Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:1-10 | The Work of Jesus as our High Priest, Pt. 2

I'm grateful to be standing before you again this Lord's Day. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4.

Again, we'll be considering verses 14 through 16, and moving on to chapter 5, verses 1 through 10.

Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, chapter 5 is 1 through 10. Let's pray.

Father, Lord, we come to you asking you to feed us.

Lord, you are the good shepherd who takes care of your sheep. Lord, we gather together to hear your word.

Lord, at this time, please use me as a vessel, as an under -shepherd to speak forth the magnificent works of your hand that you have brought life and immortality to light through Jesus Christ.

We pray this in his name. So just a quick intro into last week.

We kind of, same theme. Our theme is the work of Jesus as our high priest.

And last week, we looked at the first point, which was ascension. And we saw

Jesus as our high priest. We saw that Jesus is our confession.

What is our confession? We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that he is

Lord, that he died, he was buried, and that God raised him on the third day.

We saw that if we believe this with our heart and confess with our mouth that we will be saved.

We also saw, and we touched on this in our Sunday school, concerning baptism, that baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection, that we were buried, we're put under the water, we were buried in Christ in baptism, but we're raised with him in the newness of life.

We saw that, that our being raised with Christ in baptism.

But this is another way of looking at our sanctification. Our justification is being buried with him, but in our sanctification, it's being raised with him.

Galatians 3 .20 talks about, I have been crucified with Christ. Crucify, speaking of the baptism, have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live, but it's Christ that lives in me. In the life that I live, I live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the son of God. Speaking of our sanctification.

So we covered these three sub points last week to the main point of ascension.

And again, our theme is the work of Jesus as our high priest. Our timeless truth is the same as last week, that the offer of Jesus as our high priest is a for all time sacrifice.

And we looked at Hebrews 10 .12, which says this, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the father.

So the Aranic priesthood, they would offer the main sacrifice year by year, but they had other sacrifices that they had to perform ritually, daily, weekly.

This is Christ offered one sacrifice, a single sacrifice. And what did he do afterwards?

He sat down. See, in the earthly temple, the earthly tabernacle, there was no seat for the priest to sit because his work was never finished.

But when Christ had offered this single sacrifice, he sat down because it was finished.

Telestai. For believers in the old covenant and also for you and I today under the new covenant, this one sacrifice that was made at the fullness of time, first century, 30

AD, around that time, Christ made this single sacrifice.

So here's a question. Why should you listen? Why should you pay me any attention today?

You should listen because of the significance between the Aranic priesthood and the Melchizedek priesthood.

The Aranic priests were mere humans who could offer sacrifices, but they could not take away sins.

Them in and of themselves. The priests themselves, they could offer a sacrifice, but they could do nothing, absolutely nothing on their own to take away your sins.

Jesus. This is the reason why you should listen. Jesus is not a mere man.

He is the God -man, and he did take away our sins.

So let's look at our text. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, chapter 5, 1 through 10.

Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

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.

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.

For every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He can deal gently with them, I mean, with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beseeched with weakness.

Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.

No one takes this honor for himself, but only when he is called by God just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place,

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 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, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

So in our outline today, we will focus on the Aaronic priesthood versus the

Melchizedek priesthood. Again, our points are this. Ascension, we saw that last week.

We walked through the Ascension. So we had the Ascension, sacrifice, and provision. Ascension, sacrifice, and provision.

And as we transition, let's look again, like last week, at the

Aaronic priesthood we saw in chapter 9. I mean, we definitely see it in the text today, but I want to give supporting text.

So chapter 9, beginning in verse 6. These preparations, speaking of the furniture that's inside the temple, these preparations have thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties.

But into the second only, the high priest goes, he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unattentional sins of the people.

So here we have the high priest would pass through the curtain to expiate for their own sins and for the sins of the people to make provision for the house of Israel.

And we compare this to the Melchizedek priesthood, which we see in chapter 9, beginning in verse 11.

But when Christ appears as the high priest of the good things that have come, notice those words, have come, not will come, have come, 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 blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

So we have Jesus as the Melchizedek priesthood enters the more perfect tent, which we looked at last week, as he enters into heaven to make sacrifice and to secure the eternal redemption.

So on to our second point, the sacrifice. Hebrews chapter 5, we will look at verses 1 through 6.

Let me read them again. Chapter 5, 1 through 6. 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.

He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beseeched with weakness.

Because of this, he is obligated to sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people.

And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when it's called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

You are my son. Today I have begotten you. And as he has said also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek.

So what we have here is the Aranic priesthood versus the

Mechizedek priesthood. And the main two differences that I want to point out, the main two differences in the priesthood is how they are mediated.

How is the Aranic priesthood versus the Mechizedek priesthood mediated?

And so the Aranic priesthood is chosen by man. Of course, Aaron being the original priest was chosen by God.

But through this family that God has lined up, they would choose the high priest.

As a matter of fact, by the time the first century comes, there was five families that the high priest had to be chosen from.

And if we ever get to Thessalonians, we'll cover that issue. So we have the

Aranic priesthood, Aaron chosen by God, but on through this, because of the families that were established, they were chosen by man.

You look back at chapter 5, verse 1. For every high priest from among men is appointed to act on the behalf of man in relation to God.

So they were chosen by man to act on the behalf of man into the relation of God.

Mechizedek priesthood is chosen by God the Father only. Chosen by God the

Father only. Chapter 5, verses 5 and 6. So also

Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today

I have begotten you. And also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek.

So the Aranic priesthood, the Aranic high priest was only able to mediate.

Why? Because he was chosen by other man in relation as a representative.

So he was chosen by other man as a representative, who he was like in every way.

So he was chosen among the peoples of the nations, set apart as the five families who were to be chosen as high priest.

And he was to represent who it was that he was just alike. He represented them in every way, being a

Hebrew. His mediation had to do with him being besieged with weakness.

So this is how he's able to mediate. I'm going to say that in a way that probably didn't come out so clear.

His mediation had to do with him being beset with weakness. So this is why he can mediate with them.

And it's verse 2. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.

So why is it he can deal with them? Because he's just like them. He understands what they're going through.

He has the same struggles. Christ, our high priest, was able to mediate because he was chosen by God the

Father as a representative, a representative who was like his brothers in every respect.

Go back to chapter 2, verse 17. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become the merciful high priest and the service to God to make propitiation.

So here in chapter 2, we're speaking about he had to be made like his brothers in every respect. This was him as the

God -man being made lower than the angels, being born of a woman under the law, being born a

Hebrew. So Christ's mediation did not have to do with him being beset with weakness.

Christ's mediation had to do with him being able to sympathize with our weakness.

So let's compare the two just so we can have a clear view on the differences.

The Aaronic priesthood, Hebrews chapter 5, verses 2 and 3.

He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.

Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.

The Mechizedek priesthood, Hebrews 4, 15. 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.

Now I want to go back to Hebrews chapter 2, 17. But this time

I want to include verse 18. Therefore, speaking of Christ, 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 make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For he himself has suffered, because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

So not only is he the price for our redemption, as stated here, he had to be made the high priest in order to make propitiation, in order to make the payment for all wrong doing.

Remember God the Father reaching into his pocket and paying the fine that we could not pay. But also he's able to do this because he himself was tempted.

And since he himself is tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

So we have the Aaronic high priest, he can mediate because he himself is beset with weakness.

The Mechizedek high priest can mediate because he, I don't want to misquote it, because he is able to sympathize.

He's not beset with weakness. He's not sinful. He's not just like them in every way in the fact that they are sinning.

They're committing sins. They need someone to sacrifice for them. Christ does not have to sacrifice for them for himself, but because he is able to sympathize.

How does he sympathize? Because he himself was tempted. He can sympathize with their weakness.

Why? Because he was tempted. So when was

Christ tempted? We find it in the Gospels. We will consider

Luke 4, 1 -13. But before we enter into Luke 4, 1 -13,

I just want to remind y 'all, I've touched on this in the past. Pastor Cal has touched on this, and it's from 1

John 2, verse 16. Is it 16 or 18? I can't remember.

But it speaks of the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. So if you will turn to Luke 4.

Luke 4. Have that in your mind as I'm reading it. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Those are the only three sins that every one of us deal with. These are the tool belt of Satan.

This is all he has in there to tempt us with. Let's start in verse 1.

It really doesn't pick up the temptations until verse 3. Let's start at verse 1.

Jesus, in Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the

Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing during those days.

And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him,

Now listen. If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread, the desires of the flesh.

And Jesus said to him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. So we have here hunger slash bread equals the desires of the flesh.

Verses 5 through 8. And the devil took him and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Now I want to stop right here and just point out that this is not speaking of Cosmo world.

This is not Cosmo. This is Oikomene. This is the 10 kingdoms under Rome, the

Roman Empire, that this is speaking of, the known world. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him,

To you I will give this authority and the glory it has been delivered.

Let me read that again. I'm sorry. To you I will give all the authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I will give it to whom

I will. If you then will worship me, it will be yours.

And Jesus answered, It is written, You shall not live. I mean, you should worship the

Lord your God and him only shall you serve. My dyslexia kicked in real bad right then.

So verses 5 through 8, we have the worship and the kingdoms. Satan says that the kingdoms were delivered to him.

They were given to him and that he would give them to Jesus if Jesus would bow down and worship him.

And we know that Jesus came for the kingdoms. This is something that Jesus wants.

So here we have the worship, the worship of Christ for the kingdoms equals the desires of the eyes.

Satan has the kingdoms. He offers them to Jesus, says you worship me, I'll give them to you.

Verses 9 through 12, And he took him to Jerusalem and he set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him,

If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you and on their hands, they will bear you up.

Least you strike your foot against the stone. And Jesus answered him,

It is said that you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. So verses 9 through 12, this is

Satan saying, Throw yourself off the pinnacle, throw yourself off of this high and lifted up place.

It's the pride of life. He says, if you are the Christ, you are not going to die.

God will send angels to catch you. He will send his angels to catch you, which ushers in the sin, the pride of life.

This is the same three sins that we saw Adam and Eve deal with. I know that I've walked through this in the text.

Pastor Callin's walked through this in the text. So the earthly priest, so let's kind of take that back.

The earthly priest mediates because he himself is beseeched with weakness, while the heavenly priest mediates because he can sympathize with our weakness.

He can only sympathize with our weakness, as the text says, because he was tempted.

So a lot of people, a lot of cults, Jehovah's Witnesses, that I know that I deal with, they always press the issue,

God cannot be tempted. It's what James says, James chapter one,

God cannot be tempted. If Jesus is God, how is he tempted? If Jesus was not tempted, he would not be able to mediate for us.

He had to be tempted in order to sympathize with our weakness.

One chosen from among men, the other chosen by God the Father. Again, Hebrews chapter five, verse five, so Christ did not exalt himself, but he was made a high priest.

I mean, but he was made a high priest, but appointed, he was not made a high,

I mean, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are his son, today

I have begotten you. And I mentioned this last week, but it's a quotation from Psalm chapter two, and I want to dig a little deeper into this point.

So in Psalm chapter two, verse six and seven, it says, as for me,

God the Father will be speaking in this portion. As for me,

I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today

I have begotten you. So if you will turn your

Bibles to Acts, this right here is going to give the information of begotten.

What does it mean in Psalm two that this verse is quoting from Hebrews chapter five and six, chapter five and six about Christ being begotten.

What does this mean? This is a long portion of scripture, and I figure since we're reformed, we can do this.

So Acts chapter 13, now this is coming into a segment where Paul and his companions, they enter into a synagogue, and it says that after the reading, verse 15, after the reading of the law and the prophets, the ruler of the synagogue sent message to them saying, brothers, if you have any words of encouragement for the people, say it.

Listen to this. Paul stood up and motioned with his hand, men of Israel, you who fear

God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

With uplifted arm, he led them out. We talked about that in Sunday school as well.

And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them the inheritance, the land as an inheritance.

All this took about 450 years, and after that, he gave them judges unto

Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Cush, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, whom he testified and said,

I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.

Of this man's offspring, speaking of David, God has brought to Israel a savior,

Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming,

John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all people, all the people of Israel, and as John was finished his course, he said,

What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, speaking of the

Christ, no, but behold, after me, one is coming whose sandals of feet

I am unworthy to untie. You can read this story in Matthew 3. He says,

Brothers, sons, and family of Abraham, and those among you who fear

God, to us has been sent the message of salvation.

For those who live in Jerusalem, and the rulers, because they did not recognize him and understand the utterance of the prophets, which is read every

Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. Now notice where he's at.

He's in a synagogue, and the leader of the synagogue just got done reading the law and the prophets.

Paul is testifying to them that this man who you crucified has been read to you from the prophets every

Sabbath. And though they found no guilt in him, and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked

Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb, but God raised him from the dead.

And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witness to the people, and will bring you the good news that God has promised to the fathers right here.

This he has fulfilled to their children by raising

Jesus as it also is written in the second Psalm.

You are my son, today I have begotten you. So what does it mean that you are my son, today

I have begotten you? The antecedent is this he has fulfilled to their children by raising

Jesus as it is written in the second

Psalm. You are my son, today I have begotten you.

So when it talks about him being begotten, it's talking about him being raised from the dead.

And I want to skip down to verse 39 real quick. Verse 39 says, about this

Jesus who was raised from the dead, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything which they could not be freed from in the law of Moses, the old covenant.

What the old covenant could not do, it finds its freedom right here.

And this is why I am so torn between the two sides debated today when it comes to theonomy.

Christ has freed us from everything that the law of Moses could not free us from.

Christ has freed us from that law. And so I have troubles with my

Reformed brethren today over this issue because Christ has freed us.

How? By his death, burial, and resurrection. He has been begotten through his resurrection.

He has paid it all, all to him I owe. Death has made a crimson stain, he,

Jesus Christ, has washed it white as snow. Him being made a high priest had to do with him being begotten by the

Father through the resurrection of the dead. As we transition real quick, we'll go back to chapter 5.

Jesus had been prophesied to be a priest after the order of Mechizedek. That was from chapter 5.

Also verse 6, and also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek.

So this is a quote from Psalm 110. You find it in verse 7.

No, I'm sorry, it's verse 4. Verse 4, Psalm 110, 4, the

Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind. And you are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek.

But the context of this is that it says that the Lord says to my

Lord, it's that Yahweh says to Yahweh, Yahweh says to Yahweh, sit at my right hand.

God the Father said to God the Son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.

Ladies and gentlemen, if there's any reason to be a post -millennialist, it's this verse right here.

The Lord, God the Father, he said to God the Son to sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

It says that the Lord sends forth from Zion a mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

When did the Lord set forth his mighty scepter from Zion? When? First century.

What is he telling them to do? Rule in the midst of your enemies. What does it say about the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is in your midst. It's in your midst.

It's not going to be a hierarchy. It says your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.

In your holy garment, from the womb of the morning to the dew of your youth, the dew of your youth will be yours.

The Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.

After the order of Melchizedek, the Lord is at my right hand. Who is at the right hand of the

Father? Jesus Christ. Where's he doing? He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. He's on the throne of David.

He's putting all enemies under his feet. He will shatter kings on the day of wrath.

He will exalt judgment among the nations, fill them with corpses, and scatter the chaff over the wide earth.

70 AD. He will drink from the brook by the way and therefore he will lift up his head.

The Lord has said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. Now let's go into what this all accomplished.

All that is focusing on this last point. The last point is provision. Provision is taken from Hebrews 5, 7 -10.

Now in working through this sermon, I'm going to say this freely, but a lot of times when you're working through a sermon, some of it's not,

I don't want to use the word joyful, but it's hard. It's really hard to pin stuff down.

This portion, the provision, was fun. It was so much fun.

The sacrifice was, I don't want to say it was unjoyful, but it was hard.

Trying to find these links to the different chapters. Well, if I read this much, then it won't make sense, but if I read this much, will

I lose them in the process? This next point, listen, this next point, provision, was such a joy for me.

Listen as I read this last part. In the days of his flesh,

Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save from death, to save from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obeyed him, being designated by God as the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And again, we'll walk through who Melchizedek is in the weeks to come. So right here, provision.

Remember as we was going through the Lord's Prayer. The Lord is our shepherd,

I mean, I'm on the wrong, but the Lord's Prayer, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And so when I walked through the Lord's Prayer with y 'all, I pointed out that it was the sovereignty of God, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed,

I mean, no, the identity of God. The identity of God is our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

The sovereignty of God, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The provision of God, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our trespasses.

And the protection of God, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And the provision of God, it was two things. It was the daily bread and the forgiveness of sins.

Today, as we walk through provision, it's not gonna be for daily bread, but it's gonna be for the provision of our sins.

So in provision, our outline has to do with eternal salvation.

Not salvation for a week, but salvation for the week.

And it's eternal. Jesus Christ has accomplished this on our behalf.

And particularly in the text, it's through his passive obedience. His passive obedience.

Remember, his active obedience is him living the life, keeping the law, earning the land. Passive obedience is through his sacrificial death, his blood atonement.

And so a supporting text I wanna go to is in Matthew.

And I know that everyone here knows this all too well. This is in the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 36.

It says, then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray.

And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and trouble.

Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And he came to his disciples, and he found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray that you will not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And again, for a second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass until I drink it, listen right here, your will be done.

I want to stop there. Here we see him surrendering to the father's will.

And in doing so, he accomplishes the father's purpose. Remember the overarching covenant of the

Bible. God the father chose, his purpose was to save a people in Christ.

But in doing so, he has to send his son to accomplish the purpose. In order to accomplish the purpose, he has to lay down his life.

Jesus saying, if there's any other way, if there's any other way, let's do that.

Let's do that. Right here it says, but if it cannot be in another way, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

He came and accomplished that purpose. And in Luke's account, it tells us that Christ was sweating great drops of blood.

It also tells us that he was strengthened by an angel. The angels came and ministered too.

Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And his passive obedience, knowing what he was about to take.

We see the humanity of Jesus show. We see the humanity of Jesus.

Because we have to take into account that Jesus is the God man. He's God and man. He is holy, truly

God. He is truly man. And he had to be made like his brothers in every way in order to sympathize with their weakness.

And I think that right here, we're actually able to see Christ sympathize with the weakness of man.

Hebrews chapter five, verse nine. Yeah, verse nine.

It says, in being made perfect. So the word perfect here in the Greek is telios.

Telios. So if you look back at verse eight, although he was a son, speaking of Jesus as the son of God, although he was a son, it's going back to his humanity again, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

How was he able to sympathize? Because he learned obedience through what he suffered.

In being made perfect, telios, he became the source of eternal life to all who obey him.

Again, this is hard for us to wrap our heads around because we know that Jesus is

God. That he is the second person in the Godhead. But we have to realize that in chapter two, it says that he was made lower than angels.

He was made lower than angels. And I want to look at verse nine of chapter,

I mean, yeah, verse nine of chapter two. It says, but we see him, speaking of Jesus, for a little while made lower than the angels, namely

Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

He was made a little while lower than the angels. He was made perfect in his suffering so that he might taste death for everyone so that he may be the one who's able to sympathize with our weakness.

Not that he is weak, beset with sin, but that he is able to sympathize with our weakness.

He who knew no sin became sin for us. The creator entered creation.

The infinite became finite. He had to suffer. He had to be tempted in order that he might fulfill the role of high priest.

Because if you go back to the high priest, he had to be made like his brothers in every way. Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every way.

So the transition is that he himself is not sinful, but he had to struggle.

He had to go through temptation, and he had to suffer. And this is how

Jesus makes atonement. There's actually a way of saying it.

If you break it down, it's at -one -ment. The chasm was so wide between you and God that Jesus had to become a man and suffer at the hands of Pontius Pilate.

He had to die. Colossians talks about our...

Let me go there real quick and read it. Colossians 2. This is great if you see it.

Colossians 2, verse 13. And you were dead in your trespasses, uncircumcision of the flesh, but God made alive together with him, having forgiven us of our trespass by counseling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside and nailed it to the cross. Remember about the propitiation, that God paid a debt that we owed, that God paid a debt that we could not pay by reaching into his pocket.

This is what it's talking about. That there's a record of debt that stood against us because we're born in Adam.

But what we don't... What we seem to miss is that as they were nailing

Jesus' hands and feet to a cross, they were nailing the record of debt that stood against us.

That record of debt that separated us from God was nailed to the cross when they nailed

Jesus to that cross. And we'll touch on that in a minute.

This was the at -one -ment. This is what Christ done to make the atonement the at -one -ment.

God bridged this gap. There's no longer a chasm. That chasm has been bought and paid for.

He, Jesus, being the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. So what does he do?

I mean, it says, He, Jesus, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

So here's where we get a little questioning here. What does it mean when it says, to all who obey him?

What does it mean? It says he became the source of eternal life to all who obey him.

Now listen, we're closing with this. If this is salvific, it has to be found in the text.

If this is salvific, and it's pointing us to an outward work that we do, whether it be law -keeping, turning from all of our sins, like turning from all of our sins, or being baptized, listen, there is no gospel.

There is absolutely no gospel. If this is by any of those things, there is no gospel.

I'm going to give you three quick interpretations. What this cannot mean, what this could mean, and what

I believe this means. So real quick, what this cannot mean. This cannot mean repentance from all your sins.

Think about it. Think about it. This is the goading calf of evangelicalism right next to pray this prayer, that you have to turn from every sin that you've ever committed in order to be saved.

That's impossible. That's sinless perfectionism. We spoke about that earlier.

You cannot do it. You cannot do it. So what does repentance mean?

What does true repentance mean? It's turning from self -righteousness. It's that you stop trusting yourself, and that you trust

God. So if obeying here is speaking about turning from all of your sins, as a lot of evangelical

Christians teach, there is no gospel. Shut the book. Walk away. There is no gospel.

There is absolutely no gospel because you can't do it. You can't do it.

No one has ever been able to do it. You cannot do it. Shut the book. Walk away. There is no gospel, if that's what this means.

It can't mean turning away from all sins. True salvific repentance is turning from yourself.

I stop trusting in myself, and I trust in Christ. That's my stance as a Reformed Baptist. What this could mean, this could be pointing us to love

God and love neighbor. But if it is, then this has nothing to do with salvation. This has to do with sanctification.

1 John 2, 3, and 4 says this is how we know that we have come to know Him, that we keep

His commandments. Whoever says that I know Him and doesn't keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Chapter 3, verse 23 says that this is His commandments, that we believe in the name of the Son of God, and we love our neighbors as ourself.

You keep the first four commandments by believing in Jesus. You keep the final six by,

I would say, the fruit of the Spirit, loving each other, being joyful, and forgiving each other.

But again, that cannot be salvific. That has to be our sanctification.

But again, it says, if you just go back to it, the source of eternal life for all who obey

Him. It cannot be that. It could mean that if it's not talking salvific.

But this is what I think it means. Because of the context,

I think this is talking about entering the Sabbath rest through faith. Chapter 4, verse 11, let us strive to enter that rest so that we may not fall by the same sort of disobedience, which points us back to chapter 3, verse 18 and 19.

It says, and to whom did He swear that they would not enter

His rest? But those who disobeyed. So we see that they were unable to enter that rest because of unbelief.

And we have to strive to enter that rest. We enter it by belief. Chapter 4, verse 1 says,

Verse 2. Listen, So this obeying

Christ, the context, in the context, the only thing we see in the scriptures of obedience is entering the rest, entering

Jesus as our Sabbath. And that is done by faith.

So when it says, if anyone comes to you and says, hey, we have to obey Christ in order to enter Him, in order to have eternal salvation, we have to obey

Him, the obedience here in the text is speaking about resting in Christ.

It's not speaking about your repentance, because I do believe, I do believe that we repent from our sins.

I want to make that clear. I believe we repent from our sins. But listen, it cannot be the initial salvation.

It cannot be the initial turning. No one can do it. Absolutely no one can do it. So salvation has to be by grace through faith.

Why? Because Christ alone has already accomplished the work. When He was on that cross, that record of debt was nailed to that cross.

That chasm was bridged. Salvation has to be by grace through faith because He has lived a life we could not live and He has died the death that we should die.

By adding anything, you are flipping the quarter at God and saying that should cover it.

Like we pointed out last week, you cannot add anything to what God has already done.

I'm sorry it's taking me so long. Close with this. If you're not in Christ, I pray today that you will be and that you will not be flipping quarters, but that you will obey

Christ by entering that rest by faith. I'm available to anyone.

Pastor Cal also is available to anyone. If you need him, if you need me, let's pray.

Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for your supper. Lord, we pray that your hand will bless it.

And Lord, we ask that you bless our meal after this. Lord, that you will help us to fellowship and to love one another as Christ has commanded.