungry, do. But I can remember a day when I was a boy, and when the depression was heavy upon our country, and I can remember when I was hungry.
And I can remember the pains of hunger, and I can remember sometimes the cold, and I can remember of picking up a bucket and going down to the railroad yard and picking the lumps of coal out of the coal car so I could take it home and put it in the stove and have something to keep us warm with. We don't know those days in our country today. But you know, I believe they're coming, and when they do, it will have come to a generation who's never been tried. And the blood will flow in the spirit. Because men will take what they want. But you know our Lord was hungry. And when it comes to the devil's thought to tempt you.
Some people have said, Well, I drink and I got some flail. It means I do this. But look at there. The Lord was tempted. I got news for you. He didn't have any lust in him. that could be drawn out by an enticement like that. James says, God is untenable. And when we look at the Lord Jesus being tempted, we've got the sense of a temptation that comes from without. It was Satan evidently, certainly trying to tempt him, but he really tried him What did he show him?
He showed him in all his pure holiness. He tried to tempt the Lord Jesus to deny the goodness of God to provide a dream. He's admitted to stone breath. No, the Lord Jesus there did it written. And he answered him with the word of God. The devil says, Cost yourself off the pinnacle. I can quote the word of God too. There's written seven angels guides over you. He wanted him to tempt the goodness of the care of God, to tempt his word, but the Lord Jesus did not do it.
He wanted him again to bow down before us. He said, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. You know, when we're tempted, Ah, and we fail, it's because there was lust within that answered to an enticement without. But when the Lord was tempted, it says, He suffered. He suffered. He suffered all the reproach that was to be his rather than to take the kingdoms of the world. He suffered. If we've got temptation and yielding and sin in the right way, we can see it like this. Have you ever viewed too madness?
And you put them up. And you draw them closer and closer together. As long as they stay a distance apart. There's no drawing power. But when you get them close enough, suddenly they grab just like that. There you have a view of in one magnet enticement that comes from without. In the other magnet lust that comes from within. And when you and I answer to temptation, That's when lust is conceived and sin is born. And sin when it's born brings forth death. And now if I take a look at it in the Lord Jesus Christ, there was enticement from the mouth.
But there was no lust for it. But it's all. Be careful. Be careful what you're saying about our Lord. When you think of him being tempted, he was tempted, but thin apart. He was tried as gold is tried in the fire. What's the fire do to pure gold? It only shows it pure. That's what it does. And that's what the fire is taking him. He showed him as pure. He was, in all points, tempted. I'd like to say tried. Like as we are, sin apart.
Have you ever been rejected? He was rejected. He said he came to his own, and his own received him not. He was rejected of his own dreadful. His brother said unto him, Go to your disciples, for his brethren believe not yet unto him. And then before he was crucified, they all persisted. He was forsaken of God there in the garden. And his heart cried out, My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever been forsaken?
Have you ever been alone? You've got a high priest. Who was? He knows your feelings. He knows how you feel. right now and he can minister to that meal. He can minister to that meal. And when you commit it to him and you wait patiently upon him, you'll sense those arms around the belt. Have you known mental anguish? He knew it. He knew it. He knew it there in the garden.
When he swears it were, great drops of blood. You know, you and I can enter into physical suffering. But we can in no way enter in to the anguish that he knew there. As God, the eternal Father, was separated from the eternal Son. You and I can never know that anger. He alone could know. And because he knows it. He can minister to us today. Is your heart in anguish? Are you anxious this morning? And are there burdens inside that you can't seem to express to anyone? He's a high priest.
Touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He's been touched. He can minister. Now, the fact that he can minister opens up something to us. The fact that he suffers. and he was an infirmity. There were times when he was shy. Now he can minister to us. And so we ought to have impotency. We ought to come bold to the throne of grace. Oh, get your heart we need to come and to come again and again and again and again every time that in our weaknesses we sense our weaknesses.
I'm resenting our Savior if we need to come to Him. Sometimes we think God must get tired of my coming. Let me tell you something. I've never gotten tired of my children coming. I'm glad they came. I'm glad they came because they still come and address me as dad, as father. They still have a love for me. They come into my presence to let the request know me. how our loving Heavenly Father must feel. Then when it is through the person of his son, he comes. We come through him. And he intercedes for us there into heaven.
He says, Let's therefore come boldly. Let's come with a full confidence to the throne of grace. Now, grace is what God offers grace upon grace. Grace is favor we don't deserve. Grace is favor we don't deserve and sin in no way return. And he offers mercy. Mercy for sin. Mercy for sin. It's of the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed. Oh, bless your heart. Have you fallen in sin? You found yourself in that place where the ice was thin.
and you went contrary to the will of God. Now it says there's mercy. There's mercy. There's a high priest minister into heaven. If you're without Christ this morning, I'd like to pass to you his invitation to come to him. Come to him, Jesus, the Son of God. Come to him that bore your sin, your iniquity, your penalty on the truth. And if this morning you find yourself in anguish, weary, rejected, come to him as your high priest.
He'll minister to you. So we pray. You know, if you are without the Lord Jesus this morning, you're only a step away from him. And that's a step in faith. Except to be taken that you can stay in your own heart. Yes, Lord Jesus, I believe that you died and you took the penalty for my sin. But if you live again and you'll give eternal life to me, Lord Jesus, I'll trust you with my soul. You're that close if you'll really believe. Blessed God, we thank you for the time we've had this morning.
We pray that your word would be a blessing to our own souls, that we would take away those handfuls on purpose, and that each heart might find complete satisfaction in Jesus, the Son of God, our great high priest. We bless you for our time together. In Jesus' name.