5. Message 11 in the book of Hebrews. The last time we saw in chapter 4 that we confess and are to cling to the great high priest of Jesus Christ. Sympathetic, tempted in all points of the law, And because Christ is our priest who understands our needs and paid the penalty for our sin, we should be able to approach the throne of grace. That is enter into the presence of God with boldness and confidence in prayer. to bring our requests and receive grace and mercy to help us. Part of the priesthood of Jesus is to intercede for his people. Part of the priesthood is to offer the sacrifice. That's what a priest did. The priest took the animal and slew it and sprinkled its blood as a covering for sin. But Christ is not only the one who offers the sacrifice, he wants to sacrifice for sin. Now, in chapter 5, We find the contrast between this great priest, Jesus, and the fallible priest of the old covenant of Judaism, priest under the line of Levi, Aaron, and even in Jesus' day, mostly of the Sadducee party. I think I gave you the wrong passage. I wanted to give you the passage about God setting apart Aaron to be a priest, but Moses and Aaron as brothers were children of the tribe of Levi, the tribe that God set apart to do duties in the tabernacle and the temple later on, and the tribe that priest came from. The other 11 tribes did not supply the Levites or the priest of the old covenant. Who was Levi? He was one of the children of Jacob by the slave woman of Hagar. God said the priests will come out of this line. As we look at chapter 5, the contrast between the high priest, the great priest, Jesus, sympathetic to ordinance, able and capable, and the high priest and the priest chosen by God under the old covenant, the writer of Hebrews, has to clarify to these Hebrew Christians. This is what happened in the Old Testament. In the old covenant, there was a need for priests and sacrifices. But we're going to shift to a new covenant. and a new priesthood, a new meaning of that covenant. This covenant will replace that covenant. This sacrifice, this priest will replace those priests and that high priest. Now he says in verse one, every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in the things pertaining to God so the first thing we notice it was necessary in Israel to appoint a high priest there were many priests but there was a high priest who led and governed all the other priests. They all participated in the work in the tabernacle and the temple. The high priest could not do all of it, but he supervised and led. And on the day of atonement, once a year, He led all the priests and the whole nation in the sacrifice for not just his sin, but the sin of all the people. So we see what he says, this writer who understands Judaism, who understands the old covenant, and the ceremonial law says that this priest is taken from among men, but appointed by God to minister the things pertaining to God. So we notice there is a high priest It's a high calling. He's set apart from just a typical priest. He's taken from men. It's a man. It's not a woman chosen to do this. Now, throughout human history, in all kinds of religious practices, Whether it's in Canaan, or Persia, or Egypt, or in China, or wherever, people have felt the need to somehow come and worship some sort of God. It's given in the human nature as we're made in the image of God. to worship but man has always worshipped falsely but there have been priests throughout human history there have been temples there have been sacrifices sometimes human sacrifice sometimes child sacrifice sometimes priestess as women who participated. But God had a different plan. God chose his priest out of Levi and out of those priests. A high priest was chosen. Perhaps each year not necessarily for life but this is a man set apart pertaining to what God's business was and so this priest it says he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins Perhaps as you read Numbers, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, you see this extensive revelation about the ceremonial law, how Israel is to worship, how the priests are to function, that there's many different offerings and gifts and many different sacrifices for sins. There were grain offerings. There were offerings of doves and pigeons, of goats, of rams, of lambs, of bulls. I can't keep it all straight. but there were different offerings for different categories and different sacrifices and different degrees of sinfulness and also according to the economic status of the person and the family so if they were poor They could bring something simple, like a pair of dogs. Or they could bring something from their flock. But the priest oversaw that. There was a ritual. It was done in a certain fashion. The sins of the person, their hands would symbolically belaying on the animal to transfer their guilt. The animal is slain in a certain way by the priest. The plot is used, sprinkled on the altar. So this is all prescribed in those books of the Benedict. The priest did this in a certain way. They had certain functions, certain instruments. They wore certain clothes because this is how God had commanded that the priest and specifically the high priest would offer worship and gifts and sacrifices to God as an acceptable way to deal with sin and to prepare people for worship a symbolic cleansing from sin the shedding of the blood of an animal When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover their nakedness, but God covered them with an animal skin. God took the life of an animal, the first aspect of shedding of blood, showing the covering of their sin. Adam must pass that knowledge on to his children. Abel brings an offering of animals and meat that's acceptable to God. Cain does not bring an acceptable offering. It's of fruits and vegetables. which displeased God. And Cain is angry and kills his brother. But Abel must have known from his father what God had done and commanded. So this prefigures what the Old Testament priests are going to do to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people where does this priesthood come from again it comes from god set apart the tribe of levi he didn't pick of the other 11 sons he chose this tribe as a priestly line, as a tribe would also care for the tabernacle and the temple. The deacons in Acts chapter 6 start to fulfill duties like the Levites in the Old Testament. I had that passage read because it says that the end, after they chose the deacons, the word of God spread, the church grew, and many priests came to believe. Formerly, many priests didn't, but seeing the installation of deacons As the word of God spread, many priests came to faith. And out of Levi, God raises up a leader named Moses. But Moses says to God, I'm not a very good speaker. So God said, well, I'll use your brother to speak and later on he says I will appoint Aaron your brother to be this high priest to lead in this sacrificial system a system we're going to set up even in the wilderness I'm going to give you plans for a tabernacle and instructions for sacrifice and worship even as you move all around the desert for 40 years you're going to take this tent and Aaron and his sons will be my priests. And so, out of Levi, Aaron is chosen. So, he says here, this priest, verse two, he can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray. The priest chosen by God should be sympathetic and compassionate. He shouldn't be bitter and say, you stupid fool, you did it again. I'm not going to offer a sacrifice for you. No, he should recognize as he's a mediator, between a sinner and God he should act in a merciful way that God would forgive this person this person could be restored because he should realize this person acts out of ignorance at times and he goes astray maybe willfully but all we like sheep have gone astray. And this priest should realize I myself am weak in sin. It says in verse two, he's subject to weakness. So a good priest, a good high priest could say, I'm doing this duty, not just because I happen to be of the tribe of Levi, and we're priests, and this is my lot in life. I don't like it. Think about this, daily performing sacrifices, especially on the Sabbath. It's not easy saying, I got to kill more animals. I got to go through this specific particular ritual. There's steps I have to follow. I can't offer strange fire. For some priests, this was a burden. It was a duty. They did it out of requirement. It's my job. They might not have liked it. They might not like serving God. They might not have been compassionate. but the writer is reminding us the good priest was compassionate because he feared God understood his weakness also so he should recognize that he's a servant of God and he's also serving God's people It's a principle that comes into the New Testament church for elders and deacons, pastors, teachers, evangelists, that we're serving God because God chose us. God appointed us. but we're serving as shepherds and leaders to God's people in prayer, in worship, in the word of God, in shepherding, but in mercy, in service. Notice how the church grew in Acts 6. because the Spirit was on those seven men chosen. So this priest is a servant of God and to the people of God. Pertaining to the ceremonial worship, the law of God, he offers gifts and sacrifices for sin He should be compassionate. But sometimes, perhaps they weren't. There were bad priests. There were priests who did things wrong, not following the commandments of God. I was just reading today the opening chapters of Samuel because I was trying to understand if Samuel was also a priest besides a prophet and he may have been but Eli and his two sons were bad priests who seemed to be like well I'm a priest I like the benefits of of being a priest but they weren't holy before God and Eli didn't discipline his adult sons who even committed immorality and disobeyed God's law by the way they took the better part of the sacrifice that should have been offered on the altar. And so you could have bad priests. So this priesthood is established some 1400 years before Christ through Moses and Aaron. During this time, You have some holy priest and some who aren't. But he should recognize again that his job is to stand before God at the altar of God and offer these sacrifices for the people of God. I wonder sometimes how many people would come every day to deal with sin. How guilty might they feel? Raised as a Roman Catholic, We were told sometimes to be a good Catholic, you should go to confession at least once a week. I wonder how the people of Israel felt like. I've really messed up. I should go bring something as a sacrifice for my sin. Maybe some people said, I'll just do that once a year. Maybe some people thought they needed to do that. But in this over reaching population, how many people would come daily? And on the Sabbath, I'm sure the priests were kept busy. My understanding is that at the time of Jesus, there were 18,000 priests in the nation. So, at Passover, because of the requirement for every household to sacrifice a Passover lamb, That meant on that Friday of Passover thousands and thousands of lambs had to be slaughtered. So it was a call for all the priests of Israel to travel to Jerusalem to the temple to perform that duty that day now they had other duties at other times Zacharias was in the temple offering prayers and incense because its division was chosen for that day but This priesthood is a big responsibility. To keep continually, daily, perpetually offering sacrifices. More sacrifices. You get up in the morning. There's this family. There's another family. there's more people because there's not one sacrifice for sin yet so this is the fallible priesthood of the old covenant and it continues all the way up to the work of Christ When Christ dies on the cross, and gives up his spirit, his last words are, that thou hast died. It is finished. The payment for sin is over. The priesthood is complete. The sacrifice is over. and there's that immediate earthquake and the gospel writers tell us the veil of the temple is torn in two signified the sacrificial system is over the altar is broken and the access to the holy of holies It's not through the priesthood of Levi, but this new high priest, Jesus Christ. This continual fallible priesthood, sacrifices for sin. In verse 4, we're reminded, these priests didn't choose this for themselves. They didn't wake up one day and say, you know, I don't want to be a shepherd. I don't want to be a carpenter. I think it'd be pretty comfy and cool job to be a priest. How do I train for that? You know, how do I get into that business? Because you know, they get taken care of. They're provided to by the law. They get a choice of the offering. They eat okay. Sounds like a pretty good job, you know. But he's telling us that's not the way it was done. yeah they didn't wake up and say this is what i want to be or the parents didn't say now son yeah your sister's a doctor your brother's a lawyer no why don't you be a priest no this is god's work god chooses his people he chooses his leaders It was true in the Old Testament. He chose Abraham. He chose Moses. He chose David. He didn't choose Saul. Okay? He chose Elijah and Elisha and the others. He chose Samuel. In the New Testament, he chose the apostles. He chose elders. deacons he gives to them well he has set apart people to be priests to fulfill a holy honorable calling before God he's required to do this before the people He doesn't take it on his own. He's appointed by God. God had qualifications in mind, just as he has qualifications for elders and deacons in the New Testament. So it's not just anybody. but it's a man God chooses. He's called by God, just as Aaron was. Now, one last important thing is, this priest, even the high priest, He had to realize, especially on the Day of Atonement, that I'm offering sacrifices, well, not just for you people who go astray. I'm offering sacrifices for myself also. That should be sobering. That should be humbling. He should realize, I'm even more needy than these people are. Yes, Israel was stiff-necked and greedy and sinful, but the priest should realize, if I'm honest, I'm worse than them. and the priesthood realized, especially on the day of atonement, that I'm standing before, representing hundreds of thousands of people of this nation called God's people, men, women, families, children, And if I don't take it serious, if I mess up, if God is displeased with my work, what will be the result? Not just for me, but for people, the people of God and God's nation. The priest took this serious that knowing that the high priest was going to go into the most holy place. They tied a rope around his foot because if God was displeased, if he sinned, he could die and nobody could go in and carry his body out only the high priest under strict rules could do that once a year so they put a rope just in case now i don't know if that ever happened But see, these priests took it serious. We're standing before God because we're offering sacrifices because of sin. God is holy and we are not. But God in his mercy set up this fallible priesthood of the old covenant according to his rules his line his choosing but remember these sacrifices were not sufficient to take away sin this priesthood was not sufficient it had to be repeated and repeated and had to continue. But God the Father promised a greater high priest with a sufficient sacrifice to be the propitiation for sin once and for all. The difference was the Old Testament sacrifice, it covered over sin. So God, in a way, didn't look upon the sin. The plot of the animals, so to speak, hid it from God's presence and God's sight. But the sacrifice Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away sin, propitiates, carries it away, expiates, once and for all, the sacrifice for sin. The priest was called by God, was not the Son of God called by the Father to be this high priest. Jesus didn't say, I think I'll go to earth, be born of a woman and live for a while. No, this is the counsel of the triune God. This is the will of the Father to appoint a son as a priest and mediator of a new covenant, of a sacrifice that's propitiates once and for all for sin. That's good news for us. Because we don't have to say, what do I have to do? How should I be myself and with myself? How should I make offerings in the church? Again, that's an error of some churches. That's the air, part of the air of the purgatory system. Get people to offer things for you to help get you out of purgatory. Now, Christ paid it all. It's sufficient. It's complete. So The fallible priesthood is replaced by an infallible, impeccable priesthood, an impeccable sacrifice once and for all for sin. This priest raised from the dead, sent to heaven, who lives to make intercession for his people. Priests in the Old Testament could offer prayers also. Our priest continues to offer prayers. Action points read Hebrews chapter 5 and 6 because he's going to talk about the work of Christ in greater detail as a priest. And think about action point two, that God is the one who raises up leaders, elders, pastors, teachers, deacons, shepherds, even the apostles, prophets, evangelists. This is whom God equips whom God gifts. It's not like really should be. I'll think that sounds like a good career choice. No. God's leading should be on a man to move into those offices. They should be recognized by the church. as having the qualifications and gifts for those ministries. And therefore, we as the people of the church should be able to say, I submit to their leadership, but I support and pray for and help them in their leadership. And then the third point is, If Jesus is the perfect, infallible high priest, sympathetic, you and I need to cling to our priest. His work is sufficient. He never stops praying for us. He's constantly our defense attorney, our advocate. You see, again, people might say, well, that's good, George. You started with Jesus. Now add this other thing, this other work to Jesus. No, Jesus' work and righteousness is sufficient. We abide with Jesus. We stay with Jesus. Because He's sufficient. We don't say we try Jesus. And now I'll think, I'll try another priest. Another priestess. I'll add this religious system. Some people do that. when I tried Christianity. It didn't work for me. So now I'm a Buddhist. Now I'm in the Islam. I'm gonna add these duties and works. Maybe I'll be good enough. That's false. That's the lie of the devil. The work of Christ is complete, sufficient. We're justified by faith in Christ. So brothers and sisters, you cling to Jesus. Every day you live in repentance and faith. Every day you approach the throne of grace. and confidence to find the grace from Jesus, the author, finisher of our faith. Don't trust in your own righteousness, but trust in Christ. Every day, when Satan accuses, you go back to Jesus, your defense attorney. and not say, I have to do something. I have to be better. So, the infallible priest is sufficient. That's who we go to and stay with. Kurt, would you pray for us? Briefly, please. Okay. Thank you.