Since We Have a Great High Priest
First B Jackson
2019-09-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good. Are we doing alright this morning? It's good to see you.

Would you stand up? I'm going invite Scott if he'll come up and sing a melody or tenor. Just keep keep on singing. He keeps me singing. Hymn number seven forty six will be our first hymn.

If y'all want to look up your part, it's hymn number seven forty six and let's let's go for it. Welcome and glad you're here.

Jesus whispers sweet and fear not I am with thee peace

I shout

and sing Jesus Jesus Jesus my

That was the last verse. The wall says that that was the last verse. Do y'all know the last verse? Soon he's coming back to welcome me. Let's sing it.

Play it, Judah,

if you would. Soon he's coming back to welcome me. Far beyond the starry sky. I shall ring my flight to worlds unknown. I Amen.

Thank you. Thank you for being ready to do something unexpected. Alright. Send the light. Hymn number four thirty seven.

Amen. Amen.

There's a call comes ringing or the restless waves send the light send the light there are souls to rescue there are souls to save send the light

are sounding great this morning. That's fun. And we hadn't sung that one in a while either, have we? That's that's a good one. Monday nights at first B.

Carl, what's happening tomorrow night at first B? 06:00 tomorrow night in the Fellowship hall. Felix and Guadalupe are cooking labor. It is Labor Day and we are having church. Okay?

We're not cancelling. We are here. It's gonna be 06:00 in the evening. Meal music and a message and the message is the power of words. It's the third part but you don't need to have other heard the other parts for this one to make sense and also be good.

That's Monday nights at First We've got Old Bills is coming next Saturday. So Old Bills Fun Run here is coming next Saturday. If you want to make a charitable donation to any charity in town at all including First Bee. We use ours for the local benevolence fund. But if you want to give through old bills, they will amplify your giving.

Usually it ends up being for every dollar you put in, a dollar and 0.5 comes out the other side. So it's a nice thing. That's happening next Saturday. So this is the week to do it if you want to do it. If you are looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with people who are eager to hear it, Commander Dan, you're back at the back but you got a microphone.

You want to go for that?

Yes, sir. Yeah. We are still looking for volunteers. If on a Monday evening, anybody has twenty or thirty minutes to to spend, to sit and listen to kids say their Bible verses, help them memorize their Bible verses, and explain what it means, We would be blessed by having you there, and if you would like to get involved this year, we're having a new volunteer training next Sunday between services downstairs. So during the connect hour,

next Sunday, 10:00 downstairs, all Awana volunteers, old volunteers and new volunteers. Good. Yeah.

We're gonna we're gonna pray for the upcoming Awana year and then have a little orientation and and hoo for getting ready.

Very good. That sounds good. You got another announcement coming up, but I'll Puggles is a new class of Awana kid, and that's the younger class. So we already had Cubbies, but now we're going down for age two. Puggles are two and three year olds, and then there'll be Cubbies, and then Sparks, and then Truth and Trainers.

So from two up through the fifth grade, that's a pretty good span.

Yeah. And 5PM, Mike Yoko Park. Yeah. We're, the men's ministry here at First Bees kicking off their tenth year, in October and this Wednesday, we're gonna have a barbecue at Mike Yoko Park in a horseshoe tournament and talk about what we're gonna do this year. And it's a good if you're new here and you don't know a lot of guys, it's a good good time to come and get to know some guys.

And and if you haven't been around in a while, that's a good time to reconnect. And we have a trophy if you win the tournament. Get to take

the trophy home. Yeah. It's fun. It is. It's a it's a fun time.

So, Mike Yockel Park is just a few blocks away up Kelly. If you're here on Wednesday at 05:00, you're welcome guys to come to that. Cowboy Church, I forgot to make this announcement in the first service but I'm going to make it next week. This is two weeks away, September 15, two weeks from today at 05:00 in the evening. We are going to get together with we're gonna get together for church Sunday morning just like we always do, but this place, the Diamond Cross Ranch is up in between Moran and Buffalo Valley, and Grant Gollaher is a horse whisperer.

I mean, he's a rancher, but he's a horse whisperer and he's going to do a horse whispering demonstration that is overtly gospel and not just gospel for salvation but gospel for sanctification. So, he's going to take a horse basically and break a horse. It's gonna be something that is pretty amazing to watch. When the fellow who told me about it two years ago, he said, the birth of my kids, my wedding, and this demonstration. So not gonna say any more than that.

I hadn't seen the thing, but that's the way he put it. So September 15, 5PM, Diamond Cross Ranch. I'm gonna be there. I hope that y'all will also come and be a part of it. So we've got about four or five congregations in Jackson that are hopefully gonna convene up there, stand around the the circle, and watch him in the ring with it's a Sunday evening thing, 05:00, September 15.

Community Bible study is happening. It's opening to everyone Wednesdays in the morning from nine to 11:30 Thursdays, six to eight in the evening. So it's two different times that you can come to class but start September twenty fifth and twenty sixth. We're just leading up to that. We have a lot of small groups and a lot of group Bible studies that are starting this time of year.

So here we go. There is a younger girls, eight to 13 year old girls Bible study starting September 18 going through November 20. It's called Chosen Holy and Dearly Loved and they will meet nearer to the schools. So this is gonna be in the community room at the Whole Grocer, at the Whole Grocer, Dancy Toulson. Dan was just up here a second ago.

Dancy, his wife is leading this with a few other ladies. So, it's in the community room up there, 03:30 to 04:30 just after school ought to be really good. The precept study that is happening. The second part of second part of Acts. It's mainly picks up where Paul comes into the picture.

Thursdays nine through 11:30 in the fellowship hall, sharpen your pencils, color pencils would come on. That's a great precept study. And youth group is starting tonight. Now that's not a mistake. We are doing youth group now on Sunday nights rather than Tuesday nights.

Mike called and texted and we've tried to figure out everybody's got sports schedules and everybody's got all kinds of schedules but Sunday night seems to be the best night to get the most people here and have the most impact. So we are gonna do youth group starting tonight, Sunday night, 05:00 to seven but not here at the church. It's going be at Matioski Park which is the tennis court and baseball field right over here in between us and the fairgrounds. Are you with me? I usually wait till the sermon to ask that question.

I feel like I'm blasting you with a lot right now. Connect hour happens between services but y'all know that and I think I might have forgotten one. Did I forget one? If I did, it's in the bulletin. High school junior high girls starting on the September 15, and that'll be down during the during the children's church time period.

Okay. Thank you very much. That's thank you. I appreciate you telling me about that and that's it. Would y'all stand up and greet one another?

You don't have to hold a kiss if you don't want to but you could stand up and greet one another.

And behold thee on thy throne rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself

in thee. What a good song. Yeah. Oh, right in the middle. Could my tears forever flow?

No matter how much we feel and then feel regret over our past, could my tears forever flow? And could my zeal, no matter how much we could live our life into the future with great zeal. These for sin could not atone. Thou, Christ, my savior, thou alone. Wow.

That goes with the sermon today. Hey. There is a savior. Hymn number five thirty three.

Let's close right now. Amen.

Let y'all have a seat. I'm gonna invite the frontline team to come forward. I have one more announcement that I forgot but I'll wait till we finish with this offering time and we will go into one more announcement before this Would you pray with me though right now? God, I thank you for the ability to get together. I thank you lord that laughter does a heart good like a medicine.

I've been seeing it this week. I've seen a lot of heavy things this week but I've also seen great joy for weddings, lord, that were inspired and ordained by you. For renewals of the vows that are coming up. I just thank God. We give you all of the thanks and all the glory knowing that for all we do of ourselves lord is is fallen and tainted in lacking but you by your spirit can inspire us to do.

The right thing and that's amazing. Lord, you can not just inspire us to do it. We can do it. We can actually go through on it by your spirit. I thank you Jesus that you live this life so well and showed us your way so well.

You are, lord, a great example but you're more than that. You are the propitiation, the payment for our sin, lord and you allow us to go forward transformed and transformed. In Jesus name, lord, I ask that you'd bless this offering this morning, that you do your kingdom's work, that there would be more people coming into the kingdom of God because of what these obedient servants choose to do right here this morning. In Jesus name, lord, I pray that you'd use this offering to do your will and your way to the ends of the earth. Amen.

Thank you, Judy. Tanya, would you come up here? Do this announcement? If it doesn't come up on the screen, y'all, that's the reason I use the screen so much. If it doesn't come up on the screen, I forget it.

This is my wife. And she has an announcement that I forgot. So.

It's okay. It it it really is. God has it. Anyway, so what I'm talking about is something for all of us to pray about for the future for for this church, but I would ask for you to please send your prayers along with me Kenya, again in September. I'm going with, well, I'm meeting, Dave and Kim Hatfield who spent some time here.

Many of y'all might have met her them on Monday nights and Sunday mornings. They were here for a couple of months in Jackson, and they were very encouraging to our church and what they are doing over there is more than amazing and I think you probably heard about it if you could if you ask Ray or Pascal or Carl, we we have all been there and I literally could stand up here for an hour and a half and never run out of the incredible things God is doing in Kenya. And it's it's not like where I was reading the song, send the light. The funny thing is about this place is there are lights. There are lots of lights.

The teachers are Christians. The founders of this are Christians. The the support staff are Christians. And in fact, one of them, with Joseph came to Christ through this. So not only that, but there's a new believer that is there as the guard at night, and he's he's so excited for it.

It's it's a beautiful thing to see. So, as we send our prayers, I believe that that's just a continuation of the light God has blessed there. But what I will be doing this time is encouraging teachers and and staff and then teaching in their classrooms in this case. We visit a few other ministries that first be supports there for a little bit of a time, and I could tell you about those all day too. Most a lot of you know, we took 19 ladies a few years ago when they have visited these ministries and have a had a significant impact.

In this case, this time, I'll be trying to plan for us and and look at what the logistics are for February and possibly next summer to help them with an after school program. But this time, what's so great, and I think the difference, in school there, is that they are so hungry for education. And they're equally equally as hungry for the word of God. That is a that is is an incredible balance. So you go in there and teach them.

Like last time, I took some books that were fantastic. I love to teach people to read. It literally, literally, that's terrible. That's terrible. That's like a that's like a bar j fun.

No. That's terrible. Okay. They will it carries these children forever. They take difficult eighth grade exams that will determine the rest of their lives.

And learning now at this age, English from Swahili or their native tribal language and, learning to read words. So I take books, children's books, solid children's books here. The teacher and I have discussed them, and then we point to a Bible story that exactly is the moral of the story that I have just read. You can get the Bible story out of Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, and you can get a Bible story out of Honey Honey Lion and Corduroy. Corduroy is great.

There are several Bible stories you can do in that. My point is there are things to do. If you all want to pray about going, we would love it. I've already discussed giving the missions committee a heads up for February that we would love for anyone to go there. Something for everyone to do.

It's Kenya sounds exotic and difficult and honestly, the way they have it set up, it isn't. It it really isn't. Anybody can do this. And then I'm just asking for your prayer support. Monetary support is great, but the light is your prayer support.

And we've been on the field, spent many, many years. And anybody in this room that has, Roseanne and I can't my vision is not good enough to see the rest of the full time missionaries here. Prayer is it. It is it. It is how we connect to God here.

We send it there. We know what's going on. We're led by God. We we join our Bible verses and our daily readings and our time to that mission field, to those missionaries, and it works. So, that's what I'm

asking. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's good and she is leaving September 17.

So, she's going to be here a couple more weeks but she's going for a couple of weeks and doing all the logistics stuff that she just mentioned. And it's a it's an amazing place. The Maisha Mafia Learning Center, the New Beginnings Learning Center. So if you wanna know about it, afterwards, are you gonna be around, Tonya? I'll answer any questions you have about it in a little bit.

Alright. So, we're going to start the sermon now. I feel like we ought to sing again but we're not going to. Hebrews four, last week, we finished up at the very end of chapter four and we're going forward. It's a chronological study.

This this book is amazing. Hebrews has been so so so rich and so good. I'm going to go back and pick up a couple of verses from chapter four. Again, three actually, fourteen, fifteen, 16, and then come on up. I probably will not make it to five ten.

It says, I'm going for 14 to five ten but I think I've written two sermons worth of material there, okay? God help us. In Jesus name, we ask of help. To see what it is that you have here in this text. I pray that you'd enlighten us, that you'd illuminate the text, lord, and that you would that you'd move us right now as we approach the Lord's table here at the end for communion, for the Lord's supper.

Lord, I pray that as we think about that, we'd be considering your high priestliness and your goodness. In Jesus name, lord, would you show us what it is that you'd have us see this morning so that we might live our lives according to your word. Amen. Hebrews four is where we're going to be really examining the text but I thought it would be helpful. Last week, I had in the section, I had three or four at four actually.

Let us, let us this, let us that, let us this, let us that. So, as I was considering, I was thinking, well, let us is a hortatory subjunctive for those of y'all who care. Is not exactly the same as an imperative. An imperative is a command. And and when it's an imperative command, it is do this, and it's usually pretty strong.

Do this. A hortatory subjunctive is kind of like that but in a more gracious way. It's sort of saying, let us do this. And especially if it is a first person plural where I'm talking about me and y'all instead of just saying, you need to do this. Denny, you do this.

If I say that, that's direct. This is let us, Denny, praise God together. Let us draw near. Let us be accountable to one another. Let us, you, do you get where I'm going with that?

So, I thought, well, I'm going go back to the beginning of Hebrews, pick out every imperative or subjunctive because some Bible books are really heavy on imperative. It's usually the second half of the book. They give the theological basis of whatever's going on in the first and then you have a switch and it says, now, in light of all that, do this. Hebrews is a little different than that. The first one of the imperatives was actually, it's an actual imperative.

It is, let all the angels of God worship him, the firstborn. At this point in the book, Jesus had not been called Jesus yet but it's talking about Jesus, the son, the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of God's nature is what the Exortium says and then, one six says, let all the angels of God worship him. Now, y'all know that Hebrews, we've gone over quite a few times now that Hebrews is saying, Jesus is better than and so far, we've seen that Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Torah. Jesus is better than, oh my goodness, Moses and Jesus is better than Joshua.

In this passage, it says, the angels are commanded to worship Jesus. So, he's better than them. The next one is spoken by God almighty to Jesus Christ, the son, you sit yourself down at my right hand. That's a direct imperative but it's not a direct imperative for you. It's a direct imperative to Jesus.

Sit yourself down at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. It's a quote from Psalms. We have seen that already in chapter one. Okay, this is one that is for us. It is a hoardatory subjunctive with a clause connected to it.

That first part, we must pay closer attention. It's just by the virtue. We must. We have to do y'all. We must pay closer attention to this so that and here is the here is the the command is so that we do not drift away.

We must pay closer attention. Don't drift away. Pay closer attention. That's what that's saying. So, you got that at two one chapter two verse one.

Don't drift away and the way that you're going to keep from drifting away is staying close to God's word. Fill up your mind and your heart with God's word and it will keep you at least it'll let you know where you are and it'll keep you close if you will submit your will. Carefully consider decisively all the way down. This is three one. So, they're about a chapter between these.

Carefully consider carefully consider decisively all the way down from top to bottom, the apostle, the one who was sent and the high priest, same person, Jesus, apostle, sent from God, high priest, our mediator, Jesus, carefully considered decisively all the way through to a conclusion and then we get up to the text I had last week. So, there are only four of those and only two of em for us and then last week, we had four of em in a row. So, here they are. We saw these last week. Let us take heed.

That's another way of saying, let us carefully consider. It's another way of saying, we should pay more attention to what we have already heard so that we do not drift. Let us take heed to what we have heard. Let it sink in. Sometimes, we'll hit a text and we'll come back and hit it again and come back and hit it again.

We want for it to sink in. Let us take heed. Let us fear. This one was tough for me last week. Don't fear.

Have no fear. Fear not. We see that all over the Bible and I like to be able to tell people that there's no fear before a gracious God when you're coming admitting and asking. But this said, let us fear. So, I was trying to think of an illustration.

I didn't have a good one last week but this week, I thought of one. What if you're sitting in your car and you see this in your rear view mirror? Even if you are going the speed limit or under, even if you are not texting, even if you have on your seat belt and you have abided by all of the traffic laws, when you see that in your rearview mirror, is there a little fear? Be honest. Yes, even for policemen, there's a little bit of a charge like, I'm going to sit up straight, hands at the two and ten, make sure that I could see everything.

Let us fear. The what the text said was let us fear if it may seem that anyone of you has fallen short of entering the rest of almighty God. So, there should be a holy reverence for God and there should be if you're looking at your own life, there should be some fear there. Let us fear but let us also be diligent. Let it do something to us.

Let's be diligent to enter into that rest. So, if we have a correct perspective of who almighty God is and who we are sinners. Then, there should be fear and diligence that goes with it. Let us be diligent to enter into his rest. So, it's not, let us pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

It's not that. I'm not going to re preach last week's message. I'm going to go forward. This is between 04:14 and 04:16 right here. The last one we hit last week was let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace and praise God that it's a throne of grace.

How many times have we heard of the great white throne of judgement? There is a time coming for judgement but this is the day of grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Let us draw near with confidence by the blood of Jesus. We'd say later on in this very same book.

To the throne of grace. And here we start the text. The text is Hebrews four fourteen and therefore, all of those imperatives that I've mentioned so far, all of those horridatory subjunctives and all of the theology underlying it precedes this therefore Therefore, since we have a great high priest. Oh. You know, as Americans, especially as folks who grew up in Southern Baptist Churches in Georgia, that's me.

I grew up in in a church in Georgia and I didn't have a priestly background at all. I didn't never have anybody that wore the white collar. I didn't know anything about that system at all at all from movies, maybe television but didn't know anything about it. I never felt a need for a priest. In fact, the preacher told me weekly, I didn't need one.

He was telling me I did one because I've got one. Jesus is it. We have. Since we have a great high priest. Therefore, since we have a great high priest, I think though I'm slowing this down just a little bit today.

If you feel like, well, I don't need a priest. You do need Jesus. You do and this says that he's a priest. So, let's back up for just a minute and consider our our context to consider their context. The writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of people who have professed faith in Christ, who have been shown that he is the Messiah, who have been directed that he is the Christ, the Messiah, the one that God was pointing towards but they're in danger of because of persecution.

They're in danger of leaving this behind and going back to the system that they know. In danger of shunning the new covenant for the old covenant. That's the context of this book and they all knew very, very, very well that they needed a priest. There was no doubt as to whether they did or didn't and things pertaining to to God. Sinful man cannot approach holy God.

There has to be a way that's made and that has to be on God's terms and God's terms in the Old Testament for the covenant were that there would be priests and there were lesser priest and there was one high priest and the high priest one time a year would go into the Holy of Holies and he would take in a sacrifice. He had to make sure that he was completely prayed up and there were rituals and practice that he had to do to make sure that everything his heart was pure before God. He had to be dignified worthy before he could go in and even then, he's going into the Holy of Holies. He's still not worthy. So, they tie a rope onto his foot before he would go in so they might drag his body out if God should strike him dead.

They knew all this. We spend a lot more time in the New Testament than we do in the old and we tend to not really think about our need for a priest but let me share one more little thing. William Tyndale, when he was translating the scriptures into English, he got to a place, a concept, and I've mentioned it before in here that atonement. Atonement was being at one and there was no word for it. So, he came up with the word atonement at onement.

Christ's sacrifice can't put a person that is a sinner, all of us are. At one with God, he functions that way. His atoning at wanting sacrifice can be and therefore, since we have a great high priest. Now, in the Old Testament, the high priest is either called great or he's called high but nobody except for Jesus called the great high priest, okay? Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, okay, this is not an completely earthly priest.

He's mentioning that, you know, he ascended and he's seated at the right hand of God and he is interceding for us. He's already mentioned his session or his place of honor next to God almighty. Father, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, he's not just an earthly figure. Jesus, the son of God, not to be confused with Joshua, the son of none from the last sermon. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast in our confession.

Let us hold fast our confession. You remember Jesus asking, who do people say that I am? Well, some say John, some might say Elijah, some say this, some say that. He said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ.

You're the Christ. You're the son of the living God and upon that rock, upon that confession, he would build his church. So, let us all hold fast that confession individually. Let us all hold fast our confession of Christ as the son of God, savior. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

We have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet he's without sin. Now, I've heard, I've heard objections in the past for this because they say, yeah, he's God though. It's gotta be different. It's gotta be different for him.

He's God. Well, he's fully God but he's also fully man and he had to walk through it. Kenosis, emptying himself. He emptied himself of his divine rights, really? And being found in nature as a man.

He was obedient. He was humble and obedient. He was submitted to the spirit. And he was tempted in all things just as we are and if you think about it for just a minute, are there any temptations that you can think of that Jesus had before him? It's rife with temptations all around us.

Temptation is not sin. Temptation was all around him. I mean, even just in the childhood wandering away from his mom and daddy. Jesus didn't sin. You know, his his mama and Joseph wanders away and they're worried about him and imagine it's like, I'm right, you're wrong.

Every teenager says that, right? He was, right? There are temptations though. All of the mocking and the scorn. He knew these people.

He knew how many hair hairs were on their head. He knew em. The temptation for him had to be great and he was tempted in every way. I I think he's tempted in some ways we're never tempted. In fact, there are couple ways to understand this.

Grammar right here where he's been tempted in all things just as we are except without sin. So, for one thing, he was tempted every way that we're tempted every way but he was without sin. He stopped Short of succumbing to that sin. More temptation. The other one is this, when Jesus says, come on to me all you who are labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you for my burden of light. Just think for a moment how it must be to be able to walk all the way from the time you learn to walk until your dying day with no sin. How light a burden is that? No regret, no remorse of your own. He knew that he walked in holiness and it it was led by the spirit and humble before God the whole time completely and totally always entrusting himself but he never had a sin debt of his own to carry.

Until he carried ours on the cross. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. It wasn't just magic. It wasn't because he being God came on and he took every bit of power that God had. He took the same kind of power that God has available to us as believers.

He submitted to the spirit and that's what he says. He was continually entrusting himself to God and he was continually walking in the spirit and that same Holy Spirit is available to those today who put their trust in Jesus. He had to go through this life, really. He had to go through the temptation, really. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who's been tempted in all things just as we are, yet he was without sin.

Also, he didn't have the follow-up sense, okay? So, when David sins with Bathsheba, then he calls Uriah back and he tries to sneak up on him, you know, get him to do something and he's like too honorable. His integrity was too much and so that didn't work. So, had to kill Uriah, send him to the front lines of battle, put him in harm's way. All of those follow-up sins and I think we do that a lot.

Once we sin, we're like doubling down, right? We do that a lot and there are a lot of sins that follow other sins. Jesus didn't have that problem because he didn't have sin. That's the other way of understanding that. That yet without sin.

Therefore, because we do have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Let us hold fast confession. We don't have one who can't sympathize. We do have one who can sympathize. We do have a great high priest who is sinless. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.

This is the offer that God is making. You exchange your dirty, filthy, rag of a life for the righteousness of Christ because I am good, God says. Not because of anything that you have done. It's grace. It's unmerited favor.

So, let us then draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. What I'm handing out is grace and mercy. So that we may receive what? Mercy. Mercy is when you do not get that which you deserve.

A punishment that you deserve and you don't get it. That's mercy. So that we may receive mercy. So that we won't receive what we do deserve. Hell, death, and the grave and that we may find grace.

Heaven, life, and life everlasting. Grace and what's that? Mercy and grace for? It's to help in time of need and when is our time of need? Every minute of every hour of every day.

He goes and now to talk about the priesthood which like I said at the beginning, we don't usually understand this, I think, in the Baptist Church as well as some others might. Certainly not as well as the first century Jewish background believer in Jesus. When the author of Hebrews says, for every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men and things pertaining to God. Okay, we've got a sinful mass of people, sinful congregation of people and we have no way of approaching holy God. We recognize together our lack and our need.

We recognize that and we want to spur one another on but we have no way. In order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. If we approach holy God, we cannot do that but God made a way. It's Old Testament that he made a way, a system, an old covenant. He can deal.

This is talking about the high priest himself. He, small H, not Jesus. Every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men. He's going to be a representative, a mediator, if you will, between God and man. Every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men and things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins and it really does come down to sins.

There in the world today and for the last one hundred years, fifty, one hundred years, there's been a movement afoot saying, the problem is thinking about these things as sins. There's no, really, there's no sin. Everyone just needs to blah blah blah. It's blah blah. We don't need to get rid of guilt.

We need to get rid of the guilty feeling that we have. We don't So, we placate and say, well, we really shouldn't feel guilty about that. That's not on you. Well, no. It really is on you.

That's why you feel guilty in a lot of cases. Now, we can overdo it. The devil can certainly tempt us to feel guilt where God has already cleansed. The offerings and the gifts and the sacrifices were for sins. There was a penalty that needed to be paid for the sins that have been committed and in the old covenant, the high priest would make these the day of atonement being one of those times, there were other types of sacrifices and but the ones for sin, this goes on to talk about a good high priest actually says that he can a good a good priest actually can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided.

I appreciate that. There are a lot of times when I feel ignorant and misguided. It's actually pretty easy. Ignorant means you just don't know. You just are not knowing.

Do you ever feel ignorant? You ever use a computer? Yeah. It makes me feel ignorant every time I open one up. No.

A lot of people are like that about the Bible. It's like, well, you know so much more than I do. It's like, but I I still feel ignorant before holy God but he has given us his word for good reason and we can't study and we can't get to know him better and more and we should pay more attention to it than we are doing now so that we don't slip away. He can deal gently with the ignorant and the misguided. It's also really easy to be led astray.

It shouldn't be as easy as it is to lead people astray but it it it's pretty easy. So, a good priest can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided. Why? This says, since he himself also is beset with weakness because he understands. Well, Jesus, the great high priest who walked without sin, he understands because he knows what it's like to walk the way that we have walked and because of it, this back to human high priest, not Jesus, regular old covenant priest and because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins.

As for the people so also for himself. That's the problem with the old system. That's the problem with the old system right there is that there are not completely pure people. Being these priests. Now, they were holy and it'll go into in just a minute that God calls them out for a reason and it's up to him.

It's not up to them as to who will be the priest. Let's go forward to that. No one takes this honor to himself but receives it when he's called by God and I would say receive it in humility. He's called by God even as Aaron was. Aaron was called by God and that's recorded.

Y'all have seen it. We've talked about it recently. Aaron fell. We know about that. He grumbled against God and he had to be told couple few times.

Aaron had his own sense and so did every other one of those priests before Jesus? They all had their own sin to deal with. So, when they went in and they are making atonement, it was a temporary thing. God was never satisfied with the bulls and goats with the blood of the bulls and the goats but he did have that system to get them used to this what was coming and it was coming, there was coming a day when the new covenant in Jesus' blood which we'll celebrate here in just a few. So also, this says, Christ did not glorify himself.

In fact, he humbled himself. He humbled himself in obedience even the death, death on a cross so that he was given a name that's higher than every name. I'm going to just go a little ways into this verse. We're going to stop right here and go into communion. So, also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest.

He didn't take that on and say, in fact, if we go back just a little bit to right here, no one takes honor to himself. It's not like somebody says, I'm looking around this place, little community, ancient Palestine. I'm the holiest one here. I'm going to be the priest. Ain't that ridiculous?

But someone calls God calls and and agreement among the synagogue, agreement among the congregation that God is calling someone to be through his humility and through his ability to deal with the misguided and ignorant. Someone who deals gently. That's not something that someone takes on by themselves. That might be a little weird for those of us who grew up Baptist too, honestly. So also, Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest but he said to him, he said to him, that's God, the father said to him, Jesus.

This is going be a quote, you are my son. Today, I have begotten you. He's eternally begotten of the father. Oh, the creeds. There's a lot there.

It's a quote from Psalm two. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. This is the way that it is. What God has said is true, let every man be a liar. God's word is true and this is it.

I will surely tell you the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today, I've begotten. Just as he also says in another passage, you, Jesus, are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, we mentioned two different priests in this passage besides the great high priest Jesus.

We mentioned Aaron and that's the one they were super familiar with. There's tons of information about Aaron. Everything Aaron did for a long time is available and you can see it and you could see good, bad, and ugly, everything about Aaron but the next guy he mentions is Melchizedek. There are how many verses in the Old Testament about Melchizedek, Melchizedek? Two and we've quoted one of em in its entirety just now, just now.

The other one was about Abraham. This is before the laws, before anything was given. It's it's pretty obscure. I have to say. Now, the writer of Hebrews, I'll say this because in chapter seven, there's a thorough treatment of Melchizedek.

I'm not going get to it right now. It's a huge can of worms at this point. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. This is the second verse written at time of David about something that happened a thousand years before in the time of Abraham. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You, capital Y, are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. This is the transition I want to make in the communion. In the days of his flesh because Jesus really did walk. Tempted just like we're tempted yet without sin and he really did walk a perfect life. Now, some denominations I think concentrate on the example that Jesus gave and some say, well, I can do whatever I want to because he saved me.

Period. He is saving us. Submitting to his will. Is what this is about. In the days of his flesh, he was submitting to the will of the father as directed by the Holy Spirit in the days of his flesh.

Let me quick little graphic on the time frame here. God chose from eternity past that the cross was going to be the way but Abraham's about right here. Then, we've got Moses. Joshua, forty years later, right? David is king, four hundred years roughly later.

Isaiah prophesied three hundred years later, seven hundred more years and then there's this time and it's the time that all of that history was pointing toward and all of the Old Testament was lining up examples and lining up types and archetypes and lining up so that we could see what we see right here. The life of Jesus lived in the flesh and sacrificially given as the atoning at wanting sacrifice for everyone who would believe and put their faith in Christ. From his birth to his death on the cross through his time in the grave, resurrection, ascension session. Hebrews is written thirty years after that, thirty, thirty three years after that, some point. The days of his flesh, he, Jesus, offered up prayers and supplication with loud crying and tears.

If you feel remorse, regret, and shame over your sin, Jesus knows exactly what you feel like. His sweat drops of blood were for our sins, not for his. And in his flesh, he knows what it's like to be you. He also knows what it's like to submit to the father and have a light burden. He can show you that way.

And to the one who is able to save him from death, I love this. I will put my trust in him. This is from Hebrews two. From Isaiah eight, I will put my trust in him. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.

That old covenant is not what it's about. All of it, it was looking forward to Jesus and Jesus says, I will put my trust in him and I will put my trust in him to the one who's able to save him from death. You remember this from first Peter just recently, we went over this and while he was being reviled, this is talking about the same time period here. While he's being reviled, he did not revile in return and while he was suffering, he uttered no threats because he's tempted but he's without sin. He kept on entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

Alright, now I'm going to make the turn. Can I get the frontline team to come forward? And I want you to consider, this is an open table. The table is open to anyone who would partake but I give it with a warning that if you are a believer in Jesus, by all means, accept this bread as a representation of Jesus' life, well lived. Perfect record given sacrificially through his blood on your behalf.

If you're a believer, please do partake but if you're not, just let it pass but I pray for you today that one of these other folks in this room would share their life and their the word of God with you in such a way that you'd be moved to come to believe and put your faith in Christ and find your rest in him. In Jesus name, lord, we ask that you'd bless this little cracker that represents the body and the perfect life of Jesus. We also, lord, pray that you forgive us of our sins so we would not partake unworthily. I thank you lord for dealing with us in our ignorance and where we are misguided. I thank you by your spirit of directing us and by our brothers and sisters in Christ and by your word that you can show us the way forward.

In Jesus name, would you bless this cracker as we distribute it?

Jesus keep me near the cross bear a precious fountain free to all healing stream flows from Calvary's Mountain in the cross be my

the passage that we cover today, I think, talks about the high, the great high priest that Jesus was and for that gathering in that upper room, that first time that he shared this with his disciples, I just think how overwhelming that must have been. What an impression that made on them and they put it forward to Paul as a matter of first importance. Paul says, he received that which he he he transmitted it faithfully just as he received it. Jesus said to his disciples there after supper and after he had given thanks, he broke the bread and he gave it to them and he said, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat and do it in remembrance of me.

Thank you Jesus for that perfect, perfect life. I thank you that when God looks at us, who are believers in you, he sees your righteousness because you just impute that to us, God. Thank you for it. Jesus name, we thank you for your your priestly function, Jesus. Thank you God for making a way for us to approach you as we celebrate this cup, just a little plastic cup of grape juice that is representative of the precious blood of Christ, son of God.

Would you lord bless each one who would partake and those who have to let it pass. Lord, I pray that it would be something that pursues them. That would be something that your word. You say, if you be lifted up, you'll draw all to you lord. So, I pray that we are lifting up Jesus.

Proclaiming his death till he comes again. I pray that you would draw people in. In Jesus name, I ask your blessings come.

Walk from day to day with its shadows on in the cross shall find. Press beyond the river. Near the cross, I'll watch and wait,

In the same manner that he took the bread, he took the cup after supper, and they would have known. Think I to the Hebrew. They would have known. So much so much richer about the old covenant. They would have been looking forward to Jeremiah 30 the Jeremiah's prophecy.

That the new covenant was coming and for them to be sitting there upon this very first time. When Jesus said to them and still says to us today, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink and do it as often as you will in remembrance. So, Let's do that last song. Would you come on up, Scott?

Would you all stand with me? We're going to sing Have Thine Own Way. Talk about the imperatives and the exhortations toward the good right now. Just open your heart up to see where it would be that God would you.

Have thine own way lord have thine own way thou art while I am waiting yielded and still.

On the second verse and we'll close with this one. Amen. And for the benediction today, I I think of all those and I will put my trust in him and Jesus kept on entrusting himself to the father. Can we do that? Just entrust ourselves and look to God almighty but we're looking through Christ.

Those who hope in the Lord, Jesus will renew their strength and they will soar on wings like eagles and they will run and they will not grow weary and they will walk and they will not be faint. God, would you raise us up, lord. In Jesus name, amen.