Jesus The Representative And High Priest - [Hebrews 5:2ff]

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While it might be your right to represent yourself in court, is it a good idea?
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There's a well -known statement that says, quote, an attorney that represents himself in court has a fool for a client.
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While you can represent yourself to try to navigate through all the legal complexities, it's very, very difficult.
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Combine that with you're so emotional when it comes to the case, especially if it's a case about you in a criminal proceeding, you need a representative.
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The United States Supreme Court in Kay v. Erler said this, even a skilled lawyer who represents himself is at a disadvantage in a contested litigation.
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He is deprived of the judgment of an independent third party in framing the theory of a case, evaluating alternative methods of presenting the evidence, cross -examining hostile witnesses, formulating closing arguments, and in making sure that reason rather than emotion dictates the proper tactical response to unforeseen developments in the courtroom.
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All the legal terminology, all the standards when it comes to the court, all the laws, case laws, procedural introductions of evidence, cross -examination skills.
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It's not a good idea to represent yourself in court. Now you know where I'm going with this.
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If it's not a good idea to represent yourself in court, would it be a good idea to represent yourself before God on judgment day?
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Without a lawyer, without an advocate, without a mediator? And the answer is no. And here's the great news.
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God the Father has picked the perfect advocate and mediator and lawyer for you on that day, and his name is the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Please turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 5 this morning.
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I cannot wait to talk about Jesus this morning. If you'd like a sermon about Jesus, you're in the right church.
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I think about when I was a kid, we'd have those little show -and -tell classes, you know, third grade, fourth grade, remember show -and -tell?
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Maybe you're all public homeschoolers. Thank you.
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I'm glad you sit closely to the front, Becky. Thank you. You know, kind of this show -and -tell, and, you know, really it's bring and brag.
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And you kind of just brag about things. My all -time favorite one was, this is not in the script, so sorry.
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Steve always says be careful when you go off the script. My mom gave me some chicken legs that were cut off, and I brought those for show -and -tell in, like, fifth grade.
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But what she didn't tell me, but I figured out on my own, if you pull the tendon, it kind of makes this claw thing, and it works perfect on the back of girls' hair walking down the street.
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That was the one time I almost was expelled from school. How do you write that up?
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How would I defend myself in a criminal court case with a tendon chicken foot?
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I have no idea. Well, what the writer of Hebrews does is, he wants to praise and boast and show and tell and remind the people who are hearing the sermon and then listening that this is, in fact, something that we need to remember.
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It's too easy to forget in life. All the other things push themselves up to the front, and we forget about who
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Jesus is, and we forget about what he's done. And so why we gather today is not to hear a pep talk, not to hear what some people call therapeutic, moralistic deism, and just feel good and get through the week.
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We're coming here to learn. We want to learn about who Jesus is, because the more you see him, the more you'll admire him.
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The more you understand him, the more you'll praise him. For those of you that are married, and you think about when you first were falling in love with your spouse, if you have a love marriage, you think,
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I just want to study and look at and rehearse, and I can't get this person out of my mind.
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That's the idea when it comes to this message. The writer wants you to be remembering that Jesus is the high priest, and he is the high priest that God chose for you.
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We would have picked wrongly. If I would have picked my high priest, it probably would have been Nadab.
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It probably would have been Abihu. Remember Leviticus chapter 10? Those were not good choices. If I was left to myself, maybe for my high priest or a mediator,
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I might choose Mary. After all, doesn't Jesus have to always listen to his mother? Except did not
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Mary even say in Luke chapter 1, talking about God my Savior?
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So she might have been blessed, she might have been kind, she might have been wonderful, and she was a dear saint.
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But she's still a sinner. Small faith in a great object is the
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Christian life. The just shall live by what? Faith. Then we would like to, in light of who
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God is, who the Son is, then we'd like to live faithful lives. But if we're always focused on our faithfulness, what happens when we're not so faithful?
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What happens when we stumble? What happens when we don't live up to the standards of God and love Him, love our neighbor?
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That's the reason why, in Habakkuk 2, the just shall live by faith. That's the reason why, in Romans, the just shall live by faith.
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That's the reason why, in Hebrews, the just shall live by faith. So the more you know about the object of your faith, the better it is, the easier it is to keep your eye on Him.
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Because once you get a good glimpse of Jesus, you'll quickly realize that nobody else is like Him. Nobody talks like Him, nobody does what
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He does, and nobody can be such a great high priest. If I had to summarize the book of Hebrews chapter 1, it'd be with this word, better.
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If I had to summarize Hebrews chapter 2, it would be with this word, better. If I had to summarize Hebrews chapter 3, any guesses?
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It'd be the word, better. If I had to summarize Hebrews chapter 4, it'd be the word, better. Everything in this book, and it's used several times in Greek, and then in English, of course, with our translations.
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Jesus is better. Whoever you think of as a great priest, He's better. You think of a prophet?
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He's better. You think of a mediator? He's better. You think of Amos? I just said Amos. I meant
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Aaron, but he's better than Amos, too. He's better than Aaron. He's better than Moses.
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He's better than the entire Old Covenant system. He's just better. And so the writer wants you to have the spotlight on Jesus, and even though you might have a trial, and you might have to look around at other issues, you get yourself focused back on the
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Lord Jesus. Charles Hodge, the Princetonian, said, the great difficulty with many
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Christians is that they cannot persuade themselves that Christ loves them.
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Does God really love me? I mean, after all, the way I treated my wife this week, or my spouse, or my kids, or at work, or the thoughts that I have, does
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God still love me? John Owen, the great Puritan congregationalist in England, said, the greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the
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Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him, is not to believe that He loves you.
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It's fascinating. And everything in this book, although the words might not be used technically, agape, they're demonstrated in God choosing the right priest for you, in the
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Son having Himself be the right offering for you. Why? Because He loves sinners.
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Because He loves His people. The Westminster Shorter Catechism 20 says this,
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Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? Answer, God, having out of His mere good pleasure from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a
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Redeemer. Why? Because He loves sinners. Question 22,
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How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? Answer, Christ, the
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Son of God, became man by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the
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Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her yet without sin.
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Why? Because He loves sinners. So last week, if we get back into the text in Hebrews chapter 4, we essentially saw that God chooses the right priest for you.
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We saw that in verses 1, sprinkled in verses 4 and 5 throughout the section.
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And everything in this text is going to be reminding you that Christology, as I said last week, is important.
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The study about Jesus is important. It is tempting, I know, to think that the study of Jesus and His offices of prophet or priest or king might be dry, might be arid, might be ethereal, might be spiritual, and you know you have problems that are tangible and real.
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I know you're tempted to think that way because I am. But whatever problems you're going through,
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A, God knows, and B, these people that He's writing to, the Holy Spirit's giving this word to, they're getting persecuted and they're losing their houses and they're on the run.
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They're not dead yet from persecution, but that's around the corner. And so these men know, these women know persecution.
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And the appeal is, Jesus the priest, the high priest,
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He's relevant. This is a relevant topic. How relevant is
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Christ's priesthood? I could ask it this way, I'm glad you asked. Is access to God relevant?
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Well, let's see. Chapter 4, verse 11, as we move into 5, just with a little review, Hebrews 4 .11,
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Strive to enter that rest, that salvation rest. What a great word for salvation, rest.
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No more working to get to heaven. Jesus did all the work. Rest. Enter that rest.
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So that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. If you're not going to rest in Jesus, the word's going to examine you, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged surgeon's scalpel, piercing to the vision of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
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If you won't rest in Jesus, God knows all your thoughts, He requires perfection.
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Verse 13, No creature is hidden from His sight, but they're all naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
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One of our big problems is not thinking ahead, not thinking about later, not thinking about that judgment day.
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That judgment day is real and it's true and it's coming soon. Is it relevant to understand what do we do when we stand before God?
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Is access to God relevant? Especially relevant when our biggest problem is we're sinful.
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And without our sins forgiven by Jesus, the high priest, then what awaits for us is found later in Hebrews 10.
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Vengeance is mine, I will repay. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. Therefore, the
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Bible says in verse 14 of chapter 4, hold fast the confession.
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Therefore, it says in verse 16, then let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
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You can't just be a spectator. You can't just say that's nice knowledge. You can't just say that's for my parents. You can't just say, well, you know what?
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When I'm older, I'll get more into religion. I've got my own life to live now. We're going to see today very simply
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God the Father chose the Son as the great high priest and He chose that Son from mankind.
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I know this is a long introduction, but we've dealt with the text some. Pastorally, can
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I just remind you that it is a good idea, church, to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
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Is that a good idea to read the Bible? Why did you pick this church? I mean, some of us maybe didn't pick it, right?
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Because you're a kid and you grew up in the church and your parents picked it for you. But if you picked this church to attend and worship here, why did you pick it?
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I know why. Top of the list, in order of importance, the parking lot. See?
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You picked the church because you know from junior church to Awana, to the pulpit, whoever steps in here is going to teach you the
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Bible. Because you know the Bible saves and sanctifies, strengthens and matures.
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It does its work in those who believe, 2 Thessalonians. It's powerful.
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It convicts and it confronts. It makes you more like Christ as you study it, 2
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Corinthians 3, verse 18. That's why you're here, because of the preaching of the
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Word of God. It has nothing to do with the person or the preacher. It's what comes out of the pulpit that's the issue.
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But what's interesting to me is that many of you don't read your
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Bibles on a regular basis. I'm not going to do it. I thought about it, but then
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I thought I need to make sure there's plenty of gospel in the sermon and not all law. But if I had people raise their hand, do you read your
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Bible every day, six days a week? You sit down and open up your
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Bible, think about who God is, praise Him, pray to Him, read the
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Bible, I think you'd probably be shocked. And as I meet with people and people struggle in their marriage, and one of the first things
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I have them do, do you read your Bible every day? Most people that have marriage problems, they say no.
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And so I try to get them to focus back on the Word and study the Word. And so here's what I'm trying to tell you.
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I'm not trying to whack you. I'm trying to say this. This is important.
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This is important from the pulpit and this is important behind the scenes. I am trying to model for you what to do at home.
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To read the Bible, to study the Bible, to ask questions about the Bible, to talk to God. God, that's amazing that you would give me a high priest like Jesus.
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Oh, God, increase my love for Jesus. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for picking me. Thank you for picking Jesus. And the list can go on and on and on.
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So today I just want to give you a little reminder that what I'm doing is I'm trying to teach you the Bible and as I'm teaching you the
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Bible, I'm trying to affirm to you the ones that do study, Amen. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
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And for the ones that don't, God loves repentance. Today's a good day to start. To sit down and read your
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Bible and open up that book and say, God, in this book are treasures. They're like buried treasures in a mine.
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God, I want to learn about you. I want to study. I almost said something about Facebook, but I'm not going to.
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Some things are taught, the Word of God verse by verse. Some things are caught. If I could just give you an underhand pitch right now, here's the pitch.
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Since God loves you, since God has saved you, since God has redeemed you, since God has given you a high priest, since God has given you the
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Bible in your own language, would you read it? In the old days,
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I loved it when somebody left their Bible here because they only would have like one Bible back in those days and I'd be like, how's your
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Bible reading this week? And I'd see them the next Sunday. Oh! Now they're like,
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I've got my phone. P .S. I always get asked this question. Is it okay? What about listening to the Bible? Well, of course the
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Bible is meant to be listened to, but if you only listen to the Bible while you're driving, while the sports talk is on, or while you're talking, you're not really thinking.
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If you want to go sit by the lake and listen to your Bible, fine. Every morning I get up, I read my Bible, have a cup of coffee, same time, and then
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I listen to the Bible being read with my ESV app in my bedroom as I get my clothes ready.
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And it's usually from the Old Testament. I'm not saying it's wrong, but if that's all you get, without sitting and meditating and rehearsing and going over and thinking about, the text says in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
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For those of you that do that, thank you for being good models of men and women who want to study the
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Bible. Okay? That one's for free. Jesus was chosen by God to be your high priest.
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Just in review, verse one, for every high priest chosen from among men, that's a passive language there to understand that God chose the priest that you need.
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What does he say there? Implicitly in verse one, now becomes explicit in verse four, no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
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So also verse five, Christ did not exalt himself to be made high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him.
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So in other words, in this whole chapter, you can just see the theme that comes up in almost every verse,
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God the Father chose the priest that you needed, and you needed the priest who could intercede on your behalf in front of God, and also could intercede on your behalf as man.
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Very simple. God and man. That's why Jesus is the eternal son who adds humanity.
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And God picked this priest for you. Remember what's going on behind the scenes, almost like today, think
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Chicago kind of mob. How did you become a high priest in those days? Pay off, payola, politics, insidious ways.
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Here, Christ didn't exalt himself, verse five. It's even fascinating for you Greek students. So also, the
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Christ, verse five. There's an article there, a definite article. Even the Christ, it'd be something if it said
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Jesus didn't exalt himself, the human Jesus didn't exalt himself, but even here, the Messiah, he didn't take glory on himself.
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It was given to him by the Father. God's initiative, and Jesus, of course, said, yes, the one who sent me,
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John seven. John eight, my father who glorifies me. Jesus didn't exalt himself, far from it.
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When he was given the cup, he drank it, and he knew what to expect when it comes to humiliation and agony and death.
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But also, God had to choose a priest from among men. And let's take a look at that found in verses one, two, and three.
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Chosen by God, chosen from among men. That's how I would outline verses one through six.
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I'm going to give you three components. Representative, sacrifice, and sympathetic.
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Those are the three words for the outline today. Chosen from among men, as one representative, as two, sacrifice, and three, as sympathetic high priest.
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So let's look at each one of those. Verse one, Jesus is chosen from among men to be our representative.
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Verse one, for every high priest chosen from among men. Do you see it? On behalf of men.
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Do you see it? Jesus has to be a man to represent us. This is going to sound dumb, but he can't be an animal.
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He can't be an angel. If you're going to have somebody represent you in court, what do you do?
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Do you pick your cat? Well, pity the poor fool that picks their cat. Right?
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Did I just say that? I saw Mr. T one day in Los Angeles and he was a lot shorter in person.
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He's got to be a man so he's chosen from among men. And you can kind of see the mirror stuff. Well, Aaron, he was chosen from among men.
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God said, choose from among Israel. Exodus chapter 28, verse 1. So you're going to have to choose someone who's got our nature.
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Jesus, of course, is sinless, but he has a human nature. Instead of saying, well, who will
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I get to be my representative? Well, I'll pick somebody who's the highest bidder, politically. Could kind of flash forward a little bit.
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How do you become a pope? Who votes? How do you become the pope? How many popes are there at one time? Taken from among men.
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A real man. Among men, on behalf of men. And, of course, we know that Jesus, to keep him sinless, as he added human flesh, was born of a virgin.
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And the Holy Spirit hovered as he hovered over the waters in Genesis 1. He hovers over the womb of Mary, making sure there's no spot or stain or sin.
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Joseph isn't involved. But the more you think about it, the more you say to yourself, well, wait a second.
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I can understand that God's a Savior, but that he was a man too? I mean, a real man?
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That's why there's a group of people called the docetists. They just think Jesus was a man. They don't think he really was human.
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They think, you know, material stuff is bad, and flesh is bad, and therefore
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Jesus was like, he was just a phantom. He was kind of an apparition.
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It was an illusion. But once you do that and you say Jesus isn't human, he can't be your high priest.
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2 John 7 says, For many deceivers have gone into the world. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist.
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Jesus didn't just seem human. He was human. And as God picks Aaron from humans to represent
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Israel, as a picture, as pointing forward to the ultimate choice where he would pick Jesus from humans to represent humans.
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Turn to 1 Timothy 2 please, and let's talk about human mediator on our behalf.
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In the last couple weeks, evangelicals have been losing their minds when it comes to this issue of race, quote unquote, and racism.
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As you hear all the political folks, and as you hear even people with large evangelical pulpits,
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I want you to think that there's one race.
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I want you to think that Jesus, the last Adam, and Adam the first Adam are the only two kinds of people
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I should think about. There are going to be people that try to divide you about skin color, and pigment, and everything else.
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I want you to think of Adam, the last Adam. And Jesus, when it comes to being a high priest, what was he?
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Was Jesus Jewish as the high priest? Was he white as the high priest?
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Was he a different color? Was he black as a high priest? If you have a priest for a certain particular ethnic group, or the way people look, then fine.
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But what kind of priest does Jesus show himself to be in 1 Timothy chapter 2?
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Side note before I give you the answer. I looked it up this week. West Boylston has 7 ,900 people in it, according to the latest census.
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And 92 .9 % are white. Do you think we're 92 .9
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% white in this church? Well, part of me says I could care less. Because I'm trying to preach to the one, the
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Semitic Jesus. And is Jesus a human or not? If you're part of the human race, then you have a mediator.
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Does this particular passage say something to us about race and racism?
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Race is a fabric of people's imagination. Of course, people do not love their neighbor as themselves, and they treat people of different races wrongly and sinfully sometimes.
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I understand that. But race is a made -up category, and here's what I'm after when it comes to Jesus the mediator.
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If you think about this, I think you'll be cured of that. And by the way, while I maybe was trying to exhort you with Bible reading, and friends, read your
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Bibles more, I don't think I have to exhort you to say, when people don't look like you, love them anyway.
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I think you do a great job here at Bethlehem Bible Church. I don't think anybody walks in and goes, well, you know,
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I feel weird because of the way I look or other people look. So what does the text say?
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1 Timothy 2. It's related to God picking a mediator. Who does He pick him from? Well, let's find out.
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1 Timothy 2 .3. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. That is, to pray for all kinds of people.
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Verses 1 and 2. Paul regularly tells Timothy in pastoral epistles that God is a
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Savior. Why? Because pastors need to be reminded that God saves people like them and others.
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What kind of ministry would we have if we forgot God wasn't a Savior? Who desires all men to be saved.
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Who are those all men? The same kind of men He was praying for earlier in verses 1 and 2 and leaders in all positions. And to come to the knowledge of the truth.
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That's what God wants. The same men He prays for in verse 1, He wants to come to faith.
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All different kinds of people. Verse 5. Here's the drum roll so you can think clearly in a muddled up evangelical world.
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For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men.
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The next two English words are very, very important. It does not say the
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Jew Christ Jesus. It does not say the black Christ Jesus. It does not say the white
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Christ Jesus. It does not say the Indian Christ Jesus. By the way, the other day I was just thinking about our background demographically.
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It's only of interest, but I thought, wait a second, we have Egyptians, Lebanese, Filipino, Indian, Ukrainian, and the list.
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I just thought, you know what, that makes for me good potlucks. That's all
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I care about. What you look like, you think that matters to me?
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Let's get some spicy food. Where's Jose when we need him tonight? But what does it say?
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The man Christ Jesus. And by the way, there's no the there in the original.
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If we put a the there, it means a particular class. If we take the the away in Greek, it means as a quality.
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As a quality. He's focusing on just general humanity, that Jesus is a man.
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If you're a sinner and you need access to God, you need a God man to be your mediator. You don't need somebody that looks like you or acts like you.
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You need a perfect you. And we're not perfect, so we have to look to Jesus. There's one mediator between God and man.
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Of course, he was Jewish. But what Paul is trying to say is if we've got to pray for all these people in verse 1 and God wants all these kind of same people to be saved in verse 3 and 4, then we need a mediator for those same kind of people.
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Jesus is the only Savior and he's a man. He's a human. The text is
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Anthropos. All the language of ethnicity and quote -unquote race.
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A good translation might be as found in the MacArthur Study Bible, Christ Jesus Himself a man.
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The quality of a human. The apostle would have said if he wanted to say it's for Jews only, the
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Jew Christ Jesus. If you're a sinner and you've sinned against God and you need a mediator, there's a man who's like you as a mediator.
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And what does the text say? Verse 6. You pray for all kinds of men. Verses 1 and 2.
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God desires all those kind of men to be saved. And then verse 6. Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.
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Those same kind of people. Could be all kinds, all sorts of. The testimony born at the proper time.
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The Son gives Himself freely, voluntarily, with great condescending love for humans.
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Don't let people divide you based on what you look like. Don't treat people in a way that isn't loving your neighbor as yourself.
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But you ought to be thinking there's one God. There's two Adams. First Adam, I'm either in Him as an unbeliever.
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He's my federal head. Or in Adam the last, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I'm in this particular
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Adam. Jesus has saved loved one based on His work.
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The plague that was coming to Israel, Aaron stood in between. The plague and God as it were.
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Stood in between the dead and the living as a man. But he was a sinful man.
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And so now we have the God -man, Jesus, stand between humans that are sinful and a thrice holy
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God. When you hear words like white evangelicalism and black evangelicalism, you ought to be thinking, honestly, that's satanic.
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Because it undermines the fabric of Jesus, the human, who dies on behalf of sinners.
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And the day I make this pulpit, a political platform, you confront me.
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And if I don't repent, you kick me out. And if you can't kick me out because I have a spare key, you go someplace else.
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Every time I go away in the summer, I'm wondering, does that key work or not? Is it going to work? I know how you act towards one another.
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I've seen you love each other behind the scenes. And I see when there's a pregnant lady and she needs a meal.
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And I've seen when somebody's sick and needs a hospital ride for three weeks in a row or whatever. Nobody's got two sign -up sheets.
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Do they look like me or don't they look like me? Do I do it or don't I? It's because Jesus is the God -man.
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And I'm telling you, the world wants to split you up and so do some evangelical leaders, even in the last week.
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Don't let them do it. One Adam, two Adam. Federal headship. You're either in Adam the human or you're in the last
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Adam, Jesus, by faith alone. Are we clear? And by the way,
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Ephesians 2, the first command is don't forget you're a Gentile. When's the last time you obeyed that command?
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Unless you're Jewish, you ought to be obeying that command. I'm a Gentile. I was far away. I mean, who's farther away?
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People in the Congo are worshipping trees or people in England worshipping trees. They're all pagans.
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That wasn't supposed to be funny. Okay. On the front row are people in India worshipping trees.
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What's the difference? God, in His condescending love, even though we're not Jewish, He rescued us and said,
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I'll pick the priest for you, Jesus, and I'll pick him from among you so He can put
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His hand on God, as it were, Job chapter 9, and put His hand on you, Job chapter 9, to be the mediator.
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Church, I commend you for loving one another no matter what we look like. Well, you've got to have a representative and you also have to have a representative who offers sacrifices.
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Verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 5. Please go back there. You might ask a question, what does a priest do?
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Well, a priest had all kinds of functions, but here the main point in Hebrews is he makes intercession and he makes sacrifice.
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That's what a priest does. And so God, the perfect wise one, picks the son to be the one who makes perfect intercession for us and makes perfect sacrifice.
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And so now it's going to be a little bit of asymmetrical thinking because the Levitical priests and Aaron, they had to make sacrifices all the time, over and over and over and over and over, all leading up to, all pointing to the ultimate sacrifice when
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Jesus dies. But they still had to make sacrifice. Why? Because when there's sin, there has to be sacrifice.
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Jesus didn't sin, so he didn't have to sacrifice for himself like those priests did, and then for the people.
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You can read that in Leviticus 16. First take care of your own sacrifice so you're clean, then for the people.
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He didn't have to do that. But the point here, verse 1, let me read the whole thing again. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices, think old covenant system, for sins.
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God is estranged from us because of our sins, and now we have to have the wages of sin is death, there's a substitute, and it could be a pigeon, it could be a lamb, it could be a goat, it could be a burnt offering, a cereal offering, a wave offering, but we know this is ultimately pointing to now the
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Lord Jesus and his ultimate sacrifice for sins. You would not need a priest if it was not for sin.
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Sinners need a priest because God is holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
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Your friends who aren't believers, they need a high priest. Their biggest problem is not therapeutic and feelings and relationships and marriage problems and not enough work.
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Their problem isn't their problems. Their problem is they're alienated from God because of their sins.
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Remember 2 Thessalonians 1, and there's that day coming. So, it says in Hebrews 9, so he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world, but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin, talking about Jesus by the sacrifice of himself.
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And so Jesus is the peacemaker and he offers his ultimate sacrifice. Well, what does the text say in verse 3?
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Excuse me, verse 2. He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward. So, number 1, he's chosen among men as representative.
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Number 2, he's chosen for sacrifice of sins. More to be said on that in chapter 9 and 10.
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And 3, which we've already looked at, he's sympathetic. He can deal gently with the ignorant and the 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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So, the Aaronic priest had to offer for himself, then the people, as I said before,
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Jesus doesn't have to do that. Remember in chapter 2, was Jesus described as merciful?
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Was he in chapter 4 described as sympathetic? If you had a God that didn't know or couldn't understand or hadn't been where you had been, it might be hard for you to think that he could be the high kind of priest that would deal gently with you.
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But we know Jesus is human, so he understands. And while he has not sinned, he has been tempted and tried as we have been tempted and tried except he did not sin.
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The high priest Aaron, he could be moderate and tender with his people. Why? Because he knew he's a sinner.
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My desire with you is to be temperate and moderate. Why? Because I am a sinner like you.
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But Jesus was not sinful even though he had weakness and infirmity with human flesh, as it were.
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But he understood. And the text says he was sympathetic. He didn't have to offer sacrifice for his own sins, but he could be sympathetic.
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What dispergency! Christ being pure and holy needed no sacrifice for himself. But he did offer a complete and acceptable sufficient sacrifice.
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For those of you that think, you know what, since Jesus never sinned, how does he really identify with me and my problems?
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Spurgeon gives us the answer. Do not, therefore, think that he is less sympathetic with us because he had no sins.
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Far from it. Fellowship in sin does not create true sympathy. For sin is a hardening thing.
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If there are two men who are guilty partners in sin, they never really help each other. They have no true heart of kindness, either of them.
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But when the time of difficulty comes, each man looks to his own interest. The fact that Christ is free from sin is a circumstance that does not diminish the tenderness of his sympathy with us, but rather increases it.
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Oh, what comfort this is to us that we have a high priest through whom we can come to God, who is full of compassion toward us, and who, though he had no sinful infirmity about him, was subject to the infirmities to which flesh is heir.
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Congregation. We have seen today in Hebrews chapter 5 that the greatest high priest in the world is
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Jesus, and God chose him for you from among you. Let's pray.
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Lord, what a good day it is to be reminded that Jesus Christ is the priest, the priest that we need.
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Thank you that he deals gently with us. Thank you that he is our sacrifice. And I pray for those that are here that know this, and who have saving faith.
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Would you encourage them this week? Would you help them to read their Bibles so they know more about this great
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Son, the object of their faith? Would you give them just a hunger and a desire to be satisfied with nothing else except the
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Word of God? Would you give them that desire they had when they first were Christians, to read the Bible, consumed with the
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Bible, understanding you and your grace and your mercy toward them with concepts like election and redemption and sanctification and glorification and heaven?
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Father, for those that are here that are not born again, I pray that you would grant them today faith.
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They need a mediator. They need a priest. And if they try to defend themselves on that judgment day, it will be nothing but second
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Thessalonians. It will be fury and wrath and judgment. And Father, we know you love to save sinners like that who are caught up in their own delusions.