Well, good morning, everyone. Indeed, I look forward to every Sunday morning because, in fact, it's the highlight of the week for God's people. It's a time when we get to gather together and worship and fellowship and hear from the word and encourage one another. And it's one time that we gather and we say, Lord, speak, your servants are listening. And so it's fun for us to be together, great joy. I encourage you, if you haven't already, to make sure your cell phones are turned to silent or turned off so that we're not interrupted as we have this time together in the word of God this morning. Pastor and Professor Steve Brown is well-known in the Orlando area, and he tells the following story. In the 11th century, King Henry III of Bavaria, modern-day Germany, grew tired of court life and pressures of being a king. So he made application to Prior Richard, the leader of the local monastery, asking to be accepted and to spend the rest of his life as a monk in the monastery. Your majesty, said Prior Richard, do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? Your majesty, said Prior Richard, yes. I'm sorry, Prior Richard, said the king, yes. I understand, and the rest of my life I will be obedient to you as Christ leads you. Well, then I will tell you what to do, said Prior Richard. Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you. And so he did. And when King Henry died, a statement was written, the king learned to rule by being obedient. Steve Brown goes on and comments, when we tire of our roles and responsibilities, it helps us to remember that God has planted us in a certain place and told us to be a good accountant or a teacher or mother or father, and we could go on and put our profession in there. Christ expects us to be faithful where he puts us, and when he returns, we'll rule together with him. As we continue in our study in Hebrews this morning, we're now in the section where Jesus is presented as the great high priest. We know that he has stepped down from eternity to enter into the life of men, and he is learning through experience all the hardships and challenges that come from the human condition. In fact, in our passage this morning, Jesus himself had to learn the cost of obedience, to learn what is actually the cost of following the Father, come what may. And the result is we're told several times that he was made the perfect high priest who alone bridges the gap between God and men. And because he has done that, he serves as an example for us today when we face challenges and trials in the Christian life. He's the one who has gone before us, and he leads us as we journey toward the ultimate promised land in the new heavens and the new earth. And so with that, as we look to see the example that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us, I invite you to stand as we read our passage for this morning that we will study during our time together. Hebrews chapter 5, verses 1 to 10. And the Holy Word of God says, for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. So he also says in another place, You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Friends, this is a gift from the Lord. It is the word of the Lord as he teaches us about how Christ is the greater and better high priest who fulfills all that the high priest of old did and comes from a better line. May he who has ears to hear, let him hear this morning and please be seated. And let us pray. Father, once again, we find ourselves in a place just where we need to be. at the feet of the cross, looking to Jesus to help us, to teach us. And as we sit now, Father, under the authority of your word, we recognize that we need the help of your Holy Spirit to lead and to guide, to teach and to help, to encourage, to sustain, to apply the wonders of your word. And so in this sacred moment, we commit ourselves to you, and we ask for you to work among us in our hearts and our minds and our wills and our actions and our thoughts, that they would be turned to Jesus, who is high and lifted up. Oh, Father, may this be a time when we meet you this morning through your word, in Jesus' name. Well, last week as we began this new section that began towards the end of chapter four, it will continue into the middle of chapter 10, we're being presented as Jesus as the high priest, in fact, the better priest, the far greater high priest. We saw that he was able to sympathize with us in our time of need. We saw last week that Jesus has been tempted with every type of temptation that we can have, and he resisted all of them completely. And because he resisted them all completely to the end, he understands what we're going through. He's able to console, he's able to comfort, to strengthen when we face temptation in our daily lives, in the daily struggle for holiness that is the call of every Christian. So we're reminded that we can draw near to him at any time for we're reminded that at the throne of grace, there is a sign above flashing brightly open 24 hours. And whenever we're in need, which is all the time, we can go to him and we can ask for his help. For the one who is our helper sits at the right hand of God and is able to give us mercy and grace in our time of need. And so that brings us now to the passage that we're going to consider today, and I encourage you, if you've not already, to turn to your sermon outline or open the app on your phone, where you can take notes of what we're going to study this morning, as we get to our first major point, which is the high priest of old. The high priest of old. And as we begin, we're reminded of the role of the high priest under the old covenant. that he was to pray for the people, he had a ministry of intercession, he stood in the gap and prayed on behalf of God's people, that he represented God to them and he taught the ways of God to them and offered sacrifices on their behalf. He was set apart by God for an important role. And he was recognized by the people who were then called to follow him because he was accountable to God for how he would carry out his priestly duties. And so as this writer of Hebrews is continuing in writing to this church in the first century that is struggling under the pressure of turning away from the gospel because of opposition in the larger culture, He now has arrived at the point in his letter where he wants to show them that Jesus is a better high priest, superior to all of the priests of old. And so he's going to do that by first explaining and reminding them of what was the situation of the high priest under the old covenant. And the first is that they were appointed as a mediator. And our text begins in verse one. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God. He's reminding them that God was in control, that the high priest was put in his role by divine design, not by his own personal choosing. Of course, he had to be a man, he couldn't be an angel, he couldn't be anything else, but he had to be from among his people so that he could minister on their behalf before God. It was one of the instructions that came from Ezekiel 28, which says, then bring near to you Aaron, your brothers, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests. In this way then the high priest would live among the people, he would know the people, he would understand the conditions in which they were living so that he could act on their behalf in relation to God. So while it's true he would be among men, he would be set apart from men because it was God's hand upon his life to represent him among the people. And so he had this unique role of mediating between God and people. And he would offer then in addition to his prayers, in addition to whatever else he had to do, he would offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He carried a heavy burden. He had a heavy duty, he had a deep responsibility, because he knew that he had been appointed by God. And because he'd been appointed by God, he was called to serve the people with great humility and care, not out of a sense of self-ambition or pride. He was to serve on behalf of men, not for his own sake. As one commentator says, a true priest is motivated solely by a desire to honor God and serve men without concern for personal advancement. After all, he's just a man himself who's to act on behalf of God's people before God. We won't go into great detail of what the gifts and sacrifices might be here because we're going to see them as we move through the chapters in Hebrew, but they act as a summary of all that the high priest would do on behalf of the people. But we know that they were specifically for sins, and we'll look at how that was applied in the old covenant to see how Jesus fulfilled it under the new. So he had to be appointed. He was appointed as a mediator, and he was called to be gentle in ministry. Verse 2 says, he can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. And there was a dual challenge that the high priest had. He would wear elaborate and well-planned out accessories, clothing, if you will, with each thing meaning something very specific. but he also had to have a certain disposition inwardly. He needed to be able to sympathize and relate to the people, so he needed to have a right inward behavior to go with his right outward behavior. It was not just the outer clothing that he would wear, it was also his interior life with the Lord that needed to reflect and be consistent with how he was wearing, what he was wearing. And the reason for this is that he himself was beset with weakness. He had the privilege of being close to the word of God, of studying the law of God, and yet the more he studied the law of God, the more he recognized in himself that he was a sinner, that he fell short of what the law required. And so because he knew himself to be a sinner, he knew that he was serving on behalf of sinners, and he also knew then that he had to be humble, he had to be able to relate to those that were around him. So again, in dealing with those who did not follow the ways of the Lord, who didn't know the ways of the Lord, who maybe were in danger of falling away from them, He knows that this was always the danger among God's people. It's the whole point of the book of Hebrews, to use an example from the past to show how the people of Israel had fallen again and again, how they committed great sin because they would not put their trust ultimately in God. And so they wander, sometimes through ignorance, sometimes through willful sin, and they stray from the things of God. And so the high priest is called to be patient with both types of failure, those that are ignorant and those that are wayward. His role is to call them and to get them and encourage them and challenge them to get back on the right road. Of course, we see in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the comparison. He's a far greater high priest. For he was merciful and faithful, and he fully understands our frailty and weakness, and he shows his goodness to us as we continually go to him. And yet, as we look at this verse, he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. The writer himself knows that rebellion is a real problem. because it reveals the disobedience that was in the people's hearts. And as he saw it in the ancient Israelites of old, he's pleading with those in the first century and saying, don't commit the same sin. Sin always moves us away from the goodness of God. Sin always causes us to doubt the goodness of God. And it clouds our minds as to the truth of God. And if that sin is in fact willful, it begins to harden the heart so that the truth cannot be seen or even be desired to be obeyed. The author surely knows that under the Old Testament, there is a distinction between sins of ignorance and sins of willing disobedience. The Bible makes clear that there is a remedy for the former, but the latter, no, because it's to sin with a high hand. And you can imagine just the attitude of one who raises their hand against God and said, I will not. So the author is pleading with his readers and saying, heed the warning. For if you willingly turn away from the offer that God has given to rest in peace, there's no other hope for you. And we're going to see that as we move through the next few chapters. But his focus mainly here this morning is that there are believers who, despite their faith in Christ as Savior, are struggling with sin. Not so much those that have heard and are ready to reject the gospel. And to those struggling then, the high priest would plead on their behalf, and the writer of Hebrews is pleading on their behalf, that not only must they be gentle, not only must they be set apart from God, but this high priest has a great understanding of who he is, that he's a sinner like the others. So we're juxtaposing the past and the contemporary in the first century. And you see that. But we continue with looking at the high priest of old. He was a sinner like the others. And because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins. just as he does for those of his people. We've already seen that every high priest was needy, every high priest was weak, every high priest needed to be aware of his dependence upon the Lord, so he had to offer a sacrifice for himself before he would dare enter into the Holy of Holies, where he would offer the sacrifice on behalf of the people one time a year. Each of the sacrifices that he would perform for sins, for offerings, for gifts, would be a reminder to himself that he indeed was a sinner. And so he could not point people to himself, but he had to point people to the solution that God offered, that ultimately would be fulfilled one day in our Lord Jesus Christ. But let's think about now that most important day in the life of the high priest. It would be the Day of Atonement. And just write down Leviticus 16 in your notes. You can look at it throughout the week. We're just going to summarize what we see there. But on that holy day, which is behind all of what's going to happen in the next several chapters of Hebrews. the high priest would have to first sacrifice a bull on behalf of him and his family. And the blood would have to be poured out as atonement for his sins. And once he did that, and once he was prepared to enter the Holy of Holies, then he would take two goats for atoning for the sins of the people. And one of the goats, chosen by Lot, He would sacrifice that goat as a sin offering, then he would carry the blood into the Holy of Holies and smear it on the mercy seat to cover up the sins of the people. But the second goat would then become what we know as the scapegoat, where the high priest would take the goat by the head and confess over the goat all of the sins of the people of Israel, and then drive the goat away from the camp. The idea that symbolically the sins were carried away from the people. And in that we see our two greatest needs that we have as we stand before a holy God. That we need to have our sins that are paid for, that they are covered, and they need to be removed far from us. And as we celebrate this week that is to come, let us recognize that that's exactly what Jesus did. He paid the price for our sin, the precious blood that had no comparison, and our sins were covered. And then, as they were placed on Him, as He hung on the cross, and as He was put in the tomb, our sins were carried away from us, so we bear them no more, and we could stand before God righteous. Jesus, as we've seen, he knew weakness. Not the weakness of sin, but the weakness of the human condition, which is prone to temptation. Jesus never sinned, but he experienced the effects of sin, and hunger, and fatigue, and the evil of others. And in all of that, he identified with our humanity. He took on the sins of his people and died in their place, paying the penalty for sin with his precious blood, as it was predicted by the prophet oh so long ago. Isaiah 53 verse 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. But Jesus also died outside the city. so as to take away the sins from the people, to remove them from them. And now, friends, if you're in Christ this morning, you're clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Your sins have been paid for and they've been removed, and you can stand in God's presence where He declares you righteous and holy and forgiven. When we get back to the high priest under the Old Covenant, they were appointed by God. Therefore, they were to deal gently with those they served, for they themselves were weak, and they were sinners, like those they served. And so they had to have a recognition that there was nothing great in and of themselves, but what they had was a derived honor. A derived honor, not an inherent honor. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. Of course, this would be the sense of all priests, but particularly the high priest, the rulers of the people, that they would be chosen by God. It was a calling that they had received. It continues to be the calling that God sends out as he is the one that appoints leaders among his people who are not to self-aggrandize, who are not to self-appoint, but to recognize that they are set apart by God. One commentator says the position of the high priest derives from divine rather than human authority. So there'd be no room for this high priest or any of the servants of God to boast. Because it was God's decision, who alone has dominion over his people. And he watched over that calling that he gave to Aaron in the tribe of Levi. And there were times where people would rise up, even among the family of the Levites, even among the family of Moses, who would act against the position of the high priest or against the prophet, and God would bring judgment, because He knew the ones that He had raised up and He had set apart. So these high priests were chosen by God, because they stood in an important position between God and people. So the author wants to move the readers now of the first century from that understanding of the high priest of old to show them the greater high priest now who is to come. In fact, he is the great high priest, the great high priest. What was done before was good, it was important, it was valuable, but it paled in comparison to the one who was to come, who is the great high priest. And so he's going to establish that this new high priest that he wants him to follow, even the Lord Jesus Christ, he will show that this high priest also was called of God and also came from a great line of priests, in fact, greater than the line of Aaron, than the tribe of Levi. But in comparison and contrast, this great high priest was also appointed by God. So in verse five we see, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, and we'll stop there. Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest. He did not self-appoint. We know that he had a unique relationship with the Father. And in all that he did when he came to earth, it was to submit to the will of the Father, it was to surrender to the will of the Father, and not to glorify himself. In one of his discourses in John chapter eight, he said, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me. And yet we've already seen in this chapter, in this book, in the first few verses, that Jesus was the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of who God is. And yet all throughout His earthly ministry, He sought not His own glory, but He sought the glory of the Father in all things. In fact, far from glorifying Himself, He took on the humblest form of a servant, a servant of God, and went through the deepest of rejection, the deepest of humiliation, the deepest of pain to gain the salvation of his people. And so far from seeking his own glory, he knew that the cross had to come before the crown. But this great display of humility that even led to his humiliation ultimately did result in him being raised up and glorified and ascended to the right hand of the Father, but he was appointed by God, who not only appointed him to be the high priest, but also declared him to be the true priest-king, the true king-priests. Verse five says, you are my son, today I have begotten you. As it says in another place, you are a priest forever after order of Melchizedek. And here we see two amazing strains, or strands, if you will, of biblical theology coming together. There's some amazing statements here about who our Lord Jesus Christ is coming together in these two statements. You are my son, today I have begotten you is a direct quote from Psalm chapter two, verse seven. Psalm chapter 2 is this messianic passage in which the Father promises the Son a kingdom and an inheritance that will include all the nations, a kingdom over which He will rule forever. And the joy that we have as being in Christ is we will see it one day. We will see the gospel being preached through all the nations of the earth. We will see the glory of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea, and Jesus will reign as King over all the earth. but he's more than a son. He's a son, he's a king, and he's a priest. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This comes directly from Psalm 110, verse 4. Psalm 110 is another one of those passages that I would encourage you to take time to read and perhaps even memorize. It's a wonderful psalm in which God appoints A king who will be priest and a priest who will be king. Now the focus here in Hebrews chapter five is on the priesthood of the one who is appointed by God. This new priest who will be forever because it's by the appointment and choice of God. An eternal priesthood as we see that will bring eternal salvation for those who trust and obey in the Lord. Now Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. But usually we hear from verse one. And the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. That's usually the verse that we see out of Psalm 110. It happens over 15 times in the New Testament. It's a verse that shows the lordship of Christ and that he's appointed to rule over all creation. But the writer of Hebrews is the only one who quotes from verse four. talking about the superior priesthood of the Messiah. And to both of those roles, as king and as priest, Christ was appointed by the Father. Now, in the days before Jesus, it was generally held that there would be two types of leaders that would come. There'd be a political leader from the house of David, and there'd be a great religious leader from the priestly line. But they were not seen as being together in the same person. And yet here, in Hebrews 5, we see that Jesus fulfilled both roles in the same person, both king and priest. He was king, for you see, he was the ultimate son of David to whom an eternal kingdom was given. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. But he's also the ultimate high priest that will come from the line of Melchizedek. And that line is so important. That figure is so important that we're actually going to have a standalone sermon on the importance and identity of Melchizedek in future weeks as we continue in our study in Hebrews. But for now, we'll continue on as the author declares the importance of the lineage of David and Melchizedek coming together in one person, Jesus, the ultimate king, priest. Yes, he was a son, the greatest means of revelation of the Father. Yes, he was a king, the king of kings. And yes, he was a priest that we've already seen in the introduction to Hebrews, who made purification for sins and then sat down at the right hand of glory. and that he is the true king and priest, which we will celebrate this week, friends. I hope you'll take time to spend time with Jesus and reflecting on all that he went through for you, his deep love for you, what he took on on your behalf so that he could be the true king and priest. This is a king who knew suffering and reverence. suffering, and reverence. Verse seven says, and the days of his flesh will stop there. This just refers to his time when he was a human being. He became man. He lived a truly human life. And in the mystery of the incarnation, in the only time in all of history it has happened and could ever happen again, Jesus was and is the true God-man, being both truly God and truly man in one person forever. who now sits and reigns at the right hand of the Father. And as this perfect God-man, he is the perfect mediator, for he alone knows the true and full status of what it is to be man and what it is to be God. And as he experienced the fullness of human condition in the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications. Jesus modeled a lifestyle of prayer. He prayed before miracles. He prayed before great events. He prayed before big decisions. He prayed before his trials. We find him praying in the morning as the day is beginning. We find him praying in the evening. We find him praying all night. In fact, that would be a good study for you to undertake. Carefully read through the four Gospels and look at every instance where Jesus prayed and look at when he prayed and how he prayed. and for what he prayed, and for whom he prayed, and let him disciple you in the discipline of prayer and how to fellowship truly with God the Father. But here there's a particular type of prayer that he offers up. He offers up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who is able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. This likely refers to the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, such as is recorded in Luke 22. We'll have time to look at that on Good Friday when we gather together. I think also there is a history of the Lamentation Psalms, where a righteous man cries out that he's suffering because of righteousness' sake. And Jesus, of course, is the fulfillment of all of that. But Jesus faced the cruelty of the cross. He felt the weight of my sin. He felt the weight of your sin, of our guilt, our shame. He sweat drops of blood because he had become the greatest concentration of sin the world had ever seen. And in that moment, his soul cries out in anguish. As we see in Mark 14, and he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch. As he's put on a cruel cross, hanging between heaven and earth in darkness, he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a real cry of forsakenness in his humanity. He cried out for he was in real agony. And so what is he praying for in the garden? And what is referred to here in Hebrews chapter 5? What does it mean that he knew that God would save him from death? For we know that he died. So how do we understand this? Do we say that Jesus was praying that he would not die? Well, then we have to wrestle with what he said in John 12, where Jesus says that he's in anguish, knowing the cross is coming. And he says, Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have come for this hour. Father, glorify your name. And a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it. And I will glorify it again. Jesus knew that from eternity past, the plan was that he would become man, take on the fullness of humanity, take on the fullness of our sin and shame, and be a sin sacrifice for all who would believe in him. So what is he praying for? I believe he was praying that he would be delivered through death. They'd pray that he would survive and he would come back. He's in his humanity. He's at the edge of the strength of his humanity. He's praying that he can go through the suffering in the cross and endure it. He's praying for God's strength to obey his will to the end. And it's a real prayer. He who had cried out, if it is possible for this cup to pass, Father, but not my will, but your will be done. And he knew that this cup would not be removed from him. He also knew that he always followed the will of the Father. John 6 and 38. In the garden, that moment he faced down clearly the reality of what the payment for sin would require. And in the words of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he who knew no sin God made to become sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So one commentator says, by making it all the way to the end of his passion, Jesus was made complete, perfect, in the sense of being able to fulfill his role as our high priest. He finished the course. What does that mean for us? We who are sinners, we who are created beings, we who will stand before a holy God one day in judgment, what does it mean for us with a God who punishes sin? It means that Jesus endured hell on the cross so that those who believe in him would not go to hell forever. He went through hell so that we can enter into heaven. He opened the way to the holy of holies in the very presence of God. He also modeled for us what submission to the will of God looks like. Friends, are you in Christ this morning? Do you know the forgiveness of your sins? Do you have peace with God? If the final hour were to tick on your life, two hours from now, do you know that you would be in the presence of Christ? And do you know then that if he has purchased you, and he's done all that for you, that we have no basis for saying no to any of his commands. He who commands us to take up our cross and die daily and follow him. Jesus prayed that he would endure the punishment of the cross, that he would be saved, and we're told that he was heard. He was sustained through the trials, through the cross, through the burial, and God raised him from the dead on the third day. He was not left in the ground. His sacrifice was not in vain. You see, death could not hold him down, for he was an innocent man. And death can't hold down an innocent man. Oh, he died for sin. It just wasn't his sin. It was mine, and it was yours. And he was heard because of his reverence. The word for reverence means religious carefulness or concern for the honor of God. Jesus respected and honored the Father at every turn. And so his desire was that the Father would be pleased at every moment in his life, and that all that he did would be poured out as a sacrifice acceptable to the Father. That's why he would pray, not my will, but thine, O Lord. But this text, as powerful as it is, as full of wonder as it already is, there's more yet to come. In verse eight, we are told, although he was a son, He learned obedience through what he suffered. He was the Son. He was the Son of God. He was God in the flesh, but he would not be spared any of the drama and trauma that humans experience. And he was not just a son, he was the Son. But he would endure and experience all that is involved in the human condition. He would do it all to please the Father. for that was what he came to do. And so we're told that he learned obedience from the suffering. What does that mean? It means he learned the cost of obedience. He learned the cost that sin and rebellion bring. And this knowledge could only be learned through experience. And that is why the author of Hebrews again and again says he was made perfect, which means to be fully qualified for his role as the Messiah. As we saw last week, Jesus knew suffering and temptation far greater than any of us will ever know. He experienced the true and full cost of obedience as a human being to the Father in all things. And so, he was made ready. He fulfilled it all to be the true sacrifice for our sins. He was already perfect in his character, in his nature, in his actions. We're already told he was without sin. but now he is perfect in the sense that he's accomplished all that was necessary to be the great high priest between God and men. He had endured in perfect obedience to know the true and full price of what it is to say yes to God at every moment. Therefore, he is truly trustworthy. He is worthy, the only one to whom we can go when we're in trouble. And think of how this would be an encouragement then to those first century believers who are suffering for their faith in Christ, who are wondering, is it worth it to be ostracized, to be persecuted, to lose our jobs, to lose our identity in the culture? And seeing that this Son of God had suffered so much and identifies with them. They would now be strengthened to suffer for Him, if that's what God should call them to. Jesus knew that He had a baptism, as it were, to endure. We had an expression in the Nicene Creed last week that says, We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. This is what it means. Jesus was plunged into death for the sin of His people. He said, I have a baptism to endure, and he did. He was plunged into death. He became our great high priest, offering not only the sacrifice, but also being the sacrifice. He did that because he lived a life of perfect obedience. And what a great high priest we have. He relinquished all control of his life and death to the Father. He endured the beatings and the mockings and the scorning, and He surrendered it all and went to the cross. And so He gives us not only the provision that we need so we can be forgiven, but He gives us an example to follow and helps us to follow Him even as we face the deepest of trials. And so He was able to help this struggling church to persevere as they face persecution and trouble, and He's able to help us today. when we face difficult things. We can walk with God, not according to our circumstances and our emotions, but according to His word and His will and His way, and so let us trust Christ. Let us surrender to Him, for He's able to help. He wants to help. He does help, for He is the eternal Savior. Verse nine says, in being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Think of that. The work of Christ in his life and his death is of eternal value, without limit in its effects. We already know what Paul wrote us in Ephesians chapter one, that all of the blessings of salvation that we have come to us in Christ. And now we see why, because Christ is the source of salvation. And this means it's a salvation that is eternal and not temporary. We're going to come across expressions like this. His high priesthood is eternal. and not temporary. The effects are eternal and not short-lived. And as we look at what He says, what He has done as we move through Hebrews, we'll find that He is an eternal Savior who brings an eternal redemption, who gives an eternal inheritance because of the eternal covenant. This is salvation that is of the Lord. Salvation is always of the Lord. And in this once for all time sacrifice, Jesus and his effects outlive and outlast the greatest of sins or sinners. But if he's the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, then we see the condition. It is made available only to those who obey him. As Charles Spurgeon writes, there must be obedient faith rendered unto him or else the virtue of his passion and death cannot come to us. Just as Jesus perfectly obeyed the father so he can be our high priest, we learn to trust him, obey him, and not at anything that comes from us. But because he learned the price of obedience, he bids us come. He strengthens us so we can walk, we continue to obey and learn and live in his strength. As Jesus was writing, or was teaching, I should say, in John chapter 6 about the meaning of why he came to earth, to be the bread of life that would feed the world, to be the one who would give his life at his atoning sacrifice, some people came to him and said, well, what do we need to do? What are the works that we need to do? And he said, this is the work, singular, of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So when we meet Christ, it's at that moment that we turn from our sin. We walk with him. We continue to walk with him. He says, Come and follow me that we might grow in holiness. And this is an ongoing command to trust him, to love him, to live for him, to obey him, to trust him in all things. He's a better prophet. He's a better priest. He's a better source of salvation. No wonder he's the one that can say to us, he is the way, the truth, and the life. And he says, obey and walk with me. Because it's an eternal salvation, because he lives and prays for us on our behalf, and he strengthens us, it means that the saint will persevere because he is preserving them, praying for them, strengthening them. And as we're clothed in His righteousness, we're now empowered to walk in a way that's pleasing to God. Why? Because we love Him. We obey Him because we love Him. And we show that we love Him by obeying Him. He's the eternal Savior, and very briefly and lastly, He is the eternal Savior who is designated and greater. Designated and greater. being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. We've already seen that he was appointed by God to be the Messiah, to be the king, to be the high priest, to bring eternal redemption. And that is because he came after an order of priesthood that is higher and greater than Aaron. Under the line of Aaron, the tribe of Levi, a high priest, would die, and there would be another one. Not so those who come after the line of Melchizedek. As I said, because this is so important, we're actually going to have a sermon just on who is Melchizedek and how is Christ the fulfillment of that line. Friends, as we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, which I hope we will affirm again and again throughout this Holy Week, we enter into a living relationship with Him. Jesus said that eternal life is to know him, the one true God, and the one he has sent, Jesus Christ. That's of eternal value. It's eternal redemption. So that said, eternal life is not a thing we gain. It is a relationship we enter into. We enter into a relationship with the living one who preserves us and will guide us to the end. Christ came, according to the Scriptures, to be the Messiah and the High Priest. This was all done according to the plan of God the Father, who chose Christ to be the High Priest and who fulfilled it all in His life and death and resurrection and all that we will celebrate this week. But that is the only way we can get to God. Do you know that way today? I pray that you will take time this week to think seriously through Do you know Jesus Christ as the bearer of your sins, as the forgiver of all of your iniquities, the one who rose from the dead and who sits at God's right hand praying for his own? Let that refresh you this week and encourage you this week as we celebrate, as a church family, the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because we'll celebrate that next week, we'll take a little break away from the book of Hebrews. But until next week, what are some lessons we can take away? Because Jesus is the appointed high priest, we will bow before him and recognize his authority over us. So you might turn it into a question. You're struggling this morning. Do you believe that Jesus is the appointed high priest? Then will you bow before him and recognize his authority over you? Because Jesus is both king and priest, we go to him for strength and guidance in our daily lives. Will that be true of you this week? Because Jesus modeled a life of prayer, we will also pray to the father as a way of life, seeking his wisdom and his will. I'm needy. I'm weak. I need his wisdom. It's the same for all of us gathered in this room. Because Jesus endured great suffering for us, He makes us ready to suffer greatly for Him. If that should be His will, will our response be, not my will, but Thine, O Lord? Let us pray. Father, as we turn to You now in these moments, we recognize that what a Savior we have in Christ, what a great Redeemer we have. Forgive us, Father, for those times that we just take it for granted, And we just play fast and loose with the facts or even fast and loose with our own sin and rebellion. Reveal to us, Father, the truth of the gospel and drive it ever deeper into our hearts. And may this week, Father, as we contemplate this great high priest who can bring eternal redemption, may it so grip our hearts that it will show. to those around us. And then may you receive great honor and praise as it does, as we celebrate this wonderful week of remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. In his wonderful name we pray, amen.