Jesus: The Sympathetic And Saving High Priest (part 2) - [Hebrews 5:7-10]

service. You'd have to walk through or by or near a cemetery.

The cemeteries were adjacent to the church. And when you would walk in, you would be reminded that life is short.

And then one day you stand before God, that things matter, that there are eternal consequences at stake.

You'd be reminded that church isn't a game, that meeting God is serious.

One day everyone will stand before God and give an account. Romans says in chapter two, he will render,

God will render to each one according to his works. And so one day you'll stand before God and then you will give an account, that great accounting day.

How will you fare? How will you do? Romans goes on to say to those who by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

I could say it this way, if you perfectly have loved God and perfectly have loved your neighbor, never sinned, you will be fine.

But for those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

One day you will stand before a holy God and then what? How will you fare?

Do you want to stand before God alone on that day? Would that be your choice? I'll just stand before God on my own.

Or would you like to stand before God with a mediator? With someone to help you?

Someone to be your advocate? Someone to be a go -between? If you said,

I'll stand before God on my own, I have pity for you. You will not be able to stand before this thrice holy

God alone who even with Moses in the burning bush, the glory of God overtook

Moses at Sinai. Don't get close to the mountain unless you be consumed. Unless you're perfect and have perfectly obeyed the law, sinless, you can't stand before God alone.

If you said, I'd like to stand before God with a mediator, my next question would be what kind of mediator would you want?

Who would you pick to be your mediator? What would you look for qualities in a mediator, in an advocate?

Would you pick an angel? A glorious angel, Gabriel, even his name means mighty.

Or Michael, who is like God? Maybe they could make satisfaction for us.

But angels cannot withstand the crushing, bulldozing weight of the glory of God and stand before God themselves as sin bearers.

They just can't do it. Would you pick the Pope to be your mediator?

Would you pick the Virgin Mary to be your mediator? One thing's for sure, that mediator better be powerful, full of righteousness and sinless or they will need a mediator for themselves.

It has been said, and I think it's right, that heaven, the joys of heaven is being in God's presence with a mediator,

Jesus Christ. And the awful punishment and wrath of hell is being in the presence of God without a mediator.

It is important that we think about mediators rightly. And if I were to pick a mediator,

I would probably choose wrongly. I would probably choose like I would choose maybe a basketball team when we play pick -up basketball.

Or I would choose if I was going to build a company kind of natural born leaders. But I would choose wrongly.

And so here's what the book of Hebrews does. The book of Hebrews knows how holy God is, knows how sinful mankind is, knows the chasm that has to be bridged by a

God -man, perfectly God, perfectly man. And therefore God chooses the mediator for you because He knows we would choose wrongly.

Every religion is this set up. We try to somehow placate God by our good works, by our civil things, by our ceremonial things, by our religious things.

We will do good and we hope to do more good than bad. And we will do things to try to make

God pleased with us. Except on the inside we're sinful and our hands are tainted.

Only the religion of Christianity, only Christ Jesus, only the triune God says, we as the triune

God know you can't save yourselves so we'll save you. We'll pick the mediator. We will as a triune

God save. God picks because God knows and God picks a sinless mediator.

He picks his own son. And the book of Hebrews as we've been going through it, it's basically

Luther's song. We're not the right man on our side. The man of God's own choosing.

This book of Hebrews talks about the supremacy and exaltation of Jesus Christ. That's what the church needs.

That's what our church needs. That's what every church needs. I think people are starving for the greatness of God.

And they just exchange the greatness of God found in the book of Hebrews and other places for this kind of gruel, this porridge, this practical,

I just need to get through another work week. Five practical ways to, four spiritual laws, three things

God wants you to know, two ways of living. But for Hebrews, it's one high priest.

Heaven is you get to stand before God with a mediator. Hell is no mediator.

The church today reminds me, as Jim Elliff used to say, you see those children on TV and they're in a third world country and there's flies everywhere and mosquitoes everywhere and their stomachs stick out to here, yet you can see their ribs.

And it's a picture of evangelicalism. Those children are really starving even though their stomachs are huge and the churches are full with people, but they're starving.

What are they starving for? The utter supremacy of King Jesus, the prophet, priest and King.

Hebrews is a sermon that just says, I just want you to sit back and just revel in the fact that God, the father chose a high priest for you.

And if you trust in him and rest in him, you're going to be fine. Now, how do you understand the book of Hebrews?

Well, you understand the book of Hebrews by one simple theme. Jesus is better. He's better than angels.

He's better than prophets. He's better than Kings. He's better than anybody you can think of.

He's just better. And what I love about this book is it doesn't give a watered down view of Jesus because my trials, by the way, aren't watered down.

Are yours? When those trials come, I need a king who's sovereign over everything.

I need a priest who understands me because I'm a human and I go through these trials. I need a prophet to speak the word into my life because I'm thinking on emotions and feelings and that's exactly what the

Hebrews book does. It doesn't give you a watered down book of Jesus, a book talking about Jesus.

It doesn't give you kind of this emaciated Jesus. I'm just a gentleman. I'm wooing. I'm not going to do anything.

I'm going to let your vaunted free will just kind of be there. I'm just here when you need me. The Jesus in the book of Hebrews, Paul met him on the road to Damascus and he wasn't having kind of feathered hair and looked like Kenny Loggins in 1970 or whoever.

That's what, Oh Jesus. If your kids ever see Kenny Loggins and say, Jesus, they're in trouble. I persecuted this way to death, binding and delivering to prison, both men and women,

Paul said, and as high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From then

I received letters to brothers and journey toward Damascus to take those who are there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

I am going to go persecute Christians. And I was on my way to Damascus and drew near about noon, a great light from heaven shown suddenly around me.

And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered, who are you Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

The book of Hebrews talks about the exalted Jesus. And that's what we need.

That's what everyone needs. Now, how do you understand the book of Hebrews?

How do you understand a book that is talking about Jesus, a priest? Well, I think the best thing to do is to go to the old

Testament book of priests. So instead of going to Hebrew chapter five to start today, we're going to go to the old

Testament book of priests. Why don't you turn there? Oh, the book of Leviticus, the book of Levi, the book of priests, the tribe of priests, a book of priests.

What better thing to do than to go back into the old Testament, understand what priests did there. So now when we go into Hebrews, we'll get it because what you're going to see is when you go to second

Kings and first Kings, you're going to go, is there going to be a good King that will finally measure up and you're left at the end of second

Kings going, it's none of these guys. There's got to be a better one coming down the line.

When you read prophets in the old Testament, sometimes they did great things. Other times they're running from Jezebel and you're thinking, isn't there ever going to be a real prophet, the prophet of prophets and you're left wondering, you're left hoping, you're left in anticipation in the new

Testament, seeing that and the same thing when it comes to priests, you study priests in the old Testament and sometimes they did well, but sometimes they did poorly and you'll be saying to yourself,

I need a better priest than that. The priest end with all kinds of sin.

There's got to be something better. There's got to be the final priest. There's got to be somebody who is Christ Jesus.

So Leviticus chapter eight is where we're going to start today and then we'll get to Hebrews. God's priests need to be holy.

God's mediators need to be undefiled, sin less. And so we're going to look at Hebrews in a moment, but right now

Leviticus chapter eight as the priesthood is established and some of you have sat in on pastor

Steve's ordination or my ordination or Dave Jeffrey's or Pradeep's or others.

This is the ordination of Aaron and the sons. And here's what you're going to notice.

Here's the refrain that I want you to catch. As the Lord commanded, as the

Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, as Moses commanded, he was told by the Lord as they were commanded.

And here's what you're going to get. God wants to be worshiped precisely, carefully. And as he picks the mediator, he picks the way he wants to be worshiped.

Very fascinating. Leviticus eight. I'm not going to read all of eight and nine and 10, but just a few select passages.

So you get the idea that the way to worship God and the way to have access to God is on God's terms and it must be precisely done with holiness, with precision.

Leviticus eight verse one, the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, take Aaron and all his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil and the bowl of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread.

Assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Moses did as the

Lord commanded him and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting. I bet you they were in full at full attention.

Verse five, Moses said to the congregation, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done.

There's that refrain. Do you see it at the end of verse nine as the Lord commanded Moses, if you're going to stand before God, if you're going to want to approach his presence, if you're going to kind of just think you're going to saunter in, you better do it the way

God says to do it. Verse 10 Leviticus eight. Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointing the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them.

It better all be consecrated. If God's going to show up his presence at the end of verse 13, as the

Lord commanded Moses, all the oil, all the clothes, all the coats, all the sashes, everything particular.

Verse 14, there's got to be some cleansing. So there needs to be a death, a sacrifice. Then he brought the bowl of the sin offering and Aaron and his sons symbolically laid their hands on the head of the bowl of the sin offering.

Notice language in verse 15, purified, consecrated, made atonement.

Verse 17, but the bowl and its skin and its flesh and its dung, he burned up with fire outside the camp.

Where's the refrain? As the Lord commanded Moses. Verse 21, look at how exacting, how, how solemn he washed the entrails and legs with water.

And Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering for the Lord as the

Lord commanded Moses. You want access to God? It has to be through God's instruction.

Now they didn't do this at Pradeep's ordination, but maybe we'll do it for the next one.

Verse 23, he killed it. Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.

Then he presented Aaron's sons and put Moses, put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and the thumbs of their right hands and their big toes at their right feet.

I mean, we are setting them apart. So they're, they're hearings holy. They're doings holy. They're walkings holy.

It has to be consecration. You just can't come to God's presence and say, here I am. Sin is that bad. God is so holy.

Verse 29, Moses took the breast, waved it for a wave offering before the

Lord. It was Moses portion of the ram ordination. And do you see it as the Lord commanded Moses, total dedication, total purification, total obedience at the obedience at the end of verse 30.

So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his son's garments with him. Verse 34, as it'd been done today, the

Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. Verse 36,

I'll read 35. It's important at the entrance of the tent of meeting, you shall remain day and night for seven days performing what the

Lord has charged so that you do not die for. So I have been commanded and Aaron and his sons did all the things that the

Lord commanded by Moses. How do you get ready for God to show up?

Reminds me of the story of my old pastor who said his friend would tell him, God often shows up in the bathroom when

I'm brushing my teeth and shaving my face and Jesus just shows up. And my pastor said to that other pastor, you mean the real

Jesus? Yes, the real Jesus. And my pastor said to that other pastor, I only have one question for you.

Did you keep shaving? Because if you kept shaving, it wasn't the real Jesus because you would be on your face.

How do you prepare to just go meet God? Chapter nine helps us.

God is going to appear. Do you see it at the end of verse four? The Lord will appear to you. Do you want to get ready? I mean, you're going to have relatives over for Christmas.

You're going to have the pastor over after church for lunch and you've got to get everything set and ready.

Bible's out of the closet on top of the kitchen table. Pastor's coming over. I mean, we just know there's a big guest who's coming.

Get ready, right? Right? The Lord's going to appear to you.

Verse six, this is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.

And in other words, and not consume you. At the end of verse seven, as the

Lord has commanded at the end of verse 10, as the Lord commanded Moses at the end of verse 16, according to the rule, the end of verse 21, as Moses command chapter nine, verse 22, then

Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, bless them. And he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.

And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. And when they came out, they bless the people and the glory of the

Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out. God is blessing.

God is confirming from before the Lord and consume the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. But those priests weren't all perfect.

Those priests had sin. There's a better priest that's coming. These priests back in these days, good types, the anti -type will be there.

Good pictures, the real will show up. Now we move to chapter 10.

It's really hard to get to Leviticus 10 without eight and nine. So that's why I give you that overview. And here's what's going to happen.

You're going to see what happens when you have less than a perfect priest, less than a priest who does perfectly in obedience to God's law.

I don't know about you. If you ever just kind of sat back and you thought, you know, people that do really dangerous jobs,

I admire them, but I'm almost like watching for this car wreck to happen. Right.

And so you think, how about those skyscrapers up, you know, when twin towers used to be up and you think they couldn't pay me enough to be outside cleaning windows on a skyscraper.

How much money would they give you? I met a man once at the gym here in Clinton and he had a

Navy shirt on Navy special forces, or he had said something

Navy diver. That was it. And so, you know, you can buy those shirts down the street pretty cheaply. Right.

You ever go someplace and buy a SWAT team shirt, you know, and you're like, Oh yeah, sure. SWAT team. And I said, so what, you're in the

Navy? Yes. I said, thank you for your service. What do you do? He said, well, I essentially am a deep scuba diver.

And when I have to go to places like I just wasn't, I just was in London for a while and I have to squeeze inside a torpedo tube and do some work in there.

I said, Oh, how do you get in there? He said, that's the question. It's almost like you've got to dislocate your shoulders to get inside the torpedo tube to work.

And this is not above ground. This is when the submarine is below. I'm just, if you would be there and you would watch, you would just say, what is going to happen?

That's a dangerous task. Part of me is saying this. I'm glad that's not me.

I've got to stand before God and his people and offer up these sacrifices as God commanded, as God's rule said exactly precisely, because if I don't do it rightly,

I am dust. I'm going to be smoked. I'm not going to be dust. I'm going to be ashes.

And that's exactly what happened here. If you get too close to God and you're not perfect, fire's going to come down and you're the next offering.

Verse one of chapter 10. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took a censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the

Lord. And then with the exclamation, with the repetition, so you know, after chapter eight commanded, chapter nine commanded, which he had not commanded them.

And it's like it's a conspiracy. They're both in on it. One didn't say to the other brother, by the way, it's a little too much.

We shouldn't do that. That's not what God said. I mean, this is so typical of us.

It's so typical of cults and religions. You know what? We know we're doing the wrong thing, but let's just get some other people to do it with us and we'll just feel better about it.

God will be approached on his terms with perfect mediators or else. Yeah, we'll just worship

God however we want. Carelessly, thoughtlessly, sinfully, profanely, as that old song, heaven came down and glory filled my soul.

Heaven came down and burned their souls. God had just sent the fire, a miraculous fire.

They did what they were told. The fire came down, burned up the offering, but this is a dangerous job.

And what happens in verse two and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the

Lord. Exodus 30 had said, you shall not offer strange incense on it or a burnt offering or a grain offering, nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.

Verse three, then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said. Among those who are near me,

I will be sanctified and before all the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron, remember it was his two boys held his peace.

God must be regarded as holy. And he over and over and over has said, this is the way, not your way.

Side note, when it comes to evangelicalism, we don't pick how we worship God because our hearts will deceive us.

That's why when the scriptures say, read scripture, we do. That's why when the scripture says, preach, we do sing, we do give, we do

Lord's supper. We do baptism. We do. Why don't we do drama? Why don't we do dancing skits?

Why don't we do everything else? Because it's not prescribed. Who wrote this?

I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each and every highway, but much more than this. I did it my way.

Regrets. I want to ask you a question. You're supposed to think I knew you're going to say that, but you're wrong.

Regrets. I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw through it without exemption.

I've planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway and much, much more than this.

Nadab and Abihu using Paul Anka's lyrics. I did it my way as the

Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, I'll do what I want. And we're just like Nadab and Abihu.

That's why I need a better priest. I need someone who's a high priest, who's a saving priest, who's a sympathetic priest who knows my struggles and my pains and my issues.

God's priesthood has to be a holy priesthood, perfectly holy because he, he must be honored.

We don't think sin's a big deal. God thinks it's a big deal. We don't think priests that are holy are that big of a deal.

That's by the way, when I said, if you had to pick your priest, don't pick me because I need a priest.

I'm not the standard for you. I might be an example. First Timothy three, but I am not the standard.

Your standard has to be perfect. I will be treated as holy

Leviticus 10 and they didn't take him as holy. God killed them.

You might think of Ananias and Sapphira as another illustration of that.

The punctuation of the wrath of God. Verse four, and Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron and said to them, come near, carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.

They're back to obeying again. So they came near, carried them in their coats out of the camp. As Moses said,

Moses said to Aaron and to Eliezer and Ithamar, his sons, do not let the hair of your heads hang loose.

Do not tear your clothes lest you die. The wrath come upon all the congregation, but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the

Lord has kindled. If you start crying about this, you're basically going to be saying, in essence,

God, that was cruel, unusual punishment that was excessive. I'm sad about what you did to them.

You're so severe, God. Verse seven, and do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die for the anointing oil of the

Lord is upon you. And they did, according to the word of Moses.

God is serious about sin. And he hasn't changed.

And the Old Testament priesthood is inferior. Aaronic priesthood is inferior.

The Old Testament priests were sinful. Somebody is going to have to stand before you on that day.

You need a perfect high priest who's not sinful. There's continuity with the

Old Testament priest. Yes, but I need an always obeying priest, a perfect priest.

I need a holy priest, a mediating priest, a priest that God picks. And his name is

Jesus. That's my introduction turned to Hebrews chapter five. Leviticus is one of those books.

I don't think we study enough. And you think, wow, it is amazing. So we are in Hebrews chapter five.

And we've seen that Jesus in this section, verses seven through ten, he's sympathetic.

He knows what it's like because he's human. He added humanity. And he's the source of salvation.

That's how you have to think through verses seven and eight. He's a sympathetic high priest, nine and ten. He's the eternal high priest, the source of our salvation.

And you think, well, why is this even important? Now, I don't think I ever use props.

Maybe I've used a glass of water before or something. Maybe on Sunday night 20 years ago, I got a chauffeur out and I blew the trumpet when we did

Joshua marching around the city of Jericho.

I mean, it could have been a better illustration. We could have marched around BBC seven times shouting. But for the last three weeks,

I've come up to this pulpit and this is in my pulpit. I thought you'd just give me this for an illustration.

You know, when I don't have enough energy and I'm feeling bad, you sometimes give me a monster drink up here. I appreciate that. There's been none for months.

This says every good and perfect gift comes from above. Amen, James. And I thought it was just my

Hebrews reminder. Here's the reminder. Oh, you know,

Pastor, all this priest stuff and all this Levitical things and all he's sympathetic and he's the source and and all these, you know,

Psalm two talks about him and Psalm one, ten and Psalm forty five and Psalm eighty nine and Psalm one or two. And can we just kind of move on?

Hebrews says that kind of attitude needs this verse eleven of Chapter five about this.

Jesus being the high priest, we have much to say. I thought he said a lot and it's hard to explain why the concept isn't difficult since you have become dull of hearing for the by this time you ought to be teachers.

You need someone to teach you again. He's talking about the priesthood of Jesus, the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So even though I feel with you, I, I, I am sympathetic toward your desire to say enough about all this high priest stuff.

Does it even relate to my life? I get it. But Hebrews warns us, don't fall into that trap.

Because that's immature thinking. Jesus has been appointed by the father and he has solidarity with us because he's incarnate verse seven.

We looked at it last week, Hebrews five, seven, Jesus, the sympathetic priest. And there's all kinds of words that show how human he is.

Yes, he's the son chapters one, two, three, and four, but he's also one of us.

So he can sympathize with us, not just empathy. I feel your pain, but I'm one of you in the days of his flesh.

This is the incarnation Jesus offered up like a priest would priest, pray prayers and supplications.

Just how human was Jesus with loud cries and tears. He's not stoic and stayed and far away to him who was able to save him from death.

He was praying to the father and he was heard because of his reverence.

There's an almighty power that Jesus has, and he is, but he has this almighty sympathy because he knows his people.

He's one of them. Jesus did not say, by the way, I can call legions of angels to rescue me from this particular trial, but he just endured the trial like we would endure the trial.

So he would know the Texas because of his piety. Do you see that there, that word piety, uh, or it says in verse seven of in the

ESV reverence, it's, it's a different word than we're used to hearing. It's from two

Greek words, you, EU, which means good or well, like eulogy, a good word.

And Lombano Lombano means to take hold, to take hold well.

And it means something like this. If you take a hold of something, well, you do something with caution. You do something with precision.

You do something with piousness. You're careful to respect it.

You're you, you want to make sure you take care of other people's things better than your own. That's the word you're circumspect.

Unlike Nadab, unlike a by who Jesus, when it comes to his prayer life, he was heard.

He took everything very carefully with fear, with reverence, with circumspect circumspection, with devotion,

RSV translate heard for his godly fear. She was only one other time.

It's in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom, which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God and acceptable servants with reverence and all that's our response.

And then verse eight, do you see the sympathy expanded with a sentence? That's kind of going to get you by surprise.

I'm not going to expect this. Although he was a son, I mean, sons have to obey.

Yeah, he, he learned obedience. And then it says through what he suffered. I mean,

I don't know how to explain this the right way because I'm treading on Trinitarian ground, but to use

John Owen is kind of a backdrop. If you're the eternal son before the incarnation, you understand obedience, but you don't understand obedience of a human insect, except for maybe like a theoretical way, the full experiential way, you know, when you do it, you know what conforming to God's will is, but you can really appreciate it and sense it and know it when you actually conform to God's will on earth.

You realize how hard it is to obey, especially when you're obeying and you're suffering.

So now Jesus knows, remember these people in the book of Hebrews were suffering and it's hard to obey when you're suffering.

I mean, it, I know this term is not about me, but I have a hard time obeying when

I have a headache, right? You know, I just don't feel good. Therefore, is that my excuse to not obey? No, but it's harder.

Jesus doesn't only know as the eternal God. Yes, I know all these things because I'm omniscient, but now experientially he knows how hard it is to try to obey

God, even to the point of death, even death on a cross because he did it. Sonship, learning obedience through suffering.

Sons obey, but through suffering, that's why it's so surprising. One writer said, to learn obedience meant coming to appreciate fully what conforming to God's will involved.

This is not to suggest, however, that Jesus had previously been disobedient and now needed to grasp what it meant to obey the will of God.

Rather, authentic obedience is practiced in particular circumstances.

And as Jesus is on his way to the cross and his entire life, even going back to the temptation with the tempter, he knows what it's like to obey.

So you say to yourself, okay, full stop. What I'm going through in my life now, Jesus knows about.

What I'm struggling with now, Jesus knows about. God the Father loved

Jesus when he was putting him through those trials and suffering. It must not be in my mind thinking, you know what,

God doesn't love me because I'm going through these trials and the word -faith heretics spewing out their venomous lies.

If you just are the right kind of person, God will bless and bless and bless. But sometimes God chastens. Sometimes God has his

Son go through suffering. And if I'm going through something, that doesn't mean God doesn't love me.

But God knows because of the Son, he's gone through that. He knows what we're going through.

That's the idea of a sympathetic high priest. He didn't call down those legions of angels.

He went through it. He learned obedience through what he suffered.

Do you see the text there? He learned obedience, learning to obey, subordinate position of the

Father's over me. I want to please him. I'll obey. Spurgeon said, a soldier sitting at home reading books will not learn the deadly art of war.

The dry land sailor who never went even in a boat would not know much about navigation. Study though as he might.

So obedience is a trade to which a man must be apprenticed until he has learned it, for it is not to be known in any other way.

And Jesus, the high priest, knows what you go through because he has gone through worse. And that same man

I just quoted said, God had one son without sin, but he never had a son without suffering.

That's why when we sang that song, What a Friend we have in Jesus. He learned obedience from what he suffered, and he knows when we suffer to be the perfect high priest.

Shouldn't that make us think differently about our own trials? Jesus learns by suffering. We have circumstances in our life, and how do we learn?

And even looking at Jesus, the example, as Peter did in 1 Peter 2, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for you were strained like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

This text does not mean he was disobedient. Now he's obedient. This text means not only is

Jesus as substitute, we talk about that all the time, but he's a representative and he's a high priest who knows exactly what you've gone through.

Unlike Nadab, unlike Abihu. Jesus said, John 8, 29,

I always do those things that please him. In Evangelicalism something's going on.

There are many quarters of Evangelicalism that says, you know what, the obedience that Christ, Christ's obedience on earth, we don't really need to talk about that much.

He did obey, but that obedience isn't credited to my account. My sins are credited to his account, confirmed by the resurrection, but his obedience isn't credited to my account.

And here's what they end up doing when they, when they say his obedience isn't credited, they've got to talk about somebody's obedience and it's going to have to be yours.

How are you doing? I need somebody who obeys for me.

I need a priest who, who obeys in my place. Isaiah said, these are the words of the

Messiah. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back.

I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.

Isaiah 50. On the way to the cross,

Jesus fully obeys the father from when he was born through trial, through temptations.

How different is Jesus than some of these old Testament priests?

Here's a sampling. Jeremiah five, the prophets prophesy falsely and priests rule on their own authority.

And my people love it. So Ezekiel 22, her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things.

Micah three, her priest instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money.

Yet they lean on the Lord saying is not the Lord in our midst. Calamity will not come upon us. Zephaniah three, her priest have profaned the sanctuary.

They have done violence to the law. Remember how

John, the apostle ends first John chapter five, but kind of a, just this weird abrupt ending.

How does first John end? You know, John, the disciple Jesus loves and he's such a kind guy, a loving guy.

He's no longer the son of thunder and he's been changed. He's no longer calling down lightning on the

Samaritans. He's a, he's the apostle of love. And what does he say at the very end of first John?

Little children, what? Guard yourself from idols. What's he talking about?

The idol of money? Uh, Saraswati, the idol of money? Saraswati, an Indian God. Uh, what's he talking about?

Idols. That's weird. You're talking about who Jesus is this entire book and all of a sudden at the end you go guard yourself from idols.

What kind of idols? Here's the answer. The idol that crafts

Jesus as anything but prophet, priest, and King. The idol of Jesus says,

Oh, he's just love. He accepts everybody. He made you that way. You're born that way. You're good to go. That's an idol because it's the wrong representation of Jesus.

If somebody comes along and says, Jesus isn't God in the flesh, that's idolatry. That's blasphemy.

Guard yourself from that. And here in first John chapter five, guard yourself from any view of Jesus that's not biblical.

And so the writer of Hebrew says, yes, he's a prophet. Yes, he's a King, but he's a high priest and he knows about your troubles.

He knows about your weaknesses. One day you'll stand before God.

For you Christians, you have nothing to worry about. You say, well,

I have weak faith. I have sin in my life. If you're really trusting and resting on Christ Jesus, you have nothing to worry about.

Behold what manner of love the father has given unto us. We might be called children of God. If you're not a

Christian, you have everything to worry about because you'll have no mediator. You, by not believing in Jesus, have said,

I don't want the mediator. I spit on the mediator's face. If he's here, I would punch him like those people did back in the

New Testament times. I don't want the mediator. Friends, I offer you the mediator. How would you like to stand before God with a mediator?

Trust in Christ Jesus. William Perkins was right.

The heart of all preaching is to preach one Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ. And even though we'll stand before God less than practically holy, positionally holy, we will be, especially because the holy one of Israel is our holiness.

God couldn't have picked for you a better priest. Father in heaven,

I rejoice this morning knowing that Christ Jesus is everything we need.

When we have troubles, he's enough. When we have trials, he understands. When there's cancer, he knows.

Therefore, we can sing, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs even to bear, not just sins.

Yes, he was our substitute, but he was a sympathetic high priest and he even knows about our griefs.

I pray for our church. I pray that we would rest in Christ Jesus, even the young ones that are now learning and understanding that they would save them at a young age and that we would be faithful to pass the baton to the next generation for Christ exalting preaching.

Father, would you protect us from moralism and deism and all the other things that people love clamor for, but we need to be determined to have our messages full of Christ.

What is a sermon without Jesus Christ in it as the main one to whom we look? Thank you for our

Lord and Savior Jesus, the crucified resurrected Savior who is our high priest.