Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:1-10 | The Work of Jesus as Our High Priest

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August 29, 2021 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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Again, it's good to stand before you today. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews.
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Today we'll be in Hebrews 4, 14 -16, but also carrying over to 5, 1 -10.
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Hebrews 4, 14 -16, 5, 1 -10.
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Let's pray. O God, Lord, you have placed me in this position, and God, I ask that you speak through me today, that you will use my study and preparation, and that you will guide my lips,
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Lord, that I will speak representing who you are, and that as I speak,
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Lord, you feed your people. You feed me and you feed your people.
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We have gathered around today the word of God to hear what you have to say to us.
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So please, please speak to us today.
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In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. All right, so just to give a little review of what we've been going through the last few weeks, our theme for the last three weeks have been the word of God, and we saw how the word of God points us to our
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Sabbath, Jesus being our Sabbath, that our rest is in Christ, and that the word of God points us to Christ, that it points us to Jesus being our rest, and that the word of God was skilled for judging, that the word of God, Jesus also, we looked at the word of God as two things, as Jesus, the
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Bible describes Jesus as the word of God, that Jesus in the book of Revelation was called the word of God, and that he had this sharp sword that came out of his mouth, that he was able to divide, the book of Hebrews says, the sword from the spirit, the joint from the marrow, and it gave this word picture of this warrior that had this sword that was coming into battle, but we also saw that the word of God is the sword of the spirits, and then
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Ephesians, when it spoke about the word of God, it was speaking about the text, it was speaking about the word of God, this written word that you and I are holding today, that this word that we're holding, that it's
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God wrought, that it's God breathed, that Jesus is the second person in the
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Godhead, and that this book, that Jesus Christ is the one that judges, and we also saw that we will be accountable, that we will have to give an account to this word, and our theme for this week is the work of Jesus as our high priest, the work of Jesus as our high priest.
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The timeless truth is this, so what was true then, and it's true now, and it will always be true, this is our timeless truth, that the offering, the offering of Jesus as our high priest was a for all time sacrifice.
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Hebrews 10, 12 says this, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
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Father. For O covenant believers, and for you and I today who are under the new covenant, that if anyone is to be saved, it's through this one sacrifice that was made at the fullness of time.
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I pose a question to you. Here's the question.
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Would you be offended if you were to buy me a nice commentary set?
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I mean, them things are expensive, right? And you bought this for me as a gift, and in turn
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I reached into my pocket, grabbed a quarter, flicked it to you and winked my eye, and said, that should cover it.
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Would you be offended? I don't know if y 'all ever priced commentary sets.
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Since pastoring, I've been pricing them, and let me tell you something, they're expensive, but imagine buying me one.
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So here, pastor, we appreciate your work. Here's a good reform set, and I reached into my pocket, grabbed a quarter, flicked it, winked the eye, that should cover it.
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You should be offended if I did such a stupid thing.
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Look with me at our text. Hebrews chapter five. I mean,
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Hebrews chapter four, 14 through 16, chapter five, one through 10.
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Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
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Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession.
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For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.
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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beseeched with weakness.
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Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people.
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And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
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So also Christ did not exalt himself, but was made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today
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I have begotten you. As he says in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek.
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In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.
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And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience to what he suffered.
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And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal life to all who obey him.
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Being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Mechizedek.
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In our outline today, I wanna focus on the Aaronic priesthood versus the Mechizedek priesthood.
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I have three points that we'll cover in the next few weeks. The ascension, sacrifice, and the provision.
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Ascension, sacrifice, and provision. And as we transition, let's look at the
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Aaronic priesthood. Turn to, I know it mentions it in our text, but I want us to see it in another text.
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Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. Chapter nine at the beginning is dealing with the temple, the tabernacle, it's gonna name off the furniture and where it's placed.
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And so we're gonna pick up in verse six, and that's the tail end of what it's speaking on. It says, these, speaking of those furnitures, these preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section.
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So the first section would be the holy place. So these priests would go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties.
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But into the second, this is to, the second part of this, inside of this holy place would be the holy of holies, the most holy place.
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The second, only the high priest goes, and he but once a year and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.
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So here we have the high priest would have to pass through the curtain, pass through the second part of the curtain.
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This would be into the most holy place, the holy of holies where the presence of God is dwelling.
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And he did so to expiate for his own sins and also for the sins of the people to make provision for the house of Israel.
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Now, if you jump down to verse 11 of chapter nine, verse 11 and 12, this will show you the
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Mechizedek priesthood, it's wrote. But Christ appears as a high priest for the good things that have come.
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Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy place, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
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So here where it's talking about Christ entering into a greater place, a greater holy place, a greater curtain, a greater tent, it's not necessarily pointing back to the temple.
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It's not pointing back to the earthly temple, the tabernacle, this holy place, and then to the holy of holies, it's pointing to heaven.
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How what we had built at the time was a, it was an antitype, basically, of a type that, it was a, yeah, it was a picture of what was already in heaven being built on earth.
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It's kind of like, it has this type -antitype thing going on. So Christ did not enter into the earthly, but he enters into the heavenly, and thus securing an eternal redemption.
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Now for the time being, we will not be going into the priesthood of Melchizedek, kind of breaking down who
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Melchizedek was. We will in a couple chapters, we'll get to that.
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But today I only want to compare the two, the Aranic priesthood versus the
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Melchizedek. So to our first point, ascension.
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So let's just look at verse 14 of chapter four. Verse 14 reads again, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
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Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
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So under his ascension, we will look at three sub -points. So this is what we'll outline today, three sub -points.
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Jesus, our high priest, point number two, Jesus, our confession, and point number three,
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Jesus, our intercessor. Jesus, our high priest,
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Jesus, our confession, Jesus, our intercessor. Now if you look back real quick at verse 14, 14, excuse me, it says, since we have a great high priest, listen, who has passed through the heavens.
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Right here is where it's talking about him entering the curtain. Not the earthly tabernacle, not the earthly temple, but the heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly temple.
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This is what we was talking earlier in our Sunday school class about the different stages of what took place in Christ, the life of Christ.
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At his ascension, he enters into the curtain, the presence of God.
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Not with a sacrifice of bulls and calves, but with his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
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So right here it makes it clear that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, naming
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Jesus the Son of God. The definition for ascension is this, it's the act of rising to an important position or a higher level.
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Imagine that, Jesus, the second person in the Godhead, rising to a higher level.
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What? Makes no sense if you look at it from that point of view.
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Something had to take place, something had to happen. So a question,
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I tell you every week, every time that I'm going through my lessons, every time I'm working through it, I ask myself questions.
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So a question that I had was, so what do we know about Jesus prior to his ascension that would make his ascending into heaven an important position?
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And for that, I ask you to turn your attention to Ephesians chapter four.
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Ephesians chapter four, verses nine and 10. Ephesians chapter four, verse nine and 10.
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In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
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He descended, I mean, he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might feel all things.
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So you have the creator entering creation, the infinite becoming finite, right?
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And this is telling us he who ascended, this is the ascension, had also descended.
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He who, the one that you saw taken up in the cloud had also came down to us, so he descended.
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Look at Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two, verse six and seven.
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It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him?
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You made him for a little while lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor.
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So was there a purpose? Was there a purpose for Christ Jesus to descend?
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And it's yes, of course. There's a purpose for this. There's a purpose why the triune
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God, that God the Father chose in time past to send his son to accomplish a purpose.
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And he descended to make the father known. John chapter one, verse 18.
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He came to exegete, to explain, to point to the father. He came to make his fathers known and he came to save sinners.
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How? By establishing the new covenant. Ladies and gentlemen, under the old covenant, no one can be saved salvificly.
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No one can be saved. The old covenant was only earthly promises.
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Earthly promises. Keep this law, live in the land.
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That's the old covenant. He came to establish the new covenant, one that was in his blood.
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And the sacrifice had to be taken into the presence of God. The heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly temple.
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This ministry of Jesus was one that pointed back to the father. The will of the father was to bring redemption to a people through a son.
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And that redemption was to be accomplished through the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
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Right? Ain't that what we were speaking about this morning? These different parts that he fulfilled, the things that he fulfilled in his life, what he fulfills in his death, his resurrection and now in his ascension.
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And quickly as we transition, his ascension would be him receiving a kingdom.
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Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven speaks about the son of man coming before the ancients of days and the ancient of days gives to the son of man a kingdom.
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As he passes through the heavenly tabernacle, this heavenly kingdom, he is given a kingdom.
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This heavenly temple, he's given a kingdom by his father. That in his ascension, he would receive a kingdom and he would sit at the right hand of the father on the throne of David.
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And we read about that in Acts chapter two. So real quick at our first sub point.
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Jesus, our high priest. And we'll go back to Hebrews chapter four, verse 14.
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Since then we have a great high priest. A great high priest.
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Our high priest is not the son of Joseph. Are you hearing me?
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Our high priest is not the son of Joseph. He is the son of God. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
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Jesus, the son of God. Not the son of Joseph, the son of God.
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The eternal begotten. Jesus as our high priest was made like his brothers in every, listen, in every respect.
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Go to Hebrews chapter two, verse 17. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers, speaking right here of the
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Hebrews. He had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to do what?
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To make propitiation for the sins of the people. To make propitiation.
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He had to be made like his brothers in order to become a high priest, in order to make propitiation.
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Remember I gave you the analogy, God reached into his pocket and he pulls out the eternal son and he pays the payment that we could not pay.
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We had a debt that we could not pay. The Bible kind of gives you the idea that while Jesus was on the cross, this debt that we could not afford in Colossians chapter two was nailed to the cross.
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You and I broke God's law, God paid our fine by sending his son. This is what his work of the high priest is for, propitiation.
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He had to be made like his brothers, the Hebrews, in order to become this high priest.
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This is speaking of his hypostatic union that this eternal God became a man.
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He's holy, truly God. He's holy and truly man. He was made lower than the angels, but in doing so he subdues the world through what he suffers.
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And you wanna talk about things that's hard to wrap your brain around, things that's hard to understand, is that when
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Christ lived this life and he suffered the death that he died, that's what conquers the world.
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That's what's eventually gonna overtake everyone. That's the thing by which he's putting all enemies under his feet.
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And we'll touch more on that next week. Jesus did not make himself a priest, but he was appointed.
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Hebrews chapter five, verse six. I'm sorry,
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Hebrews chapter five, verse five. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but he was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today
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I have begotten you. This is taken from Psalm chapter two. Psalm chapter two, verse seven.
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I will declare and decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today
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I have begotten you. Begotten in this portion of scripture speaking of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Speaking of his resurrection, that this God man, this son of God, this creator that enters creation, the infinite that became finite suffered and he died for our sins.
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But he was begotten, he was raised from the dead. And after that he ascends, he goes behind the curtain into the presence of God offering a true sacrifice.
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Look at what's said about the Aaronic priesthood. Chapter five, one through four.
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So this is speaking of the Aaronic priesthood. For every high priest is chosen from among men who is appointed to act on the behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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Listen, he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weaknesses.
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Why is he able to deal with man? Because he himself is weak. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for the sins of the people.
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And no one takes this honor upon himself, but only when called by God just as Aaron was.
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So God had established a way for certain men to become priests.
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But God also established a way for the son of man, the son of God, the second
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Adam, to become the high priest. And that's what we're seeing here today.
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That this Aaronic priesthood, that they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins, not just for the sins of the people, but for their own sins.
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There used to be this story told that would try to scare people out of hell and into heaven.
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And I know you've heard it. The story was said that they would tie a rope around the priest's foot and they would drape him in bells.
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And as he enters into the holy of holies, if the bell stopped ringing, they knew to drag this corpse out because it was in the presence of God and he had sin and so he was dead now.
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So they would drag his body out. But listen, that's only, that was invented by some preacher that made altar calls to try to scare the hell out of people and to welcome them into heaven.
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That is not a biblical truth. The biblical truth is, is that they would sacrifice for their own sins first.
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It's in the text. When they entered into the holy place, their sins were already sacrificed for.
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Be Bereans, check the scriptures. My job is to not scare the hell out of you.
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My job is to present to you Christ and him crucified. Life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension has been accomplished for you.
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Rest in that, believe in that over your life. That's what we are to do.
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As a matter of fact, I couldn't come up with a story so dramatic, right?
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I mean, we tie a rope around his foot, we don't hear the bells, we drag him out. Senseless.
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He had to sacrifice for his own sins first. Then he sacrificed for the sins of the people.
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As we transition, Jesus is sinless. Jesus is sinless.
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Because he didn't offer, he didn't have to offer a sacrifice for his own sins because he's sinless.
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He kept the law. Jesus himself paid for your sins and stood in your stead.
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He paid your sins for your sake. And that's where the gospel comes in.
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Again, earlier in Sunday school, we spoke about it. That Jesus lived the life, his life.
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His life was one that kept the law. He kept the law.
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You could not keep the law, he kept the law. And in doing so, he gained the land.
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The earthly promise of the law was keep the law and live in the land.
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Jesus keeps the law and he earned the land. That's why it says the meek shall inherit the what?
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The earth. The meek shall inherit the earth. Why? Because Christ kept the law.
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He earned the earth. He kept the law. He lived the life you could not live.
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And he died the death that you should die. And in his dying that death, he earned eternal redemption for you and I.
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Ladies and gentlemen, he earned eternal redemption for you and I. He stood in our stead. He stood in our place.
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He lived the life we could not live. He earned the land and he died the death that we should die. And by doing so, he earns eternal redemption for you and I.
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He rose again for our justification. And he enters in, he enters in to the heavens.
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And what you and I have to do is believe. We have to trust. We have to call upon the name of the Lord. We have to, repentance, we have to stop trusting in ourself and we trust in what
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God has done for us. Our second sub point is
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Jesus as our confession. Jesus as our confession. Again, we're in verse 14.
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Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, right here, let us hold fast to our confession.
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The word confession here in the Greek is homolaga, homolaga. It means agreement, to agree with.
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That's what it means. So what is our confession? Matthew 16, 16.
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Context, Jesus is asking these people, who do men say that I am? Who do men say that I am?
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Simon replies, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered, blessed are you,
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Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
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So part of our confession is that we have to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
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God. Also, Romans chapter 10, 9,
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Romans chapter 10, 9 and 10, verse nine is kind of touching on, well, let's just read it.
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Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, right here, that Jesus is Lord, this is kind of the same relation to Jesus being the
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Christ, the son of the living God, but it carries it a little further. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
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Lord and believe, here's the key, with your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
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Again, we live in a world where most Americans have with their mouth professed that Jesus Christ is
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Lord, correct? But with their hearts, they have not believed that God has raised this
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Jesus from the dead. Both have to be in operation.
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Both have to be running. Many, many people profess with their mouth.
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But listen, if you truly believe in your heart that God has raised this Jesus from the dead, your life changes. Your life changes.
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You are not the same. Something changes in you. And it's not with your own will.
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It's not with you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Because something supernaturally has to take place in your mind to believe that dead men can rise.
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That's not something built into us to believe. In order to believe this, something has to happen.
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Something supernatural takes over. Romans chapter six, also a part of our confession.
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Romans six, verse three and four. Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?
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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that Christ Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father. We too might walk in the newness of life. That we believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the son of the living God, and that God has raised this Jesus from the dead, and that we identify ourselves in baptism with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Baptism is not a symbol. It's not something you can interpret. Baptism is a sign and it's full of information.
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And the information is this, that I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
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God, and that God has raised this Jesus from the dead, and that in my baptism
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I am identifying myself as dying when he died. When he died,
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I died, and when he rose, I rose to walk in the newness of life. That's what we're saying, our confession.
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He is our confession. Our baptism is not about us. It's about Christ. And as we transition, it's through his ascension that we have intercession.
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It's through his ascension that we have intercession. I wanna look at a few places that speak of the ascension of Christ.
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Luke chapter 24, excuse me. 24 verses 50 and 53.
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50 through 53. Luke 24, 50 through 53. And he led them out as far as Bethany and lifted up his hands and blessed them.
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And while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into the heavens.
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And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing
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God. Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one, verses six through 11.
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Acts chapter one, verses six through 11. So when they had come together, they asked him, this is his disciples,
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Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
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And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the
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Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all
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Judea and in all Samaria to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.
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And while they were gazing into the heavens, he went and behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said to them, man of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the heavens?
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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
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So here we have Christ blessing them and we have Christ giving them marching orders before his ascension.
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He blesses them and he gives them marching orders to go into all the world, to the ends of the earth.
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This message needs to be preached. And we can transition to Matthew 28.
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How is this done? All authority in heaven and earth has been given to who? Christ go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to teach them. And lo, I am with you to the end of the age.
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This is what that's speaking about. I didn't bring Matthew into it because it doesn't show his ascension, but that's the message, that's the marching orders.
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He blessed his disciples and he gave them marching orders. Now turn with me to the next chapter,
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Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 35 speaks of his ascension.
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Men of Israel, hear the words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.
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As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless man.
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God raised him up, loosening the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
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For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
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Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy ones see corruption.
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Listen to this, you have made known to me the path of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
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And Peter speaks again, brothers. Now, just to give some context before I finish reading, this is when the
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Holy Spirit has come. This is when they saw the disciples were proclaiming the magnificent works of God and that Jews from all over the region were coming.
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Those who spoke in different languages were able to hear the gospel in their native tongue.
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And he's standing before them all saying, this Jesus that you crucified, that you nailed to the cross by the hands of lawless man, he was put into the ground.
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But David prophesied about this. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about our patriarch,
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David, that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us today.
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Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne.
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He foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ and that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.
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This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses.
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Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the
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Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you are seeing and hearing.
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For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the
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Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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Quotation from Psalm 110 .1. So in this text, we have
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Jesus being put to death. We have God raising this Jesus up from the dead.
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Jesus being at the right hand of the Father doing what he's sitting on the throne of David.
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The kingdom has been established and this throne is in heaven.
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This throne of David is in heaven. Our third sub point,
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Jesus, our intercessor. Hebrews chapter four, 15 and 16.
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Now I'll tell you right now, I will not be exegeting all of 15. That will be for next week.
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So we will just be reading it for context sake, but we will do 16. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
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Verse 16, let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
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The high priest was the intercessor. By the sacrifice that was made on the behalf of the people, this was him interceding for the people.
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So a high priest was the intercessor. So Jesus, think about that when it comes to Jesus.
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The high priest would intercede by sacrificing for the sins of the people.
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Now think about that when it comes to Jesus and him being our intercessor.
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And again, we'll touch more on the sacrifice next week. So what have we learned?
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God the son descended, made lower than the angels. Why? So that he might become the faithful high priest.
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That our confession, that our agreement is that Christ is the son of God.
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That Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. That he died, that he was buried, but that God raised him from the dead.
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And that our lives, our lives, this life that we live, the Galatians chapter 2, 21 says that I have been crucified with Christ, baptism.
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I have been crucified with Christ. And this life that I live, this is not mine.
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This is not mine, it's his. It's his. This is not my life, it's his.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you're a Christian, this is, you are not living your life. It's Christ.
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You are to live your life for Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer
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I that live, but Christ lives in me. And this life that I live in the flesh, I live now by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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That's what you're saying when you're baptized. When he died, I died. And because he was raised,
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I have been raised to walk in the newness of life. That's our agreement. And when you receive the gift of the eternal life, do not reach into your pocket, grab a quarter, and flip it at God and wink your eye.
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You did not do nothing. We have done nothing. I've done nothing.
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Salvation is of the Lord. It's his. And it's a free gift.
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Through hearing the gospel preached, one second you're dead in your trespasses and sins, unbelieving, shaking your fist at God.
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And the next second, the intercessory of the high priest has taken place in your life and you are justified before God.
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You have peace with God. Romans 5 .1, haven't been justified, haven't been justified, therefore haven't been justified.
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I'm messing it up. I quote it every week. For some reason I'm messing it now. 5 .1, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So we can't flip God a quarter and say, that should cover it.
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Your works are filthy rags. My works are filthy rags.
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Salvation is of the Lord. It is the free gift of God. And in closing, my thoughts will be dealing with what we've learned the past few weeks, what they have to do with the intercessory of Christ.
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So we looked at how Christ is our Sabbath. We enter that rest by faith.
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Look at verse 11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that we will not fail by the same sort of disobedience.
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Turn to verse 19 of chapter three. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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So the Israelite in the wilderness could not enter the rest because of unbelief. In chapter four, verse 11, he's saying, let us strive to enter that rest.
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Let us not fall to the same sort of disobedience. How? By not believing. So we need to believe.
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And now look at verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the thorn of grace that we may receive mercy and find need in the time of help.
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How do we draw near to the time of grace? Let us with confidence draw near to the thorn of grace.
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Because if you believe, you come to God with confidence. You're not coming to God weak, and we're coming to God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
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We have confidence. We have been given confidence. And it says that we may receive mercy and find grace in the time of help.
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Turn to Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25. It says, consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the intercessory work of Jesus is, has not ceased.
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His work and redemption has ceased. It is finished. Telestai, it is finished.
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His work as intercessor is what he's doing right now at the right hand of the Father, sitting on the throne of David.
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He is interceding for you. First John chapter two, calls him the, he is the advocate, our lawyer that pleads our case.
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Same scenario we have here. He is our intercessor. He comes before God before us.
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He is praying for us. Jesus Christ is before the Father pleading our case.
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Again, if that doesn't make you wanna do a Pentecostal two -step, something needs to shake you up.
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I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. If you have questions, if you need prayer, please know
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I'm available. Pray with me. Oh God, I thank you for your people.
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Lord, again, I come in here filled with your word.
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And while I'm up here, I'm praying that I'm able to deliver it in such a way that not only them, but I can leave today changed.
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That I can be renewed and have a greater faith. Lord, we love you and we praise you.
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And we know that your word will not return void. It will accomplish its purpose as Christ has done.
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And Lord, right now we pray over your supper. You have given us this ordinance. God, we pray your blessings on it.
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The body that represents the broken body of Christ and the wine that represents the blood poured out of the new covenant.
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Lord, please bless this meal. And we ask that you use it to grow us in holiness.