Well let's open now to the book of Hebrews. We'll begin reading in chapter 4, verse 14. And we'll read through chapter 5, verse 10 this morning. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, and yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God. In order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, he can deal gently. with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness. And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. ...So also God did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Just as He says also in another passage, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. and having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Well Lord, we pray You would teach our hearts and our minds by this, Your Word this morning. Give us understanding. Change us. Sanctify us by this, Your truth. In Christ's name. So the author of Hebrews, as we know, wrote to Jewish Christians who had made professions of faith in Christ. They had come into the assembly of the people of Christ. And he wrote to exhort them to trust and believe in Christ and to continue believing in the promises of God, to persevere in the faith. And he warned them of the consequences of turning away from Jesus Christ and from the gospel. The writer reminded his readers, first of all, in the first two chapters, that Christ is the eternal God. Come in human flesh. He's begun to show them that Jesus is superior to all those people and things of Judaism in the Old Testament that were but foreshadows of Him. He's better than the prophets sent by God. He's above the angels. He's greater than Moses. And He's brought a better rest than that to which Joshua led the sons of Jacob when he led them into the land of Canaan. So in light of those truths, the warnings of the writer have been clear. We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we don't drift away from it. We must not live in this fallen world without daily input from the Word God has given us from heaven. And the writer has warned them, take heed, guard against falling into unbelief by falling into disobedience. If you fall into practices that are in disobedience to God, your heart will become hardened. And you can fall away. He's warned them that if one continues in disobedience to God, he will become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And he'll fail to enter into something far more grand than the land of Canaan. He'll fail to enter into the rest that God has provided for his people. And several times in Hebrews, and you can see it if you have a Bible that uses capital letters for Old Testament passages or Old Testament verses. Several times the writer repeats this warning in Psalm 95, verse 7. Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts. And He has encouraged them to encourage one another daily so they won't be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You notice the connection between these two. Encourage one another so that neither of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And the writer has taught us that God has given us His Word, the fellowship and encouragement of the brethren, and prayer as three means of growth in the grace and knowledge of Him. And as three means of protection against falling away. Protection against apostasy. He reminded them. Remember he used this example of the Israelites in the wilderness at Kadesh when they came and Moses sent the twelve spies in. They didn't believe God. They didn't trust Him that He would bring them into the land. The people were too strong, they said. All but Caleb and Joshua. These people had heard God's voice when He spoke. They saw Him do miraculous things. And yet, when their moment of truth came, what happened? They still did not believe Him. Still did not trust Him. And finally, through disobedience and unbelief, they became hardened against God. And as a result, God did not permit them to enter into the land of Canaan. Over the next 40 years, that whole generation, from 20 years old and above, died in the desert. God said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. He knows who is trusting in Him and who isn't. Chapter 4, verse 14, the writer began to focus on the priesthood of Christ now. Showing us that it's a better priesthood than that priesthood that God gave to Israel. That He gave to the sons of Levi, the sons of Aaron. And in light of the fact that we have this great high priest, and look at these words, who has passed through the heavens. Our high priest has passed through the heavens. He says, let us hold fast our confession. Let's hold firm in the faith. You know, this is our only hope, is our faith in Christ. Our belief in the Word of God. Anything else leaves you in that state of condemnation in Adam. Our confession, he says, let's hold fast to it, is that which we believe that the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, came down from heaven, took on human flesh, lived a sinless life, obeyed God, obeyed the law of God, and then died for our sins to appease the wrath of God, to take our punishment. that He was raised on the third day, and now reigns over all things in glory with the Father, and at the same time is our High Priest. Our hope, our only hope, is in believing in and trusting in His sinless life and atoning death for our sins. and in believing the promise of glory. This is where the Israelites failed at Kadesh. They didn't believe the promise of what lay ahead. Through faith in Him, believing in Him, His righteousness is imputed to us. Our slate is cleaned. God looks upon us and sees a person clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And so as we remain on this earth, the writer exhorts us to live, live in light of these truths and in light of this promise. He reminds us that in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, we have a high priest, an advocate before the Father who intercedes with the Father on our behalf. One who, because He is not only divine but human, has been tempted in all things as we are, though without sin, can sympathize with our weakness. The Son of God, in taking on humanity and suffering, has learned what it is to be as one of us." And so in this word of exhortation, as the writer calls it, he's reminded his readers that the Son of God had to be made like his brethren. In God's providence, he had to become human in order to become our merciful and faithful high priest. And as we're going to see, this work of a high priest isn't simply related to prayer, although it includes that. And we'll see that simply by thinking back to what is it that the Old Testament Levitical priests brought to God, but the blood of innocent animals. So now we have a better high priest. We have a better priesthood in respect to the sacrifice He offered, in respect to the new covenant He inaugurated, and in respect to what He accomplished. Our High Priest is the divine and incarnate Son of God, through whom all things were made, who died and rose from death, who now reigns over all things in heaven and on earth. That's our High Priest. That's who our Advocate is before the Father in heaven. And because all these things are true, we saw this last Lord's Day. We can now do something that the sons of Jacob could not do under the old covenant. We can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. We can draw near to God. They had a veil blocking them from the presence of God. And that's the invitation we saw in verse 16 of chapter 4 last week. We who believe in Jesus Christ can draw near to the throne of God's grace. Because Jesus, our Redeemer and our Advocate, has gone before us. His priestly work on our behalf didn't end at the cross. He's passed through the heavens. What glorious words. He's passed into glory. That was His prayer. Father, glorify Your Son. And his priestly intercession goes on. Now, the writer's going to be telling us about this priestly work of Christ through the rest of chapter 5 and through most of chapter 7 and into chapter 8. This priestly work of Christ goes on until eternity. But again, the privilege of approaching God is granted only to those who come through Him. There isn't some other priest. There isn't some other way to get in to see our King. So those who are in Christ are invited. It isn't just permitted. We're invited. Remember what Calvin, we read from Calvin last week. Do you believe the Lord is stretching out His hand to you, inviting you to come in? And we're invited to come, not to receive our desires of our earthly fleshly heart, but to receive mercy and grace in time of need. mercy, to help us in time of need, to come to Him. Now under the old covenant, all the priests were appointed by whom? By God. There's no valid priesthood apart from those appointed by God. No one took this honor to himself. The office of priest can only be by appointment from God. And the writer shows us here in verses 5 and 6 of chapter 5, again making reference to the Psalms. Notice how he's teaching us about Christ through the Psalms. He shows us here in verses 5 and 6 through these two Psalms that the Son of God received appointment as a priest from the Father. Psalm 2, 7, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you. In Psalm 110, verse 4, the Lord has sworn and will not change His mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now Psalm 110. You might want to turn there. You might not. I'm not going to go through it. But it's a psalm about the Messiah, prophesying the coming of Messiah. And it first tells us and speaks of Messiah as a king. And then it reveals that Messiah will also be not only a king, but an eternal high priest. So one Messiah who will fulfill both offices. Psalm 110 is very central to the author's treatise on Christ's priesthood. In chapters 5 through 7, verse 4 of Psalm 110 is directly quoted three times, and it's alluded to as many as eight more times. What we have here is clear confirmation of Christ's eternal heavenly priesthood. And his priesthood is not an office that inherently arises out of his being the Son of God. It's a matter of appointment. It refers to the investiture of the Son by decree of God in eternity past as a priest. He's appointed, ordained by the Father. To do what? To represent men before God. And look at this, in both His divine and human natures. And these two verses, look at these two verses again, Psalm 2, 7 and 1, 10, verse 4. Here we have clear confirmation. Who's speaking to whom? We've got confirmation of the communication between the persons of the Trinity in eternity past. These are just two verses of the many in Scripture that affirm this relational aspect of the Godhead and the communication within the Godhead. Remember what the Word is here for, to help us to know God, to grow nearer to Him. So the writer's saying here that Jesus, the Son of God, was called by decree of the Father to His priestly service. In verse 10 of chapter 5 here, if you look, He was designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. We hear about Melchizedek in the passage we read earlier, Genesis chapter 14. in about three verses there. And then we don't hear about Melchizedek again until Psalm 110 in that one mention. And then we don't hear about Melchizedek again until Hebrews chapter 5. We'll hear about him again in chapters 7 and 6. And then we won't hear about him again. He's only mentioned in Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and in Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. So what do these words mean? Who is this Melchizedek? Well we looked at the history of Abram and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and Qudor Lamar and the kings of the east earlier. And what happened was, of course, there was this war. Five kings from the valley of the Salt Sea against four kings from the east. And the four kings from the east defeated the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zohar, and the other two kings. And we're told the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah fell into the tar pit. Many of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. that Qador Lamar led the victory. And they took Lot captive and took him apparently north to Damascus or nearby. Somebody comes and tells Abram, they've taken your nephew captive. Now Abram has an army of 318 men in his household. And he goes out after and defeats Qador Lamar, rescues Lot, brings back all the spoils that were taken from Sodom and Gomorrah, and returns to what was called the Valley of the kings, the valley of Shevek. And then we have this Melchizedek comes out and offers bread and wine to Abram and blesses him with a prayer. Blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And then Abram pays a tithe, a tenth of all the spoils he had recovered, to Melchizedek. We don't hear of Melchizedek again in Scripture until Psalm 110. In this passage, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And now for the third time, Melchizedek arrives. Melchizedek means king of Salem, king of shalom, king of peace. He's also a priest though. His name means king of priests, king of righteousness. But he's also a priest of God Most High. That's what we read here in Genesis 14, 18. Abram is brought out bread and wine, but Abraham gives him a tenth of the spoils. Now there's going to be further discussion of Melchizedek in chapter 7. And when we come to chapter 7, we'll look into him again. But there's one verse I want to point us to. Chapter 7, verse 3. He was without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God. He remains a priest perpetually. So the son now is designated, was designated by the father as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Now again, we'll look more into him in chapter 7. And this Melchizedek, while he's not well known to Christians today perhaps, was known to the Hebrews. They had Moses writings. They knew of this story. Those Jewish Christians to whom he wrote, knew about Melchizedek, almost certainly, through the writings of Moses. And the writer's mention of this name invoked one to whom Abraham, the father of all the Hebrews, paid a tithe. Abram paid a tithe and we're going to see the lesser honors the greater. It was 500 years later before the Lord established the Levitical priesthood of Aaron and his sons. 500 years later before we have any priests appointed by God. It was 450 years after that that God anointed a king in Israel. And even from that point on, the offices of king and priest were separate and distinct offices. But way back from the time of David, looking back maybe a thousand years, here's Melchizedek showing up, both a priest and a king, and Abraham paying tithes to him. And then we don't see him again. And he is one of the few major figures. He may be the only major figure in all the Old Testament without any genealogy set forth in the Scripture. Even Christ had a genealogy, both divine and human, set forth in the Gospels. And as God had spoken in the Psalm, he testified he was going to set at his right hand one who would also be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. for now. Again, we'll come back to him in chapter 7. But look, the true identity of Melchizedek has been bringing men to confusion and throughout thousands of years. Who was he? Well, we're not going to know until glory for sure. But we do know some things. The Son in His divine nature was like Melchizedek, without beginning and without end. The Son is the King of Peace. He's the King of Righteousness. And we are told in this passage that in His humanity as well, the Son of God was both designated as our priest by the Father's decree and was qualified to be our priest. How is He qualified to be our priest? According to the Order of Melchizedek, by His incarnation, His suffering, and His obedience. It's interesting the way the writer of Hebrews will now take us from passages which cause us to ponder unknowable heavenly things and brings us down to earth. And the Son of God, in human flesh, struggling, struggling as we do. praying, supplications, loud crying, and tears. And that's what we see here in verse 7. In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications. Our Lord did. With loud crying and tears to the one able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His piety. Now the days of His flesh refers to His time on earth. He still retains His humanity. And most likely, the writer of Hebrews is making reference to Jesus' dread and fear while He was in the Garden of Gethsemane with His murder just hours away. But here's what the Holy Spirit wants us to know. Jesus, the eternal, divine Son of God, because He became human, now knows what it is to experience human fear. to experience dread. Don't ever diminish his human experience or his humanity itself. He knows what it is to desire to be delivered from trials, to be delivered from what we're suffering. He knows because he became human. That's why God decreed and designated him to be our representative. Father had called him not only to obey the law in every particular, but to suffer and die. And you know, if we look at the law, we don't see a command to suffer and die. No, but it was the Father's will. What we see in the law is that there's going to be judgment, death, condemnation for those who don't obey it. Here he was, he obeyed it. He obeyed the law. He went through the temptation. He went through the dread. He went through the fear. He cried out, deliver me from this. Father, let this cup pass from me. But it was the Father's will that for all of us over here who violated that law, that that judgment, that wrath be poured out on him. And he obeyed the Father in that as well. That went beyond the law, really. And because of his obedience to God. Now this is an amazing thing here. Because of his piety. The father heard his cries. And you say, wait a minute. He went to the cross. He went through all the suffering. Father heard his cries? What's the principle here? God hears and accepts the prayers of those who submit to His authority. Who seek piety. Who try to obey Him. But that doesn't mean we get what we ask for. It doesn't mean we get what we want, what we desire in our flesh. It does mean that God hears us. If we're believing Him, and seeking Him, and coming through Christ. And He will act, or not act, for our good. We know that, don't we? From Romans 8, 28. And we notice here that though God heard His prayer, He was heard because of His piety, Christ was not saved from death. And what do you mean He heard His prayer? He was heard so that He wasn't overwhelmed by His fear and dread. He faced and experienced as a man the wrath, the judgment of God for our sins. He knew he was getting punished for our sins. So one thing he received, he sought and he received the heavenly aid to drink that cup. Could any of us have done that? Innocent? even knowing we're guilty. Could any of us have done that? He went through it innocent. And there's something else. We're told he was heard. He obtained what he prayed for when he came forth a conqueror from the pains of death. Calvin says this. He was sustained by the saving hand of the Father, and he gained a glorious victory over Satan, sin, and death. And Calvin reminds us, it often happens we ask for one thing, but our purposes aren't right. What we're ultimately seeking isn't right, and yet God, while not granting what we ask, still finds a way to help us. Think about it. Let this cup pass. Nope, the cup doesn't pass. Look what happens. He comes out of the grave. He ascends to heaven. He's exalted as the king of all things. Was he in a better place after that, or would he have been better if he'd have simply been stayed on the earth and delivered from the suffering? You see, God poured out blessings beyond being able to be counted, even on his son. The true blessing of God's response to our prayers is that he hears us. This is why it's so important to be in Christ. Whatever it is, we're called to go through or endure. He will be with us. The Word promises it. He'll be with us through the difficulty, and He'll be there on the other side of the trial. And Jesus' suffering did something else in terms of what it taught Him. Now we think, well, wait a minute. Jesus, the Son of God, had to learn anything? Well, He had to learn obedience. His suffering gave occasion for Him to learn obedience. He really is a representative of us. This is what we must understand. This is what the writer wants us to know. He's one of us up there. See, if we receive a command to do something we want to do, how hard is it to obey that command? Get out of the Dairy Queen? That's not hard. But if we're commanded to do something which strikes fear and dread and terror in us, well, obedience is another matter, isn't it? It's very hard. Walk into a stadium where wild beasts are waiting to devour you. So many of the early Christians did that. Charge into battle, into war. You obey. But it's hard. Jesus walked willingly into this kind of suffering. Willingly. He was in dread. Real dread. But to go to his torture, to go to his death, was a matter of obedience. Obedience. He hadn't violated the law. And yet he was called to be treated as one who had disobeyed the law in every regard. And so as a matter of obedience, he learned obedience in doing that which he would have preferred not to do. Verse 8, Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. Calvin says, it may be truly said that Christ, by His death, learned fully what it was to obey God. Do you ever think, you know, when God maybe puts us through something or calls us to something? Well, you know, He's God. He doesn't really understand. Oh yeah? Our high priest understands. Calvin says, Christ, by His death, learned fully what it was to obey God, since He was then led in a special manner to deny Himself. Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me. Well, He denied Himself as He went to the cross. He renounced His own will. He gave Himself up entirely to the will of His Father, so that He willingly underwent the very suffering and death that He so greatly dreaded. By his sufferings, here's our lesson, we are taught how far we ought to submit to and obey God. Where's that line end? It's not supposed to. And it was this obedience in the face of suffering that completed, perfected his qualification to be our high priest. The mediator for the people had to himself have learned obedience. And that's what we're taught here in verse 9. Having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation. Perfected, meaning fully qualified. Having finished the program. Fully qualified to do what? To take His blood before the Father and present it as the atonement for the sins of His brethren. That's what this priesthood is really about. It's also about prayer. But this is the significance that saves us. Having completed all the requirements to be the Savior of men, having completed all the work of redemption, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. So we understand that all that Christ endured was necessary to the redemption of God's people, of us, to His appeasing the wrath of God for our sins. This was necessary to save wretches like us. And God, in His mercy and love and grace, brought it about. And those who realize that we all stand condemned in Adam and have no righteousness in ourselves, understand this and understand that our desperate need is for a Savior, for a righteousness from outside of ourselves, our desperate need for a Deliverer. This is what this was all about. This is what it's still all about. He presents that blood and it's good forever. It's eternal. Its value is eternal. Ryder's going to start focusing on this idea of eternal blessings here. He became, to those who obey him, the source of eternal salvation. Now to obey him is to believe in the one whom God has sent. This again is encouragement to perseverance in Christ. Don't turn away. Where are you going? This one is in heaven. He knows what it is to be you. He invites you to come. He represents you before the Father. Salvation brought by Christ, we're told here, is eternal. Chapter 9, verse 12, our redemption is eternal. 9, 15, our inheritance is eternal. And it's under chapter 13, verse 20, an eternal covenant. His blessings are forever. And that may be what the writer's getting at here in verse 10. Being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He's back. This means his priesthood is forever without end. It's unchangeable. He was designated, appointed by the Father. His priesthood is not of the earthly line of Levi. He was of the line of Judah. From Judah came the line of kings. It was from Levi that came the priests of earth, of Judaism. His priesthood is not ordained from the earth. It was from the Father. Remember, only God can choose who may mediate before Him on behalf of men. And in the matter of eternal salvation of His people, He chose none of us. He chose His only Son. who manifested, demonstrated by His obedience, that He is suitable to mediate for disobedient men. And Jesus' designation by the Father as our priest, which is confirmed here and throughout the letter of Hebrews, it affirms validation by God of the perfect obedience that Jesus rendered as our representative in His days of His flesh. So whose priesthood is better, Christ's or that of Aaron? Christ's priesthood is better than that of Aaron. He's a priest without sin of his own. He's a priest forever. The priests under Aaron all died. He made one offering. This is what we'll see in chapter 10. He made one offering. Not daily offerings. And His offering to the Father. Now the Levitical priest went in and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat one day a year. His offering to the Father on behalf of sinful men was of His own blood. And what He accomplished by His priesthood, He has restored the people of God to communion with their Creator. And you know what else? This triumph at the cross. Calvary. Our Redeemer and High Priest threw down the one who accused us before God. Remember, we read in Job, here comes the devil going in front of God and accusing Job. Not anymore. He's been thrown down. He cast him from his place as our accuser. Revelation 12-7, there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. Dragon and his angels waged war. They weren't strong enough. There was no longer a place found for them in heaven and the great dragon was thrown down. The serpent of old, who was called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and His angels were thrown down with Him. And then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, He who accuses them before our God day and night. This isn't in the future. This has already happened. This is what happened at the cross. Now, it's not Him standing before God accusing us. We've been justified by God. It's our merciful Advocate who's brought His own blood into the heavenly tabernacle, the full atonement for our sins, who stands before the Father now for us. And because He stands there on our behalf, we stand cleared of all our crimes against God, and they are many. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God who justifies. In Adam, all humanity stands condemned. But in Jesus Christ, the obedient Son of God, we who believe in Him are delivered. Delivered from that condemnation permanently. Chapter 7, verse 20, He has entered inside the veil, having become a high priest forever. See that blood that He brought in and offered to the Father. The effect, the victory, it won, lasts forever. He's offered His own blood to the Father so that the Father's wrath on us for our sins is appeased once and for all. And if you believe in Him, you have been justified by that shed blood. The message is this, if only you'll grasp it, if only we will grasp it, who Jesus is and what He has done. If you believe in Him and what He's done, let this move you to persevere, to hold fast, to trust in Him through every trial, no matter what. Heavenly Father, these truths are too marvelous for us to grasp. And yet, Lord, your salvation through your Son and all of his blessed obedience has filled us with joy. Filled us with each blessing that you pour out on us. Lord, thank you for this certainty of glory. This knowledge that our sins have been forgiven. That you have declared us just and righteous before you. And Lord, may we be lifted up by Your Spirit and by these words in our minds and our hearts. And may we go from this place this morning better witnesses, effective witnesses of Your truth and Your salvation. In Christ's name, Amen.