Chosen By God - [Hebrews 5:1ff]

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Well, when I was a kid growing up along the Missouri River in Nebraska, we loved the 4th of July especially because of fireworks.
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I mean, you don't normally read instructions when you have to assemble things or use something like fireworks, but I remember it would say things like, do not hold in hand, lie on ground, light fuse, get away, use outdoors under adult supervision only.
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I remember trying to throw inch and a half firecrackers, black cats, into the river, and if you threw them in just with the right timing, they wouldn't just fizzle out, they would go under the water and explode and kind of make a little concussion sound.
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But the thing is you had to light them and then wait a second or two before you threw them. I mean, the anticipation of that explosion is more than most 12 -year -old boys can bear on a hot, humid day in July.
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It wasn't the smell of gunpowder that hurt. It was when it had a quick fuse and you try to throw it and it would blow up about six inches from your hand and I can still hear my ears ring.
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I thought to myself, you know what, that is the response that many people have when it comes to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and election.
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They hear about sovereignty, they hear about choosing, they hear about God predestining people, and it's like a concussion, it's like an explosion, it's like ringing in one's ears.
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For many people, there is a visceral reaction to sovereign election and predestination.
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I could ask you the question maybe this way, does God's choice make you smile or seethe?
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Herman Melville even wrote his book, Moby Dick, because he disliked God's choice so much.
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Did you know the fall of the house of Usher was actually written to describe the fall of doctrines about the sovereignty of God?
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To be fair, Daniel Defoe did write Robinson Crusoe, which is a wonderful polemic for the doctrines of grace.
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Election comes from a word in Greek, a compound word.
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It means from and to gather, to gather from. Part of God's nature is choosing, part of God's essence is choosing.
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He makes discriminations. He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
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I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. The focus there is on the
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God who chooses. White Cross cites the story of King William III.
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How a person of His Majesty's piety and good sense could so rootedly believe the doctrine of absolute predestination.
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The king replied, did I not believe absolute predestination? I could not believe in a providence, for it would be most absurd to suppose that a being of infinite wisdom would work without a plan.
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For which plan, predestination, is only another word. If you look at the
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Bible and find how many times it talks about predestination, predetermination, choosing, election, you're going to find many, many places.
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I guess what you could do is the equivalent of Thomas Jefferson. He had a Bible and he took out every supernatural passage and put it together called the
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Thomas Jefferson Bible. It ends with Jesus in the tomb. I suppose you could take the Bible and cut out everything when it comes to sovereign choice, but you'd have to cut out
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Adam because God chose him to be the first man. You'd have to cut out Eve because God chose her to be the first woman.
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You'd have to cut out Noah and the seven other people who are on the ark because God chose those eight to be on the ark.
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You'd have to cut out everything about angels, the elect angels. You'd have to cut out
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Jacob because God chose Jacob, not Esau. You'd have to cut out Moses because God chose
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Moses and not Pharaoh. You'd have to cut out
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Israel because Deuteronomy 7, it says, For you are a holy people to the Lord our
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God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.
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The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
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But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of the king of Egypt.
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If you're going to start cutting election out of the Bible, you're also going to have to take out Isaac because God chose
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Isaac over Ishmael. You'll have to take out Peter because he picked Peter and not Judas. You'll have to take the
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Levitical priest out because they were elect. You'll have to take Jeremiah out because he was called the elect prophet.
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And the list could go on and on and on. Most people don't struggle with election when it comes to Israel, when it comes to angels, when it comes to Isaac.
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But they have trouble with election when God chooses his bride. God chooses certain individuals to be his bride to go to heaven.
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I could ask you this question. If you're a Christian, why are you a Christian? Is the answer found in you?
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Something you did or something you believed? You have a friend who's an unbeliever and you have you, the believer.
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What's the difference? Is the difference found in them or is the difference found in God? You say,
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God could have chosen to save all men but didn't. That's true. God could have chosen to save no one. That's true.
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No one deserved it. But God chose to save some sinners. That's true and that's what the
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Bible teaches. Some respond to election by saying,
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I could never love a God like that. Okay, but that's who God is. Even one of our most favorite verses in all the
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Bible. I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, Jesus said. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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That passage, Matthew 11, begins with, All things have been handed over to me by my
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Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the
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Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
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Friends, election is in the Bible. Predestination is in the Bible. How you define it, oh, that might make a difference.
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But as Spurgeon said, whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there is not getting rid of it.
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To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of Revelation. And those who are afraid of it are so because they do not understand it.
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If they could but know that the Lord had chosen them, it would make their hearts dance with joy.
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Did the Holy Spirit make a mistake when He put the doctrine of election in the Bible? I'd like to help you this morning.
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Here's how I'd like to help you. If you struggle with the doctrine of election, there's another election in the
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Bible that's a little easier to take, easier to stomach, and so then this will remind you, yes, in fact,
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God is a choosing God, and it is the doctrine that God chose His Son to go rescue sinners.
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Jesus is called the Chosen One. God the Father chose even the
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Son. Take your Bibles, please, and let's turn to Hebrews 5. A long introduction, yes, but setting it up to talk about this doctrine of election that even
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Jesus is chosen. And the backdrop is going to be simply this. As high priests were chosen by God, so too
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Jesus is the high priest chosen by God. If you struggle with sin, if you struggle with needing mercy and help in time of need,
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God has chosen the perfect priest for you. What if you had to choose your own priest?
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Or what if, like myself and many others here, you struggle with some medical issue and you have to choose the best doctor?
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There are a lot of doctors out there. The pressure of choosing the right doctor for your particular malady is crushing.
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Well, what about a spiritual doctor? What if you had to choose the right intercessor?
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What if you chose wrongly? I keep thinking of that movie, You Have Chose. That would be a bad choice.
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And so how would we pick the right priest to intercede for us? What if we pick somebody that wasn't educated enough or smart enough?
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They were really bad themselves. They needed their own intercessor. But here's the great news. If you struggle with sin, if you struggle with temptation,
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God has picked the perfect priest for you. And that's what Hebrews 5 is. Hebrews 5 is an exaltation of not just Aaronic priests, not just high priests that are human, but God picks the right priest for you, the eternal
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Son of God who has added humanity and has become a priest. God picked
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His priest for you. Now, the book of Hebrews is simply
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Jesus is the great high priest and everything about Him is better. He's better than the old prophets.
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He's better than angels. He's better than Aaron. He's better than Moses. He's better than the old covenant.
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He's better than that sacrifice that these priests had to do every time. He's better in every way, shape, and form.
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He's a better priest. He's a better sacrifice. And the writer wants you to have a good
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Christology. He has things to tell you later on about marriage and money and other things, but right now he's concerned about what you think about Jesus.
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So if I played that word association game with you and said, Jesus, tell me what comes to your mind,
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I'm wondering what would come to your mind. Maybe Savior? Great. Maybe King?
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Great. Maybe raised from the dead? Great. Prophet? Great.
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King, sovereign? Great. But this entire book is designed for you to understand and have the knee -jerk reaction,
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Jesus, and then the first thing you think of is priest. I need a priest. I need someone to stand between thrice holy
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God and me. There needs to be some kind of barrier bridged, and that is by the person and work of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And it would be very, very nice if this priest understood that I was weak.
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It would be very nice if he was sympathetic. It would be very nice if he wasn't just up in the clouds not understanding things, but he was one of me, one of us.
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Hebrews 5 is the right kind of priest so that you can come to the throne of God.
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Here's what we're going to do. We are going to, or I am going to, read Hebrews 5, and I'd like you to especially notice as I read things that talk about choice and chosen and appointed and made.
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This whole chapter is about God picked your high priest for you, and, of course, he picked wonderfully.
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Hebrews 5, For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of God in relation to, excuse me, on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.
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Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.
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And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
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So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said,
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You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he has also said in another place,
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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh,
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Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.
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And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
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And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
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About all this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.
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You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child.
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But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment and are trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
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The outline is simple today as we work through the first few verses of Hebrews 5. The right kind of priest, the priest that you need, has been one, chosen by God, two, chosen among men.
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God chose your high priest, and he chose your high priest among men so that God might have the right representative priest for you.
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Remember verse 16 of the last chapter? 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.
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What happens when we sin and we fall to temptation? Do we really want to go to the throne of grace?
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Do we really want to approach God? Yes, if you have the right kind of priest.
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No, if you don't have the right kind of priest. Everything should make you turn and run and avoid.
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But if you've got the right kind of priest, even though you sin, even though you don't live up to the standards that God has set, then you, along with me, we can still go to the throne of grace because the right kind of priest,
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Jesus Christ, is there. That's why we can have confidence, because not of ourselves.
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We can have confidence to find grace to help in time of need because who is there being our advocate?
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And it is the Lord Jesus Christ. So number one, facts about a high priest that will enhance your understanding and appreciation for Jesus.
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Is that Jesus, this priest, was chosen by God. If it's your highest good to know
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God rightly, let's learn more about God. Let's learn more about Christology, the person and work of Jesus.
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Chosen by God. Now remember, here's the kind of theme of this section of Hebrews.
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There were Aaronic priests, A -A -R -O -N, from the line of Aaron, and they had certain things about them that are going to be similar to what
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Jesus is. Now there's a difference because Aaron sinned, Jesus never sinned.
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But short of that, there's certain things about Aaron, and he had to be one of the people. Okay, Jesus had to be one of the people.
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He had to be chosen by God. Okay, he had to be chosen by God. And you're going to see similarities between Aaron and Jesus that will make you understand high priests even more.
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But the big one throughout this whole section is that he's chosen by God. And in case you missed it when
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I was reading Hebrews 5, do you see in verse 1, chosen from among men?
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Do you see in verse 1, is appointed? How about verse 4, no one takes this honor for himself but only when called by God.
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Verse 5, Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him.
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Verse 10, designated by God a high priest. The Jewish people are reading this, the
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Jewish people are thinking through this, and they're thinking, wait a second, we like your religion, Christianity seems nice, you can have your sins forgiven, you can be reconciled to God, but you need a priest.
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And this writer is saying, yes, in fact, you have a priest, we have a priest, God chose the priest exactly the way he did it for your exact needs.
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Verse 1, chosen from among men. Now, for us, we think, okay, you can be whatever you want to be in life.
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You ever hear that? Well, you could be born back in those days, the days of Moses, and you could say, you know what,
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I really would like to be a priest. Yeah, but you don't have the right line. Yes, but if I study enough,
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I could be one. If I become godly enough, I could be one. No, the priestly line was the priestly line, and there were ramifications, bad ones, if you said, you know what,
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I'm going to be a priest anyway, I don't care what God says. Does this sound familiar? When Uzziah was strong, he grew proud to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to the
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Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of the
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Lord who were men of valor, and they stood against King Uzziah and said to him, it's not for you,
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Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests. We don't care if you're a king or not.
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He takes all those men of valor in to say, you can't do this, you're not a priest, you have to be chosen by God in the line of Aaron.
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How do you think Uzziah responded? He became angry, but leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the
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Lord. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead.
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And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the
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Lord had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. 2
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Chronicles 26 relates. Some archaeologists, by the way, found an inscription outside the
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Mount of Olives, and it said from the second temple period, here were brought the bones of Uzziah, king of Judah.
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Do not open. You just can't say,
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I'll be the priest. And Jesus didn't say it either. Jesus submitted to the will of the
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Father and was appointed priest, chosen by God. Turn to Luke 9, please.
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I want to show you a fascinating transfiguration account with a little gem of chosen tucked away in this passage.
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Now, of course, what we have is called the Synoptic Gospels, similar gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
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John would be different. But the Synoptic Gospels all contain the transfiguration, but only
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Luke has this little nugget that's related to our topic today. And I love to think about the transfiguration account for lots of reasons.
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If I was playing Bible trivia, I don't think there should be ever such a game, although I saw it in our basement the other night.
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True story. I never will play Bible trivia with you. Never. I'll never, ever, ever play.
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Why? Because if I win, you expect me to win. I'm the pastor. I have several degrees. But if I lose, that is awful.
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I'm never going to do that. I have some pride, you know, left. Did Moses ever make it to the promised land?
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That might be a Bible trivia question, and the answer is yes, here in the transfiguration. But that's not what
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I'm after. Luke 9 .28. Now, about eight days after these sayings, he took with him
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Peter, Luke 9 .28, and John, and James, and went up to the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.
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And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus, literally his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
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They were talking about how he was going to die and be raised from the dead. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him.
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And as they were parting from him, Jesus heard from Peter, Master, it is good that we are here.
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Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah, not knowing what he said.
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And he was saying these things as he was saying these things. A cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
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Notice verse 35. And a voice came out of the cloud saying,
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This is my son, my chosen one, listen to him.
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Combining all the Old Testament messianic purposes, the father says of the son, this is my son.
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This sounds like Psalm 2 because it directly is Psalm 2.
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But isn't that fascinating? He calls him the chosen one. Right from Isaiah chapter 42,
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Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.
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And since he is the son of God, and since he is the chosen one, what's the response?
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Yeah, I know Moses is there, I know Elijah is there, but the father says, listen to him.
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That's right from Deuteronomy 18, I will raise up a prophet like me from among you,
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Moses said, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. Isn't that fascinating?
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He's my chosen one. As Lewis Johnson relates the story,
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Peter is interrupted by the voice from heaven. In translating verse, it's something like this.
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When he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved son in whom
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I'm well pleased. Peter, shut up. This is really what I want you to do, is listen to Jesus.
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He is the one chosen by God. So when you need a priest to stand between you and God, he needs to be chosen by God, and that's exactly who
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Jesus is, the chosen one. Back to Hebrews chapter 5, please. Hebrews chapter 5, chosen by God.
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Let's say you need a good lawyer. Who do you call? Do you get a referral? Do you get a reference? Do you go to the alphabetical
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Yellow Pages, AAA lawyers? Do they even have
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Yellow Pages anymore? How do we show our masculinity as men anymore without doing what my dad would do?
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Those big tattooed arms would take the Yellow Pages in Omaha, Nebraska, probably about, it seemed like 19 inches thick, and he would rip that thing in half.
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I thought my dad's tougher than your dad. Side note, it has nothing to do with anything, but I think dads are supposed to wrestle with their kids, to teach their kids that you're strong, and that you can protect them.
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What did you learn today at the sermon? Some morality, wrestle with your kids, go thou and do likewise.
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I say things like that because it's almost like we've got to just stop for a second and kind of let this filter in a little bit.
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I mean, we're going people, and just tell us to be more thankful, tell us to be more content, tell us to be nicer to our wife and our kids, and take out the trash on time, and tell us those things.
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That's kind of what we just easily can hear. But the writer here for Hebrews knows that there's a trial, there's endurance needed.
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When temptations come, when big issues happen, what do you need? You need to just settle in and think, who is my priest?
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Well, I might not be right with my wife, or my neighbor, or my friend, or the government, or somebody else in the church.
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I'm right with God, and because I'm right with God, since I have a high priest to be right with God, now
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I'll work on all the other horizontal relationships I have. The writer here doesn't want us to just rush off and say, okay, he's my prophet, priest, and king, we're good to go.
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He's a chosen one. God the Father chose the perfect priest for you.
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I could ask you, when's the last time you said, God, that was a perfect choice, Jesus, to represent me.
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What if it was Michael the archangel to represent you? What if it was Uzziah the king to represent you?
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What if it was Peter? Would it be Peter's good day or bad day? Would it be the day Peter said, you are the
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Christ, the son of the living God? Or would it be the day that Peter heard from Jesus, you're Satan, get behind me?
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But Jesus is this one who's better than the angels, better than the prophets, have never sinned, he can sympathize with our weaknesses, he's been tempted as we are, yet without sin, and God chooses him for you.
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I've only sat in on a legal deposition one time, and I had no lawyer, and I wanted one, believe me. We'll go down to verse 4 of Hebrews chapter 5.
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We're just gonna skip verses 2 and 3 for a moment, because I wanna have you see this concept before we go back and pick up the other verses.
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No one takes this honor for himself, verse 4, only when called by God. He's just saying it a variety of different ways.
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Aaron didn't take this honor for himself, Aaron had to be called by God, therefore, just as Aaron was called.
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He says it positively now, in verse 5, I mean talking about Jesus rather directly,
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Jesus did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but positively was appointed by him who said to him, there's the stress, over and over, the son submits to the father's will.
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And it shouldn't surprise us, because we believe in one God, subsisting in three persons, and they all are
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God, they all have the same nature and essence and will. If someone said,
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I will seize the priesthood by force, they would be found out. If someone said, I'm gonna train for it,
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I'm gonna be educated for it, I'll become the most godly person, cannot be done.
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By the way, the phrase upon himself is emphasized in the Greek, it's pushed to the front. Friends, just think about it in a big picture.
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This is the sovereignty of God. You see it played in the news today. Well, men and women, are they equal in Christ?
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Yes, they must be then equal in function, and then they must be able to be pastors, and leaders, and elders, and all those things.
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Well, what do you mean? Why do you think the ire of the world is just raised up? You can see almost, it's like when the dog is angry at you, the hair goes up on its back, and you think, metaphorically speaking, people become so ferocious, if I were just to say, my wife and I are equal in Christ, if you know her, you'll recognize she's more godly than I am, but I'm the leader of the family, and I'm the pastor, she's not.
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It is attacking the sovereignty of God when people say, how can that be? It's the same thing here.
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Who are you to tell me I can't be a priest? I wanna be an Aaronic priest, but I'm not from Aaron. Who are you to tell me that I can't be, even for that matter, that I can't be a woman?
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This is the sovereignty of God. He has everything lined up exactly the way He pleases.
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Divine choice. Now, the good news is, there's divine choice.
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God chooses who He wants for His mediatorial work.
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To show you how bad it is when you go your own way, turn to number 16, please.
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You might ask yourself, well, we're looking at a lot of Old Testament text in this series. That's on purpose, because I want you to get to know your
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Old Testament better. This is the book of Hebrews we're in, and so there's all kinds of allusions to the book
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Old Testament. There's all kinds of quotes, and I want you to get to know your Old Testament better. And so number 16 talks about rebelling against God's authorities.
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And there's a right way to do things in God's economy. God chooses. And when we say, we don't like what you do,
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God. We'll choose ourselves. Then there are problems. And this is called Korah's Rebellion.
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And it relates to, is everybody an Aaronic priest? Is everybody called to be a priest?
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Numbers 16. I think you know the passage. If you don't really read numbers very often,
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I think this would be a good place to start in Numbers 16. Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, and the sons of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men.
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Now Korah's a Levite, but he's not the right kind of priest. What's he going to do? They rose up before Moses with a number of people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from among the assembly, well -known men.
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It's not chosen by God. These are chosen by these ringleaders. They assembled themselves together against Moses and Aaron and said to them,
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You've gone too far, for all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the
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Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves over the assembly of the Lord?
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Some of that's true. Is everybody in the congregation holy?
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Ethically are they holy? Yes. For priestly functions, are they holy? No. Oh, this is wickedness.
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You're exalting yourself above the assembly of the Lord. Who exalted them? It was God Himself.
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This is a rebellion against the sovereignty of God. Moses, who appointed you as leader? Answer. When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, verse 4, and he said to Korah and all the company,
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In the morning the Lord will show who is His, who is holy, who will bring Him near to Him.
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The one whom He chooses, He will bring near to Him. You guys can choose all you want.
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It's the divine choice. That's the theme of this passage. Divine choice. Will God vindicate
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His holiness or not? Do this. Take censers, Korah and all his company, put fire in them, put incense on them before the
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Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You've gone too far, sons of Levi.
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Moses said to Korah, Hear now, you sons of Levi. Is it too small a thing for you that the
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God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to Himself?
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I mean, they had certain priestly functions they could do, but not this. Verse 11,
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Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is
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Aaron that you grumble against him? All grumbling against the leadership that God had given them was against God Himself.
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Moses sent, verse 12, to call Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab. And they said, We will not come up.
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Is it a small thing you've brought us out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?
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I think they've got the wrong land of milk and honey, don't they? Verse 14,
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See there toward the end, Will you put out the eyes of these men? This is the language of,
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Are you going to pull the wool over their eyes too? Moses was very angry and said to the
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Lord, Do not respect their offering. I have taken one donkey from them, have not, and have not harmed one of them.
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And you know what happens. Verse 19, They've got censers in their hand, and incense everywhere.
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Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the glory of the
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Lord appeared to all the congregation. I wonder if it's always good to be an evil ringleader.
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Verse 20, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.
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You'd better get back. And they fell on their faces and said, O God, the God of spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and you will be angry with all the congregation?
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Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathom, and Abiram. I can almost hear the music now.
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The spooky music, the scary music, the ominous music. What's going to happen?
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Verse 26, Depart from the tents of these wicked men, lest you be swept away with their sins.
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Verse 27, So they got away from the dwelling of Korah and these other ringleaders. Moses said in verse 29,
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If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the
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Lord creates something new, the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the
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Lord. And as luck would have it, as circumstance dictated, as the great
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God of fortune made it happen, serendipitously, verse 31, And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, crying because I was using bad theology, right on cue, if he ever says something that's not true, cry.
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This is the sovereign hand of God. The same God that chose the right priest can choose to do whatever
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He wants supernaturally. The ground under them split apart. I mean, can you imagine hearing it?
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I've been in earthquakes before. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their households and all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods.
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Just imagine the shaking and the sound. And so they, verse 33, and all that belong to them went down alive into Sheol and the earth closed over them and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
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And it's like it goes back together and there's not a sign, not a hint to show you what would happen.
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And what would you do if you were there? Lest the earth swallow us up, fleeing, running.
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And by the way, there were some people that didn't get swallowed up, but God took care of them as well.
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Verse 35, And the fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.
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P .S. I wish it ended better.
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Verse 41, On the next day, all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying,
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You have killed the people of the Lord. And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting and, behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the
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Lord appeared. What's the point? The point is simple. God chooses
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His high priest for the people. The people didn't like it. And it doesn't take much imagination to fast forward thousands of years to the
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New Testament where Jesus is the designated high priest for people. And they didn't like Jesus.
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They wanted Jesus to take over Rome. They essentially wanted Jesus to take them back to Egypt.
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And Jesus wouldn't do it. Jesus is the chosen one because if left to ourselves to choose, we would never choose rightly.
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I know who I would choose to be my leader. It wouldn't be Moses. It would probably be Korah. Isn't it interesting, by the way, in verse 5 of chapter 17?
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It says, And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumbled against you.
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Moses spoke to all the people. God says, you know what? I'll pick the one who's going to be my priest and I'll make his rod sprout.
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Christ did not exalt Himself to be made high priest but was appointed by Him who said to Him, You are
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My Son, today I have begotten You. So if you say, well, is there anything practical here?
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When you sin and fall short and are tempted and fail, you don't need a slogan.
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You don't need a podcast of kind of what to do.
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You need to have an idea of who is the one who stands there making intercession for you.
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And He's picked by God for you. Left to ourselves, we're the rebels.
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We're the Korahs. But God is going to override that by sovereign choice. Picking Jesus for you who is actually better than Moses himself.
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So as we approach the time to take the Lord's Supper, I want you to turn to 1
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John chapter 2 and we're thinking about bread and the cup as the priest that God picked for you.
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What kind of priest do you have? What kind of priest do you need? And so as we prepare our hearts for communion, 1
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John 1 verse 9. Well, let's pick it up in verse 8.
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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So we are sinful. Even as Christian people, we sin. If we confess we agree with God about our sins,
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He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. We know because Jesus paid for those sins at Calvary and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. Verse 1 of chapter 2.
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My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, congregation, this is what we're going to think of when we come to the table.
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If anyone does sin, when you hold the bread in your hand and the cup in your hand, this is what
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I want you to think of. Present tense. We have an Advocate. We have an
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Advocate with the Father. What kind of Advocate? Yes, a chosen Advocate. Jesus, man,
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Christ, God, the Righteous. We've got an Advocate that doesn't need another
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Advocate. If He's unrighteous, He needs an Advocate, but we have the Advocate chosen by God.
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And by the way, He's the propitiation. He has swaged all the wrath due us for our sins.
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Not just for Jews, not just for ours only, but also the sins of the whole world.
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How do we remember that we're right with God so that we can come to Him even when we're sinful?
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How do we know we're right with God and God's right with us when we have a trial and temptation and nobody understands, nobody gets it, and we need help and we need mercy and we have grace?
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The answer is through the Priest. He is, it says, the
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Righteous, chosen by God. So as you have that bread in your hand and that cup in your hand, it's all too easy for me, and I would imagine you, to start making myself say, you know,
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I'm right with God because I do Bible studies and I preach and I read my
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Bible and I pray and I try to do this and I try to do that. That's how I'm good with God. These elements are placed in your hand as something oppositely to be thought of.
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You are right with God because Jesus is the chosen High Priest and He has made propitiation for all your sins and your only contribution was,
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God, I take You at Your Word. I take You at Your Word. So instead for the
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Christian to sin and then run and hide, the Christian sins and confesses and says, now
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I have a priest, a mediator to help me when I still need help. So let's bow our heads and think about what we're going to do with communion and the
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Lord's Supper and it's not going to be about us. It's going to be about what God has done. Father in Heaven, we are thankful today that we can be reminded, not about ourselves, but about what
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Your Son has done and especially who He is. He's a priest and You chose
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Him. Thank You for that choice. Father, would You rid any pride and a lack of humility when it comes to, well, we don't like choosing in God.
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Father, help us to love it. Help our hearts, like Spurgeon said, to dance with joy. Not only did You choose us to have fellowship with You, You chose us to have fellowship with You through Your chosen one,
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Jesus. He's our Savior. He's our Lord. He's our friend. He's our brother. He's our closest companion.
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We love Him. We know He first loved us, but we can love Him and speak to Him and approach
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Him to then approach You. Not one thing has been left undone by You, Father, especially when it comes to election, electing
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Your Son to come die for us, to live for us, to be raised for us.
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And Father, Your Son gladly did it. We praise Jesus because He didn't hesitate. He didn't mull it over.
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He gladly obeyed, and so we're thankful. Father, because of all these things, would
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You help us to have short accounts with one another? Because we have such a great high priest, would
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You help husbands and wives who are struggling say no to self and to act like You have acted with forgiveness?
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Father, what do we have to do to come into Your presence? Nothing, because Jesus has done it all.
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So, Father, help us not to put hurdles in front of our spouses, our friends, our kids, and to make them somehow earn our favor.
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So, Father, help us as this communion service not only to think of You in a vertical way, but also other people because we live with one another here at the church.
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I pray that You'd protect us from all disunity, factions, not just in families, but in the church, our church family.
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So many people here, so many things that could go wrong. Father, we just ask that we would look not to one another because they'll always let us down.
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I'll let people down, but Father, may we look to Your Son. So as we hold this bread and hold this cup,
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Father, we praise You that You have chosen for us the High Priest, in whose name we pray.