Hebrews 2- Merciful High Priest - part 2

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I don�t want to harp on it too much, but you can still sign up for the

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Jane, lots of Bible teaching, I think Tom Pennington is going to go too, I don�t know if his wife will be there. May 20th through 30th this year,

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I think I have 13 signed up, Mike�s got 27, so shame on you NOCO listeners.

Come on, where are you? If there�s one NOCO family with 12 kids and they sign up, we�ve got it.

We�re set, right? Remember the old days? I used to never ask for money and now I just ask for money from millionaires?

It�s not working. Neither of them works. When you don�t ask for money, you don�t get it.

When you ask for money from only millionaires, you don�t get it. So we�re going to go up to billionaires.

If you�re a millionaire, we don�t want your money. Now it�s only billionaires. Anyway, this is

Mike Avendroth. You can write me info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you�ve got a crazy idea for a show,

HENO, or you�ve seen something crazy out there, h -e -n -n -o at nocompromiseradio .com.

Quite often people say, �Well, what�s this HENO deal ?� And then I have to kind of repost one of the things that Stephen has made.

Hebrews 2 .18, �For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.�

Now that he is not talking about Abraham, he�s not talking about Moses, he�s not talking about Elijah, he�s not talking about Peter, he�s talking about the

Lord Jesus, the high priest, the God -man. �For he himself, Jesus Christ, the

Lord, has suffered when tempted, he�s able to help those who are being tempted.� So the great news is, if you go through temptations, typically

I think when we say, �I�m tempted to do something.� I don�t know, what temptations pop into your mind?

Maybe sexual temptations? But I�m not only thinking of that, although that�s included.

How about temptations for, to be prideful, temptations to worry, temptations to fear people, temptations to fear the future, temptation is to have self -righteousness?

There�s all kinds of ways to be tempted. So Jesus, he�s the

God -man, and so he�s particularly able to help people who are tempted because he did not just theoretically, hypothetically experience life as a human.

He was a human. He is a human, right? The eternal Son, at the virgin conception, adds humanity to his nature and will forever be the

God -man. And so he particularly knows how to deliver us because he shares in our nature.

It�s been asked, how far would Jesus have to go to deliver us from temptation and sin?

Well, the answer has to be the incarnation. The answer has to be, he had to become incarnate.

You think about sins that you can�t get rid of, that you can�t conquer, that defeat you, you have to then look to another one who conquered those sins and defeated those.

Not just paying for your sins, but in his own life, he never did those. That�s a pretty amazing thing.

If you just sit down and let that settle in for a little bit. A say -la moment, stop and let that settle in, let that sink in.

That�s pretty wild. It�s actually inconceivable. It�s actually unbelievable if it wasn�t the

God -man. If it was just a man, but the God -man? Now, Philo was a writer, and he was talking about Jewish high priests.

And here�s what he said about Jewish high priests. They were probably supposed to be like Data in Star Trek, the next generation, or Spock in the first Star Trek.

He will have his feeling of pity under control. So don�t really show your feelings.

If you�re a high priest, you have to watch the way you come across. You have to be more removed from the situation, so you can maybe think clearly.

You have to be above the situation. You have to isolate your feelings, so you don�t kind of fall into it.

Here, he will have his feeling of pity under control. It�s exactly opposite of Jesus, the best high priest, the ultimate high priest, the supreme high priest.

Jesus has to be human, he has to suffer, he has to die, so that he could be our faithful high priest.

He could be the mediator. He could be sympathetic, then, because he knows all of our sicknesses, all of our diseases, all of our temptations, all of our infirmities, everything.

He knows. He knows what it�s like to be a human, for because he himself has suffered when tempted.

Now, the tie -in �for because he himself� means we�ve got to go back to what has just been said.

And the verse just before 2 .18 is 2 .17. Isn�t that amazing? 2 .17

says, Hebrews 2 .17, �Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.�

So, when this passage in 2 .18 is talking about suffering when tempted, when was he particularly tempted?

When was he suffering? And, of course, you have to say it was when he was making atonement, when he was making propitiation.

That�s the particular tie -in that�s the most direct. Jesus himself suffered.

Think of the cross. Think about the suffering on the cross. Think about the temptation that comes along with that.

Think of the Garden of Gethsemane. Could there be a greater suffering, not just from the human hands, but from God�s hand to the

Father�s hand, as he poured out his wrath on the Son? Jesus tested, tempted, suffered to agree more than anyone else, whoever will, can, or conceive of, and yet he stayed faithful.

So, that means he�s perfectly able to help. We�re tempted to cave in.

We�re tempted to pick the cross before the crown, but Jesus did not do that.

And when you think of the cross, that�s when you see he conquered death, but also suffering didn�t make him cave, and he did not fall into temptation, into sin.

He was tempted, but he didn�t sin. He�s able to help those who were being tempted because of the cross, because of his life.

Now, there�s other temptations that Jesus experienced in life, of course, but the focus here on the cross, he�s able.

It says in 415 of Hebrews, he�s able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

In chapter 7 of Hebrews, he�s able to save completely those who come to God through him.

Jesus is able to help. No temptation overtook him. No temptation conquered him.

No temptation had victory over him. He is the one that conquered all those, and now he�s able to help.

He can help in time of need, Hebrews 4 .16 says. Practically, when we go through trials, when we go through temptation, when we go through suffering, we need to think of a merciful and faithful high priest who paid for our sins, who gave us his righteousness, and who is fully human.

What�s the option for these listeners to this message and the readers of this epistle, the book of Hebrews?

What if we want to turn our back on Jesus? What if we�re tempted to turn our back?

We�re suffering. Well, listen, get your eyes off of yourself. Get your eyes back on the

Lord Jesus. That�s the point. Readers, listeners, no co -listeners, take assurance.

You can�t walk it back now. You can�t do it. You�re thinking about walking things back.

Jesus never did, and his suffering is a lot greater. You�re thinking, well, wait a second.

How is this all working? Jesus, how can he be greater than angels if he suffered?

Well, he suffered and conquered. By the way, you know what, you readers and listeners? You�re tempted to cave in.

You�re tempted to turn away from Christ. He never turned away from the Father. The text says he himself emphatically.

You might have expected him to do something differently, but he suffered and he conquered that suffering.

Of course, in his whole life, he suffered, but particularly at the cross, temptation, trials,

Jesus now, because he�s done that, he�s gone through that, he�s been there, he has sympathy.

Wouldn�t you like a little sympathy? Jesus knows how we are.

He knows our frame. He is mindful that we�re but, what, dust. Now, I don�t see any other place except here.

This is the first place, 2 .17, where he�s called the faithful high priest. Faithful.

Think about how unfaithful we are. So quit looking at yourself. These people that the writer is writing to were ready to punt.

They�re ready to run. They�re ready to turn their back. Listen, Jesus didn�t turn back. He didn�t turn his back.

He didn�t run. And he knows the temptation. He knows what it�s like for you to say,

I think I want to run. He knows that. He�s been tempted in that particular area, right?

I want to get out of here. He�s been there in that temptation, but he now is your faithful high priest.

You know, sometimes today in our society, we have spirit guides, right? People want to be spirit guides.

If there�s a spirit guide, let Jesus be your spiritual guide. He�s your spiritual guide to help you.

He�s not a spirit guide. Maybe the Holy Spirit could be a spirit guide if we set up properly.

By the way, as much as you exalt angels, angels can�t do this.

Angels didn�t do this. Angels won�t do this. It�s impossible for angels to do what

Jesus did. Add humanity and suffer and be the faithful high priest.

Instead of running away, you run to, and that gives you assurance and joy and help.

Jesus helps. He assists. God help me. He helps.

Lord Jesus, I�m tempted. He helps. I�m weak. He helps.

Jesus is the one who is a faithful high priest.

Now, I do want to talk a little bit more about temptation, but first let�s take a break. My name is Mike Apenroth.

This is No Compromise Radio. I am privileged to be the senior pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

If you want to go to our website, bbcchurch .org, we have several elders educated from Southern Seminary to Moody to Masters to Dallas.

We have quite a few deacons. Many of those have gone to seminary as well, and we are just a little church.

I don�t know, 250, 300 people on Easter out in the middle of Massachusetts, Central Mass, in between Boston and Springfield.

So if you�ve ever been to the Basketball Hall of Fame, we�re halfway to Boston, and we are outside of a city called

Worcester, City of the Seven Hills. That makes it interesting, doesn�t it? And this particular area,

I would say 70 -some percent would say they�re Roman Catholic. Now, they don�t all practice, but that�s what they would say, 70 percent.

And we are in a town of about 5 ,000, 6 ,000 people. It is a suburb outside of Worcester, bedroom community.

It has one kind of main strip on it, and that main strip has, oh, it�s got a gas station.

It�s got a Walmart, Bank of America, post office, Thai restaurant, tobacco restaurant.

It does have kind of a vitamin store, which I�m happy for that. It�s got a Dairy Queen, Dunkin� Donuts, a couple of them, and a place you can buy some fish.

And that�s about it. That�s all we got, man. And 20 years ago, the Lord saw fit to bring me out here from Los Angeles.

And although we love California, remember that place that used to be a state? We are now here fixed, entrenched in New England.

I�m actually kind of like a New Englander. I give the New England people a hard time about the

Lakers or the Warriors or something like that, the San Francisco Giants. But I think

I fit perfectly here. Probably too mean, too aggressive to fit in the

South. So there�s a lot of people here that are super kind, especially when you get to know them.

But early on, they�ve got that kind of front. They�ve got that kind of New England. It�s cold outside, and it�s cold on my face until you get to know me.

And then once you win them over, well, you�ve got them until the next congregational meeting. Just kidding.

Just kidding. Evangelical White Lies, you can still order that on Amazon. You can get it via Kindle as well.

Sexual Fidelity, I was encouraged a while ago, somebody ordered 100 copies for a conference and gave one copy out to each particular attendee, male attendees.

And there was also a young lady for a local paper that came to church worship service on Sunday, and she was writing some article on LGBTQT stuff or whatever all the letters are.

I gave her Sexual Fidelity and told her to read the chapter on hate speech and loving homosexuals.

So that should get me in a lot of water, but a lot of hot water, a lot of scalding.

Remember that? How often do we use that word anymore? When�s the last time in your life, really, that you used the word scald?

Now, we say the word scold, but scald, I don�t think so. Jesus is the one who can help us when we�re tempted.

And that�s called eminence. He�s close, right? Transcendence is He�s above,

He�s holy. Here, this is eminence. He�s close to us.

There�s a friend that sticks closer than a brother. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. So what�s happening in the book of Hebrews?

Hey, how can Jesus be better if He�s a man? How can Jesus be better, of course, the context is angels, how can

He be better than angels as a man? How can He be better than angels as a man who suffers? How can He be better than an angel if He�s a man who suffers, is tempted, and dies on a cross?

And the answer is given in chapter 2. And He Himself is a faithful high priest.

Because, chapter 2, verse 18 says, because He Himself has suffered when tempted,

He is able to help those who are being tempted. Right? He is able to help those who are being tempted.

So are you tempted? You know where you should go, and that is to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you watch

Jesus throughout His ministry, there are certain times of great temptation. And when you have your focus on Jesus, you can say, you know, yes,

He identifies, but furthermore, He overcomes the temptation.

So it is nice to know that Jesus understands what it�s like to be tempted. Remember, He never gave in to a sinful temptation, but He was tempted.

It�s nice to know somebody can be sympathetic and empathetic. But it�s more than that, because left at that alone, it might border on pathetic, path, pathos, pathos, empathetic, pathetic, sympathetic, apoplectic, just kidding.

But now Jesus, He actually dies for our sins when we get tempted and fall into those sins.

He actually died. I should be technical and make it past tense to make it right. That�s a great truth.

And when you see the life of Jesus, I think of two places in particular. The Garden of Gethsemane and then the temptation in the wilderness, where Satan comes and Jesus is tempted and He does not punt.

He does not do anything except excel in the temptation. Wow, I was suppressing that yawn for like 20 minutes.

I could not suppress it anymore. This is a one -yawn show. That�s it. Only one show, one yawn, one yawn show, boo yawn show.

In front of me, oh, do I want to say that? All right. In front of me, I have

Burkhoff, Louis Burkhoff. You ought to get Louis Burkhoff. You can get it online for free, actually. Systematic Theology, Eerdmans.

And what I like about Burkhoff, he is Reformed, high view of God, high view of sovereignty of God.

And when you just open it up, it just, it�s good. I�m just opening it up here.

The Atonement�s effect as far as the sinner is concerned. The Atonement, so this is technically known as a

Burkhoff briefing. Burkhoff briefing. Why do I want to say that? I said that the other day with Don, too.

The Atonement not only made salvation possible for the sinner, but actually secured it. On this point,

Calvinists join with the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, the Armenians, and all those who teach universal atonement.

These hold that the Atonement of Christ merely made salvation possible, and not certain for those whom it was offered.

But the Calvinists, oh, join issue with. Oh, I thought it said join with.

Join issue with. See what one word can do? I thought it�s like join, join with. No, join issue with.

But the Calvinist teaches that the Atonement meritoriously secured the application of the work of redemption to those for whom it was intended and thus rendered their salvation certain.

See, that�s wise writing by Burkhoff, especially if I, Avendroth, me, Avendroth, can get that word join issue with.

That word issue. Burkhoff goes on. It secured for those for whom it was made.

One, a proper judicial standing through justification. This includes the forgiveness of sin, the adoption of children, and the right to an eternal inheritance.

Two, the mystical union of believers with Christ through regeneration and sanctification. This comprises the gradual mortification of the old man and the gradual putting on of the new man created in Christ Jesus.

Three, their final bliss in communion with God through Jesus Christ in subjective glorification and in the enjoyment of eternal life in a new and perfect creation.

All this clearly obviates the objection so often raised against the penal substitutionary doctrine of the

Atonement, namely that it has no ethical bearings and offers no basis for the ethical life of the redeemed.

It may even be said that it is the only doctrine of the Atonement that offers a secure basis for the real ethical life, a life that is rooted in the heart through the operation of the

Holy Spirit. Justification leads right on to sanctification. Louis Burkhoff, The Purpose and Extent of the

Atonement. So make sure you have some systematic theologies around your house and you just read them. You can read them like a book if you like, but I just like to read it here a little, there a little, everywhere a little, little.

And if you have not read Calvin's Institutes, you ought to. If you have not read

Robert Raymond's Systematic Theology, you ought to, have ought to, you ought to read

Bavink. I'm halfway or so through Bavink and I've really enjoyed that. Dabney's, I've loved.

I'm trying to work through Turreton, harder. Boice's, one volume. It was three paperbacks, now one volume.

Something about foundations for Christian theology, that is excellent as well. Plenty of,

I mean, you can read Strong if you'd like. I have Hodge, three volume, Charles Hodge.

I have not read that yet. Body of Divinity by Watson. I did read

Erickson. I didn't think that was the best. Some of the stuff isn't too bad. And many other books.

You need to be reading systematic theologies to try to help you. And this particular one, even the new

Paul Innes ones, the updated one, is going to be excellent. So every once in a while we like to read

Berkhoff to try to get you on the bandwagon. Maybe you have ideas for shows, videos.

It's been quite some time since I've had Carl Truman, Phil Johnson, James White, and myself talk about theology.

I'd love to do that again. It costs money to fly these guys in, so I'm not asking for money.

But that's just, people ask, why don't you do it? Well, it's going to cost me 15 grand to make it happen, so I just don't quite have that money here at No Compromise Radio.

What else? I think that's it. So you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Make sure you pull up bbcchurch .org.

There's lots of Bible Institute classes there. Lots of preaching. Tuesday guy preaches. Sermon series on Romans, Hebrews, Ephesians, First Corinthians.