to open up the service and join all the glorious names. Isaac Watts, great hymn, great hymn. He sang all 12 stanzas. I couldn't find a place to leave one out. But I picked out several psalms through there as far as continuing the series of messages that we've been preaching now for a while. But in the second verse in your hymn book, he starts that out with, Great prophet of my God. I preached on that last Sunday. Christ our prophet. And what do we have in Christ as our prophet? We have light. The prophet was the light bearer. He brought the mind and will of God to the people. God would reveal himself and his purpose, his will, for Israel to the prophet, and the prophet would take it to the people. For the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our prophet. The prophet spoke, and the Father spoke to the people in time past, that is, God spoke to them through the prophets. But in these last days, Hebrews said, He hath spoken unto us by His Son. He filled up and filled full the office of the prophet. That third stanza, this is what I'm going to preach on this morning, Jesus, my great high priest, Jesus, my great high priest, offered his blood and died. My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice besides. His powerful blood did once atone. And now it pleads before the throne. That's what I'm preaching on this morning. If you'll turn over to the book of Hebrews chapter 3, I'll take a text from there. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse number 1 and 2. Wherefore, you got that there, you see it? Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, the apostle and high priest of our profession, our confession of faith, what we confess. Consider him, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. In our last study, we looked at Christ as the believer's prophet. And I said this, I said this, I said, as the prophet, Christ brings forth light delivering the understanding from darkness. You know, man is born into this world with a dark mind. He has a distorted view of God. He cannot see God correctly. He cannot understand God rightly because his mind is distorted, it's darkened, it's depraved. Every faculty of the human being, the human soul, is to pray. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Well, a lot of folks don't believe that. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of folks preaching contrary to that. I mean, there's some very famous, renowned speakers in this world out here that deny that. And they're preaching contrary to that and leading people into a state of deception. But man is to praise throughout, through in, throughout. He's to praise. His mind is to praise. He doesn't have light. He's born with a darkened mind. And this is the doctrine of the Scripture. This is a systematic teaching of the Word of God. We have so many places we could go to and show you how dark the mind is in its natural state. And we need a prophet. We need a seer. This is what a prophet was. He's a seer. One that sees the things of God and brings it to us. And Christ is the only prophet. All I do is echo Christ. I'm not your prophet. I'm your pastor, your teacher, but you have Christ as your prophet. And as the prophet, he brings light, delivering the understanding from darkness, He opens the blind eyes of the soul to see light and light. You know, God sent Paul to the Gentiles to do what? To open their blinded eyes that they might see Christ. The Gospel does that. When I preach the Gospel, I preach always praying in my heart, in my inner being, my self-conscious. I'm preaching always praying that while I preach that God might be pleased to open your mind. that you might see these things. And I said this, as priest, he brings the sacrifice, and he satisfies the debt. He cancels the account. He clears the guilt, and he restores peace. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. He does all this as our priest. He brings the sacrifice himself. He sacrifices. that God might be satisfied, that the law might be honored, that justice might be satisfied, which cries out for the death of every son of Adam because of the breach that Adam made. And so he comes forth as the priest. He brings the sacrifice. He satisfies the debt. He cancels the account. Sin debt is totally satisfied. When Christ sacrificed Himself, He clears the guilt. If you understand that your salvation is in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross, your conscience should be free from guilt. Because not only did He clear the debt when He died on the cross, satisfying God, honoring the Lord, satisfying justice, He also went into heaven as our intercessor, and His blood ever pleads our cause. And though Satan and men may bring an accusation against you, there can no charge be laid against you, because God has justified you in the blood of Jesus Christ." That ought to be comforting. That's right, Brother Randy. The debt was paid double. Infinity. Infinity paid the debt as well as the human sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That was good, Randy. Randy brought our devotion in the men's room back there out of Isaiah 40. It was an encouraging word. Then there's King and Lord willing I'll get to this in time. As king and captain of the host, I tried to remind you of this. He defeats the enemy. He frees the will. Hey, I said he frees the will. Do you understand what I said? It took a powerful king to free you. You were held in bondage. I was held in bondage. It took a powerful king, a captain, of the host to free us. Thy people shall be with him when? In the day of thy power." That power. That's one of the things that they're distorting out here today. They're preaching to people, well, you know, you may be depraved to a certain extent. And they may, you know, go down the line. But the bottom line on most of the preaching today is There's at least one part of you that's not to pray. Your will. You've got an active will that can respond and make decisions and all this type of stuff. You don't have a will that can respond until God frees that will. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying that we're shut up to God. For all of us. You know, they preach to people today You know, you have your part, and God has His part. And God's done all His part, and that's all He can do for you, and that's left up to you. Well, you're still bound up if it's left up to you. You're still unable to respond. Or you can become religious. You can make a decision. You can accept some fellow's proposition and make a profession of faith. But listen, that doesn't free you. That just makes you really two-fold more the child of hell than you were to begin with. What I'm saying is, cast yourself on Him. Cast your hope on Him. Down at the feet of sovereign mercy, fall and cry, cry, cry, have mercy on my soul. I'm in absolute need of thee. So as the captain of the host, he defeats the enemy, frees the will, claims the captain, As David did for Mephibosheth, he brings him into the king's house to eat bread at the king's table from here on out. And then he guides him through life and brings him to glory. That's the captain. That's what he does. That's the king. So he's our prophet. He's our priest. He's our king. And filling up all these offices, bringing all that to us, we need nothing else. We need no one else. We have it all in Christ. And so I continue my study. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. Colossians 2, 9, and 10. Well, let's consider him as our high priest this morning. He said in this text here, Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, the heavenly calling. I like that. Are you a partaker of the heavenly calling? I mean, has the call from heaven reached your soul? Have you, in your inner being, in your soul of souls, in your heart of hearts, have you heard the call of the gospel? And have you been freed from the bondage of sin? and with joy and with praise responded unto the call. He says, Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, that is to God, that appointed him. Let's think about the function, the function of our high priest. Is high priest and mediator of the church? What do we find in Christ? How does He benefit us? Well, I'll tell you what He does. He draws near to God for us and does four things. He performs four things as He draws near to God for His people. First of all, He expiates our sin. He propitiates. for us concerning our sin. He reconciles, and then finally He makes intercession for us. He intercedes. We have all that in Christ. One who expiates. You know, sin must be expiated. Look at Hebrews. We're close here. Look at Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 14. He said, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Now mark that, passed into the heavens. Israel never had that. Israel never had that. I mean, you know, men died under the old priesthood. Aaron was the first high priest anointed by Moses. chapter of Leviticus, verse number 12, you'll find his anointing. Aaron was anointed as high priest, and he officiated in the office of the priest. But Aaron was always officiating not only for the people, but for himself. He always had to offer a sacrifice and atonement, not just for the people, but he had to be sprinkled, first of all, himself with that blood. Why? Because he was sinful. He was a man just like us. Jesus Christ was the God-man and is the God-man. He had no sin of his own. He was impeccable. He had none of his own. There was no guile found in him. He did no sin, the Scripture said. He was innocent. The innocent one. You couldn't say that about Aaron, could you? He didn't say that about Aaron. He was just like you and I. But our high priest, after he accomplished all things, Brother Ed, he passed into the heavens. This is a good text. You see then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession or our confession. Hold on to it, folks. Hold on to it. You know, there's a few points, you know, We believe also. Not only do we start with total depravity, that puts us in absolute need of a deliverance. We believe also in that unconditional election doctrine. We believe in that limited atonement. I like to put it in these words, that particular atonement. We believe in that irresistible grace. That's four of them isn't it? We believe all that. We hold to that. We preach that. We teach that. We confess that don't we? Old Barney, old B.B. Caldwell said, what our problem with today with modern baptism is they're only, they're only whiskey baptists. They only hold to the fifth. That's right. They deny all the other doctrines prior to that one. They come up to the fifth and they hold on to that one. But they hold on to that one, bread in a perverted way, distorted way. They take that one and they distort that fifth one, which is perseverance of the saints. Which is perseverance of the saints. And they distort that and switch it around and change it around into an idea of want saved, always saved. You ever heard that? Yeah. Once saved, always saved. They watered that down from a doctrine they held to for many years called eternal security. But their idea of once saved is once making a profession of faith. And then you can live like hell the rest of your life and never the darkest door of the church, but if you've made a profession of faith and been baptized, you're in. That's not so, folks. What does the Bible say? He that endures to the end shall be saved. That's perseverance. And mark it, God's people will persevere. Not in their strength, not in their power, but in the strength and power of Christ. So he says, let us hold fast. our profession. Over here in the 10th chapter, there's another verse over here, the 10th chapter of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 18. Now this is important here, in the context of what I'm talking about, sins expired. I'm talking about sins being expired. Now where remission of these is, talking about sins, there is no more offering for sins. You see that? Where the remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sins. In other words, it's satisfied. It's satisfied. Sins expired. What are you talking about, preacher? Well, he says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. He says, in their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. That's the 17th verse of the 10th chapter. And then he says in the text that I had you look at, now where remission of these is, there is no more, no more, I got that underlined, no more offering for sin. You see, he never could have passed into heaven, Breth, had he not expiated our sins. That's what expiation means. He canceled our sins. He canceled the debt. He could not have passed into heaven if this were not the case. His passing into heaven, what does that attest to us? What does that prove to us? Well, it proves to us that God was satisfied. Why did He come into this world? He came into this world to put away sin. Did he accomplish it? Amen. He had to accomplish it or he could not have passed from this world after his death and resurrection into heaven. Matter of fact, he would not have been raised from the dead had not God been satisfied with what he accomplished on the cross. It's all over. So he says where the remission of these is, there's no more offering. I mean, all of that year-by-year sacrificing that took place in the age of the Israelites in the old economy, year after year on the Day of Atonement, they had to come together. Each man had to have his offering, had to identify with his offering, and it took away his sins or covered his sins. It didn't take them away. It covered his sins for a year. He had to come back and do it again next year. Over and over and over again. But when this man died, and when this man put away sin, when this man offered himself, once he offered himself once and for all, never ever to be repeated again, he passed into heaven. As a matter of fact, the scripture says in the book of Hebrews, when he comes a second time, he's coming again, when he comes a second time, it'll be without a sin offering for salvation. That's encouraging isn't it? So he could never have passed into heaven. had he not expiated our sins. Scripture says this in 2 Corinthians 5.21, one of my favorite texts, one of the greatest gospel texts in all the Bible, For ye hath made him, God hath made him, to be sin for us, him whom ye know sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now that's the imputation, double imputation, imputing our sins to Him. He's paying for our sins. God was enabled to impute His righteousness unto us. And had our sins, had our sins not been expiated, there's no ground for forgiveness. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. So expiation means the cancellation of sin. Expiation and propitiation, that's the reason I've got it broken down into two thoughts here to develop this morning. Expiation and propitiation are similar, but expiation does not carry the implication of dealing with wrath as does propitiation. So you got two things involved. You got expiation and you got appeasement. And the idea of appeasement comes under the idea of propitiation. I preached a message a while back, you know, Christ out of propitiation, and enlarged on that term and the subject, the doctrine. You might want to go back and get you a copy of the tape and listen to it along with hearing this. So expiation and propitiation I say are similar, but expiation does not carry the implication of dealing with with God's wrath and of appeasing it through a sacrifice. Generally speaking, propitiation cancels sin and deals with God's wrath where as expiation just simply is the cancellation of sin. Now Jesus was our propitiation. 1 John chapter 2 verse 2 says, My little These things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for our own sins, but for the sins of the whole world. He says this in 1 John 14. You are in His love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. to send his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now you've got both ideas. Sins propitiated. That was the work of the high priest. He not only expiated sins of the ancient people of Israel when he took those sacrifices before God took the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it upon the Ark of the Covenant, but he also, not only but he also propitiated for their sins. And he was in the office of propitiating both cases. But sins propitiated. Let me just say a word or two about this. Scripture says in Romans chapter 3 verse 24 and 25, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption. that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins, that is again for the remission of sins that are past. He's talking about all those sins that were that were charged to Israel of old, the people of God in the old economy, they had been covered, but never canceled out. Only Christ could cancel those sins out. The wrath of God had been cooled, but the fire had never been put out. Only Christ could put out the fire. I mean, rivers of blood had been spilt and been poured out by all of those animal sacrifices for all those centuries in the old economy, but not one drop of that blood ever took away one sin. It only was good for the time being until Christ came. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem His people. from the curse. So he says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So the idea of propitiation is that it not only expiates, cancels sin, But it appeases the wrath. It appeases the wrath. The wrath of God no longer is vented toward those that Christ died for. Do you see a distinction there? I say the wrath of God is no longer vented, cannot be vented, toward those for whom Christ died for. Does that take away His wrath completely? It does for those for whom Christ died for. But what about those that die rejecting Christ? There is no appeasement there. As a matter of fact, brethren, I believe it burns hotter, especially for those who have been under the light of the gospel, who live and die rejecting Jesus Christ and the message of grace. What's hell going to be? The manifestation of God's justice. The manifestation of God's justice. His justifying wrath against sin. And those who have had much like, much is required. We've heard this and I believe this. I believe there will be degrees. I believe there will be degrees of punishment, degrees of suffering in hell. I really do. I believe the Bible teaches that. Somebody says, well, hell is hell. That's right. You do not want to go to hell by any means whatsoever. But I'm telling you, if you've had the gospel preached to you time and time again, the more life you receive, the more responsibility And the rejection of it, the greater the punishment. Do you believe that? I agree with old Ralph Bernard. I heard him make this statement. He said, you know, he said if he had bound to terminate his heart, the sinner is a sinner, that he was not going to respond to the gospel. He said, I'd catch me a boat, the most remote place in this world. And I'd get off that boat, maybe catch a train. I had that means of travel. I'd catch me a train. I'd go as far as I could go in a train. I'd get off that train. And I'd buy me a beast, a mule, he said. And I'd ride that mule as deep as I possibly could in that remote area. And I'd get off that mule when the mule couldn't go any further. And I'd walk, he said, just as deep as I could possibly walk in the midst of that remote area. And I'd find me a cave, the deepest cave that I could possibly find. And I'd hibernate in that cave. I'd get as far away from the light of the gospel as I possibly could. You understand what he's saying? Because the more light, the more obligation, the more responsibility. And some of you have sat here and sat here and sat here under the light of the gospel, some of you for years, and never have responded to it. You refuse to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you, my friend, I'm telling you right up front right now, you die in that condition. Hell, hell is going to be hotter for you than it is for those people that's never heard the gospel where Trevor Johnson is going now. Right? So the idea of propitiation is that it not only expiates, cancels sins, but it appeases wrath. It puts out the fire of justice that burns against the sinner and his sin. That's good news. That's good news for those who believe it. That's good news for me, because I believe. You know the word translated, and that's our next thought here, reconciliation. The sinner is reconciled through the work of the high priest. The high priest reconciles God to the sinner by bringing forth the sacrifices. You can't reconcile yourself. You cannot reconcile yourself. God must be reconciled. See, we're the ones that's in trouble. God's never in trouble. Therefore, God must be reconciled to the sinner. And that's what the sacrifice was all about. The shedding of blood was all about reconciling a God that was in hatred toward the sinner. That is, he despised the sinner because of his sin. Therefore, he was at odds with the sinner. Something must take place to bring God to the sinner. And all that did in the old economy, all of that administration that was done by the priests was only for a time being. Christ had to come forth. Christ had to do what He did on the cross. Christ had to fulfill the law and die under its penal sentence in order that we might be reconciled. That God might be reconciled to us. You know the word reconcile is found fifty times in the Leviticus song. Fifty times in the book of Leviticus. And it's always in relationship to blood. To the blood sacrifice. Always. That's interesting, isn't it? Daniel said this. This was a prophecy. We read it in Daniel 9, 24. Daniel said, Seventy weeks are determined upon the people and upon the holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and anoint the most holy, and to make reconciliation for iniquity. All that is a prophecy concerning the coming of Jesus Christ in this world is what He would accomplish. What He would accomplish. He would bring to the full the transgression. That is, the transgression of the holy law. It would come to its fullness in the first advent and through the work of Jesus Christ, and He would bring to an end sin. That is, sins and their just imputation upon his people. He's bringing the end of that. He'd fill it up. He would be anointed, which he was anointed, as the priest. Not only the prophet, the king, but anointed as the priest. This we see at the baptism when he came straightway up out of the water after John had put him under the water. We saw the dove, which is the Holy Spirit of God, come down from heaven and abide upon him. That was his anointing. God anointed him for the work that was before him as our great high priest. All of this was accomplished. And to make reconciliation. for iniquity, to reconcile God to his people. And that is by the expiatory and propitiatory sacrifice of himself for his elect, whereby the divine justice is fully satisfied. Old Gil had a good thought. Let me share it with you. John Gil, he said, full reparation being made for the injury done by sin. And he's commenting on this text out of Daniel chapter 9 verse 24. Full reparation, he says, being made for the injury done by sin. And this was made for all kinds of sin. It doesn't matter what you've done. Listen, let me tell you something, folks. I mean, we're all guilty of sin. We're guilty of various categories of sin. We're guilty of all kinds of sin. You may be guilty of one thing that I've not committed. I may be guilty of something that you haven't committed. But we have a great high priest who took all kinds of sin upon himself, all imputed unto him. So you're an adulterer. Listen, Jesus Christ came to save adulterers. So you're a murderer. Jesus Christ came to save murderers. All kinds of sins. Reparation was made for in our great high priest. Yield goes on to say, and for all the sins, iniquities and transgressions, all the sins and the iniquities and transgressions of the Lord's people. to do that which was the grand end of Christ's coming into the world. That was his purpose, and that's what he accomplished. Scripture says, Wherefore in all things it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." And then I said, in his functions, his administration as our great high priest, not only expiating sins, being the propitiatory sacrifice and making reconciliation, but blessed be God, I like this last one. Sins having been expiated, propitiated, reconciled, there remains this one most vital work for the high priest intercession intercession scripture therefore will i divide him a portion of reading out of isaiah 53 verse 12 therefore will i divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the small with the strong because he had poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors And He bare the sin of many, that's His elect, not all but many. And made intercession for the transgressors, that's us. Romans 8 verse 34 says, Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen, who is even at the right hand of God ever. or who also maketh intercession for us. That's what he's doing presently. Is he up there praying like we go to Lord in prayer? Is he constantly suffocating and petitioning like we do? No, no, no. He's our high priest. He is mere presence before God intercedes for us. No charge can be laid to God's elect. Every time the wicked one, the devil, would lay a charge against God's elect, Christ says, away with it. I'm here. They're there. And because I'm here, they'll be here in their own time. But this man, Because He continues ever, it's all about Christ. This man, aren't you glad I said this man? We need a man in heaven. We need a man just like you and I, yet without sin. Yet without sin. And we've got a man, Brother Charles. The man Christ Jesus. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He's our Mediator. He's our Mediator. The only Mediator. There's no more! Are you aware of that? Are you sure in your soul? There's no other mediator. No one else can intercede for you. No one can mediate for you. He's the only one. So be thankful. There's millions upon millions out here today that look to others. Isn't that right, Brother A? They're looking to other mediators. Mary is no mediator. Mary had to have a mediator. Mary is not an intercessor. Mary had to have an intercessor. Are you aware of that? Are you sure of it in your heart? No other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The man Christ Jesus. What's this man? Because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. You like that? Nobody takes his place. They did that in sessions in the old economy. They had sessions they had to occupy. One house out of the tribe of Levi took up his place and after a while he had a furlough. He'd take his furlough. He'd discharge and come another house. He had to take that place. After a while, one die, here come another one, take his place. Hey, we got an unchangeable priest. We got an unchangeable priest. Wherefore, he, Christ, is able also to save them to the uttermost, and come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He said, For such an high priest became us. That's that word, became. You know what that means, don't you? You're spitting us. You're suiting us. You know some lady comes in with a new Darmadon. You've heard this. That becomes you. That becomes you. What to say to that? That just suits you. That just fits you. That's exactly what you need. So it is with Jesus Christ. He just suits a sinner. He just fits us. He's exactly what we need. And outside of Him, you don't need anything. Do you know that? For such a high priest became us, who is holy, here he is right here, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who need it not daily as those high priests in the old economy, to offer up sacrifices for his sins or for his own sins and then for the people. I mentioned that to you a while ago. Old Aaron had to make sure he was clean, sanctified, set apart by the sprinkling of blood before he offered for the other people. He was in the same fix they were in. But this one didn't. This one didn't. He had no sin. He had no sin of his own. He said, for this one, this one, and he offered up himself a sacrifice. He shed his own blood. He said, for this one, he did once and for all, no more to be repeated. That's our high priest. That's our high priest. All right. Hope you know him. I hope you know him. Hope you're acquainted with him. Hope you trusted him, relying on him, resting in him. I preach that to you, hoping that you have part in this thing.