Christ as Priest Art. 17&18

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Well, we're going to look now at Christ as our priest.
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If you have your booklet, you'll notice 17 and 18.
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17 is titled as Priest, and 18 is Order of His Priesthood.
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And you may remember that it wasn't but a few weeks ago that I preached on the person of Melchizedek.
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Well, this is, it's just fortuitous and certainly according to God's providence that we would land on this and it would be my turn to speak on this because I just preached on it.
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So it's somewhat fresh in my mind.
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And Brother Andy has really set the stage for me tonight in one sense because he made a very important distinction regarding the prophet.
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When we think of prophet as distinguished from priest, this is an important distinction that needs to be made.
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While Brother Andy is correct, Christ is prophet, priest, and king at the same time, those three offices are distinguishable by their roles.
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And Brother Andy made the point, the prophet speaks to the people for God.
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That's the role of the prophet.
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Isaiah spoke to the people on behalf of God, thus saith the Lord, right? And Christ is the prophet.
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The fulfillment of all the prophecies point to Christ as the one and final prophet.
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While the priest is the other distinction.
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The priest speaks to God for the people.
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And in the Old Covenant, those were two distinguishable offices.
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The priest would go to God and he would make the sacrifices on behalf of the people.
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He would lay the heifer or whatever on the altar and he would burn it as a sacrifice to God.
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He would go in the one time during the year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he would go in and he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.
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That was the one job of the high priest.
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And he would go into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies to do that thing.
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And so the priest was going to God on behalf of the people.
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Both of these are mediatory roles.
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Remember, we said Christ is our mediator.
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How does he mediate? He mediates as prophet, God to us.
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And he mediates as priest, us to God.
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And then Brother Andy will explain next week, we'll get to King as sovereign.
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He also mediates as sovereign Lord.
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And that's our next article.
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So what I'd like to do is I want to read these two articles.
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We're going to look at some of the verses that they have listed in our text.
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And I want to seek to understand why the brothers in the writing of this confession have made the points that they have made.
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So let's look first at Article 17, as priest.
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Speaking of Christ, it says, Concerning his priesthood, Christ having sanctified himself, hath appeared once to put away sin by that one offering of himself a sacrifice for sin, by which he hath fully finished and suffered all things God required for the salvation of his elect, and removed all rites and shadows, etc., and is now entered within the veil into the Holy of Holies, which is the presence of God.
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Also he makes his people a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through him.
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Neither doth the Father accept, nor Christ offer to the Father, any other worship or worshippers.
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All right, and now number 18.
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Order of his priesthood.
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This priesthood was not legal or temporary, but according to the order of Melchizedek, and is stable and perfect, not for a time, but forever, which is suitable to Jesus Christ as to him that ever liveth.
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Christ was the priest, sacrifice, and altar.
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He was a priest according to both natures.
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He was a sacrifice according to his human nature.
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Once in Scripture it is attributed to his body, to his blood.
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Yet the effectualness of this sacrifice did depend upon his divine nature, therefore it is called the blood of God.
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He was the altar according to his divine nature, it belonging to the altar, to sanctify that which is offered upon it, and so it ought to be of greater dignity than the sacrifice itself.
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In reality, there is a lot of theology in just these two articles, and my purpose tonight is to hopefully clarify maybe some of the language that we may be a little unfamiliar with.
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As we know what the priest is, as we've said, the priest is the one who speaks to God on behalf of the people.
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I want to make just a few points as to why certain language is used here in the Confession.
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As I understand it, of course this document is several hundred years old, and I want to explain it as I understand it, and I think the brothers were trying to convey.
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First and foremost, it says concerning his priesthood, Christ having sanctified himself.
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Well, that's an interesting concept, Christ sanctifying himself.
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What does it mean to be sanctified? Say what? Means to be set apart as holy, right? And where do they get this idea of Christ being set apart as holy? Well, they get it from John 17, 19.
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That's the first verse that they list among the listing of verses, and this is what it says, Jesus speaking.
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He says, for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
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The word consecrate is the same word for sanctify, means to make something holy, and Christ is essentially saying that he has been set apart for this task, and that he is the one who is doing the setting apart.
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He has set himself apart for this task.
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He's consecrated himself for this task.
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One of the things, what it does not mean, and this is important, is that it does not mean that Christ had to make a sacrifice for his own sin, because Christ is not a sinner.
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The Old Testament priests would have to make sacrifices for themselves.
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You know, before the priests could go and offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people, he had to cleanse himself.
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He had to sanctify himself by offering up an animal on his own behalf.
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He had to offer up an animal for his own sins.
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When Christ says he consecrates himself, he's not saying he had to offer an animal on behalf of himself, because he is the sinless lamb of God.
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But he does set himself aside, he does set himself apart, he does consecrate himself as holy as the one who is going to be both the maker of the sacrifice and the sacrifice.
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Isn't that interesting, when you think about Christ? Because the priest made the sacrifice, but the priest wasn't the sacrifice, right? The priest would go to the animals, and he would inspect the animals, and he would choose from among the animals the one unblemished animal, and he would pull that animal out, and he would use that animal as the sacrificial animal, whether it was a heifer, or whether it was a goat, or whether it was a lamb, depending on which sacrifice was needing to be made, and he would use that animal.
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The priest was not himself the sacrifice, but Christ is.
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Christ is the sacrifice, and the one making the sacrifice.
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Remember what he says about himself? He says, no man takes my life from me, but what? I lay it down on my own accord.
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That is an important truth.
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Christ gave his life on the cross.
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He did not have his life taken from him.
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What did he say on the cross? Into thy hands I commit my spirit, to tellest thy it is finished.
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And it says, and he bowed his head, and he did what? He gave up the ghost, right? He bowed his head, and he gave up his spirit.
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This King James gave up the ghost.
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He gave up his spirit.
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We can't do that.
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We don't have the power to give up our own spirit.
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We don't have the power to lay down and say, God, into your hands I commit my spirit, and we die.
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That's not how it works, but Christ had that power.
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Christ could have hung on that cross forever had he not given his own life.
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He says, no man takes my life from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.
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So Christ is the one making the sacrifice, and he is the sacrifice.
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So Christ having sanctified himself, it goes on to say, hath appeared once to put away sin by that one offering of himself, a sacrifice for sin, by which he hath fully finished and suffered all things God required for the salvation of his life.
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The fact that it mentions the sacrifice twice, it uses the phrase once.
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Notice it says, he appeared once to put away sin, that by one offering of himself, a sacrifice for sin.
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And you say, well, what's the stress there? The stress is the uniqueness and the singularity of Christ's sacrifice.
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It is not needed to be repeated.
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This is one of the great failures of Roman Catholicism, because there is a belief among the Catholics that when the mass is proclaimed by the priest, that Christ is, and it is stated in their literature, he is bowing his head, he is coming down, and he is presenting himself again the sacrifice for sin.
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And the idea is it's a representation of the sacrifice of Christ.
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And I have heard it said out of the mouth of a Catholic scholar that a person could literally receive the sacrifice of Christ thousands of times throughout their life and still die unholy.
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Because every time after you receive that sacrifice, you go out again, you commit a venial sin, which is a sin that does not remove the grace of justification, or heaven forbid, you commit a mortal sin, which is a sin that does remove the grace of justification, and it's gone.
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All of the work that Christ has done on your behalf has been squashed by your unfaithfulness.
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Brother, you grew up as a Catholic, am I getting this accurate? You're giving me the chills.
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And so we see this.
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We see this once made sacrifice.
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And the book of Hebrews says once for all.
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It doesn't mean once for all people, it means once for all time.
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It was once for all time.
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The once for all time passage, I'll have to look it up.
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It may be one of these.
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I have them all listed here, I'll have to look.
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It is in Hebrews, and I would just have to look to see.
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Thank you, thank you brother.
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Yeah, so he has appeared once to put away sin by that one offering of himself, a sacrifice for sin, by which, and hear this, he has fully finished and suffered all things God required for the salvation of the elect.
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Underline that, circle that, highlight that, put it on your mirror so when you're brushing your teeth, hear that again.
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He has fully finished and suffered all things God required for the salvation of his elect.
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It's all Christ.
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I just talked about this Sunday, Christ's active and passive obedience.
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He fulfilled everything necessary for our salvation.
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He suffered all things God requires, all of the requirement for your sin.
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If you ever come to me and say, my life has been such a mess that I don't know if God could forgive me.
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Let me say this, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has suffered all things necessary for your salvation.
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Every sin that you have ever committed can be washed in the blood of the Lamb and it has been, if you believe on him, nothing is out, you are never too bad a sinner that Christ cannot save you because he is a greater savior than you are a sinner.
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And his sacrifice is better than the depth of your sin.
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And I just love this, that it makes the point.
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He suffered all things God requires, all things.
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What a blessing.
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And the next part, again, if I break this down, I'm going to end up going too long tonight because I'm breaking everything.
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I love this because it says he removed all rights and shadows.
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Now what is that talking about? Well we know what he means here, we know what the brothers are saying because this actually comes to us in the book of Colossians.
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It talks about the old covenant ceremonies as being rights and shadows of Christ.
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So for instance, the Old Testament had sacrifices.
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Every one of those sacrifices pointed to Christ.
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Brother Mike in his Good Friday message this year, he talked about how every one of the elements of the temple pointed to Jesus, whether it's the bread or whether it's the lamps or whether it's the anything.
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All of the things that are in the temple, all of it points to Christ.
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And they are what the book of Colossians calls shadows.
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And it says the substance is Christ.
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This is why it is impossible, in fact, it is deadly for us to consider going back under the old covenant.
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Because, and this was Paul's reasoning with the Galatians, if you go back under the old covenant, you're going back under the law, you're going back to the shadows, you're abandoning the substance of Christ for that which the old covenant pointed to.
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How dare you go away from that which it pointed to and go back to the shadow? Because the shadow looms in light of the reality.
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And the reality is Christ.
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And Christ is, has removed all rights and shadows.
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And it goes on to say, and is now entered within the veil into the Holy of Holies, which is the presence of God.
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You see, Christ, that was him.
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He was the priest on our behalf.
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What did he do as the priest? He went to the presence of God on our behalf.
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He made a sacrifice on our behalf in the presence of God.
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He went in and took our sins.
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What happened when Christ died? What happened to the veil in the temple? It was torn in two.
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And what does the Bible say? It was torn in two from top to bottom.
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You know, that veil was as thick as a man's hand.
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If you look back at the construction of the temple, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the outer sanctum to the inner sanctum, there was a veil that was as thick as your hand, and it was torn.
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No man could just walk up and tear it with his bare hands.
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But God, from top to bottom, tore and exposed the holy place and showed the way has been made.
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Brother, did you have a passage? There's two of them.
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There's Hebrews 7.26 and Hebrews 9.26.
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Hebrews 7.26, Hebrews 9.26.
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Thank you.
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So, at that point, it's expressed to us that Christ has made one final sacrifice.
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It has made for the elect and covers all their sins, and it has removed the rights and shadows of the old covenant, so no more having to go back to the old covenant.
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We are under the new covenant.
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We are in Christ, and we have been granted access to the presence of God.
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Now, it says, also, it says, also, he makes his people a spiritual house, and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through him.
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You know what? This is a reality we don't think about a lot.
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Christ has made us a royal priesthood.
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You say, what does that mean? It means he has given us all access to God through him, through him.
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That's what it says.
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It says we can now offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God.
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How? Through him.
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This is why when you pray, how do you pray? In Jesus' name.
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You know, I start my prayers that way.
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I don't know if you ever noticed that.
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One of my professors in school, Jerry Powers, he would always start his prayer, Father, I come to you in Jesus' name.
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And that was just how he started.
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You know, we always say in Jesus' name, amen.
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We always think that's the end, but Jerry would always start it, you know, and it just stuck with me, and it's been that way 15 years.
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You know, it just stuck with me, that you going in his name, make that the first thing instead of, or I bookend it.
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I put it on both ends.
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I can't say Jesus enough anyways.
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It's on both ends, but it's we're coming in Jesus' name, because that's the only way we can come.
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And we're offering up a sacrifice.
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What? What sacrifice? Well, first, it's a sacrifice of prayer.
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We're offering up our minds and our hearts to God in prayer, but also, what about when we come to worship? We're exercising the act of worship as an act of that holy priesthood.
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We're going through Christ, and we're offering up a sacrifice of praise.
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And what does Romans 12, in fact, everybody turn there, turn to Romans 12.
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This one, one of my favorite passages.
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Romans chapter 12, it gives us, in the beginning, a appeal from the Apostle Paul.
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Now, Romans 12, most scholars who are studied and taught on Romans say Romans 12 is a turning point of the book.
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Paul has, through the first 11 chapters, given a doctrinal treatise on salvation, sanctification, justification, and election, all those things.
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But when you get to chapter 12, he becomes very practical, and throughout the rest of the book, there's a practical application of his work.
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So he says in chapter 12, verse 1, rather, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, remember what therefore means.
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Based on what I've said so far, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as what? Living sacrifice.
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That's the greatest oxymoron in the Bible.
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You guys know what an oxymoron is? It's two words that go together that are the opposite meanings.
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Well, the idea of a living sacrifice is an oxymoron, because sacrifices were, by nature, dead things.
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You sacrificed something.
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You killed it.
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You gave up its life.
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That was what a sacrifice is.
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But Paul says, no, I appeal to you to be a living sacrifice.
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And how? Holy.
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Holy and acceptable to God, which is your, and the ESV says, spiritual worship.
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I hate that translation.
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I've taught on this passage many times.
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I do not like the phrase spiritual worship.
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That is not what I think Paul is saying here, even though an argument can be made that it's potentially that.
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It's reasonable, reasonable worship.
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That's what the word means.
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And in fact, I would say it means reasonable service.
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It's reasonable that if Christ has died for you, that you would offer yourself a living sacrifice unto him.
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That's the most reasonable response to Christ's dying for you, is that you would offer yourself up to him.
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It's your reasonable service.
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And so he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind that by testing, you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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So, so going back again to the confession quickly, just notice it says he makes his people a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through him.
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And one of the first ways we do that is what Paul says.
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I appeal to you, brothers, by mercy of God, give yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
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And we do that daily.
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We offer ourselves a living sacrifice.
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What does Paul say? For me to live is what? Christ.
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You ever thought about what that means? Have you really sat down and reasoned out what Paul means? Because we all say it, right? For me to live is Christ and die is gain.
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We like the last part because that's, that makes sense.
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To die is gain.
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Well, why is death gain for the believer? Because we gain heaven.
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We gain the presence of the Lord.
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We gain that.
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But what does it mean to live is Christ? Paul didn't say to live as Christ.
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He says for me to live is Christ.
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He's saying that my life is lived in him.
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Every area of my life is driven, guided, and directed by my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I live a dead life, dead to the world, alive in Christ.
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Now, most of us can probably say we don't, we don't fulfill that perfectly.
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I'd say all of us better say we can't, we don't fulfill it perfectly.
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But I would say we don't even fulfill it well.
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But that's the call.
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To live is Christ.
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If I'm going to live on in this world, I'm going to live for the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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That's what Paul says.
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He says, I don't know which is better, to die and go and be with Christ or to live here.
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I know, though, if I live here, I'm going to live for the one who died and gave himself for me.
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If Christ died for me, I can live for him is the call.
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And he goes on to say, neither, I love this part, the brothers just hit it on the head, neither does the Father accept nor Christ offer to the Father any other worshipper, worshipper.
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He says only, the only type of worship that Christ offers is that which is through him, which is holy.
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And the only worshippers he offers is that which is through him.
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Again, you want to get down to the nitty gritty of, is there any salvation outside of Christ? No.
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And this, this is our confession.
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And it says, God doesn't accept any other kind of worship and he doesn't accept any other kind of worshipper.
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You ever heard people say, well, I can worship God the way I want to say, no, you don't.
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You worship God the way he wants you to.
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You don't get to choose.
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You're not God.
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Say, well, I worship God on my own terms.
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Well, yeah, that ain't the way it works.
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God sets the terms.
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God establishes the standard and the standard is Christ.
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And the only way is through Christ.
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So that's the priesthood of Christ.
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He is the only way.
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He is the only sacrifice and his sacrifice is sufficient for all of our sins.
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To him be the glory.
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And then Article 18, which I unfortunately will have to go a little quicker since I spent a little time on.
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I just love thinking of the priesthood of Christ.
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But look at 18.
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It says, this priesthood was not legal.
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That doesn't mean it was illegal, just to clarify.
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What he was saying, it was not according to law.
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Because the legal priesthood was a temporary priesthood.
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If a man became a priest, he became a priest because he was born under a specific lineage, the lineage of Levi.
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He was known as a Levitical priest.
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And he was a legal priest because the law had established him as a priest.
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And he was by nature temporary because what do men do better than anything else? Die.
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We die.
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That's something every one of us is going to be good at one day.
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We're all going to die.
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And he says it was not legal nor temporary.
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Because it was not according to the Levitical law, which establishes a priest only so long as he lives.
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But he is according to the order of Melchizedek.
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Why Melchizedek? Melchizedek is given three verses in Genesis, that's it.
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Abram brings him a tenth of the spoils of war and Melchizedek meets him with bread and wine.
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Absolutely, I believe, symbolism there pointing forward to Christ, brings him bread, wine.
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And he blesses Abram.
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Abram gives a tithe or a tenth of the spoils.
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And there's a relationship transaction where Melchizedek demonstrates himself to be the superior in the relationship.
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Because he gives the blessing, he receives the tithe.
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That's the demonstration of his superiority.
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If you don't believe me, go to Hebrews 7, it says that exact thing.
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It says the one who blesses is by nature superior to the one who receives the blessing.
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And so Melchizedek is a priest of El Elyon, the Most High God.
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And he is the one who Abram looks to as his priest before God.
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Now, Abram had a relationship with God that was immediate, meaning without a mediator in the sense of God came to him immediately, right with him.
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But it wasn't immediate.
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It was still through Christ.
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You say, well, how is it through Christ? Well, I believe the one that Abram spoke to was Christ.
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That's a conversation for a longer lesson.
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I believe that every time Abram saw the presence of God as in, we're going to see when he eats with him at the Oaks of Mamre, we're going to get to that in a few chapters.
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I believe that's a pre-incarnate visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so with that said, there's still a mediatorial relationship there, but he has this priest person come out.
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And what do we know about Melchizedek? Not much.
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We have three verses.
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And Hebrews makes a big point about that.
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The writer of Hebrews in chapter 7 makes a big point.
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It says, look, Melchizedek had neither mother or father nor beginning of days or end of life.
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And boy, people have run off with that and thinks that that means that it's Jesus.
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And it may mean that.
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I'm not saying it's impossible.
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Some very, very thoughtful scholars have said they believe that that's referencing Jesus.
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I don't think that's what it means, though.
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I think that what it means is we don't have any record of Melchizedek's birth or his death.
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We don't have any record of his lineage, who his mother and father were.
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And therefore, his priesthood is not established on any form of legal standing.
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He's not a legal priest.
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He is a priest who has been ordained directly by God.
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And he establishes a lineage, an order, not a lineage, but an order that Christ comes through.
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Christ is a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.
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And again, I preached on it a few weeks ago.
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We can go a lot further in the Hebrews passage, but for time's sake, that is why Melchizedek is mentioned here.
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And it says, and is stable.
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The priesthood is stable and perfect, not for a time, but forever, which is suitable to Jesus Christ as to him that ever liveth.
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Christ was the priest, sacrifice, and altar.
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Now, this is where it gets a little interesting.
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Because the brothers make, they say not only is Christ prophet, priest, and king, but according to his priesthood, Christ is priest and sacrifice, and he's the altar upon which the sacrifice is made.
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That's an interesting reality.
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Because all of those things are necessary.
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The priest to make the offering, the offering that is to be made, and the place.
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Remember, what was the first thing Abram did when he went into the land of Canaan? Built an altar.
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He built one in the north and one in the south.
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And then we see throughout Genesis, he builds a few more.
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He is always building altars to God.
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What did Noah do as soon as he came off the ark? Built an altar.
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So, it's not just the person making the sacrifice.
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It's not just the sacrifice, but you've got to have the place that the sacrifice is made.
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And the brothers make the point that Christ is all of that.
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He becomes to us priest to make the offering.
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He becomes to us the offering that is made, and he becomes the very foundation upon which the offering is made, the altar itself.
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And let's read.
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It says, he was a sacrifice according to his human nature, whence in scripture it is attributed to his body, to his blood.
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This is why Jesus did not come as simply a phantom or some hologram.
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Jesus came as the incarnate one.
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John 1.14, the word became what? Flesh, and dwelt among us.
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Very important.
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His body, his blood were sacrificed.
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Yet the effectualness of the sacrifice did depend upon his divine nature, because what is his blood called? It's called the blood of God.
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The Bible says we have been purchased by God with his own blood.
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Now some more modern translations say with the blood of his own or with the blood of his son, and they translate it a little bit differently, but the King James is very clear.
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With his own blood, and not to get him to make fine a point on why the translations differ, but I do think it's referring to Christ's blood as though human had its, depended upon his divine nature.
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His sacrifice is both human and divine, though his divine nature did not die.
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Very clearly we want to say that Christ's Godhood was not sacrificed on the cross.
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That has to be clearly enunciated.
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But it goes on.
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He was the altar, according to his divine nature, it belonging to the altar to sanctify that which is offered on it, and so it ought to be of greater dignity than the sacrifice itself.
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Now, I want to show you where that is, because you might think that that might be the brothers just being somewhat creative.
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Christ is the priest, Christ is the sacrifice.
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Where are they getting this whole, he was the altar thing? Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 13 with me.
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Of course, if we're going to be talking sacrifices, you probably knew we were going to end up in chapter 13.
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Beginning in verse 7, it speaks about the leaders of the church.
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It says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
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That puts a strong burden on the leaders, doesn't it, brother? And it says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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That's an important passage there, just about the nature of Christ as immutable, that he is the same.
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Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.
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Verse 10, this is the important one.
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We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
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That is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ himself as the altar.
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So we have Christ as the priest, we have Christ as the sacrifice, and we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
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All right, so this leads us to the last line, or this leads us to the conclusion.
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Christ is our priest.
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Not only is he the prophet who speaks to us on behalf of God, but he is the priest who speaks and goes to God on our behalf.
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Well, I hope that this has been encouraging for you as it has for me, and I'd like now to draw to a close with prayer.