You Need Help!

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:07

The Old Testament reading this morning is page 83 of your Pew Bibles, the book of Leviticus, chapter 4, verses 27 -31.

00:54

The Old Testament reading this morning is page 83 of your

01:08

Pew Bibles, the book of Leviticus, chapter 4, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses 27 -31, verses seated.

02:24

Take your Bibles this morning and let's turn together to Hebrews chapter 2.

02:31

Hebrews chapter 2 you follow as I read this chapter.

02:45

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation.

03:04

It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the

03:14

Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking.

03:23

It has been testified somewhere what is man that you are mindful of him or the Son of Man that you care for him you made him for a little while lower than the angels you have crowned him with glory and honor putting everything in subjection under his feet.

03:37

Now in putting everything in subjection to him he left nothing outside his control. At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels namely

03:50

Jesus crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone for it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering for he who sanctified and those who are sanctified all have one source that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying

04:17

I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise and again

04:23

I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children God has given me since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery for surely it is not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham therefore 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 because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted let's pray father open your word to us now we're thankful that you speak to us in the word now help us to hear your voice not just hear it abstractly but hear it as it speaks to us where we are with the troubles that we have with the temptations that we face help us to see this high priest today for your glory and our good in Jesus name amen how do you imagine

05:41

Jesus what do you think he's like what is he about for some he's the justice warrior fearlessly speaking truth to power taking on the mighty hypocritical religious leaders of his day maybe he's the miracle worker coming to make coming to heal and to make life better for poor diseased afflicted people like us for others he's the loving brother he's the one who comes alongside he never judges you but only speaks words of acceptance and love still others see him as this great moral teacher who's dared to say the things that no one else has dared to say and who turns the world upside down by his ethical principles but we've seen

06:28

Jesus in a different light in this chapter Jesus came to fulfill God's original purpose for mankind that is to rule creation for God's glory the

06:39

Son of God became man in order to bring many sons to glory blazing the trail to that glory by his death he came to destroy

06:49

Satan's power and deliver us from the enslaving fear of death we've seen all these things in this chapter and now we come to this last thing in verses 16 through 18 here's what

07:02

Jesus is about for surely it is not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham therefore 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 because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted

07:29

Jesus came to be a faithful and merciful high priest because we need help we need help so let's look at this together

07:39

Jesus came to help you now who exactly does Jesus help who exactly does

07:44

Jesus help the writers told us over and over that Jesus suffered like we do that he tasted death like we do that he was made a little lower than the angels like we are that he calls us brothers and therefore he must partake of the same things that we do so it is not angels that he has come to help now

08:09

I was in seminary oh man actually had a friend from seminary one of my really good friends from seminary stay overnight last night as he bikes his way across the country

08:21

Don was his name but Don and I were in seminary together and that boy that is

08:27

I can't believe how long ago that was but I do remember some things from those days and one of the things

08:33

I remember makes me angry still to this day we had a semester where we were going to talk in one class the doctrine of angels and the doctrine of salvation and I was saying how right

08:46

I get to really listen in and think about what the doctrine of salvation is like a we deal with the angels in the first couple weeks and then dive into the doctrine of salvation and my professor spent weeks on angels so that when we got to the doctrine of salvation not much time was left and I was infuriated because we spent all this time and he dumb questions like when an angel swings at another one does he connect who cares

09:19

I want to know about the atonement I think he needed to read the book of Hebrews you remember that the writer has argued in chapter one that Jesus holds a superior position to the angels because he is

09:36

God he is God angels are his servants and as a matter of fact he also has told us up to this point angels are servants to us for our salvation we make a lot of we make a lot of noise about angels

09:51

I mean I'm not going to reveal any names here but I get pressure every once in a while about preaching on angels of course given my seminary experience anyway angels are these magnificent beings you ever notice that Christmas angels almost vie with Jesus for attention well because they're so important they're prominent there are decorations if you don't have a star on your top of your tree you got an angel if you have a star on your tree got an angel outside somewhere or hanging somewhere else on the tree right we sing songs that mention angels angels we've heard on high hark the herald angels sing angels from the realms of glory and that's okay because they play a major part in the story of Jesus incarnation but Jesus did not come to help angels powerful as they are and as important as they are he came to help us he came to help as he says here the offspring of Abraham now remember the original audience of this book these are

10:52

Hebrew Christians and they were steeped in the religion of the Old Testament and they were tempting the tempted to go back to that they were tempted to go back to that old way that God had dealt with them because right now they were starting to feel the pressure of following Christ they were already losing their property they were being ridiculed they're being thrown in jail why not go back to what

11:17

God had had us doing before and get away from this pressure that comes from following Jesus and so the writer makes the point to these

11:26

Jewish people who put a lot of stock in powerful angels that Jesus is superior to the angels and to the old ways of approaching

11:35

God which were no longer part of God's economy but surely this now represents more than just Jewish believers it represents all the people of God Jesus came to help people

11:50

Jesus came to help you you who are created a little lower than the angels in power you who are created to rule over God's creation as his image bearers but who have been subjected to death and to Satan you who no longer wear the crown of glory and honor you are the ones that Jesus came to help and this is a help that truly rescues this is a help that truly rescues

12:16

I remember in the summers John Street when he was pastoring down at Clear Creek and Rick Wilson when he was at Grace Covenant and us and me and our families will go down to the master's mission down in North Carolina we would teach the counseling module down there and it was teaching in the morning and this is up in the

12:38

Smokies right this is really nice nice nice area and they had a lake there and one night we were out fishing

12:45

John and a bunch of the kids were out on this dock fishing our kids were little then

12:51

Lydia must have been maybe eight or nine and she fell off the dock and just went straight down it's getting dark you can't see under there now we could help

13:02

Lydia by saying Lydia flap your legs and wave your arms and come to the surface and grab the dock and then we'll pull you in we could have done that but John who happened to be on the dock with the children dropped to his knees reached down as far as he could caught her shirt and pulled her up now that was help that rescues you see he rescued her that was truly help that's what this word means he hasn't come to help angels he's come to what rescue us he's come to rescue us that says something about the kind of help that we really need we don't need

13:43

Jesus to help us along we need Jesus to intervene and rescue us you see that's what we need but in order to do that he had to become one of you that's what he says there in verse 17 the first part of verse therefore if he's gonna rescue us he had to be made like his brothers in every respect therefore or for this reason because he came to rescue men and women he himself had to be made like them and had to be made like them in every respect now if you've been here for any period of time you know that every year we have the night of carols right it's kind of a tradition one of our if I can say this about LaRue Baptist Church one of our set in stone kinds of traditions we don't have very many of them but that's one of them and and Enola Jones oftentimes you remember will compose a poem or or something about the advent or the coming of Jesus and several years ago she read one that really stuck in my mind she reminded us that Jesus left the grandeur of heaven to enter the world where your first impressions are the odors of animal bodies and waste to be rubbed with salt on baby soft skin and wrapped in fabric so tight you can't move and then put into a smelly tight place surrounded by itchy hay right

15:09

Jesus was a baby who cried and had to be burped and had to be changed like every other baby

15:18

Jesus knows what it's like to have brothers and sisters Jesus knows what it's like to have parents who don't understand him do you think he smashed his finger while he worked in the shop with Joseph everything he did that everything as a carpenter he knew hard work and working for people who didn't appreciate his skill do you think he knows what it's like to work for people who don't pay their bills he knows the heartache of betrayal the sadness of losing a friend to death as well as physical exhaustion and hunger and thirst he knows the distress of false accusations made against him he knows what it means to suffer extraordinary pain but not sinning in his suffering in every respect he has been made like us in every respect listen representation requires identification you know it's for a good reason that any of our representatives in the

16:22

State House or representatives in Congress are required by law to live in the districts that they represent you think a

16:31

Berliner who reads about our district would do a good job representing us no but one who lives among us who knows the obstacles in our district who knows what it's like to live in this area you think he'd make a better representative so it is with Jesus the son became man because it would have been impossible to redeem what he did not assume so in every respect in every respect he was like us this goes beyond he walked in your shoes he lived in your skin in every respect he had to become like one of us now according to our text he had to do this so that he could become a faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God and to become a merciful high priest to support and comfort

17:32

God's people here is the nature of the help that results from the incarnation of Jesus Jesus came to help you with God Jesus came to help you with God verse 17 so that he so that he became like us 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 he came to be a faithful high priest and serve in the service of God he came not to be served but to serve as a faithful high priest he came in the service of God to reveal here's the first thing to reveal the perfections of God to reveal the perfections of God the high priest in the

18:29

Old Testament had special obligations that only he could perform if we would go back to Leviticus 16 we would read about the

18:37

Day of Atonement on that in that you find a description on the Day of Atonement the high priest and only the high priest could perform certain tasks only the high priest could enter the most holy place and only on that day only on the

18:52

Day of Atonement to purge it from the impurities of the priests and the people by sprinkling the blood of the sin offering on the mercy seat which is the cover on the box that held the

19:05

Ten Commandments and Aaron's rod and so forth there was this gold cover with these cherubim facing each other and their wings touching at the top and the high priest would go in on the

19:16

Day of Atonement and sprinkle blood once a year on that what's called the mercy seat okay he would sprinkle blood on that which represented the sacrifice that had been made only the high priest could purge the rest of the sanctuary with blood as he sprinkled it on the everything else only the high priest would put his hand on the scapegoat which was then sent out into the wilderness representing taking the sins of the people away only the high priest could offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and the fat of the sin offerings on the altar only the high priest could do that and he had to do that the message was clear to everyone when all these things happen the message was clear there is a

20:01

God who is just and holy and is worthy of all your love and devotion and worship and obedience he is worthy of all those things but a problem exists and that is that people treat

20:19

God are guilty of indifference and distress distress distrust and preferring other things above God I love what an old

20:30

British theologian he's no longer with us but he was a great man his name was John Stott John Stott wrote this

20:37

I want you to listen carefully this tells you the kind of God that the priest Jesus himself has revealed to us sin arouses the wrath of God this does not mean that he's likely to fly off the handle at the most trivial provocation still less that he loses his temper for no apparent reason at all how many of you thought of God that way he did he's not that way for there is nothing capricious or arbitrary about the

21:10

Holy God nor is he ever irascible malicious spiteful or vindictive his anger is neither mysterious nor irrational it is never unpredictable but always predictable because it is provoked by evil and evil alone the wrath of God is his steady unrelenting unremitting uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestations in short

21:46

God's anger is poles apart from ours what provokes our anger injured vanity never provokes his what provokes his anger evil seldom provokes us that is how you need to think of the wrath of God it is never irrational it is very predictable he is angry against evil in all its manifestations and when the high priest made those sacrifices it was saying loud and clear

22:25

God is angry because you are evil because you have not been faithful because you have disobeyed and so Jesus serves the function of that priest in revealing the perfections of God but that's not all he comes in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of his people right there in verse 17 to make propitiation for the sins of the people this high priest comes to offer the sacrifice of himself he comes as the sacrifice he is the sacrifice he offers himself and his sacrifice is a propitiation now some translations shy away from that word because who uses the word propitiation today but I'm glad it's there because then you got to explain it so I'm gonna explain it don't forget it to propitiate someone means to make them so they're not angry at you

23:26

I want you to be propitious towards me it is

23:31

I don't I don't like you to be angry with me I practice one of my weaknesses

23:37

I love people to be propitious towards me I'd rather no one was angry with me alright and so we propitiate someone we turn their wrath away and so Jesus offered his sacrifice to propitiate the anger of God to turn his rightful anger away his holy righteous anger to turn it away to appease the wrath of God against us now

24:04

I've read many who call themselves Christians who said what a barbaric idea what a barbaric idea of thinking of God as someone to whom we must offer a sacrifice to turn away his wrath but you see we do not offer that sacrifice do we now one of us here offers that sacrifice it is

24:28

God himself who makes the sacrifice now don't lose this what is the sacrifice that turns away the anger of God it's the sacrifice that God himself makes to turn away his anger do not think that God loves you because his wrath has been appeased by Jesus do not think that God is gracious to you because his anger is satisfied that's not the way to think it is

24:57

God's grace towards sinners that caused him to send his son in the first place it is

25:06

God's love of sinners it is Jesus love of sinners that moved him to offer himself as a propitiation don't let don't ever forget that the

25:20

God who is angry is the very God who sent the sacrifice that would turn his wrath away and he's gracious to you not because of that sacrifice his grace moved him to send that sacrifice he does not love you because of that sacrifice his love moved him to send that sacrifice we heard it this morning in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we have loved

25:51

God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins it is

25:59

God's that moved him to appease his wrath Matthew Henry a great old theologian way back in the 1700s wrote this there was a great breach and quarrel between God and man by reason of sin but Christ by becoming man and dying has taken up the quarrel and made reconciliation so far that God is ready to receive all into favor and friendship who come to him through Christ so Jesus helps you with God he cannot fail in his duty to reconcile sinners to a perfect holy

26:43

God the last thing we see here is that Jesus came to help you in life to help you in life he is a merciful high priest for the comfort and support of God's people he's faithful to God he's merciful to you that is to say he has great compassion great pity on his people you see because he suffered at the hands of sinners he has great compassion he has great mercy for his people because he has suffered he knows what it is to suffer like you when

27:23

I was 24 years old my appendix burst at this really horrible pain and I remember going to the doctor and he said get to the hospital now but before they could operate it burst so they got in there and pulled all whatever they could out of it and I was in the hospital for almost two weeks and many days of fever and pain and one day the doctor came in and I was

27:58

I didn't expect him and what he did was he took these these scissors and he clipped a couple of my stitches in my side made a little bit of a hole and then he took these q -tips which were that long and he put them in that hole and he did this

28:22

I have never felt so much pain in my life

28:28

I soaked I literally soaked the bed with my sweat man that hurt it hurt

28:39

I sweat now just thinking about it do you know what he never said a word to me he walked in did his thing and walked out not no warning nothing

28:54

I sensed that he was not sympathetic to my pain in fact

29:02

I believe he'd never been through that procedure not so with Jesus in fact

29:11

Matthew Henry uses the term that Jesus is a sympathizing physician that he's tender and skillful he knows how to deal with tempted sorrowing souls he is touched with the feeling he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities because he himself has been sick of the same disease not the disease of sin but the disease of temptation and trouble of soul he knows it he knows it the remembrance of his own sorrows and temptation makes him mindful of our sorrows and temptations and our trials and he seeks to help that is the

29:57

Jesus that we worship so when Jesus summons you to believe and obey he does so with compassion because he has been faced with everything that you have been faced with when your friends at work make fun of you ridicule you twist your words and then

30:21

Jesus tells you to return blessings for cursings remember this

30:29

Jesus hung on a cross where people mocked him and twisted his words and he said father forgive them when you face hate for the fact that you have stood for righteousness and you won't go along with unrighteousness and then

30:54

Jesus says to you commit yourself to your faithful creator and continue to do good just remember that Jesus when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly when the one closest to you betrays you and leaves you all alone and you hear

31:22

Jesus say do good to those who abuse you remember that Jesus restored

31:30

Peter to ministry and said to the disciples who had left him all alone meet me in Galilee when you feel all alone when loneliness is your companion and you hear

31:44

Jesus give you the promise that God will never leave you nor forsake you you remember that Jesus was abandoned that he knows loneliness beyond compare to what you ever faced when he cried out my

32:02

God my God why have you forsaken me you see

32:07

Jesus helps us in life and at the deepest level so how do you see

32:15

Jesus today justice warrior miracle man loving brother radical teacher or see the faithful high priest who's come to offer a sacrifice once for all that reconciles you to God when you consider

32:35

Jesus now is he a distant deity a sovereign sitting on his heavenly throne demanding that you worship him and obey his commands ready to whack you for your infractions or is he a merciful high priest who knows exactly how difficult it is to obey in a sin -cursed temptation temptation laden world

33:01

Jesus came to help you and to help you at the deepest levels father thank you for revealing to us marvelous

33:13

Savior who became like us in every respect so that he would be a faithful high priest to you and a merciful high priest to us

33:32

God father this week let this truth transform us when we face difficulties and we're tempted to worry and we're tempted to return tit -for -tat when we are tempted with sorrow beyond what we think we can bear remind us of this high priest who's become one of us in every respect and so can offer himself to you as the perfect sacrifice and be faithful and merciful to us

34:21

Lord don't let this truth lie dormant in our hearts bring it to mind help us to live in light of a