Oh, To Have A High Priest - [Hebrews 4:14-16]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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February 4, 2018

00:00: Well, I've been a Christian for almost 30 years, and I've heard a lot, and I've been in lots of counseling situations, either receiving counsel or hearing from people that need biblical counsel.
00:14: Sadly, to my shame, sometimes when people tell me what's wrong, I've either thought or said,
00:22: I can't believe you did that. How could you be so foolish?
00:31: I've either said or thought, how did you get yourself into that situation?
00:39: How could you be that stupid? Now, over the years, I don't say that out loud, but I still, once in a while, think that way.
00:46: Someone comes to you, they're enslaved to sin, they're ensnared in sin, something's going on, they did something wrongly, they were tempted and they failed, and how do we respond?
00:59: Well, here's the thing, Jesus is different than I am. I hope you're very glad for that, because when
01:05: Jesus hears your confession, when you go to the great high priest, the one that loved you and gave his life for you, how does he respond when you say,
01:15: Lord, I was tempted and I failed? What do you think
01:21: Jesus says? How could you do that? How dumb were you?
01:28: Well, there are consequences to this action. Since Jesus is a great high priest,
01:35: Jesus' response, if he were to say something out loud, it would be this, I understand, and I have been tempted like you have been tempted, and you're still my child.
01:51: Jesus is a lot different than we are. I understand I was tempted that way too.
01:58: Lincoln Duncan said, it's mind -boggling to think that the Son of God knows how you feel to be tempted, because he's been tempted in all ways like you.
02:07: In fact, my friends, he has been tempted in ways that you and I will never ever understand. You know, the funny thing is that it's we who can't understand what
02:18: Jesus went through. It's not Jesus who can't understand what we went through. We can't understand what he went through, but he can understand what we went through.
02:29: Jesus is a high priest. Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews and learn more about this loving, great high priest.
02:42: God is so holy, sin is so awful, we need a go -between.
02:47: We need an intercessor. We need someone to represent us, and his name is Jesus, the high priest.
02:54: You can imagine that these Jewish people back in these days... He's writing the book of Hebrews to Hebrew people.
03:02: You can imagine some of these people understanding the Jewish background in temple and priests would think, you know, we don't have a priest now.
03:11: The priest is back in the temple, and here we are huddled in some basement somewhere, some cave, getting persecuted, and we need help.
03:19: We need an intercessor. We need a priest. And so the author is going to say, you've got one. And when these other detractors say, you don't have any priest, you don't have any priest, there's a great high priest interceding for you.
03:34: Some might think with my criticism over the years of the Roman Catholic Church that I don't like priests.
03:40: I love the idea of priesthood, but I don't need a fallible man to be my priest, and neither do you, because you have a great high priest,
03:52: Jesus, who's not only God, but also man. And everything in this book talks about Jesus as great.
03:59: And one of the themes is Jesus is better. His sacrifice is better. His priesthood is better.
04:06: His covenant is better. His promises are better. His surety is better. His word is better.
04:11: He is better. Now, when you look at the book of Hebrews, it's simple.
04:17: Thirteen chapters, and almost like Paul, the first several chapters in Ephesians, doctrine, and then the last three chapters, how do you respond?
04:29: Colossians, chapter one and two, leading into chapter three, here's who God is, here's what it means to believe in Christ, and then here's how it plays out methodologically.
04:40: And it's the same thing here in Hebrews, except it's chapter one through 1018. This is the theological foundation for Jesus, the high priest.
04:49: And then 1019 through the end of chapter 13, how does this work itself out methodologically?
04:57: And so far in the book of Hebrews, we've seen Jesus as greater than the prophets, Jesus who purges sin,
05:04: Jesus who's been raised from the dead, Jesus who's better than an angel. I just read the other day,
05:10: John, the apostle, sees an angel and he's on his face before this angel. The angel says, get up,
05:15: I'm not God. Jesus is even greater than these angels. And he had to be a man because he had to suffer.
05:25: We've learned that in chapter two. He had to identify with humanity. He had to destroy devil, the devil and Satan himself.
05:34: And now we work our way to chapter four and we're closing in on the end of chapter four.
05:42: And so what we'll do this morning is let me get the background for where we were last time and then we'll get into the outline of chapter four, verses 14 through 16 today, talking about Jesus, who's not just a priest, he's not just a high priest, he's the great high priest.
05:58: And I think it'll encourage you. If last week was scary, the word of God examines you. This is the balm.
06:05: You don't know how much you need a priest until you realize how great the scrutinizing word of God is.
06:11: So it's almost like last week was the bad news. This week is the good news and the good news isn't as good unless you know how bad the bad news is, right?
06:23: Hebrews 4 .12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
06:41: The writer has been saying this, we want you to believe in Jesus. We want you to trust in him. The language used here is rest, right?
06:50: Instead of you doing all the works to get to heaven, Jesus did it all and you just trust in him and rest.
06:57: Kim and I were at the gym last night. We were talking about ropes and climbing up ropes. And so the owner of the gym took us in the little back area and they've got this rope that goes all the way to the ceiling.
07:06: There's a rope over here and a rope over here. And so Kim tries this rope and I tried this rope and we weren't competing or anything like that.
07:13: Kim and I would never compete. And I just thought she's going to do it and I'm not going to be able to.
07:21: And so the owner of the gym was showing us how to climb the rope. I couldn't believe how hard it was to try to climb all the way up.
07:29: And the thing is, you don't want to expend all your energy to climb up the rope because you've also got to use energy to get down the rope.
07:36: Otherwise, you just slide down like a tire iron in a swimming pool. I mean, just straight down. And I thought that's like trying to get to heaven by your own good works, climbing, energy, merit, stress.
07:51: How can I do it? It's impossible. No wonder I use that often quoted George Whitfield line, getting to heaven by your own works is like trying to climb a rope made of sand, but climb it all the way to the moon.
08:06: Jesus did it all. Jesus didn't climb Jacob's ladder.
08:11: He was the ladder who came down. Trust in him, rest in him. Why? Because this word of God, if you won't trust in him, it will examine you.
08:23: A while back, I was going through the x -ray at Logan, and there's certain x -rays you just walk through at the airport.
08:29: And the other ones, there's that thing that kind of turns, it closes you in, and you have to put your hands like this.
08:35: You know what I'm talking about? They said to me ahead of time, do you have anything in your pockets? No, I'm a world traveler. I don't put it.
08:41: Hi, excuse me, sir. Come over to the side. What? Is there something in your right pocket? I opened up my,
08:47: I reached on my pocket. There was a tiny, tiny throat lozenge paper in my pocket.
08:55: And he looked at me like, sometimes I've looked at people in counseling sessions. That thing could examine that little tiny piece of paper.
09:07: And the way to heaven, God's perfect heaven, is to perfectly obey. And God will see obviously that I didn't perfectly obey.
09:16: He'll see that you didn't perfectly obey. So trust in the one who perfectly obeyed. This passage here, while it teaches us about the
09:25: Bible and how it's alive and wonderful and works in people's lives, it's talking about judgment. The inner crevices of men and women will be seen.
09:37: You can't trick this polygraph test. God discloses your motives.
09:43: And while you can hide from your neighbor or from someone else, you can't hide from him. Piercing, do you notice what the text says, to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow.
09:55: Soul and spirit, immaterial, joints and marrow, material. He is trying to say, using what people call rhetorical accumulation, stacking up one thing upon another, there's no way out.
10:11: Immaterially, by the way, there's no difference between soul and spirit. You have a body and some inanimate thing, an immaterial thing, and it's used in Scripture for both soul, sometimes it's used, or spirit.
10:24: Some people try to say, well, wait a second. This lends me to think trichotomy, body, soul, spirit.
10:31: But really, we're dichotomous. We have a physical body and there's something immaterial about us. God breathes into Adam.
10:39: So the point here is not, are we dichotomous, trichotomous, how many component parts are they? Here's the point.
10:46: Rhetorically accumulating, there's no way out. He sees you materially. He sees you immaterially. He knows you.
10:52: That's the real point. God's word reaches the innermost recesses, comprehensively.
11:01: Verse 13, there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
11:09: No creature can't hide. This reinforces what has just been said in verse 12.
11:19: All pushing the people, including you, to keep trusting in Christ and if you haven't, to trust in him.
11:27: As I mentioned briefly last week, remember Adam and Eve before they sinned and they were naked and they were what?
11:34: Not ashamed. Why weren't they ashamed? There was no sin.
11:40: What could condemn them? What could make them feel guilty? And they were happy that God would look upon them and gaze upon them and have fellowship with them.
11:51: They were delighted that God would see everything and know everything about them. But after the fall, when sin entered, then it was a hiding.
11:59: It was a shameful hiding. They were trying to hide not only from God, but one another, putting on fig leaves.
12:10: They hated the presence of God and they dreaded it. They tried to hide from him. But on this judgment day, everything is exposed.
12:18: It's what the text says, laid bare. It's like when a wrestler exposes the neck of his opponent.
12:30: Some people use that illustration of laid bare. It's where we get the word from trachea and exposing the neck.
12:37: If you're a wrestler and you're exposing your opponent's neck, you're up pretty close.
12:43: It's face to face. You're right there. If you're going to cut the neck of a sacrifice, you're up pretty close.
12:49: This is up close and personal like, if you will. If you will not trust in Christ, you will be face to face with God's perfect truth and have to give an account.
13:02: So trust in Christ. One writer said,
13:08: God shall illuminate the crypts of the darkness, which naturally fills the self -deceiving heart.
13:17: And on a side note, when I think about God this way, and maybe when you think about God this way, I think he's anything but tame.
13:26: I think this kind of Christianity that's out there today where it's just, you know, it's vapid and kind of just, you know, you just kind of approach
13:34: God and saunter on into his presence. Donald McCullough said, visit a church on a
13:42: Sunday morning, almost any will do. And you will likely find a congregation comfortably relating to a deity who fits nicely within precise doctrinal positions.
13:53: But you will not likely find much awe or sense of mystery. The only sweaty palms will be those of the preacher, unsure whether the sermon will go over well or not.
14:04: And the only shaking knees will be those of the soloist about ready to sing the offertory. Reverence and awe have often been replaced with a yawn of familiarity.
14:14: The consuming fire has been domesticated into a candle flame, adding a bit of religious atmosphere, perhaps, but no heat, no blinding light, no power for purification.
14:26: But see, we know better, don't we? Because the Lord doesn't look at outward appearances. He looks at the heart.
14:34: He knows the secrets of men, Psalm 44. So now we move to verse 14.
14:46: Now, after terrifying us, Luther said, the apostle pours wine into our wound.
14:53: He pours in oil to soothe. Let me read verses 14, 15, and 16.
15:02: Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15:11: But 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.
15:23: 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.
15:36: Now, some think rightly so, this should be the new chapter. Because even in chapter 5, verse 1, how does it start?
15:43: For every high priest linking it. Luther and others would say, this is where the chapters start.
15:48: It doesn't really matter where the chapters start because there are no chapters in the original. But when
15:55: I come to this passage, after all the intense scrutiny, I just think to myself, I can breathe.
16:03: I can breathe a sigh of relief because we're coming to this crossroads.
16:09: Yes, there's all this watch out, warning, apostasy lurks, danger, red alert.
16:17: And now it's Jesus is a high priest and he knows about your troubles. Now, if you're going to look at this technically, there are two exhortations that form the apostle's argument.
16:29: It's at the end of verse 14, it's the first exhortation. Let us hold fast our confession. That's his first exhortation.
16:37: If you want to call it a point, that's his point. And then he gives another one. Can you find the other command?
16:44: It's found in verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near. So there's really two points in these three verses.
16:52: Hold fast, draw near. They're not just my points, they're the apostles' points. Hold fast, draw near.
17:00: There are tough times. There are times when you're running. There are time you're getting persecuted. There are time other
17:05: Christians are going to jail. That's all happening with these Hebrews. Hold fast, draw near.
17:12: So today, we're only going to look at the first one. That shouldn't surprise you. Hold fast.
17:20: And next time, we'll look at the other one. Hold fast to the confession of faith.
17:27: And everything's going to be swirling around this idea. Since Jesus is a great high priest, since he knows all about you, since he's so great, he's better than angels, he's all the things in chapter 1, 2, 3, and earlier in chapter 4.
17:40: You can hold fast. You can trust in him. Keep believing in difficult times.
17:50: So let's look at the end of verse 14 first, and then figure out ways we could hold fast in accordance with his word.
17:57: Let us hold fast our confession. Now that word confession, it's kind of a neat word.
18:06: Homo -logia is how it would look in English. Homo -same. And logia, word, are same thing.
18:17: It means we say the same thing. We have a confession. We have a confession here. And isn't that what he's talking about?
18:23: Let us hold fast our confession? He's telling the readers, hold fast to the
18:29: London Baptist confession of 1689. It's simple. That's how I read it. It's interesting, in English, it says our confession.
18:38: In the Greek, it says the confession. We confess. This isn't the
18:45: Westminster confession, the Savoy confession, or anything else Belgic. This is the confession that these men and women had.
18:52: Jesus is the eternal God. Jesus is the sin bearer. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He's better than angels.
18:58: All these places in the Old Testament, Psalm 2 talks about Jesus. Psalm 110 talks about Jesus. 2
19:03: Samuel 7, everything that he's been talking about, this is our confession, and we all hold it together. Keep holding on.
19:10: We agree. If confessing our sins to God means this,
19:18: God, I agree with you, and I say the same word. You say this is sin.
19:25: I say the same thing, it's sin. I confess, that's what confess means, to say the same thing.
19:31: And there's this confession. We're saying the same thing about Jesus, then therefore, he says, hold fast our confession.
19:39: It means to grip. It means to adhere to. It means to commit to something or to someone.
19:46: And I wrote in my notes, white knuckle. That's the idea. If you squeeze your hand long enough, you will start seeing white knuckles.
19:53: If you squeeze them tight enough, you will see white knuckles. If you see me try to climb up a rope, you will see not only scrapes here on my hands and sorenesses on my tricep, but you will see white knuckles.
20:09: Hold on, believe it, rest. He's not saying to do anything. This is just another synonym for trust.
20:18: And this is exactly the opposite of what he's been warning. He's been warning against apostasy.
20:25: He's been warning, has he not, drifting away? He's been warning against defection.
20:35: He will warn against this defection in chapter 10. For if we go on deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer remaining any sacrifice for sins.
20:47: So hold fast. Do the opposite of rejection. Trust, hold, believe.
20:54: Don't defect. And now he gives us five reasons to hold fast our confession in difficult times.
21:00: This is the outline today found in verse 14 and 15. Five reasons to hold fast.
21:06: I don't think I'll make it through all five, so for those of you that need an exact number, several reasons to hold fast today.
21:14: There are five in the text and we'll just get through as many as we can. He says, in light of who
21:20: Jesus is, don't go running back to the temple. It's tempting, there's smells and bells and liturgy and robes and colors and sounds and trumpets and singing.
21:34: But since you've got the high priest and he knows all about it and he knows what it's like to be tempted, hold fast.
21:46: And what this writer will do is he now is going to try to give you so many reasons to hold fast, to help you.
21:55: To he just, he's piling up. I wrote in my notes, you ever, I know this is a, the
22:01: New England term is pig pile. The proper term is dog pile.
22:07: Doesn't that sound so much better? Cat pile. One after another, after another, he's just trying to push you over.
22:17: He's just trying to make sure you just go, yes, that's right. Because sometimes with your eyes, you see things and you think, am
22:23: I doing the right thing? Is this happening the right way? I'm walking by sight. And he's saying, no, no, no.
22:29: Listen, you've got to walk by faith. And I need to remind you of the object of your faith. Why do we here at this church talk about Jesus all the time and not, well, today's the eight part relationship message.
22:40: And next time is the eight part series on finances and the eight part series on marriage and the eight part series. And then repeat.
22:46: There's a time and place for that, but that's secondary to something that you need to be reminded of. I need to be reminded of.
22:55: And that's the supremacy of who this Jesus is. Motivation number one to hold fast.
23:03: I want to say you have a great high priest, but I'll use the language of scripture. We have a great high priest.
23:08: We're all in this together. We have a great high priest. And you can see that in verse 14.
23:15: Since then, we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens.
23:24: Friends, if you had only a sovereign God who was holy, who was the
23:29: King of kings and Lord of lords, you should be frightened. You should be afraid.
23:35: A God who sits on the throne and dispenses judgment. But you don't just have a king.
23:43: See, here's the point. While a king without a mediator would be terrifying, a king with a mediator is comforting.
23:52: We know someone that has the Father's ear, as it were, who's a mediator because He's God and He can identify with God as God and man, and He can do the same with us.
24:03: So when you hear the words, Jesus is a prophet, priest, and king, we're glad because if He's only the king, how do you approach?
24:11: But since He's the prophet, you approach the king through the prophet. John Murray said, this would only fill a contrite soul with terror were it not the fact that Jesus was exalted as a priest upon His throne.
24:30: He's the high priest, the great priest. Chapter two, verse 17 says,
24:36: He's a merciful and faithful high priest. Chapter three says, He's a high priest of our confession.
24:41: And here He's called, for the first time, the great priest. Now step back for a second.
24:47: Think of priests. I mean, if we don't think about it, we might just let it slip by. Why do you even need a priest?
24:54: What's the big deal with priests? Why were there priests in the Old Testament? Because they had to do two things.
25:03: Intercede for people, people need prayer. And sacrifice for people because they're sinful.
25:10: The second you hear about priest language, you should be thinking, God is holy,
25:15: I'm not. There's a divorce, there's an estrangement, there's a separation, and we need to be brought back together to be reconciled.
25:22: And we need someone to make intercession and sacrifice. We need a priest. And that whole
25:30: Levitical system in the Old Testament was set up to teach the people, listen, the wages of sin is death.
25:37: Somebody has to die and for you it's going to be a lamb who would typify the great lamb. Priests, what did they do?
25:47: They interceded and they made sacrifice. And once a year they could go into the Holy of Holies and they had access to God.
25:58: In spite of our sin, we have access to God because of Jesus. The text says we have a great high priest.
26:07: That's present tense. Later the text will tell us he's great because he's without sin and he was appointed by an oath and he's eternal and he has a heavenly tabernacle.
26:18: But here it says he's a great high priest that's passed through the heavens. That's reason or motivation number two.
26:25: Number one, we have a great high priest. You've got someone to go between you and a thrice holy
26:31: Father and you've got one who's passed through the heavens. Motivation one, we have a great high priest.
26:37: Motivation two, we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens. See it right in the middle of verse 14. Why would you go back to the temple where this priest can go through the veil to enter another room when this priest, the
26:54: Jesus priest, goes up and through into heaven? Passed through the heavens. Now remember, if you think like a
27:03: Jew, there are three heavens. First heaven, birds fly around, helicopters. Second heaven, moon and the stars and the sun.
27:11: And third heaven, Paul got transported to the third heaven. That's where God is.
27:17: When we typically say heaven, that's what we mean the third heaven. Jesus goes from the ground, as it were, to passing the first heaven where the birds are, the sun and the moon and the stars, and then into heaven.
27:29: He doesn't just walk through a veil once a year. It's not momentary once a year.
27:35: He's passed through and he remains there. And we have such a high priest. He's this transcendent
27:41: God. He is exalted. It's that old song we used to sing. Maybe we still sing it.
27:46: He is exalted. The king is exalted on high. He sits at the right hand of the father.
27:54: He's there now. Why should I persevere in faith?
27:59: Because Jesus is alive and he's there interceding. He's passed through the heavens. Jesus is exalted.
28:10: He's not the dead priest. He's the priest that Ephesians one talks about far above other principalities and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world, but also which is to come.
28:24: He's the great high priest. Rule, dominion, authority. Now what would be the best way to kind of understand what's a great high priest do?
28:34: And what do you mean pass through the heavens? What would the old priest do? If Jesus is the great high priest, what would just the high priest do?
28:42: Well, let's find out. I'm glad you asked the question. Leviticus chapter 16, please. Let's go to Leviticus 16.
28:48: I have been told that you can't understand Hebrews without understanding Leviticus. I also know my personal example that Leviticus is kind of rough going when you first start until you understand sacrifice, holiness, access to God, priest, what they do.
29:05: And once you get that, it becomes a much richer book in your own eyes, at least.
29:10: It's always just as rich in itself. Leviticus 16. Let's say we're gonna ordain you, ordain your husband in gospel ministry.
29:20: There are certain chapters that your husband, or if you're a man, you must know. Because if I say
29:27: Genesis 11, you ought to say knee -jerkly Babylon, the tower of Babel.
29:33: If I say to you chapter 12, you ought to say Abrahamic covenant. If I say to you Exodus 12, you should say what?
29:43: Now you wonder why I tell you things you know every week? For that reason, Passover. And if I tell you
29:49: Leviticus 16, it's the day of atonement. And there's gonna be all kinds of things this human priest in Leviticus 16 has to do.
29:59: And after just hearing a little bit about Jesus in chapter four of Hebrews, you're gonna say, wow, which one should
30:07: I have? If I could pick one of the two, Leviticus 16 priest or Jesus, which one would
30:13: I pick? And that's essentially the choice they had back in this day when it was written. You wanna run back to the temple to the
30:19: Leviticus 16 priest? Really? Don't do that. I mean, if you just step back and think for just a moment, all right,
30:27: I'm a sinner and I need a sin bearer and I need someone as a mediator and an advocate to help me with the father.
30:35: If you could pick anybody in the world, who would you pick? Johnny Cochran, the best lawyer you know?
30:47: The president? Would you pick Tony Blair? You have to stand before God.
30:54: You have to go through, forget the Supreme Court of the United States standing before them. Would you get the best lawyer money can buy?
31:00: You have to stand before God. Pick, you can pick anybody what you want. How about this? Would you pick an angel?
31:07: Could an angel stand before you as your advocate? Of course not, because he's not divine.
31:14: He doesn't have enough righteousness. He doesn't have enough access and he's not human and he can't stand for you.
31:22: If you could pick anybody, you wouldn't even pick Aaron. You wouldn't pick one of these high priests. The choice is obvious.
31:29: And so the writer is trying to say, listen, just think back at how familiar you were with Leviticus 16.
31:36: Don't pick that priest. We have a great high priest. So let's take a look at this. It's just such a interesting way that God has set it up in Leviticus 16, pointing us to the ultimate.
31:50: Leviticus 16, verse one. Some of this will be in the New American Standard. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the
32:00: Lord and died. Did you get that? This is essentially chronologically right after Leviticus 10.
32:10: Aaron had two sons and they died because they approached the presence of the
32:15: Lord. Yeah, that's what happens. If you go back to chapter 10, we see the description of this.
32:21: Leviticus 10. They're going into the presence of God and they're disobedient.
32:28: And what is happening to them? This should strike all those who say to themselves,
32:35: I'll worship God the way I want. Now, Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus 10, one.
32:41: The sons of Aaron took their respective firepans and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the
32:50: Lord, which He had not commanded them. We'll do what we want.
32:55: Aaron's our dad. I'm flippant about it. I don't care. I'll approach
33:01: God any way I please. Verse two, and fire came out from the presence of the
33:07: Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. The fire that comes down and laps up the sacrifices eviscerates the two sons.
33:22: Then Moses said to Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke saying, by those who come near me, I will be treated as holy and all before the people,
33:29: I will be honored. So Aaron therefore kept silent. Oh, if we could have a better priest. Oh, if we could have a better priest.
33:40: Moses called also to Michiel and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle, Eziel and said to them, come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.
33:50: Get these dead bodies out of here. So they carried forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp as Moses had said.
33:58: And then he prescribed how to grieve and how not to grieve. Back to Leviticus chapter 16, please.
34:05: That's the context. Leviticus 16, two, and the Lord said to Moses, tell your brother
34:12: Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place. I hope you're thinking right now, Jesus passed through the heavens.
34:18: High priest, Jesus passed through the heavens. Here, don't enter this holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark.
34:25: Lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. So there's all these rules and regulations.
34:32: So once a year, he can go in there and there's gonna be this smoke kind of enshrining this area.
34:40: So the utter Shekinah glory gets dissipated as it were, just like on Mount Sinai, so this man could appear.
34:47: And now he gives this prescription. Before my dad died, he said,
34:52: I'm not gonna drink anymore. And he committed himself to this dry out program. And they did a bunch of 12 step things.
35:00: Here's a 14 step process to get access to God. 14 things you've got to do, not 12 steps, but 14 steps to approach
35:09: God. This is your checklist. Where's Tim Farah? Are you here? Raise your hand. Raise it with pride.
35:17: I would imagine he has a checklist before he flies. And if he doesn't have a checklist before he flies the airplane, when
35:23: I fly with him, he's gonna have the checklist. Checking everything, your life depends on it.
35:30: With little Timmy. Big Tim now. This is the checklist.
35:36: You're going to walk in there and saunter in. So you're not gonna be like Nadab and Abihu. Here's the checklist before you have access to God.
35:45: This is the human priest and everything he has to do. I hope you're getting the backdrop. Jesus, the great high priest is passed into heaven.
35:51: And then what's the checklist? These aren't chronological in Leviticus.
35:58: So I'll put them in chronological order. So if we jump around, you'll know the reason why. Verse four, every year,
36:05: Aaron has to take off his priestly garments, wash and put on special garments. Let's take a look.
36:11: Verse four, he shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body.
36:17: And he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban. These are the holy garments.
36:24: Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. Wait, do you get this?
36:31: Priests wore ornate clothes, jewels and colors.
36:36: And it was fantastic. You could see someone walking down the street and you go, a priest. Exodus 28 talks about it.
36:45: Gold, purple, blue, scarlet thread, fine woven linen. Ephods with blue and purple, turquoise, sapphire, diamonds, amethysts, beryl, onyx, jasper, all set in gold.
37:05: And now, when you go to the presence of God inside the Holy of Holies, you're not some big shot priest.
37:13: You dress like a slave. You dress like a servant. You dress down.
37:19: You just put on normal clothes of a normal people because that's who you are, plain.
37:28: And you're gonna go enter the presence of God. And do you think he cares what you wear? Number two, he's gotta get the sacrificial animal.
37:37: Verse three, every year this has to happen. Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
37:47: This is the great day of atonement. He shall take from the congregation, verse five, the sons of Israel, two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
37:58: The people are sinful. The priest is sinful. Don't forget about the great high priest who's without sin, who's passed through the heavens.
38:06: Number three, he's gotta slaughter the bull for his own sin in verse six and 11. That's what he does, killing the bull.
38:16: Number four, before he goes into the Holy of Holies, he's gotta create this cloud of incense.
38:22: Verse 12, do you see? And he shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from the altar before the
38:29: Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it in the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the
38:36: Lord. And the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, lest he die.
38:49: Tiptoeing, it's not in the Bible, but it's said of tradition that you'd put a rope around the leg of that priest and he'd have some little bells attached to his ankles.
38:59: So when you heard the bells stop, you knew that he was consumed by God because of his sin and you wouldn't wanna go in there to be consumed by God.
39:07: So you pull the dead body out. It's almost like, okay,
39:13: I don't do this for a living, but it'd be interesting from afar to watch somebody go 10 bees and how do you extract the honey out of the bee, hives and comb.
39:25: You've gotta fumigate and put all the smoke and it almost kind of like zaps them a little bit so you can get access.
39:35: And then he's gotta take this blood, number five, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, verse 14, with his fingers. Blood everywhere, wages of sin is death.
39:44: Now you cast the lots for the two goats, number six, which one would be slaughtered and which one would be running away.
39:51: And the list goes on and on and on. By the way, for those of you that like feeling -oriented worship, how do you feel?
40:02: The feelings come afterwards when you think, sin's forgiven, thank you.
40:10: Slaughtering the goat and the list goes on and on. Cleansing the holy place, blood all around.
40:21: One of the goats, you put your hand and kill the goat, symbolizing all the sin, going to the goat, send the goat out and the list goes on and on and on.
40:32: I have good news for you if you're a sinner. Forget the 14 steps. There's one step and it already happened.
40:40: Jesus, with one step, he dies on the cross, he says it is finished, he goes up to heaven, he goes, of course, back to the earth, and now he's passed through all the heavens and he intercedes.
40:54: So why would I go back? If I'm a Jew, or for some of you, it's very applicable to the
41:00: Roman Catholic Church with all their pomp and circumstance and Latin and everything else, why would you go back?
41:07: Why do you need to go sit down next to a confessor priest and tell him, when you have a great high priest, there'd be no reason to go.
41:15: You have access to the Lord Jesus Christ now. The whole backdrop of Leviticus was no trespassing.
41:25: And the whole backdrop to this priest is, come. And by the way, if you're sinful, if you worry, if you haven't been perfectly faithful this week, if you weren't really a good wife this week, weren't a good husband this week, not a good worker this week,
41:50: Jesus, the great high priest, doesn't say, how could you do that? How stupid are you?
41:58: How awful could that be? I have four kids and I did a lot of bad parenting in my life, but if any kid came up and started tugging on my jacket and they would say, daddy, could you please help me?
42:12: Daddy, help, daddy, help, daddy, help. What do I say? Quit bothering me.
42:18: I told you never to do that again. What do I do? I get down a little bit lower and say, what can daddy do for you?
42:27: These people who received this letter are in such a hard trial, they're tempted to doubt.
42:34: They're tempted to disobey. They're tempted to go back. And what does God do? Instead of give the backhand, he said, you're trusting in my son.
42:43: My son knows all about it. I understand. I know. What a difference from having the word of God judge you to the word of God be your priest.
43:00: Now there's an old song that maybe we'll have to sing. Mark is good at helping me when
43:07: I change the very end to a hymn and then he switches it with Christine's help. There's an old song called,
43:13: Arise My Soul, Arise by Charles Wesley. And here's
43:19: Charles Wesley's problem. It's hard to approach God knowing I'm sinful. I haven't had a great week.
43:26: He knows me, no creature's hidden from his sight. He knows what I've thought about this week. He knows my failings and sins.
43:33: It's hard to approach him. I feel guilty. And so when we sing this song, it's all because of the high priest that we can sing with Charles Wesley.
43:48: Arise my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears.
43:55: The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. That's his priesthood.
44:00: Before the throne my surety stands. The kingly priest. Before the throne my surety stands.
44:07: My name is written in his hands or on his hands. For the
44:15: Christian, you have a high priest and he knows all about your troubles.
44:20: And he says, come anyway. Let's pray. Thank you
44:25: Father for your word. Thank you that we have such a great high priest. And even as Charles Wesley goes on to say, he ever lives above for me to intercede.
44:36: Thank you for that. For those that are here today that will not bow their knee to the Lord Jesus and believe,
44:42: I pray for conviction. I pray for whatever it takes for them to believe.
44:47: And Father for the Christian here today, me at the top of the list, who's far from perfect, who struggles with every sort of sin, we and I praise you that Jesus, although struggled with those sins, never sinned.
45:03: And he knows all about it. And he still says, come. Thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.