Christ our Great High Priest

Hebrews chapter 7 verse 26, Hebrews 7 verse 26. For they truly were many priests, that's going back to the Aaronic priesthood, they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. Then the Hebrew writer gives the contrast, but this man, speaking of the Lord Jesus, continueth ever hath an unchangeable or an untransferable priesthood.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, for such a high priest was fitting to us. And what is this high priest like? Look at his qualities.

He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the angels. Then the Hebrew writer is going to go back to a contrast to the Aaronic priesthood, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice for his own sins and then for the people's. Obviously the writer is taking the readers back to the day of atonement, Leviticus 16, when he offered himself.

For the law maketh men high priests who have infirmity or they have a weakness, that the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. God will bless to us the reading of this work. The Lord Jesus fulfills four vital offices that are vitally important to all the people of God.

The most common one, obviously, that our hearts would be engaged with would be the mediator. First Timothy chapter two and verse five, for there is one God and one mediator himself, man, the man Christ Jesus. And the Lord Jesus as mediator, he deals with our salvation.

Then when you come to Hebrews chapter five and verse seven, likely referring to the Lord Jesus in the agony and Gethsemane, he is our intercessor and he deals with our supplications. Where our brother Brody left us this morning from first John chapter two, not now the mediator to deal with our salvation nor our intercessor to deal with our supplications, but the advocate deals with our sins. And finally, what I would like to look at at the first part of the afternoon is the Lord Jesus in his high priestly capacity, and he deals with our sorrows.

He deals with or he deals with our weaknesses. I suppose that there is not a more important subject for the people of God and the present dispensation that you and I live than the person and work of the Lord Jesus. The Hebrew writer, many verses that gospel preachers would use as well.

The Hebrew writer on many occasions takes those readers ourselves as well back to the cross and back to Calvary, reminding our souls of the once and for all work of the cross. But the Hebrew writer doesn't leave us there for the Lord Jesus is no longer on the cross and the tomb is empty. And the writer of the Hebrews, whoever he may be, the purpose of his writing now is to get the eyes of those to who would be first readers upward onto the man in the glory.

And if there is a worthy occupation for all of us, whether younger or older, it is just this, to keep our eye on the man in the glory. You recall the sad occasion of the book of Exodus, the making, Aaron, and the making of the golden calf. Here was the problem.

When the nation of Israel lost sight of the man that went up, they fell into idolatry. And if you and I as believers in this dispensation, if we keep our eyes off the man that's gone up, we don't keep our eyes on him, we will fall and fail in exactly the same way. I think it'd be correct in saying this afternoon that none of us would be here today in a conference gathering like this apart from the high priestly work of the Lord Jesus.

And it may not be, dear Christian, it may not be until finally we get home to glory and we see how he helped us and preserved us along the journey of life. I've read for you here from Hebrews chapter 7 for the simple reason that there are contrasts between the Aaronic priesthood or the priesthood that went down from Aaron and Eleazar and down compared with the priesthood of the Lord Jesus. And you'll notice first of all in verse 23 that there was a limitation because of death.

We ask ourselves the question, why were there so many priests in Old Testament days? They could not continue by reason of death. The sad commentary is this, and he died, and he died. And the Hebrew writer then is setting forth the glorious person of the Lord Jesus and saying to them and to us, we have one that is far, far superior than Aaron of the Old Testament.

So there'd be limitations because of death. And then in verse 27, there was a limitation because of sin. You see, when an individual of Israel went to Aaron, the high priest, it was just one sinner meeting another sinner.

They were just compassed about with an infirmity and with a weakness, one sinner meeting another sinner. And then finally in verse 28, there was a limitation again because of those weaknesses or infirmities. Let's just look at three things then in those verses that might just keep our eyes this afternoon at the outset of the meeting on the person of the Lord Jesus.

First of all, in verse 23 and 24, we have a great high priest who cannot die. We have a great high priest who cannot die. I want to take you back to the book of Exodus, Numbers.

Take your good meeting shoes off and put a pair of sandals on. We'll just let our feet feel the sand of the desert. We're just going to see if we can just get into the feeling of what was being transpired in the days of Aaron as high priest.

We would have been raised in the environment of the tabernacle. We would have known what it was to see animals led through the company to the large brazen altar. We would have seen, as it were, times when priests would have gone beyond the altar and to the laver and then they disappeared.

We wouldn't see them anymore. We would have been taught as young boys and young girls to revere the office of the high priest. We may have seen Aaron not only at the altar.

We may have seen him move through the camp of Israel and he would have been wearing those garments of beauty and glory and we would have stood back with a measure of awe, appreciating that this man and this man alone would have been a great man, was able to go into the inner sanctuary and deal with the question of our sins. Then one day we were older and we had a problem or a difficulty and we thought to ourselves, if I could just have a meeting with Aaron, if I could just meet Aaron alone because he is in touch with God, and if I could just unfold my problem to Aaron, certainly he could help me. So we had a meeting with Aaron and as high priest of the nation of Israel, he was able to help us.

Then possibly a few months or a few years later, another problem arose. You thought to yourself, well the last time I had a problem or a difficulty, it was Aaron who helped me. I'm going to go back and see Aaron again.

So you went back and saw Aaron again and Aaron was able to help you. Then one day, unknown to the nation of Israel, I'm thinking now of Numbers chapter 20. God said to Moses, take Aaron and Eliezer up to Mount Hor and Moses had the responsibility of stripping Aaron of those garments of beauty and glory and then placing them on the shoulders of Eliezer.

Interestingly, neither Moses nor Aaron were given any indication of sickness before their death. They died. What a sight it must have been for the nation of Israel as they waited for Moses and Aaron and Eliezer to come down from the mount only to find out that three men went up and only two came down.

Where's Aaron? Aaron's died. The nation of Israel. Now you've still got another problem.

You say to yourself, Aaron helped me on the first occasion. Aaron helped me on the second occasion. I'm going to go back to, oh, I can't go see Aaron.

He's dead. I've got to see Eliezer. I wonder if Eliezer, Aaron's son, will be as compassionate and as caring as his father was.

And there's that reservation within the breast. Do I really want to go to tell him? Will he really understand me? Will he really think possibly I'm just wasting his time? If that possibly happened in the days of Israel. Dear Christian, you and I have a great heart.

There are 83 high priests who cannot die. He lives in the power of an endless life. And as different from Aaron and Eliezer might be, as those men passed away, it has been suggested by my brethren that there were possibly 83 high priests, maybe more, maybe less, from Meir and Tekei Efes.

And one thing marked all of them, and he died. Think just for a few minutes. What might be the most worst thing that could befall you? Well, maybe a loss of a job.

We have a friend back home in an assembly just an hour away. He was high up in a corporation. Went into work one day and he was met at the door.

Never got to his office. Hand in his keys. Never got to his desk to clean it out.

No reason given. Where does one turn? The loss of a job. Maybe the loss of a life's partner to death.

Maybe the loss of a friend, of which some of us today don't know the pain or the loss of that. Maybe a visit to the doctor, and it was the dreaded C word. It's cancer.

Maybe it's a loss of a relationship. You thought things were going well, and all of a sudden, you're in the hospital without reason or explanation. It's cut off, and you're left hurt and devastated.

Maybe it's a financial problem that was totally out of your control. But whatever it is, dear Christian, remember this. We have a great high priest who cannot die.

We have a great high priest who cannot die. Come again. When you look at verses 26 and 27, secondly, we have a great high priest who cannot sin.

The men who officiated as high priests in the camp of Israel were just men. They required to offer sacrifices for themselves, first of all, and then for the sins of the people. Leviticus chapter 16, it appears that Aaron went in at least three times.

But he first of all had to go in and atone for his own sins before he could atone for the sins of the people. Here again, then, is the limitation not now a limitation because of death, but a limitation now because of sin. That is why there was a change required in the priesthood.

So if you were to bring your burnt offering or your meal offering or peace offering or sin offering or trespass offering, and you brought it to the priest at the altar, you were just facing another man just like yourself. A man that was marked by sin. Bless God and let us hold tenaciously to it.

We have a great high priest who cannot sin. I was thinking of Brother Brody when he was speaking there to us this morning. We have groups of people in southern Manitoba and, well, they feel it's more honorable to say that while the Lord Jesus did not sin, he could have sinned.

That is far from Bible truth. So I say to them this, okay, let's just take your theory. You say he did not sin, but he could have.

Okay, let's go a million years into eternity because he's a real man in the glory. So if he could have sinned while he was down here, that tells me there's a possibility he could have sinned over there. What an absolute impossibility.

And so they say something like this, well, our leaders haven't taught us that. Well, I said it might be just a good idea to go back to them and ask them to teach you that because it's an absolute impossibility. So the Hebrew writer then sets forth in five or six beautiful statements, what kind of a high priest do we actually have? Well, he said, he's holy.

We were listening to that this morning. Opposed to all that is unrighteous and polluted. He is harmless, guileless, unstained in his dealings with man.

Undefiled freedom from inward moral impurity. Separate from sinners. Here's a marvel.

Well, that's the Lord Jesus touched the leper. Wasn't defiled. That's our Lord.

He is the one who today is our great high priest dealing with our sorrows and dealing with our weaknesses. Finally, he's made higher than the heavens in his exaltation. This is the kind of high priest that you have this is the kind of high priest that I have with our weakness, dealing with our weaknesses and our sorrows.

So we have a great high priest who cannot die. We have a great high priest who cannot sin. Then the writer just seems to bring it all together in verse 28.

We have a great high priest who cannot fail. Failing men that may have been very unsympathetic. I'm just going to ask you for a moment, if I could use a moment of imagination.

Mr. Sidney Maxwell used to say sanctified imagination, so we'll leave it there. Here's Aaron in his tent. And you've had a problem.

You've gone to him once. You've gone to him twice. And maybe now you're going to go to him again.

And does Aaron just lift the flap of the tent and say, not her again. Not him again. Now that could have been a possibility because we're dealing with men of weakness.

Dear Christian, you and I have a great high priest who cannot fail. You'll be familiar with Exodus 28, Exodus 29, the deal with the consecration of Aaron and the priesthood for the nation of Israel. Those garments must have been beautiful garments to behold.

There was of course an ephod, just an apron-like that went over his garments. And on the shoulders of that ephod were two onyx stones. And on those onyx stones were engraved six names of one of the tribes, six names of the other tribe.

And where were they? They were on the shoulders, the place of strength of the high priest. And so when Aaron went in to meet with God, he was taking into the presence of God, the people of God, collectively. But we're individuals, aren't we? We want to be seen and viewed as individuals, and that's right.

And so there was a breastplate, one of three articles dealing in the tabernacle that were four square. It was said to be a span, seemingly about nine inches from thumb to the tip of your little baby finger. And on that breastplate were 12 beautiful stones.

They were all different. They were a different color. They may very well have come from different areas.

But each of those stones and on those stones were engraved one of the names of the tribes of Israel. And so Aaron then not only carried the people of God collectively into the presence of God, he took them in individually as well. Think for a moment, the wind is blowing up the desert sand, and Aaron as he moves amongst the camp, he's able to put his hand over the whole breastplate and cover them all as he moves through.

We have a great high priest who cannot fail. It would be possible for a believer to send you an email, call you on the phone, and to ask you a question. And you sit down at your computer or on the phone and you answer the question.

Do you realize as a speaker has realized that at times you've given an incomplete answer? You don't know what was behind the question. You really don't know why is he asking me that? Why is she asking me that? Now you're in a Bible reading, you could draw the person out. And so it would be possible to give incomplete advice because maybe they didn't tell you the whole story.

Not so much with one who is at God's right hand. He never gives incomplete advice. From Isaiah chapter 9, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called.

I really don't think this wonderful counselor myself. He's wonderful. He's the counselor.

He never will give wrong advice. He will never give incomplete advice. And it will be advice that is purposely suitable to exactly what I need.

Just think as I close. There would have been times when the flaps of Aaron's tent would have been closed. And the candles would have been out.

And Aaron wasn't available. And he wouldn't have been able to approach. You see, believer, later this evening when we turn out the lights and we go to bed after a good day at the conference, I see another part of the world just waking up.

And he's willing to hear them as he hears us. I never have to worry about call waiting. I never have to worry about our menu has changed.

Please listen carefully. Dial 1 for this. Dial 2 for this.

Dial 3. And believers around the world that are crying into his ear because of their sorrows, because of their pain, because he can hear them all at once. And bless God, he can answer them all at once at the same. So then in a very, very skillful way, the Hebrew writer, the great apostle, you tell me afterwards who he was, skillfully with his complete knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, gives that contrast between the Aaronic priesthood and the priesthood of our Lord Jesus.

In our sorrows and with our weakness, may we know what it is to look up to heaven and be occupied with the man.