[0:00] this morning. So Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16. And yes, we'll just be looking at three verses. I wanted to tie that in with some more, but the Lord just kind of stopped us there.
[0:10] So we'll be looking at Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16. While you're turning there, I'll remind you there'll be no services this evening, so we'll come back Wednesday night. We are just making our way on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, just making our way through scripture.
[0:25] So we will be back in the book of Numbers again on Wednesday night. We were doing the book of Psalms and we've decided to put Wednesday and Sunday night together. That's just making our way through scripture and I'm greatly enjoying that. Some of you are going through that now in your personal reading time. So we will be making our way, continuing to make our way through the book of Numbers this Wednesday when we come back together. But this morning we are in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 4, as we're making our way through the book of Hebrews. And if you remember, the overarching theme to the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater. Jesus is greater. He is really writing of the superiority of Jesus Christ to all things.
[1:10] The author of Hebrews is unknown, though there is much speculation as to who it could be. We do not emphatically know for a fact, so we dare not say. Where scripture is silent on this, we would stay silent as well. But we do know his audience. The audience of the author of Hebrews is the Hebrew people. That is why it is entitled Hebrews. He is writing to the Hebrew people and of my understanding, probably to those who are outside of Jerusalem, those who are what we would call in historical context, the diaspora. They are living throughout the Roman Empire. The reason I believe he is writing to Hebrew people who are living outside of Jerusalem is because he goes to such great links to quote Old Testament passages, but he quotes them in the Greek or the Septuagint translation of those Old Testament passages because the Hebrew people who lived outside of Jerusalem would not have been speaking Hebrew. They would have been speaking the native language of that day, which would have been Greek or Aramaic. So he was using their common language and referencing them back to the setting.
[2:10] He speaks very much of things which pertain to the Jewish nation in particular. And he is highlighting these things, all of these things which are unique to the Jewish nation. And he is showing them that while these things are good or had a season, let us never say that the law or the Old Testament did not have a season. It's not good because everything that God ordains is good. So the sacrificial system, the temple system, all of those things were good or are good in their season. And as Paul says, they are tutors to point us or to lead us to Christ. So the author of Hebrews is trying to bring it to his fulfillment and saying, those things are pointing you to someone. They're not taking you somewhere. And he is pointing to how Jesus is greater. So we have titled our study through the book of Hebrews, our hope resting in greater things, a hope that is resting in greater things. And we come this morning to our great high priest, our great high priest in Hebrews chapter four, verses 14 through 16. If you remember, we want to take it in context because this is one of those points where he says, therefore, and as Sidney Gibson, a brother, Sidney Gibson, who served as interim here prior to my coming here, served as an interim at First Baptist Normandy prior to my preaching and pastoring at Normandy. And as actually the man who ordained me and licensed me into the ministry, brother Sidney used to say that where you see a therefore, see what it's there for, right? You need to see what is connected to the rest of scripture. And if you remember, immediately preceding this in Hebrews four, he went into great detail of what salvation looks like.
[3:49] Salvation is not so much a mental acknowledgement of facts or even a recognition of truth, but rather it is a submitting of the heart to those things of greatly turning one's life and submitting one to that in faith. And he highlighted the failure of the nation of Israel to enter into the promised land, not because they didn't know that God was good. It's because it in their heart, they could not accept by faith and believe by faith that God was good. And so we see that. So connected to that now is our great high priest. If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm asking if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God, just three verses, Hebrews four, verses 14, 15, and 16.
[4:33] And then we will pray. The author says, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let's read it again. Just three verses.
[5:07] Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray. Lord, I thank you so much that you've given us this day. And God, it is with much rejoicing that we have the opportunity to read your word together. Lord, we now pray as we have read it, that our hearts and minds would come to a greater understanding of it. Lord, by the power and presence of the spirit, Lord, by the presence of the son, that we would know exactly what it is you are telling us and teaching us. Lord, we pray that these truths would not just come to us in an intellectual fashion, but rather they would come to us moving and shaping our lives for your greater glory and your honor. Lord, in all things be magnified, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.
[6:17] Probably one of the most important people in the Jewish setting, in Jewish society, was the priesthood. And in the priesthood, the highest person in the priesthood would have been the high priest.
[6:29] We have already seen through the book of Hebrews how Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses. The author has highlighted for us that Moses was faithful as a servant in the house of God.
[6:39] We read that in the book of Numbers as well. When God himself testifies of Moses, when Miriam and Aaron opposed Moses. Remember, they came to him and Miriam said, has God only revealed himself to Moses?
[6:50] Or are we not all people who are loved by God and cannot all of us speak for God? Now, Miriam wasn't completely out of context when she said that, even though she said it in a kind of jealous fit of rage because of who he had married.
[7:02] Because Miriam is one of five ladies in Scripture that is referred to as a prophetess. She is one who has prophesied for God and has declared his word to God's people and had been used by him.
[7:14] But then God calls them to the tent. You remember that in the book of Numbers where God says, Okay, Moses and Aaron and Miriam come out to the tent of meeting. And then God makes this great profession. God says, I have not found any in my house like Moses.
[7:29] Moses is faithful in my house. And the author of the book of Hebrews testifies to this same truth that Moses is faithful in the house of God as a servant.
[7:40] As a matter of fact, we are told that there is no greater servant in the household of God more faithful than Moses himself. He was, in Scripture's testimony, more humble than any other man who had ever been. But yet the author tells us that Jesus is not a servant in the house.
[7:54] Jesus is the builder of the house. And the builder always has a greater position than the servant. So Jesus is greater than Moses. The progression moves forward in Jewish society then.
[8:07] If he's greater than Moses, then what about Aaron? What about the tribe of Levi? Because those who served the nation of Israel more than any others or were called to serve the nation of Israel more than any others were the tribe of Levi.
[8:21] The Levites were to serve and to minister. And then the descendants of Aaron were to serve and to be inside the temple or the tabernacle and to be those who interceded. The oldest book we have in Scripture is the book of Job.
[8:33] When you open up the book of Job, you see what the earliest recordings we have here of what man thinks of God and how God created things. I know when you read it in your Old Testament, you don't come to it first.
[8:44] But Genesis speaks of the beginning, in the beginning. I understand that. But Moses is looking back in eternity and riding forward through history. But Job is the oldest writing we have in Scripture.
[8:56] Job would have been, of course, before Abraham was called out of the land of the Ur of Chaldeans. And we can go into the historical setting of what was happening in that time. But Job makes this great comment that we see being played out or being fleshed out in Scripture.
[9:09] Job calls out, says, Oh, I wish that there were an umpire who would stand between man and God. I wish that there were a man who could lay their hand on my shoulder and put his hand on God.
[9:22] Who could stand in the gap and intercede. Now, this is man's earliest callings, right? This is man's earliest longings and his desire. Because the theology in the book of Job.
[9:34] Now, I know you're saying, Well, how is he going from Moses to Job and all the way back to Hebrews? Stay with me. The theology in the book of Job is that God blesses those who do good. And that if we're not doing good, then if we're having bad things going on in our life, it's because we're not good enough.
[9:50] Now, just in case we think that that theology has went away, that theology is still very rampant in our society today. That if we do good enough, God will bless. We have problems in our life. It's probably because we're not doing good enough.
[10:01] And it's because we have sin that we have not repented enough. And if we would just repent of all our sin, then God would surely bless us and provide for us and do good to us. Now, here's the problem we have historically. I have seen historically that born-again believers have suffered and died and bled and been martyred and burned at the stake alive.
[10:18] And the book of Hebrews says they're sown in two. I mean, they were passed through saws. And those weren't skill saws, right? They were hand saws. I don't want to get too graphic here. But they suffered. And it wasn't that they were suffering because they did bad.
[10:31] The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, because this world was not worthy of them. God called them home through suffering. So the theology that Job's friends have is, Job, the reason things are happening in your life is because you're doing wrong.
[10:44] Job's like, I'm innocent. I know I'm innocent. I can understand I'm innocent. I'm not done anything. I've prayed. I've offered all these offerings, sacrifices. I intervie for my children. Now, he's not being self-righteous in this because he is speaking as far as he knew he was innocent.
[10:58] He said, I need an umpire, someone who would stand between me and God and let me know what's going on. And intercede. An intercessor there. And then that begins to be answered because then God calls Abram out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans.
[11:13] Why did God call Abram out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans? Is it because God was choosing a team? Well, if God was choosing a team, Abram was the wrong guy to choose. Because Ur of the Chaldeans was Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is the birthplace of idolatry.
[11:27] Okay? The reason he was calling Abram out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans was because he was going to make a nation that would represent him to the rest of mankind. He was making a nation out of Abram so that there would be a nation, a multitude of people who would stand between the world and between God and show the world what God was like.
[11:47] When you read Moses leading the nation of Israel out, now all of this matters, so kind of stay with me in a historical setting. When Moses is, thank you, Brother Johnny, when Moses was leading the nation of Israel out of the Egyptian captivity and they went to Mount Sinai, God might have promised, God said, I will make you a nation of priests.
[12:06] Remember that? He had called the nation of Israel and said, I'm going to make a nation of priests out of you. The whole nation was to be a nation of priests. And they were to represent God before man and represent man before God.
[12:22] Multitude of people. Over a million people came out of Egypt. And God said, I'm going to make a nation of priests out of you. Well, the problem would happen is when they were at Mount Sinai, when Moses went up to find the Decalogue or to get to Ten Commandments, all of a sudden they built this golden calf.
[12:36] So they went from being a nation of priests to being a nation with priests. By the way, those that are with me on Sunday night and Wednesday nights, I know I'm speaking fast, but stay with me. We will see it again. Every time the nation fails, God adds more requirements to them.
[12:52] Every time they fail, God makes it harder to come back. Okay, so they don't just sin and get away with it. There's something added to that sacrifice. Something added to that sacrifice. So now they went from a nation of priests to a nation with priests.
[13:05] And then that priesthood begins to get smaller and smaller. But God, what God is doing is answering Job's question. That there would be a man who could stand between man and God. And he's pointing to one man.
[13:18] He's not pointing to Aaron. He's not pointing to Levi. If he was pointing to Aaron, we'd have a problem. Because Aaron wasn't perfect. And neither were Aaron's sons. As a matter of fact, as soon as Aaron and his sons were chosen to serve as priests, two of them offered strange fire and died.
[13:32] They were consumed by the fire. By offering strange fire, that means they offered a sacrifice that God did not ordain. They thought they could offer a sacrifice of their own choosing. They could come to God however they wanted to.
[13:43] And God says, you want to mock me and choose to come to me in a certain way? Because wide is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the road that leads to everlasting life, right? God has always had a very narrow plan, by the way.
[13:55] So we see here that in the nation of Israel, those who were serving as priests, and I know this is a long buildup, but stay with me, held a very prominent position.
[14:07] Because they were the ones who could stand before God and represent man, and then stand before man and represent God. They could put a hand on man, and put a hand on God, and close the gap.
[14:24] And they did it through the altar, and the sacrifices, and they did it through the offerings, and the number of offerings that were spelled out for us in the book of Leviticus. And this is the way they did that.
[14:35] And there was one man, who was the high priest. Now, we should have a problem with this, and I'm giving you a lot of biblical information, and I know I do, and it's okay, but it's Mother's Day, so we want to step back and think a minute.
[14:48] We're not coming back tonight, so I'll give you a lot of information to think about, and talk about over lunch today, right? I'll give you some meat to eat with. One of the problems we have, when Jesus was put on trial, remember when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and they brought him to the household of Caiaphas.
[15:02] Remember Caiaphas? And there's this saying in there that should bother us, and Scripture says, for he was high priest that year. And then there was also Annas, who was also high priest.
[15:14] So there were two high priests at that time, because when you became a high priest, you were high priest for life. But by the time Jesus was born, the position of high priesthood went up for auction.
[15:28] And whoever bid the most money, the Roman Empire said, okay, you can be high priest. This was a fundraiser for the Roman Empire. It's like, oh, we're going to let you have your worship, but we're going to set whoever's high priest.
[15:39] And the Sadducees were serving as high priests, which all of a sudden should sound an alarm, because the Pharisees were those who knew the law the best. The Sadducees did not even believe in the afterlife. They didn't believe in the resurrection.
[15:50] They didn't believe in the angels. And they didn't believe in demons. What they believed in was commerce and business. And they were great businessmen. They made a lot of money. So when high priesthood went up for auction, they won it. Why?
[16:01] Because they wanted that place of prominence. So what we see is, by the time of Christ came along, the priesthood was tainted. But Aaron and his descendants were to serve as high priests.
[16:14] Now the high priest was to do this. They were to be the ones who would officiate over the offerings. Now, he had his helpers. He didn't kill all the animals. He didn't slaughter all the animals. That's what Aaron's sons did while Aaron was high priest.
[16:27] But one day, one time a year on Yom Kippur, one day, one time every year, that high priest would put on his priestly garments.
[16:40] I've told you this before, but around the hem of his garments, it would have a bell and a pomegranate, bell and a pomegranate, bell and a pomegranate, bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of it. And it wasn't just for looks.
[16:50] So that when he walked in, because they would tie a rope around his ankle, and when he walked through the veil that went into the holy place, and then he alone was the only one, one time a year, who could go through the veil into the holy of holies.
[17:04] And they had to hear that bell ringing because that meant that he was alive. And if the bell ever stopped ringing, it was because he had died in the presence of God and they would pull on that rope and pull him out of the holy of holies because nobody else could go in there.
[17:17] But one time a year, he would go into the holy of holies and he would have the blood of the bull and he would put it over the Ark of the Covenant. Now, all this matters if you stay with me on what we're about to see, okay?
[17:29] You've got to keep this picture. Stay with me. And he would put the blood on the post and on the cherubim, which were called the mercy seat or the seat of propitiation.
[17:42] It's a hard word for a southern tongue to say. Maybe you can say it better than me. The cherubim were not just ornate objects. They were the mercy seat because in the Ark of the Covenant was the law and above the Ark of the Covenant was the Shekinah glory.
[17:55] So you had the glory of God, the presence of God resting over the law of God and something had to intercede between the high standard and the holy God and that was the mercy seat where they put the blood because the blood.
[18:07] So when God looked down to his standard, that is the law, there was the blood in the way. One time a year, high priest would go in. This person was important. But do you know there's only one in Scripture, only one who is ever called a great high priest?
[18:26] And it is the one you just read about in the book of Hebrews. Therefore, he says in Hebrews, since we have a great high priest, friends, the word of God is accurate and the word of God is pointed and the word of God is very selective in the words it uses.
[18:48] No high priest in all of Scripture is ever referred to as great. To be great is to be magnified and lifted up and above and beyond all things.
[18:58] It is to be exalted and higher than. No high priest, even Aaron, when he was first anointed to serve as high priest, is always just referred to as the high priest. But here we are introduced to a great high priest.
[19:12] And I want you to see three reasons why he is the great high priest. Now, we will flesh out the priesthood of Jesus Christ in Hebrews 5, Hebrews 6, and then when we really get into it in some of the latter chapters until we get to 9 and 10 and then even into 11, 9 and 10 really, we'll get into the priesthood according to Melchizedek and answering all those questions.
[19:32] But right now, I just want us to stand amazed at the reality that we have a high priest and he is a great high priest. He is a great high priest. He is the longing that Job had that he would put his hand on God and he would put his hand on man.
[19:49] He is the reason that Job said, Job, I believe, made the very first profession of the resurrection in all of Scripture because Job said, though I die and my flesh rot, I know that I will see my Savior in the land of the living.
[20:05] What Job was saying is, I'm going to die, my bones are going to decay, but I'm coming back to life and I'm going to stand in the land of the living and I'm going to see with my own eyes, my Savior. Job is looking with this expectation to a great high priest, not just a high priest.
[20:20] And I want you to see three reasons why we have a great high priest. Number one, we notice his position. We notice his position. His position is broken down for us in four ways in verse 14.
[20:34] Therefore, since we have a great high priest, we see what he is. He's not just a high priest, he's a great high priest. He's not just a priest, he's a great high priest.
[20:45] He is one who is above and beyond any other priest or high priest we find in Scripture. This is what he is in his position. We notice also where he is. Look at what it says.
[20:56] We have a great high priest who is passed through the heavens. Now every year the high priest went in, he would pass through the veils of the tabernacle or he would pass through the veils of the temple.
[21:08] He would walk through the doorway. Then he would walk into the holy place. And then he would walk into the holy of holies. And he was going into places where no man could trod, but he one time of year.
[21:19] But he could only pass through the veil. But while he was passing through the veil, he was also walking on the earth. But our high priest has passed through the heavens. And he has entered that tabernacle or that temple of which Moses saw.
[21:32] And he came down and built a model of. Because if you remember what God said, God said, be sure you make it according to the pattern I have shown you in heaven. Jesus did not walk through the veils.
[21:43] As a matter of fact, he tore the veil in two. He did not have to go into the veil because the tabernacle and the temple he was entering was on the other side of the heavens. So he went through the heaven above that is the first layer of heaven.
[21:54] As Paul says, I know a man that was called to the third layer of heaven, to the heavens above the heavens in the heavens. The Jewish people had all this view. And yes, I'm getting a little excited. And it's okay to get carried away even on Mother's Day.
[22:05] But we see here that he went through the first heaven, which is where the birds fly. He went through the next heaven. Our scientists today call that the ozone. He went into the next heaven. They call that the outer space.
[22:16] And then he finally broke through the final layer of heaven. That is, he went into the courtroom of God. That's where he's at. We don't have a high priest who's standing on earth hoping to reach heaven.
[22:27] We have a high priest who left earth and went to heaven. He went into the presence of the one with whom we have to answer. This is how good and how great our high priest is.
[22:40] We see where he is at. We see who he is. He is not Aaron. He's not the descendants of Aaron. He is Jesus. He's not even a son of Aaron, which gives us a problem in historical setting, which we will be able to answer in the book of Hebrews biblically because we see historically that only the descendants of Aaron could serve as priests and therefore be high priests.
[23:04] But biblically, we see that Jesus is not of the descendants of Aaron because he is a lion from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, right? Aaron was from the tribe of Levi.
[23:14] So he's from the wrong tribe, but Jesus fulfills it in Melchizedek. We'll get to that later. We're getting ahead of ourselves, but look at who he is, what his name is. He is Jesus, the son of God.
[23:29] In the Bible that I preach out of on Sunday mornings, I don't mark very often. If I do mark, it's usually with a pencil. I don't know about you guys, but I'm fairly easily distracted.
[23:41] I remember one Sunday morning, and it wasn't here. It was when I was preaching at Normandy. For some reason, there were a lot of little bitty BBs across the front of the sanctuary. And I got so distracted, I kept seeing these little BBs, and there was a thing, the thought kept coming to my mind, either somebody's shooting at me, or somebody was taking target practice to see if they could hit me later on.
[24:01] But I just got so distracted, so I try to keep things away from me. That's why I like to be orderly. I don't know if I have whatever you want to classify me as. I'm just a little different, and that's okay. But in my other Bible that I study out of, I tend to mark in it quite often.
[24:15] And I have taken and read through the book of Hebrews and underlined every title we have for Jesus. But probably one of the sweetest titles we'll have for Jesus in the book of Hebrews is He is Jesus, the Son of God.
[24:31] We don't have a high priest who's the son of Aaron. We have a high priest who's the son of God. Now let me ask you, and somebody did very wise this morning, and I know I pick on my daughter sometimes, but if you can't get to my wife, probably the next best person to get to to get something to me is one of my children.
[24:54] You just don't want to get somebody else's kid, right? Because somebody else's kid, somebody said, well, I'm not getting my kid. Well, I know, and be careful which one of my kids you get too. Everybody knows what I'm talking about, but you want to be sure to get one of my kids, because if you get the daughter of the preacher or the son of the preacher, then usually it tends to get back and accurate, and at least, they're the ones, if the office door is shut, that they have the freedom to come in anytime they want to, mostly because they store stuff in there, and I think they're coming in to get it.
[25:24] They don't even knock. They just bust on in. So you're a little bit better if you don't get to my wife, you get to one of my children because you say, well, I can't just send some of your kids. I'm not going to call them out, think that that office is their playroom too.
[25:37] And so they don't knock either, and typically as soon as I see them, I say, get out, and I just kind of run them out. And it's not that I'm being mean to them or anything, it's just I don't have time to talk about fish and stuff like that. So I just kind of send them on out of there.
[25:49] But so we see it's always better not to just have a random descendant, but to have a descendant with the closest ties. Our high priest is not the son of Aaron, he's the son of God, and the one we want him to intercede with is God.
[26:06] So we go right to the source. Now he is both son and fully God. At the same time, we can blow our minds all we want to and get into the Trinity, but we see who he is.
[26:17] Now we see why it matters here in this verse, and we're still looking at his position, why this matters to us. He is the high priest, our great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
[26:31] Friend, I just want to ask you, when we have such a great high priest, how could we fail to hold on? The motivation throughout the book of Hebrews is that we hold on. We hold on, we hold on, and we stay the course.
[26:44] Because he would write later, he's going to write in just a little bit, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. And he's anticipating that their faithfulness will come to the place where they begin to shed their blood because of their testimony.
[26:58] So throughout the book of Hebrews, he's saying, since this is true, hold fast your confession. No matter what happens in this world, no matter what comes against you, no matter what pressure you may feel, no matter what temptation, we'll get to that in just a minute, comes your way, hold fast, because you're not leaning on a priest who goes into a temple, you're leaning on the great high priest who's in heaven, and he's always constantly interceding on your behalf.
[27:25] Hold fast. Sometimes I believe that the reason our faith fails is because we have put our faith in such a little thing instead of understanding exactly what we have placed it in.
[27:40] So we see here his position. Secondly, we see his profession. That is what he claims and what he can do for us, what he is professing to us.
[27:52] The author says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Now, one thing we have to give the descendants of Aaron is that the descendants of Aaron knew how to pray for their countrymen because they were in the same boat.
[28:06] The descendants of Aaron knew that when battle was coming, that they were there as well. They knew that when the famine come, they were there as well. The reason we know that is because they were paid off of the crops and the harvest of the rest of the nation.
[28:19] So they felt this pain. They felt the rest of the nations. It would say later in the book of Hebrews that they would intercede for themselves and then intercede on behalf of others because they were men just like them.
[28:31] They were fallen failures, men who would sin just as they did. And sometimes we begin to put God way up here. We say, well, God's up here and he can't relate.
[28:42] Here's the beauty of Jesus who can put his hand upon man and put his hand upon God. He reminds us that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses.
[28:53] And the reason we know this, now this just blows me away when I stop and consider this. The reason we know this, he says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are.
[29:12] One who has been tempted in all things. Now the original wording there is, is that while Jesus was on the earth, those 30 plus years, he encountered every single temptation that will ever come to any other person.
[29:33] Now let me just put that into context with you. Throughout the room, there are a multitude of temptations. Throughout the room, every one of us have something we struggle with.
[29:44] But the reality is, is that my struggle is probably your strong point. And your struggle is probably my strength. What you are weak in, I may be strong in. What I am weak in, you are strong in.
[29:56] And it should be that way because in the church body, you have all these one another's. So my weakness is your strength so that you can hold me up. And your weakness is my strength so that I can hold you up.
[30:08] We're not all tempted and we're not all tried in the same ways. There's some of us that we can walk into certain places and every temptation that others may fail or fall at could be right before us and it would never bother us.
[30:20] Some of you could walk up to a chocolate cake and walk away from it and go eat pieces of celery. Me, I would use the celery to cut the cake and eat the cake. Because why eat the celery?
[30:31] We don't all have the same temptations. So we can't really all relate to one another. We can help one another. But we have the tendency, and this is where we get judgment among Christians.
[30:46] Well, I can't believe so-and-so would ever succumb to that. Well, just because we don't doesn't mean they don't. because they could in the same manner look back at us in the same way.
[30:59] But when we come to Jesus, because while we may be able to relate to one another on some points, here's our high priest, our great high priest. The Bible says Jesus has been tempted with every temptation.
[31:17] Every temptation. He's experienced it. When you read, when Jesus was led to the wilderness for 40 days, and He was in the wilderness for 40 days, and we read of the three temptations which Satan came to Him.
[31:31] The three temptations go in this, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh. If you're hungry, and hey, after 40 days of fasting, you're usually hungry.
[31:44] If you're hungry, turn this stone into bread and eat. That's the lust of the flesh. You know you're hungry, feed your flesh. Many of us, we deal with the lust of the flesh. That is, we want to feed the flesh. I'm not just talking about food here or there.
[31:54] If it feels good, I want to do it. If it takes some pain away, I'll do it. If it makes me check out for a little while, I'll do it. That's the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes. See all these kingdoms, I'll give them to you.
[32:08] See all these kingdoms, you can have them. That is, we're tempted with, we want more, we want more, we want more. The pride of life. I will make you great. I'll make something out of you, Jesus.
[32:18] And Jesus says, I didn't come to be something, I came to be nothing so that I could show everybody what I am. Because Mark says, that he came to serve.
[32:29] He came to humble himself. Those, by the way, are the same three temptations that Eve and Adam faced in the garden and they failed. Jesus succeeded.
[32:40] But what we don't understand is in that 40 days when you read it in its original language, Satan was tempting him the entire time for those 40 days. Those are just the three culminating temptations.
[32:53] But what we have in Jesus is one who can sympathize. Here's what's good. No matter what it is you are tempted with, Jesus knows what that's like. And here is what he's telling you.
[33:07] Yet without sin. You may encounter someone who can tell you how they have moved beyond a temptation.
[33:19] You may encounter someone who could tell you how they deal with a temptation. But you will never meet another person who could ever say they were tempted and didn't sin.
[33:33] But we have such a great high priest and what he is professing and what he is proclaiming to us. I know where you're at.
[33:47] I've been there too. But I didn't go where you're going. So who would we rather lean on and trust on? Because he can relate.
[33:59] He knows the pain. He knows the urge. He knows the desire. He knows the temptation. But friend, he knows the way out. Because this is one thing I have found.
[34:10] Every born again believer has been engaged to God. That's that wedding ceremony. And they have been sealed until the day of redemption with the Holy Spirit. And the way we know we are born again is when we are tempted and we fall, we know it.
[34:26] We don't feel good about it. It bothers us. Our stomach turns. It gets knots in our belly. The Spirit will not allow us to do things we should not be doing. And we have this constant battle. And Paul says that those things that I want to do, I don't do.
[34:39] Those things I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man, this miserable man, who would deliver me from this wretched man to the name? Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 8 says, Praise be to God through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. There is therefore now no condemnation for those found in him.
[34:52] Jesus alone is the one who can tell you I can show you how to be tempted and not fall because I did not sin.
[35:03] Here is what he's professing to us. Third and finally, we see his provisions and I will wrap up. You say, well that's great, he never sinned, he never fell, so I'm not coming to him.
[35:14] Well let me show you what he provides when you do. Verse 16 says, Therefore, since we have such a great high priest, since we have one who sits in such a prominent position, since we have one who says he knows where we're at and he alone can show us how to walk away from that, therefore, verse 16, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
[35:38] I love that. You know, when I go into the presence of God, I want to go with a holy reverential fear, but I do not go being afraid. Hebrews says, go boldly through the blood of the Lamb.
[35:53] You know why I can be confident when I go before the throne? It's because my high priest is so great he's already at the throne. I'm not going in my own confidence, I'm going in his position.
[36:03] I'm going in what he promised me. I'm going in what he's proclaiming to me. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence, do you see this, to the throne of grace. It is the throne of judgment because Hebrews chapter 10 says it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
[36:19] But because of the high priest and the blood on the seat of propitiation, by the way, Jesus is referred to on the cross as our propitiation seat. That cherubim that was on the top of the Ark of the Covenant where they put that blood, I told you to keep this line of thought, right?
[36:36] Where the high priest put that blood once a year, all that was doing was showing us that when God looks at his holy standard, which is the law, still the same standard today, he's going to view it through the blood of the propitiation who is Jesus Christ.
[36:51] And the throne of judgment has now been turned into a throne of grace for those who come through Christ. We go to the throne of grace. Here is what he provides so that we may receive, we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[37:09] I want you to notice what the author does not say. If we ever need it. He does not say if we ever need it. He doesn't say go there so that you can find mercy and grace if you ever need it.
[37:19] He says you go to that throne because of your high priest who's so great when you need it. One thing I know for certain, there's no one in the sound of my voice who does not stand in need of grace and mercy at some point or some place of their life.
[37:43] You're not going to find it here because we all need it together. We find it there when we here go there in his presence because of who he is.
[37:57] Because of who he is. The mercy and grace and the forgiveness and compassion that we can offer here is only an overflow of what he's already offering us there. So friend, if you're in need, just be reminded of the great high priest we have.
[38:15] Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. I thank you so much for allowing us to come together. I thank you for allowing us to read your word together. Lord, we thank you for speaking to us.
[38:27] Lord, I pray that if we have heard you that we now as your people would respond to you. Lord, would you just be glorified and magnified at this moment in what you do in each one of our lives.
[38:40] We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. so