Some church members' house have been dinner and that was really good and also very sometimes interesting.
And that's kind of how that went.
And so we had a lot of experience and had a lot of fun.
One of the things that Pastor Bales would do with the interns is he would have them always take on some kind of construction or physical project too.
So we weren't just doing office work. Ministry is not just office work. Ministry is hard work.
And he wanted us to learn that.
And so he would have us do different things around the church.
When my dad was, he didn't really change over the years.
When my dad was an intern, my dad tells stories about having to use a chisel and a hammer to knock off old stucco.
Who knows what stucco is?
It's definitely not only a Florida thing, but it's definitely a Florida thing.
He had to knock off a whole side of the church with the stucco and that was like, he makes it way worse than it sounds.
But that was part of it.
This is kind of how Pastor Bales dealt with me once summer. I was a summer intern and he said, Ben, come outside tomorrow.
Put on some, you know, clothes. You can get dirty and you're coming to work and that's what we're going to do.
So I came in and he took me to the back of the of the church building and he said, you know, see that doorway down there?
I said, yeah, and you see all the way to here.
I want to put a sidewalk in here.
And I said, OK, cool.
How do you make a sidewalk?
And he said, well, can there be can there be grass where the sidewalk goes?
I said, I guess not. No grass.
There he goes. OK, so you got to get rid of the grass.
How do you get rid of the grass?
Pastor, he goes, you probably need to shovel.
You know, they make shovels that aren't gas powered shovels like.
They're me powered, right?
So what do I do? You guys, I guess you need to shovel. So and so from that, so that's what I did.
And I learned something really important.
I learned how to recruit teenagers.
Hey, Patrick, you want to come go to lunch with me?
Yeah. Yeah. What time?
8 30.
8 30 in the morning. Yeah, just come and we'll go to lunch.
I got some things to do around here.
So that's what I did. I recruited a bunch and that's when I also found out teenagers aren't much help.
When you're making a sidewalk.
So that was kind of fun.
They'll come though for the promise of pizza pizza buffet.
I just ruined some things for miles though.
Anyway, eventually the sidewalk got done.
And it wasn't exactly straight.
If you stand looking down that sidewalk, it kind of does this a little bit.
Kind of more like a snake than it ought to be.
And it wouldn't take you long to figure out that the person who put in the sidewalk was not really qualified or experienced to do so.
But I learned a lot from the process along with many other things.
That's not the only thing he ever had me do.
But it gives you the illustration.
Luckily, this will sound funny.
Luckily at the end of that summer, a hurricane came and knocked down some buildings and stuff.
And so now that sidewalk no longer exists.
So there's no evidence of my lack of qualification.
There's a building there now.
And so that works out.
I learned a lot though.
Pastor Bales wanted us to know that ministry can be hard work and that we should not be above hard work no matter what title we held.
That's what he taught us.
In today's text, we learned though about the theme of qualifications.
The author continues a topic, the author of Hebrews, which is the Holy Spirit and whatever human author wrote it.
He began this topic about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ.
We learned last week and we're going to continue to learn today that our great high priest is Jesus Christ.
And that he is better.
Jesus is greater than any of those Old Testament high priests.
And that similarly like to last week, my aim in this message is to spur you on and encourage you to experience an incredible relationship to God.
Through this incredible access that God gives us by his son in prayer.
Did you go to God in prayer this week?
A little different than you did last week.
I hope you did.
I hope you did go to God in prayer because Christ came because Christ came.
There were men who are priests that before Christ came, there are priests that mediated between men and God.
Jesus Christ though is greater than they are because he has a greater priesthood.
We can have an incredible relationship to God through Jesus Christ.
Why?
Well, here's the big idea.
Jesus Christ gives us incredible access to God because he has a greater for qualifications for the job than anyone that's ever existed.
Let's examine this text to see the earthly high priest compared to the and contrasted to our heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ.
I'm trying to make the point of the passage the point of the message.
Would you pray for me and I'll pray for us as we look into this.
God, I love you.
I thank you so much for your word.
I pray that in the way I communicate this, it would not just be dry, stuffy theology without practical implications,
but God that people would be stirred up in their hearts and in their lives to obedience that they would feel and experience the awesome opportunity that they have to have a relationship with you through Jesus Christ.
I pray that you would not let this settle on us lightly, but that it would lay on us in a heavy way.
God, we've heard a lot about revival in the last few weeks and we would always believe and always know that you want revival for us.
You want repentance for us and it's going to come when we have our relationship with you, right?
And so I pray that you help us to do that today.
God, I love you and thank you for all you do.
Would you meet with us today in Jesus' name, amen?
I want you first to see the earthly high priest.
He talks about this in chapter five verse one through four.
I'm going to read the verses for you.
We've already read them, but I just want you to think through them.
Here's what it says, for every high priest taken from among men is in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way,
for that he himself, talking about this earthly priest, these men also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason hereof he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins.
And no man take this honor for himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.
Now, in this text, we continue to talk about Christ as our high priest.
I've already said that.
These people had an understanding.
He's writing to Jewish believers and some Jewish, maybe unbelievers writing, but he's definitely writing to Jews.
Okay, and Jews that understood who Christ was.
And, but they definitely understood also this Old Testament priesthood versus one through four focus on the Old Testament priesthood to compare their ministry with the ministry of Christ.
And they see it.
We see them compared and contrasted in three ways.
First way we see is in their appointment, in their appointment.
Okay, you'll stick with me.
This will make a whole bunch of sense as we move towards the end.
In their appointment.
First, he talks about their appointment.
How do they become priests?
You can see that clearly in verses one and four.
In verse one, it says that the high priest was taken among men and that he was ordained for men.
The word ordain means to designate, to constitute or to convoy, to appoint or to make or to ordain or to set.
The idea is that the Old Testament high priest didn't make himself the high priest, he was called of God.
Okay, so think of this position of the high priest, not as something that like, hey college person looking at colleges, what do you want to be?
Here's one career track path.
You could be a high priest.
Well, what do you do?
I have to do all these other things.
That's not how it happened.
The high priest was ordained or called of God.
It was a calling, not a career.
Do you get it?
This is exactly what he says in verse four and no man, it says in verse four, no man taken this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was, then it says what?
Aaron.
Now in Exodus 28, we're told of how Aaron became the priest.
Was Aaron a perfect person?
So if you're new to church, if you're new to Bible study, in the Old Testament, there was a,
man named Moses who was called to be an apostle and a prophet, someone who was sent and someone who was also a priest in some ways.
Anyway, he was called to go and get his people out of Egypt and that's exactly what he did.
And his brother was Aaron and Aaron was called to be the high priest.
Look at it up on the screen.
You can maybe write this down for later study.
Exodus 28, one through three says this.
This is God talking.
He says, and take thou unto the Aaron thy brother.
He's talk, God's talking to Moses and his sons with him for among the children, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
Do you see that?
Even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ishmael, Aaron's sons and now shot make holy garments for Aaron,
thy brother for glory and for beauty.
And that shall speak unto all that are wise hearted whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
Aaron's work was a calling of God, not a career choice made by man.
He was appointed.
He was called of God.
His line after him then were priests as well.
This is why we say that these were priests after the Aaronic order or all of the Aaronic line.
Do you understand?
So God called Aaron and he said, Aaron, you and your sons are going to be part of that priesthood.
You're going to do that priesthood.
So they had that appointment.
Then what was their assignment?
Their assignment.
What did the priest do?
Back to verses one through three.
It says, looking again at the at the text.
For every high priest taken from among men is ordained four men.
So what's their job?
It's four men and things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Okay, that tells you what they did.
The priests were centered in things pertaining to God.
He went to God on behalf of the people.
That was what he did.
He represented men to God.
Do you get it?
How did he do that?
Well, it's spelled out right there in the verse that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
In Leviticus one, one through seven, 38, the laws pertaining to sacrifices are laid out in the Old Testament.
There were many kinds of offerings, many kinds of sacrifices.
In our text where it talks about gifts, some have said that this seems to refer to grain offerings and sacrifices to the animal offerings or the burn offerings.
For instance, here's part of the law around offering an animal as a sin offering, which is made as an offering for inadvertent sin.
So sin that we commit, this would have been for the Old Testament times, there were sacrifices.
And what I'm going to read to you is about the kind of sacrifice that the priests would make on behalf of people.
When they sinned and realized they sinned but didn't do it willfully or on purpose, it just happened in the course of things.
So Leviticus four, verse 32, it says this.
And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish.
And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering.
And the priest, do you see it?
And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.
And he shall take away all the fat thereof as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings.
And the priest shall burn them upon the altar according to the offerings made by fire.
What's the next three words?
On to the Lord and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he has committed.
And when they do that by faith, not because the priest, but because of God, it shall be what?
Forgiving him.
What's the point?
The point is that the priest's assignment was to go to God on behalf of the people, especially through offering sacrifices for sin to God.
That happened up until Jesus' day.
You know, the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
And the priest, in a lot of what it looked like he did, he looked a lot like a butcher.
Because every day he was sacrificing, all the time sacrificing animals as an offering for sin.
We saw their appointment.
We saw their assignment.
What was their attitude?
What was their attitude to be?
Look at verse two.
What motivated them when they were doing right, verse two of Hebrews chapter five.
Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
Now they're still talking about the earthly priest.
Their attitude could and should be one of compassion for those who sinned and were coming to offer their sacrifice to God.
Why?
Well, their attitude was not to be haughty or prideful because of their calling.
They were to be like, well, I'm the high priest.
I'm better than all of you common folk.
That was not it at all.
What was their attitude supposed to be?
To have compassion.
Why?
Because each priest also is compassed, as it says, with infirmity.
You know what that means?
The priests were sinners too.
The priests messed up.
The priests in Jesus' day were instrumental in killing Jesus.
It's killing the Messiah, sin.
Peter and John looked at him and said, bad news guys, you're in the Bible.
There's a prophecy that when the chief cornerstone comes, when this Messiah comes, that the builders are going to reject that stone.
And the stone that the builder rejected will become the head of the corner.
Priests can mess up in huge, gigantic ways.
They were sinful too, and because of their sin, they had to offer sacrifices for themselves
as well.
So you see in verse three, what does it say?
And by a reason hereof, because he's compassed with infirmity, because he can sin, because
a typical priest can mess up and sin, he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins.
In fact, if you go back into Leviticus four that I just referenced, where it talks about that sin offering,
Leviticus four lays out, if you read the whole chapter, that there were different kinds of sacrifices that needed to be made,
depending on the person.
The high priest had to sacrifice a bull without blemish.
And if you go down in Leviticus four and look at what each person had to do, they had to give the greatest sacrifice.
The most costly sacrifice had to be done by the priests.
I think God was teaching them, hey, with great responsibility, with great stewardship comes great responsibility.
I'm not trying to go Spiderman on you.
Great power comes great.
You don't get it.
Miles got it.
Okay, the point is he's saying, listen, I hold you as a leader to a higher account.
That's the point.
You get it.
So the high priest had to offer a bull without blemish for that same kind of sacrifice.
The congregation, a bull without blemish, the ruler, a goat without blemish, the commoner, a female lamb without blemish.
In cases of poverty, two turtledoves or two young pigeons could be substituted.
In the case of extreme poverty, fine flour could be substituted.
In this case, the sacrifice for priests was greater than the sacrifice for the regular person.
They were held to a higher standard because of their ministry.
The attitude of these priests, therefore, was supposed to be compassion, repentance, as they represented the people to God.
Now here's some good news.
Are you guys ready?
We can go to God ourselves.
We call this the priesthood of the believer.
You don't have to come to any kind of vocational religious person to get to God.
If you know Christ as your savior, God's in you.
And you can go to God yourself.
And the one who represents you in heaven is our great high priest.
We don't have to go to any man to get to God.
We can go right to God through Jesus.
We should, however, go to God on behalf of men.
We should talk to God about people and then talk to people about God.
We should.
Who do you know that doesn't know Jesus?
Are you praying for him?
Are you interceding for them?
I hope you are.
If you don't have one, you get one.
People need Christ.
We're to share the gospel.
It's important that our attitude never be that we do it as people who are better than
our mission field.
We're not better.
We're just forgiven.
We have been given much and so we will be required of much.
This was the nature of the earthly, erotic priesthood.
They were appointed by God.
Their assignment was to go to God through sacrifices and gifts.
Their attitude was, I'm not better than these people.
I just have a higher calling.
I have to, with that high calling, represent God and do the right thing and even have sacrifice
for myself.
Now let's look at the heavenly high priest.
I'm doing that because that's exactly what happens in the passage.
We go from the earthly high priest to the heavenly high priest.
Look at verse five.
Why am I saying that?
So also Christ glorified, not himself, to be made high priest.
What's the writer saying?
That's similar to the Old Testament high priest.
Our high priest didn't select himself for the office.
Christ did not make himself a high priest.
Jesus did not choose to appoint himself to be made a high priest.
God the Father selected him for that task.
The words so also show that this is in comparison to what was just said about the Old Testament
priest.
He said so also Christ glorified, not himself to be made a high priest.
But he that saith unto him, Thou art my son, today I have I begotten thee.
When it says, but he said unto him, the text is referring to God the Father saying to God
the Son, Thou art my son, today I begotten thee.
That's found.
It's a quotation from Psalm chapter two verse seven.
It's been quoted already a couple of times in Hebrews.
Psalm two seven.
I will declare the decree.
The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
The author's saying that there was a point in an eternity past where Christ was chosen
by God for this ministry.
He then refers to another very interesting quotation in Psalm to refer to this election.
And Hebrews five six it says this, and he said also in another place, Thou art a priest,
how long?
Thou art a priest, how long?
However, after the order of Melchizedek, who was Melchizedek?
What is the order of Melchizedek?
And what does this have to do with Jesus being chosen by the Father to be our high priest?
The Old Testament earthly high priest, what order were they from?
Who was the person that they were following?
Aaron.
He's saying there's a different kind of priest that Jesus is a different kind of priest.
He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Okay.
What does this have to do with Jesus?
Well the name would have been very familiar to Jews to which this book was written.
Verses six here in Hebrews five quote Psalm 110 for Psalm 110 for keep up with me.
This is good.
I'm going to read you Psalm 110 one through four.
It's a psalm of David.
Here's what it says.
It's up on the screen, I believe.
The Lord said unto my Lord.
Now that's interesting.
The Lord, God the Father said unto my Lord, Jesus, he's in the whole Bible.
He's in the whole Bible.
It's awesome.
Okay.
That was free.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Thou shalt send the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and the beauty of holiness from the
womb of the morning thou hast to do of thy youth.
The Lord hath sworn and will not repent.
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
This psalm is speaking about Jesus the Messiah.
It's claiming that when Jesus comes, he will be a high priest, but he's not going to be
a priest like an ironic priest.
No the kind of priesthood that the Messiah would have been, the kind of one he would
have would be forever.
The ironic priesthood is coming to an end.
It has come to an end.
There will be priests in the tribulation.
That's a whole nother conversation.
But now there's a new order.
Jesus would be a priest that would be the Messiah and he would have a priesthood that
would be forever.
Now that's an interesting statement.
The priesthood would be after the order of Melchizedek who was introduced in the first
book of the Bible.
Now there's a principle and interpretation that says when you see the first mention of
something in Scripture, you tend to get a key into understanding that topic.
This is part of the reason why Genesis is such an important book.
It's a book of firsts and if you get the interpretation in Genesis wrong, it'll mess up a whole bunch
of interpretation later so you got to get it right.
Melchizedek is only referred to in Genesis, in Psalm where I've already read and then
in Hebrews.
He is dealt with more later in Hebrews so I won't tell you everything about him because
there's going to be a whole sermon on him later.
That being said, let's look at where he's first mentioned.
In Genesis 14, we have an account of Abraham, Father Abraham, the beginning of the Jewish
nation going to war with the kings of Sodom to rescue Baxilid and Lot, his nephew.
On his way back in chapter 14, we get to verse 18 where he meets somebody.
So look at Genesis 14, 18.
You got it?
It's right there on the screen.
And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the
Most High God.
Now that's interesting.
Priest of the Most High God.
And he blessed him and said, bless be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth and bless be the Most High God which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And he, talking about Abraham, gave tithes of all and it's to Melchizedek.
Now what we learn about this man is really interesting.
He holds Melchizedek two offices.
In the Old Testament, there were three appointed offices.
You have prophet, you have priest, and you have king.
You get it?
Prophet, priest, and king.
Here is Melchizedek, someone that held two of those offices.
What was he called?
In verse 18, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, and he was the priest of the Most High God.
He was a king and he was a priest.
This never happened among the nation of Israel.
Those two offices were separated.
Some have pointed to this being a problem when King Saul led.
He made a sacrifice of the animals and God rejected him as the king.
He was trying to usurp the role of the priest.
God hadn't called him to that role.
He wasn't a priest, he was king.
Now when Christ comes, he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, more than he is
like Aaron in that he puts those offices together.
Jesus is king and he's a great high priest.
He has a royal priesthood.
Do you get it?
Jesus is king and he's priest.
It's amazing.
He is our kingly priest.
He is our royal priest and his priest won't end.
His priesthood will last forever.
Every other priest being human dealt with aging and eventually death.
They got old, they died, they left that office.
Jesus Christ is a priest forever and eternally.
He will never die.
He will live forever.
He ever lives to make intercession for us.
He is our heavenly high priest in his selection.
Isn't that good?
Look at also his suffering.
Verse 7, who in the days of his, speaking of Jesus, of his flesh, when he had offered
up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save
him from death and was heard and that he feared.
Here the writer takes us to dark ephsemini.
This verse takes us to witness what Jesus suffered.
Look at Jesus the night they came to arrest him so they could kill him.
He was in the garden in dark ephsemini.
Look at him there.
He's on his knees and on his face and his face is covered in blood.
That Luke says, began to pour out of his pores as he sweats drops of blood.
His face is covered.
Look at him.
Listen to him.
Do you hear him?
He offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears.
What was Jesus praying?
We know in the Gossels what he was praying.
He was saying, Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
What was he praying for in the garden?
He was praying for us.
We know that from John 17, John 15.
What was he praying?
Verse 7 says what he was praying.
Under him that was able to save him from death and was heard and that he feared.
This does not mean Jesus was praying and trying to get out of death.
The preposition from could be translated.
He was praying under him who was able to save him out of death.
It says here, it says that he was heard.
He was saved and was heard and that he feared.
If he was praying to get out of dying on the cross, that prayer would not have been heard.
But it says in verse 7 that his prayer was heard.
How was his prayer heard?
He was praying that he would be saved out of death.
God, how was Jesus saved out of the death on the cross?
God heard that prayer on resurrection morning three days later.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
And in verse 8 he takes us from Gethsemane to Calvary.
Look at 8.
Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
And being made perfect.
That doesn't mean he wasn't perfect before.
It's that he had a perfected obedience.
He obeyed all the way to death, even death on a cross.
And when he did that, when he died on the cross, listen, Jesus died for your sins on
the cross.
How was he a priest to God for us?
He shed his own blood on our behalf.
He became sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He obeyed the word here.
He says, look at verse 9, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
on all of them that obey him.
The word perfect here means, and here's the way tied into the introduction, he became
fully qualified.
Completely qualified why?
He didn't lack any moral perfection.
It means that he gave himself on the cross of Calvary, and when he did, he was fully
qualified to be our Savior and to be our high priest.
What do they put above him?
He's Christ's King of the, they did it ironically, but he was exactly that.
He was our Kingly priest.
That's why the Bible says in verse 9, he became the author of eternal salvation to them that
obey him, to them that obey the gospel.
Believe, trust, remain.
The salvation God offers you is eternal, not temporary, not probationary.
You don't get salvation and then if you get to hear salvation, if you can keep it, that's
not how God gives salvation.
It's eternal.
When you get saved, eternal life starts now and lasts forever.
He doesn't represent you until you mess up and then stops representing you.
He doesn't go to God on your behalf unless you're not doing that great.
He's your priest forever.
He mediates for you.
He ever lives to make intercession for us.
God doesn't say to you to say, I'm going to see if you can hold out and live right.
If you can, I'm going to let you be saved, but if you can, I'm going to make you lost
again.
No, no, no, no.
We don't get a temporary or partial salvation.
We get an eternal salvation that lasts forever.
Jesus is greater.
So let's summarize what we've learned.
Many preachers probably won't end the sermon like this, but I just thought this was so
cool.
I put it up on the screen.
Maybe this isn't the best way to end the sermon, but I want you to think through this.
Plus, I put in your bulletin, so you got a lot of writing to do.
The Old Testament priesthood was earthly.
Our priests were men.
Jesus Christ priesthood is heavenly.
Where is he at?
He's at the right hand of the Father.
Look up in chapter four.
We'll go through this real quick.
Hebrews four.
Look at verse 14, just a little bit ahead of you.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the, where?
Heavens.
He's in the heavens.
That's where he's at.
The Old Testament priesthood was appointed.
We saw that in verse one or verse four.
God chose Aaron.
God chose Aaron's line, and so those priests were appointed.
Jesus Christ priesthood is also appointed.
God chose Jesus to be our high priest.
The Old Testament priesthood interceded on behalf of many, did it through sacrifice.
Jesus interceded on our behalf based on his own sacrifice.
You guys are writing and you're not getting excited.
He's the priest and he's the sacrifice.
That's pretty cool.
The Old Testament priesthood was an ironic priesthood.
It ended.
It ended for every priest because they died.
Jesus Christ priesthood and there was no, there was no kings that were priests.
In fact, the kings that tried to be priests got messed up in that.
Jesus Christ is our kingly high priest.
He's a priest forever.
And the Old Testament priesthood is said that they should be gentle.
That's what verse two talked about.
They should be gentle.
They should have compassion.
Were the priests always gentle?
No.
Priests were instrumental in being part of who put Jesus to death.
Mankind can mess up.
Anybody know any leaders that are messed up?
If you know me, you know a leader that's messed up.
Men can mess up.
Jesus doesn't.
He is their gentle high priest.
He is not, what did it say back in verse 15 and 16?
We already read it last week.
We have not a higher priest which cannot be touched without, with the feelings of infernities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
He knows what we've gone through.
He's gentle.
Those Old Testament priests, they were sinful.
They had to sacrifice for themselves because they messed up all the time.
Jesus Christ never sinned.
He never had to ask for forgiveness because He never sinned.
He never sinned.
Jesus won't let you down.
When Jesus makes a promise, He keeps it.
When Jesus says, I'll give you eternal life, you have eternal life.
He'll all mess up.
He's sinless.
All the Old Testament priests could do is point to salvation.
That's all they could do.
And it was a good office.
They served their time.
Forgiveness was mediated through that office because those people did what God told them
to do and God gave atonement for sins.
But you know what?
They sacrificed one day and then they had to sacrifice another.
And then the next day.
Before they sacrificed for anybody else, they had to sacrifice for them.
Always always always sacrificing, sacrificing.
Why?
Because sin never ends.
You sinned yesterday?
Did you sin today?
You're going to sin tomorrow?
Same in the Old Testament.
That's what the law told us.
The law says you can't keep the law.
You can't keep the law.
You mess up.
All they could do is point to salvation.
Those sacrifices, that perfect land that was slain was a pointing to exactly what John
said about Jesus, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
They could point to salvation.
Jesus could provide it.
He is the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him.
What does it mean to obey Him?
You believe.
Is Jesus a better high priest?
He is.
You know what that means?
That means you can be forgiven.
You can be forgiven.
Fundamentally in salvation, when you realize I'm a sinner and my sin separates me from
a holy God.
If I get justice for my sin, I'm going to spend eternity separated from God in hell.
When you realize that, you also need to realize that's the bad news, but the good news is
that Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life.
He never sinned.
So we never had to have sacrifice for his own sin because he didn't have any.
Instead, on the cross, he became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made right
with God.
We might be made the righteousness of God and him.
So when we believe in Jesus and we call on Jesus to save us, the Bible says when we put
our faith and trust in him, he makes us his kids.
He takes away our sin.
He gives us Jesus' righteousness.
And then Jesus in heaven, I'm not making this up.
He really died.
He really rose again.
He now ever lives there to make intercession for you.
And now once you get saved, you can go to God.
God didn't just save you from your sin.
God saved you for relationship.
You can talk to God.
He can speak to you through his word.
He knows everything about you.
He knows everything about you and he still loves you.
And he wants you to have a relationship with him.
He is our great high priest.
He was appointed.
He was selected.
He suffered.
And now he ever lives to make intercession for us.
Could you back hands and close your eyes with me?