Prophet, Priest and King: Part 2

Take your Bible if you would please and turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 are where we're at. And I'm so glad that we are a church that brings a copy of the Word of God and takes notes and highlights things. And we're not in a hurry to get through this wonderful book. We're feasting little by little. And I want to continue to unveil what Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 have to say about Jesus Christ. And we're in this short series in that Christ is the prophet, priest, and king. And we talked about last week how He was the prophet. And we'll review that for just a moment and then get into the main substance for today in that Christ is priest. So prophet, priest, and king is the title part 2. Thank you for coming. And now as we read the scriptures, I want you to look at the text and see where Christ is mentioned or alluded to or specifically given the role of prophet, priest, and king.

Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 says this. "God, after He spoke long ago in the fathers and in the prophets and in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has now spoken to us in His son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He made the world, and He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. And when He made purification for sins," there's His priestly work, "He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high," and there's His kingship.

Let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for this passage and to pray to you would help us to understand Your rich and wonderful and deep word. Thank you for disclosing who Jesus Christ truly is. Help us to ascertain these truths today. May they penetrate our souls and even transform our lives and inspire us to be a light. We love you in Christ's name. Amen.

Last week, point number one, was that Christ is the ultimate prophet. Christ is the ultimate prophet. And you'll see throughout the entire sermon of Hebrews that the author, perhaps preaching that Christ is above angels, He's above Abraham, He's above the old covenant. He's above and better than all of these things. And when we reach the new covenant, it's going to be rich and wonderful as we see. Christ is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises. He is the fulfillment for which the types and the shadows are pointing to.

And this is a case for Christians who were born into, or perhaps converted to, Judaism, but now are Christians whom are perhaps eroding away or sliding away from their faith due to trials. This is a case. Hebrews is a case of a sermon to bring them back closer to Christ, or back to Christ, or back to the church, back to their fidelity. Their faithfulness is on the line. And so their testimony then is on the line. And you know, as well as I know, that those who drift away from the fellowship, that drift away from the church, they're susceptible by the evil one. And they're susceptible to fall back into the sins that have plagued their life before Christ. They're susceptible. And so we need one another. We need to be in church. We need to be in the fellowship. We need to be around the brethren.

We have to be committed to what's called the ordinary means of grace. The early church in Acts chapter 2 was commanded by Christ in Acts 2:42 to keep the ordinary means of grace, which the word of God is the open door for these ordinary means. And they're ordinary because we're ordinary people and they sustain us. And so the word of God is the first ordinary means of grace. And you have fellowship and you have the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. And then you have prayer and later on you have giving. These are just ordinary means of grace, but I'm telling you, these sustain the believer. They strengthen us. God works through His ordinary means of grace, not only to work through you to evangelize and to personally disciple, but to keep you strong in Christ and close to Christ. And so these things are essential for your life.

And it's not hard. It's not hard to participate. And in every way you'll have the word of God being preached and being taught and being read by you. And then hearing preaching and hearing teaching and in every way the word of God works for you in Christ. And the same thing with fellowship. The root idea in fellowship is to be an overcomer, to be strengthened by that. You need good people around you. That truth in reverse is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33, bad company corrupts good character. And you know that. And so when we get around bad company, their bad habits rub off on us. We're just human. And so we need to make sure that we're committed to the ordinary means of grace, not only the word of God in every way and not only fellowship both here at the church and everywhere we possibly can get it, but also to reverently observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's table in a day of irreverence or being flippant with such holy things.

It is distasteful to God and you know that you are tasteful or pleasing to the Lord by participating in these ordinary means of grace reverently, which we do here. And then as well, prayer, both private prayer, corporate prayer, prayers that worship God and prayers that ask for help for people and intercessory prayers, all kinds of different prayers. And so getting good at this skill set of the ordinary means of grace is very important for you to be committed to these things. The world fights against all of these things. They want you in therapy. They want you on pills. They want you seeking other types of means to help you with addictions and now rather than the fellowship of the brethren and the word of God, the truth that you find in the word of God, the world fights against these things in every way. And so as a Christian, we're going to have to say this little word called no more than yes, in order to keep our priorities straight.

And so here you see Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the word of God and He is the radiance of God. He's the exact representation of God and He is the fulfillment of all of what the prophets were pointing to. And so in the Old Testament, Hebrews chapter one, verse one is a reference to the entire Old Testament, starting with Adam and bleeding into Abraham and then the law of Moses and prophets and everything that they were a type of and a shadow of is fulfilled in Christ. And so God spoke in times beforehand through the prophets, but now you have the prophet, Jesus Christ. And as it moves from verse one to verse two, you have now in these latter days, God speaking through His son. And so you see in the text that this is now the prophet, not prophets, not mere men, not speaking through mere men, but you have God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and then made manifest in the flesh before you.

So John chapter one, verses one and two, testify that Jesus is the word of God. And verse 14 manifested incarnate in Christ Jesus. And so now the prophet, the prophet, He is the ultimate prophet. He's better than Abraham. He's better than Isaac. He's better than Jacob. He's better than all the prophets. And so this is that last one as it is. This is them pointing to Jesus. And so He is the ultimate prophet and Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15.

And if you haven't taken note of this already, you need to, this is important to be able to see this fulfillment. And this is just one illustration that we will use to kind of characterize all of what the Old Testament is pointing to. So turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18 and let's look at verse 15, really fast to command. It's not a suggestion. It may sound like a suggestion in the English, but oh I promise you, in Hebrew it is no suggestion in that you shall listen. When you were growing up, did your grandmother or grandfather or your mother or your dad ever say, "Listen, listen to me." And was that a suggestion? It probably came smack, right? If you didn't, listen to chapter 18 and verse 15 in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 18, 15 says, "The Lord," all right, my translation has it all capitalized, "Lord" is no small reference. This is your master speaking. It's not just your boss, He's your creator, okay? This is a divine decree. "The Lord your God." He didn't have to say "your God." You know there's no qualifications needed. God is God, but here there's emphasis added when it says, "The Lord," and now "your God," okay? The ruler of heaven and earth, "your God" will raise up for you by application. Still means you, a prophet like me. Now this is a prophet that is better than all the other prophets. This is the ultimate prophet, King Jesus, a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, and here's the command, "You shall listen to Him."

Oh, our Beulah kids, our Beulah Baptist Church kids, know what this word "shall" means because our faithful Bible study teacher for our children has taught them what the word "shall" means in Hebrew, and the reference being that in the commandments, "You shall, you shall, you shall, you shall." Is that a suggestion? Don't cheat on your wife. Is that a suggestion? No, you shall not commit adultery. You better not lie. It's better not to lie. No, it's not a suggestion. It's a command. Thou shall not lie. And so this is a command for people that they will listen to this ultimate prophet. This is a direct order from divine authority, a direct order. It's nothing to mess around with. There's no ambiguity here. It's as clear as can be.

And so in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3 and verse 4 and verse 5 and verse 7, 8 and 14, 13, 15, 16, you shall, you shall, you shall. It starts off with, "You shall have no other gods before me." And so this is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, in whom you shall listen to. In Hebrew it's not a suggestion. It's an absolute prohibition. It's very important to know that, but not only is this prophet to be listened to, He is to be obeyed because this concept is not just intellectually to understand that He is God. It has the expectation of obedience.

And so you know that just simply by basic parenting. If you instruct a child, you don't want them just to understand what you said. You want them to actually follow through and do it. And so now we shall listen and obey this prophet. It comes with implications in the Hebrew idea of listening. Listening is not just hearing, it is not only knowing, but it is obeying. And if you truly obey from the inside out, then you own it. It's not just an outward obedience, which is for a season, for a moment, like, "Alright, I'm gonna go to church. I've got to go to church. My parents make me. I'm expected to go to church. I'm gonna get text, folkhawks, and if anyone will go to church, they're gonna rag on me." No.

See, that's an outward rebelliousness, but an inward ownership of listening to Jesus is knowing not only does the Bible say in Hebrews 10:16, not to forsake the assembling of yourselves, but all of what Jesus, King Jesus has said. He's the prophet. He's pointing you in the right direction. And with all the weightiness, you shall listen to Him. And it's repeated again in verse 18, "I'll raise up a prophet from among you, from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak of them and what I've commanded Him."

And so this is the ultimate prophet, King Jesus. That's a review from last week. Point number two today is that Christ is the ultimate priest. Christ is the ultimate priest. How do we get that from the text? Back to Hebrews chapter 1, and let's see that. I'm afresh and anew if you haven't seen it already, and how this text clearly signifies that Christ is priest. And so in verse 2, "In these last days He's spoken to us in His Son." So as it transitions from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the law to the gospel, from the prophets to His Son, you see that He is the ultimate prophet, and that is assumed. "And then whom He appointed, heir of all things." We talked about that last week, how rich and wonderful that allusion is, heir of all things.

And now to continue through verse 2, it says, "Through whom also He made the world." This is a great verse for Jehovah's Witnesses to see that Jesus is the Creator. In verse 3, "And He is the radiance." Okay, we're going to see in this verse a couple things what Jesus is and what Jesus does. Who He is, He's the radiance of God's glory. He is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature, the exact representation of who God is. Jesus is God. In John chapter 10 verse 30 it says, "I and the Father are one." And so now you have a very clear claim that Jesus is God.

Now through the prophets, through God speaking, through the preaching of this Hebrew preacher, you have now this claim. You got to deal with that and truly know that the nature of who God is, His essence, that is Jesus. And so Jesus incarnate God wrapped in flesh. So you have this. This is what we see, His nature. This is important. "And then He upholds all things by the word of His power when He had made purification of sins." He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. This phrase here, "And He had made purification of sins," is the reference for which in the Old Testament priests made atonement for the sins of themselves and for Israel.

Now historically, if you put yourself back in Bible times, the priesthood was not uncommon. It was something that was known. They knew of the priesthood. Our understanding of the word priest perhaps goes to the Catholic Church and the priest there. And that's not what we're talking about in biblical context. But in context of the hearers, when they preached or the priesthood, it was a common thing. And so now they understood that the notion of the priesthood in the ancient world was one who mediated between the gods and people. So that was a common idea in the ancient world that priests mediated between the gods and the people. And they offered to appease the gods. And they served in their temples and in their sanctuaries to these gods.

Now you're familiar as well with Elijah and how he challenged priests of the Canaanite god Baal. You're familiar with the story where Elijah challenged these priests and they were 450 of them, whom were dancing, screaming, yelling out, cutting themselves, just doing everything they possibly could to get the attention of their Canaanite god, Baal. Now it was to no avail, which is a cool pun in our own words, Baal and no avail. But this is a really cool story. The reason why I bring it up is because it was common in that day to have a lot of priests that were false priests. And the argument then here in the text in Hebrews is that Christ is the ultimate priest. He is far and above and better and perfect as compared to these false priests.

So Elijah mocked the priests and he saw Yahweh fulfill the challenge and burned up the wood that was even soaking wet in 1 Kings chapter 18. And so knowledge of all kinds of different various priests was common back then and now this sermonic appeal is to Christ being the ultimate high priest. And being a high priest, Christ being the ultimate high priest, He then is one who is disclosed in Matthew chapter 8 verse 3 as one who can make people clean. This is different from the Old Testament priesthood to a false god who couldn't accomplish anything, who perhaps was trying to make an appeal to their gods and appeasement and such.

In Matthew chapter 8 and verse 3 it says this, "Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying, 'I am willing be cleansed.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." So this is the purification work of Jesus Christ on display. It's His priesthood on display. And this is a vital concept to understand because Christ is the ultimate priest. And understanding Christ as the priest and that He cleanses people from sin is a whole new revolutionary thought to be cleansed from within. Turn if you would to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 18 and 19 and see that it is by the blood that He actually was able to accomplish in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 18 and 19 it says, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold."

Do you like sarcasm? That's a good dig on worthless gods and offering silver and gold to things like that. These wonderful allusions, they have humor in them. It's really neat. So you can't get something accomplished on the inside of you with silver and gold or anything like that from your futile way of life or the rebelliousness in whom you used to be or your pre-Christ life when you were in darkness and before you were made alive. Okay, knowing that you are not redeemed is verse 18, "with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life but," here's a wonderful conjunction in verse 19, "with precious blood as of a lamb." Now you're invoking the language from the Old Testament where they would find a spotless lamb, a perfect lamb, and slaughter that pure perfect lamb. "Unblemished and spotless." And then the clarification here is now being applied to Christ, the blood of Christ.

Let me read it to you again, "but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." Oh, how Peter brilliantly brings Old Testament thought of the sacrificial system and applies it now to Christ and clarifies that Christ is the priest. So the details of how Christ is better as priest is far and above and beyond any human priest found in the Scriptures. In Hebrews chapter 4 and all the way through chapter 7, we're going to have a more detailed account as how Christ is a better priest. And until we get there, I want you to know two things about the priesthood. The priesthood works, the works of the priests fall into two different categories. Okay, number one is that priests represent the people. That's the first aspect. And then secondly, priests represent God. This is the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ on behalf of you to God and the intergoing works between God and you. We need that.

Now listen to how the priesthood is used by God to reveal the greatness of His son. First of all, you're going to see that the priesthood of the Old Testament, these priests were sinful, but yet Christ is sinless. Okay, human priests made sacrifices for their own sins. They were still sinful people and they had to make atonement for not only their sins, but other sins as well. And Job is an illustration of this in Job chapter 1 and verse 5 because he made sacrifices and offerings of prayer to God on behalf of himself and his family. And just in case they had thought something that was wrong against God, he wanted to make atonement and care for his family to keep his family in the graces of the Lord. And so Job is a good example of being the priest of his own home and leading his family spiritually and doing at-home worship services with his wife and children.

And so we open the bread of life at home with our wives and children. So should the fathers open up worship at home and worship Yahweh. The priesthood of the believer is a commitment that we all need to have as we need to impart Christ to our family. And so Job did a good job in this and yet Christ is the great high priest, whereas Job was still a sinful man and Christ now is without sin. In Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15 it says the high priest is being Jesus Christ yet without sin. And so Christ is much better because He is sinless as verse 2 human beings that are sinful. And so Christ is superior because He does not need to offer a sacrifice for Himself. He's superior, He's better.

Not only that but also human priests have a limited ministry because they die. And Jesus is eternal. Human priests in their ministry stopped when they died. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 23 the former priest who prevented or prevented by death from continuing. And so that's an obvious fact. They died but yet Christ is the priest forever. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6 it says but Christ is a priest forever. And this is a fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to come through Moses and through David a priest forever. And so the earthly ministry of priests are limited whereas Christ's are unlimited. Unlimited ministry. He is able to do all that God wills.

Now human priests as well offered insufficient sacrifices whereas Christ offered a one-time sufficient sacrifice. This is huge. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 11 every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the sacrifices which can never take away sin. You get that? Over and over and over again the priests are offering sacrifices and they could never take away sin. Hebrews 10:11. But Christ has offered one sufficient sacrifice. Hebrews 10:14 says for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. It's wonderful to know that what the ministry imparted to priests in the Old Testament was insufficient in their sacrifices and it pointed to the sufficient one making sacrifice and atonement for the people of God. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 it says He made purification for sin.

And now when you see this as well being pointed towards Christ from the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53:10 it says this He would render Himself as a guilt offering. Now you see the limitations of human priests and you see Christ as better and perfect. Now in and of Himself He is better but He does what no other priest has ever done in the history of the priesthood. In turn to Isaiah chapter 53 and see it for yourself and how this is foretold and by the way you may know this that those of Judaism just tear out this 53rd chapter. They do not like the foreknowledge of Christ on the cross. The cross hadn't been even invented by the Romans yet and yet it's prefigured here and Christ is the Lamb is prefigured here. This is a wonderful prophecy. This is a wonderful portion of scripture.

In Isaiah 53 let's just look at verse 4 real fast. It says surely our griefs He Himself bore. And so now the doctrine of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ is on display because the priestly work of Jesus Christ goes beyond what any earthly priest would ever even think of offering Himself as a sacrifice. Not as if offering themselves could have done anything but the priestly work of Jesus Christ goes beyond who He is to what He does. And so this substitutionary work of Jesus Christ is seen in verse 4. Surely our griefs He bore. He Himself bore them. And then in verse 7 it's like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and so Christ now it's pictured as a lamb of God.

And this imagery is even made brighter in John chapter 1 as John the Baptist refers to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. How striking that is for them to hear that in their context because no lamb ever really took away sins. They knew it was insufficient just an appeasement. It's not a forever atonement. It was just a daily job. Lots of blood flowed from the temple. Lots of sacrifices. Lots of work. Lots of shedding of blood. They saw this their entire life over and over and over again and now John the Baptist is claiming that there is one lamb that can do this. This is striking but it's been foretold. Isaiah 53:7. He was oppressed and He was afflicted and yet He did not open His mouth like a lamb that was led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearer. So He did not open His mouth.

And then to continue on in this 53rd chapter of Isaiah verse 10 says, "But the Lord was pleased to crush Him putting Him to grief if He would render Himself as a guilt offering." This is the high priestly sacrifice of Himself. What a Savior. What a Savior. And then in verse 12, "Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great and He will divide the booty with the strong because He poured out Himself to death." This is the doctrine of expiation. Okay? The removal of guilt by the payment of another. He poured out Himself to death. He made the payment Himself. And you know that the result or the consequence of your sin is eternal death for the wages of sin is what? Death. And from the very beginning in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, sin equals death.

And so there had to have been a perfect sacrifice to eradicate or even remove the sins of those who would repent and believe. And then in verse 12, it also goes on to say, "And was numbered with the transgressions, yet He Himself bore the sins of many." This is the doctrine of propitiation in that He bore the punishment for another. God's wrath upon sin. Oh my. If God poured out His wrath upon the sin that you've committed on you, you'd be extinguished. There's just no way that you can even be in God's presence much less in surviving, much less endure His wrath. It had to have taken an eternal, all-powerful one to be able to absorb the wrath of God. And so Christ rendered Himself as a guilt offering. And He removed the sin and the guilt by taking it on. And He was the payment.

Now this prefix in doctrine of expiation means out of. X means out of. Expiation. And the removal of sin is what this is talking about. Now you got to ask yourself, "But I still sin. If I still sin, do I put Christ back on the cross again?" No, this is not Catholicism. If I sin again, does Christ have to sacrifice Himself again and again and again? How does that work? I mean, I'm sinning over and over again, but He removed my sin. He died for my sin. And if I really believe what the scriptures are saying, He has removed the sin and the guilt. Why do I still sin? Well, you're not perfected yet, yes, we get that. But you got to understand this is an eternal one, an all-powerful one who was removing sin. And He has that eternal ability, that work to cover you. He's got you.

And so you remain in the shelter of His love and His care. And since He is an eternal being, He is God, He is able to offer one sacrifice once and for all. And now since He did that for you, the last thing that you want to do is go and sin again. And out of your love and respect and honor for your great high priest who went beyond any other job description of a local priesthood and actually offered Himself as a sacrifice, you say to yourself, "The last thing I'm going to do is ignore Him. The last thing I'm going to do is disappoint Him. The last thing I'm going to do is sin again. I'm going to hate sin with all of my fury." Did you know that that's pure love?

The apostle Paul makes that claim and he says, "If your love is going to be sincere, then you're going to," here's a strong word for you, "abhor what is evil and cling to what is good." That's the reason why God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, 1 John 1:5. We must really, truly see sin in such a way that we hate it and identify what it is and run from it, turn from your wicked ways and cling to Christ because He is the one who has offered Himself. I mean, He is a high and lofty God. Whoever heard of a king, of a prophet, of an eternal deity, nobody had ever, ever heard of a God coming down and sacrificing Himself for His peasants or for His people. This is mind-blowing and in our culture, it's normative. But we need to get inside of the biblical text and regain the emphasis of these doctrines or regain the reverence of Christ in His sacrificial work.

So this is a rich and wonderful doctrine of expiation. God's righteous law demands the shedding of innocent blood. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 says, "Without the word of God, there is no forgiveness of sin." And that is just simply an echo of Leviticus 17 verse 11, which says in Leviticus 17:11, "For it is the blood that makes atonement." And so now you have the gospel writer proclaiming the same things as he recounts what Jesus said, "I lay down My life." John chapter 10 and verse 17, a quote of Jesus Himself, "I lay down My life." And in verse 18, "I lay it down on My own initiative." This is like no other priest who made purification of sins. He purged our sins. He Himself did this work. Christ was stricken and smitten of God.

Think about it with me. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 4 says that Christ was smitten by God. Christ took on the wrath of God. Christ took on the punishment of all other people. Why in the world is a good and loving God wrathful? What an oxymoron to grapple with. Why is a good God wrathful? And this is at the heart of who God is. To be able to know this and articulate this well is going to help you in evangelism. To be able to know why a good God is wrathful is going to help you with loving, a pure and wonderful God. If you can't answer this, you're not quite there in your comprehension.

And this concept is so rich and wonderful. If you don't know why God, is just by His wrath, then listen. By way of illustration, let's just say a foreigner, a foreigner comes into your neighborhood and trespasses in somebody's house and they get caught. A foreigner trespasses. They get caught. They get trespassed. The cops come. He gets trespassed. This is a level of punishment. A foreigner trespasses. He gets trespassed. What foreigner who then becomes a criminal and trespasses and steals property. The punishment then is increased. You're following me. And so the criminal is fine. He's not just trespassed. He's fine now. But what if this criminal that trespasses, this criminal that trespasses and breaks in and brutally beats someone to death, he murders someone. Now, this criminal is charged with armed robbery and imprisoned and perhaps facing a just execution.

You see how the levels of criminality increase here. You see how the just punishment increases with this. So when a foreign criminal trespasses and brutally mutilates an innocent party, they get the just death penalty. Are you tracking with me? You are the murderer. You are the law breaker. And so the best penalty of a righteous God is for Him to pour out that level of punishment upon you. But yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent His own son. "And whosoever would believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

In light of the priestly work of Christ, we ought to be dumbfounded because of the level we have at the high and atrocious level that we have offended a holy God. We deserve this just penalty. I'm just saying, shallow American pseudo Christianity doesn't understand why a good God wrathful. It just doesn't register. It's not there. It hasn't been heralded clearly enough to where we understand why a good God by His nature of holy, holy, holy must bring down just wrath to the extent for which He is holy is to the extent for which He is wrathful. And so now we sinners all played a part in brutally murdering God's son.

It's not just that you have broken God's holy law, which is enough to be condemned to hell, but that our sin was placed upon Christ. We played a part in the crucifixion. We, our sin, our debt, our depravity, our filth played a part in killing Christ. And so now we deserve this. Acts chapter 2 and verse 36 says this, "And Jesus whom you crucified." Listen, it's not just that the Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy and crucified Him. It's not just that Rome saw Jesus as a rioter disturbing the peace and crucified Him as an example. Beyond the shallow reading of the scriptures, you crucified Christ. Your sin placed upon Him.

In verse 37 in Acts chapter 2, they heard this and they were pierced to the heart. They truly understood what was being laid down. Justice means we die. But Isaiah 53:5, He was crushed for our iniquities. This high priest priestly work of offering Himself as a sacrifice is something that I think that we merit thinking about and yielding to. So the propitiation means that Christ is the one who appeased God's wrath. The wrath upon Christ was appeased and now we can enter into a holy God's presence. I mean, just think how trepidatious it was for the high priest in the Old Testament, the temple, to approach the holy of holies once a year. I just couldn't imagine Him shaking. Is there any sin in my life? You know that they put a bell on His tassel so that if He fell dead in a rope that he could pull Him out. God would strike these high priests dead if they had any unconfessed sin in their life.

Yet we now can go right into the presence of a holy and just God covered by the blood of Christ. And so when Christ finished His work on the cross, this appeasement of God's wrath, He said it is finished. It is finished. The climax right there, it is finished. In the Greek, this is an accounting term that means paid in full. And this is beautiful. When Christ finished His high priestly sacrifice, it was paid in full. And Jesus said that He accomplished the work that God had given Him to do in John chapter 17 and verse 4.

Why did Christ substitute Himself on the cross? It's because God so loved you that He gave His only son. John 3:16, Hebrews chapter 12 and verses 2 to 3 turn with me and see this all over again as in this wonderful book, this wonderful letter, this wonderful sermon, it is climaxing into the joy set before Him on the cross. Why did Christ die on the cross? Why did Christ take on the wrath of His father? Why did He do this? Hebrews chapter 12 verses 2 and 3 explain it really well. For if the word spoken through angels, that's not chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Verse 4, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and striving against your sin. This seriously merits us striving really, really hard to be obedient because of what Christ has done for us. And if you are striving in a way that does not give credence to the deed, I'm just saying it's disrespectful. And if you are not hating personal sin to the extent for which Christ demands, James chapter 4 verse 17 says this to the one who knows to do right and does not do it, to him it is sin.

You're in sin brethren if you are not hating sin and clinging to Christ with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The qualification on how you love God is with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind, all of your strength, all of who we are is aimed at Christ. And to fall short of this is again, yes to be human, but our part, the synergistic element, our effort in pursuing Christ. And I thank God for the mediatory work to where we run out of effort and ability, Christ fills the gap.

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 2 and 3 explains that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him. What is this? You are His joy. What was the reward of providing salvation with the people who would be saved? What was the reward? It's you eternally with Him. It's Him getting the bride. And so you being the very best gift for Christ now is part of you understanding the whole thing and getting it. Because of what Christ has done for me, I love Him. Because of what Christ does for me, I'm going to be committed to His means. By the way, His number one agency, His number plan is through the church.

And so to be wholeheartedly in, wholeheartedly committed to be in and through the church is your starting point to loving Jesus. So this is His number one plan for you to be built up, to be equipped, to be challenged, to be brought to the feet of Jesus. That through the local church, you have evangelism and discipleship and all kinds of things going on. But here at the church, the local church level is where you are trained and equipped and you're worshiping God and it starts here and then it flows out in like fashion. And so for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, the joy of having His bride, the joy of having His children conformed into His image. Now we fix our eyes on Jesus.

Have you ever been fixated on something before? I mean, look at the text, verse two, fixing our eyes on Christ. And some are so fixated on, I don't know, health. It's like all they think about, you know, they look at yourself in the mirror and they do their biases. Fixated. I'm not making fun of anybody. Have you ever gotten fixated on something like hyper focused? It's like all that you could think about morning, day, and night, right? Like I can imagine Steve Jobs and Apple, it's all he existed to be and do was to invent technology. Morning, day, and night, he's just thinking about cell phone, you know, how to make it better, user experience, all that type of stuff. So earthly, it's so temporal, but to fix, to be fixated on your great high priest and what He did for you and that you don't have to be crucified for your sin. You don't have to take on the wrath of God.

Listen, if you're lost, you don't have to take and bear your sins in eternity forever. Christ already did that. You could be fixated on Christ, which is the right fixation. This is great to be fixing our eyes on Jesus. And let me tell you, it gets better and better and better and better as your faith grows and understanding of Jesus Christ. There's no drug. There's no anything of this world, this earth. There's no, you can buy the best jet ski, you can buy the best four wheeler, you can get the best vacation, whatever the thrill you're seeking pales in comparison to fixing your eyes on Christ. You can buy the best truck and someone else is going to make a new one next year. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. And our fixation on Him gets better and better and better because we grow in our understanding and this illumination gets better and better and better and better.

I'll prove it to you. You know it's true. You could perhaps have memorized the verse from the time you were a child. And you know this verse, you know, the verse is maybe your life verse. And then you go back one day and you relook at that same verse that you think that you've always known and it deeply ministers to your soul. That's just one verse. Can you imagine the entire word of God illuminating Jesus Christ as your prophet, priest, and king?

Three take-home truths and we're gone. Number one, take-home truth number one, appreciate your priest's personal sacrifice by hating personal sin. Truly appreciate, show your appreciation, appreciate your priest's personal sacrifice by hating personal sin. Romans chapter 12 and verse 9 says, "Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, and cling to what is good." How do you appreciate Him? You run from wickedness. You run from your sin. Anything that displeases Christ, you also develop a holy hatred for it. Run from these things. Run from the flesh. Turn from your wicked ways. Do not be hostile towards God. Have a mind set on the spirit, not a mind set on the things of the flesh. Be pleasing to the Lord. Be alive in Christ. Appreciate your priest's personal sacrifice by hating personal sin.

Take-home truth number two, do for others what Christ does for you. This is interesting as I'm studying this role of the priesthood of believers. You see that Jesus' perfect priesthood restored the original royal status for His people. Okay, so now the doctrine of the priesthood of believers is in that you mimic Christ your priest. And so now you forgive like Christ forgave. This is your priestly work. You forgive. How about this? As Christ as priest, He interceded and prayed to the Father for others. Your priestly work is not only forgiving those who have offended you. Colossians 3:13 makes it very clear that you must forgive like Christ has forgiven you.

But now you also pray. I'm not talking about, "Lord help him," a flippant prayer. I'm talking about really, really blessing those who have persecuted you. Jesus was a personal blessing, a personal atonement, a personal sacrifice for those who had severely beaten and battered and bruised Him. Not only praying, but serving. Not only serving, but teaching. All the roles of the priest, Christ our King, now we do. And so point number two here for your take-home truth is do for others what Christ did for you. It's a wonderful thought. 1 Peter 2:9 and 10 is an affirmation of the priesthood of believers. And now Christ has dubbed you His priests.

And so now we go and mediate. You are a mediator between God and the lost. You stand in the gap and you say, "I'm going to tell you about the cross." And the cross is what is in between God and you. And let me tell you what is in between God and you. It is punishment, it's wrath, it's God's holiness coming down. So you're going to mediate for somebody. They don't know God. They don't know where God is. They don't know how to get to God. It's you who got to be the voice in the mouth and the feet of Jesus. You're to go and tell people and make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You're the mediator. You're the priest. You're the one who is on behalf of Christ expounding upon the word of God to the lost sinners. You're the go-between. You represent God.

Point number three is very simple, but I think that we would need to be getting better and better and better at it for the rest of our life is that we worship and serve God. The priests' work in the temple was to worship God, burning incense's prayers, making sacrifices. All the priestly work around the temple and the maintenance of the temple in every single way. And then He worshiped and lifted up His voice and sang and prayed and led the people, preached the word of God. This worship is something that New Testament priests now mimic by way of application what the Old Testament priest did in the temple. So as a priest, Christ, He is the one who completes us. And it's fantastic to see this. We could never, ever offer a sufficient atonement for our own sins, but Christ made purification for our own sins. Hebrews chapter one, verse three says, "He made purification for your sins." And now I want you to come next week and learn what it is to see that God has made Christ king.

First of all, think about this. If all of this is confusing, if all of this seems like it's foreign knowledge to you, if this is not comprehensible, I want to sympathize with you because it takes the Holy Spirit of God as an agent to illuminate truth to your mind. John chapter one talks about this all the way through. This illuminatory work of the Holy Spirit takes us from unknowing to knowing. And that presupposes that He is in you. And so if Christ is not in you, you do not have the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, illuminating this truth to you as you're going through the scriptures, you're like, "Yes, amen, yes, amen, yes, amen." If the Holy Spirit is not verifying inside of you, perhaps He's not in you, that means you have not yet been sealed by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians chapter one.

And so if you have never been born again, you've never been saved, I want to quote you the verse for which Charles Spurgeon was saved by. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 22 says this, "Turn to me and be saved. Look to Jesus and be saved. Look unto the Lord. Turn from your wicked ways," is what it's saying. Turn from sin, turn from self-works, turn from any entity other than Christ, turn from God's, turn from anything else other than Christ, turn from earthly things to heavenly things, turn to the one true God, and be saved. You know that Christ was the propitiation for your sin. He took on the wrath. And so my encouragement to you today, if you've never been saved, be saved. Place your faith and your trust in the substitutionary work Jesus Christ on the cross in your place.

And what's going to happen is then you're going to confess Him as Lord. You're going to confess. You're going to verbally confess Christ, I believe that you died on the cross and rose again for my sin. Romans 10:9 talks about how you will confess and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and rose again. So it moves from an intellectual sense of these things, understanding these things, it moves from the mind and confession and understanding to the heart. Confess that He is Lord and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ was risen again for your sin. You shall be saved. It's a beautiful thing.

Pray with me if you would. Lord, we love you. Thank you for this passage on the priesthood of your son, Jesus Christ. We believe that He is the only one who could have made a sufficient sacrifice on behalf of us. God, on behalf of those of us who are already regenerate, O Lord, I say sorry and we grieve for the sin that we still commit. O Lord, I know this is pleasing to you and I pray that you would rip it out of us. You would expose it. You would utilize maybe even trials and tribulations of many kinds to bring the impurities up to the surface just like when gold is heated to the melting point, the impurities are rising to the surface and the goldsmith takes his sifter and sifts off the impurities across the top. May our lives resemble that and may we have faith and trust and belief that the trials of our life are intended for purpose and some of those purposes are to expose our sin so that we can confess that and remove it.

You say in 1 John 1:9, 2 believers that if we confess our sin you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These circumstances are for our purification and Lord, I do with all of heart confess to you that I want to be more and more pleasing to you in the same heart from on behalf of this dear church. We want to be pleasing to you. We want to put effort into striving towards you and put effort into our sanctification and to put effort into the local church and more and more and Lord make us more capable. I'm so grateful for the commitment of this dear church and how this church demonstrates these convictions already. Increase them, I pray.

And now Lord on behalf of those who may not be saved that you, I pray, by your Holy Spirit would regenerate their soul, give them a new heart and then from that they would confess you as Lord. Help them to cry out and plead and beg and praise your name, dear Jesus. Help them to turn from their wicked ways and to truly confess you as Christ, to confess you as the Messiah, the Savior, and believe in their heart with all of their heart that you are the only one who can save them and rescue them and they are totally without hope without you. Thank you, dear Jesus, for this message of you being the priest and I pray that it would be impactful for many. Help us, Lord, to be pleasing unto you because your one and only sacrifice was sufficient and we glory in that. We thank you, in Jesus name we pray, amen.