Christ's Qualifications to be a Sympathetic Priest

Recap and Setting in the New Building

0:00 We continue this morning the delightful occupation of contemplating the glorious person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

0:14 I believe it is a kind providence from the Lord that here on the first occasion of our gathering together in this building, that we should find ourselves at this point in our study where Christ in the glory of his person is set before us from the Scriptures. If any is here as a visitor, perhaps wondering what it is that is gathering this people together, well, among other things, the rationale for our gathering, in a very real sense, is the very thrust of the ministry of the Word of God this morning. It is that we desire to know something more of Him who has loved us and given Himself for us,

1:01 even our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the course of a series of studies entitled Here We Stand, in which we have been underscoring some of the fundamental doctrinal pivots of the Word of God, we have come to a section which I have called the salvation we receive and proclaim. And having examined the teaching of Holy Scripture concerning the objects of that salvation, we are now concerned with examining the Scriptures with reference to their teaching as it focuses upon the central figure in that salvation, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. The historic doctrine of Christ, as found in Holy Scripture, asserts that He is truly God.

1:52 It asserts further that He is truly man. It asserts further that He is truly God and man in one person and two natures forever. However, having, I trust, demonstrated the overwhelming evidence of Scripture asserting His Godhead, we are now drawing to the conclusion of a series of studies in which we have demonstrated the reality of His humanity. In the course of this study, we've attempted to look at his humanity as contained in the period of preparation.

2:36 All of the prophecies in the Old Testament which point to the coming Redeemer, point to one who will be truly man. Then we looked at the indications of his true humanity as seen in the period of manifestation. manifestation. While he was here on earth and the record of that life is contained in the gospel records, the gospel accounts, we see that Matthew, Mark and Luke and John all present to us a Savior who is truly man. He has a true human body and a true human soul with a human mind, human affections and emotions and a human will.

3:17 And now we are concluding our study by considering what all of this says to the people of God. What is the consolation of the doctrine of Christ's true and essential humanity? What should it mean to us as the people of God when we come to the understanding through the Scriptures and by the Spirit that Jesus Christ is truly man? Well, I suggested two lines of thought last Lord's Day, and this morning we shall conclude this aspect of our study by considering two more lines of thought with reference to our Lord's humanity and the consolation that that doctrine ought to bring to us as the people of God.

4:04 Last week we considered the fact that because he is truly man, he is fully authenticated as the promised Redeemer. He was no imposter, for he perfectly fulfilled every prophecy with reference to him as the seed of the woman. And then secondly, because he is truly man, he is fully equipped to be an efficient mediator. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, himself man, Jesus Christ.

4:46 And as man, he is fully equipped to be our mediator. He is identified with us. He was able to live under the law, die the curse of the law, break the bands of death as man, and therefore bring with him all of those for whom he died. Now this morning we come to the final two consolations that are derived from the reality of Christ's humanity.

Sympathetic Priest: Hebrews 4 and 2 Considered

5:18 The third in this series, the first this morning, the third in this series of consolations, because Jesus Christ is truly man, He is fully qualified to be a sympathetic priest. Being truly man, he is not only authenticated as the promised Messiah, fully equipped to be an efficient mediator, but he is fully qualified to be a sympathetic priest. Will you turn, please, to the book of Hebrews and chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4.

6:04 I begin reading with verse 14. Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us in time of need. For every high priest being taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God,

6:52 that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity? In chapter 3 and verse 1 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer exhorts the people of God, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The people of God are called upon to consider Christ in His office and function as a High Priest.

7:36 And this word consider means to contemplate with a view to understanding. On a beautiful day, someone may say, Well, I looked out and I saw it was a beautiful day. We may then say to that person, drink in the beauty of that clear sky. What we are commanding them or entreating them to do is not merely to look long enough to have a register on the mind that it's a nice clear blue sky.

8:07 But we want them to look long enough until something of that which is there objectively brings its proper influence upon their mind. Now that's exactly what the writer to the Hebrews is saying He's saying it is not enough to know that Christ is a high priest He says consider this high priest of our confession Focus the gaze of the soul's eyes upon Christ as priest Meditate upon that which he is as priest that which He does as priest, and the result will be holy fruits in your experience as a confessed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

9:00 And it's in that particular orbit of concern, the exhortation to consider Him as High Priest, that the writer goes on to describe our great high priest as one who, having passed through the heavens, is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. One who in the reality of a true humanity was tempted in all points like as we are. One who in the language of chapter 5, because he was taken from among men, because he was indeed truly man, is able to bear gently with the ignorant and the erring

9:45 in a way that no human priest was ever able to do. Now back to chapter 2 for a similar passage before making any application. Chapter 2, verses 17 and 18. Having asserted that Christ is of one with His people, that is, of one nature as a man.

10:10 Verse 17 Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. Notice the statement. His becoming like unto His brethren in all things was with a view to His being constituted a merciful and faithful High Priest. Without His becoming like them in all things, He could be neither a merciful nor a faithful high priest to the degree that He is such a merciful and faithful high priest.

10:58 And then the particular functions that He now performs because He was made like unto His brethren. Function number one, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Function number two, for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. You see the emphasis of the writer?

11:23 That in his ministry as a priest, he was perfectly suited to perform these two great functions. To make propitiation, there had to be a true humanity in which he could suffer the curse of the law and so satisfy divine justice, turning away the anger of God. That's propitiation. It is sacrifice which turns away the wrath of God.

11:49 It is appeasement of divine anger. And since the focus of divine anger was man in his breach of the law, man in his offense against the holy law of God, that anger of God against man the sinner could only be placated when one who was made like unto his brethren in a true humanity drank into himself the last dregs of divine wrath and anger. But then the second great function of the priest, he must be able to bear gently with the ignorant and the erring. He must be able to succor.

12:29 And so the writer to Hebrew says he was made in all things like to his brethren, that he might not only die and make propitiation, but that he might in his present life succor those who are tempted. Now this involves us in a problem. The problem again of the two natures in the one person. As God possessed of all knowledge, and we saw that in our studies on his deity, Jesus Christ does not need to experience anything in order to know it.

Why Experience Matters: Knowing Through Suffering

13:09 He knows with perfect omniscience. to know more accurately because of experience is peculiar to the creature, not to God. For instance, Daddy may say to one of the little children, Now you must not touch the stove. It will burn your hand.

13:28 So one of your little playmates is over playing with you someday, and he goes to touch the stove, and you say to him, No, no, Johnny, don't touch the stove. My daddy says The stove burns Well the little child knows that the stove will burn He knows that It an intellectual concept Sufficiently believed as to keep his hand away from the stove But one day, the child forgets. And after the burners were turned off, but the grate over the burner was still hot, the little child reached up to get something, and there is that searing of his flesh and the little white marks across his fingers, and he comes running to his mummy. Burn! Touch the stove! Burn!

14:07 Now what's happened to that child? That child now knows in a way he did not previously know that the stove burns. You see, the experience of having been burnt has put a new dimension upon the knowledge that the child had of that fact that a hot stove will burn. And this is true in every area of human experience.

14:33 that there is a dimension of knowledge which is reserved for experience. But being God, the Lord Jesus Christ as to His deity does not need to experience temptation to know what it is for the creature to pass through the struggles of temptation. But remember, He has constituted our Redeemer not in His divine nature alone, but in the union of the two natures in the one person. Our Redeemer is the God-Man.

15:12 And if the humanity of Christ is to be suited for the functions of a sympathetic High Priest, He must pass through the experience of temptation in order to sympathize with the tempted. He must pass through grief and through sorrow and through disappointment and through agony and through all the struggles of the soul, barring the struggle with indwelling sin.

15:44 This then becomes a tremendous assistance to our faith. it's more for the strengthening of our faith if I may say it reverently than for the informing of our Lord that He passed through these trials that when we think of our great high priest into whose hands we've committed the whole cause of our eternal salvation we may in the language of Hebrews 4 come with boldness to the throne of grace why? Because we know at the right hand of the Father who sits upon that throne, we have one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, whose humanity passed through our condition and is therefore able to succor us.

16:36 Again, let me illustrate. Imagine a woman who has been happily married for years, and her husband has just died. and in her grief she turns to the Lord Jesus and she finds in Him a sympathetic high priest. She finds a tremendous sense of consolation in the knowledge that tears over the loss of her beloved are not displeasing to God for she remembers the tears of her Lord at the graveside of His friend Lazarus.

17:10 And having found the consolations of her Lord, The people of God seek now to mediate some of that consolation. And in one day she receives two phone calls. One phone call is from a godly woman in the congregation of which she is a part. Knowledgeable in the scriptures, a woman who has walked with God for 30 or 40 years.

17:33 She has adequate facilities in her home. and she says to her, for the next few weeks or months until you get acclimated to the new life without your husband, to get out of the home so that there aren't the haunting memories attached to him, I invite you to come and spend as much time as you want in our home. About an hour later, she receives another phone call from another woman in the church, about the same age, equally godly, equally knowledgeable in the things of God equally proven as a true yoke fellow to those who are in need everything about these two women is as parallel as it could be

18:19 this woman also has an adequate home also has a wholesome climate the only difference is that this woman lost her husband six months before Now, all of the factors being equal, which place will the recently widowed woman choose to live for the next few weeks? Which place? Why, you say it's obvious she's going to choose the latter. Why?

18:49 Not because she suspects the genuineness of her first phone caller's godliness, her understanding of the word, her love. But there's that immediate sense, the one who called second has passed through, and there's an instinctive sense, she'll be able to understand me a bit better.

19:15 Now that's true in human relationships, is it not?

19:20 And that's why the Scripture says, Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, for that in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor those that are tempted. And the great consolation that comes to the people of God when they consider their great high priest is that in that true humanity He suffered. In that true humanity, therefore, I find, as it were, the substructure of a basis of confidence that He can sympathize with me in my grief and in my sorrow.

Christ's Humanity in Its Fallen Condition

20:10 We must add to the idea that He took part of our nature an additional thought that this very week was opened up to my own mind through one of God's servants of a bygone day that has brought great sweetness to my own soul. He not only partook of our nature, but He took our nature in our condition. You see that first woman shares a similar nature with the recently widowed woman She's a woman She has a woman's feelings and a woman's constitution There is similarity and identity of nature But it's only the second woman who brings to that similarity of nature

20:59 A similarity of condition Now follow me The Lord Jesus could have been a true man if he took upon himself manhood as it was before the fall. Adam was a true man. Adam as a man was obligated to obey God. Jesus Christ could have taken to himself our nature in its pre-fallen condition.

21:29 But he didn't do that. He took our nature in the context of its fallen condition. That's why the scriptures say He was made in the likeness not of Adamic flesh, but of sinful flesh. It doesn't say He was made in sinful flesh, but Romans 8, 3 says He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.

21:58 and for sin. And so he partook of human nature in its present condition of humiliation because of sin.

22:13 We find in the language of one servant of God of another day something of the wonder and the glory of this. John Brown quoting And John Owen says, and please don't be distracted by that, just gird up the loins of your mind,

22:35 that in a perfectly holy human nature, Jesus Christ came that he might exactly discharge the will of God.

22:45 I'm sorry, that in a perfectly holy human nature, he should exactly discharge the will of God was all that was required in order to his being a high priest. But that was not all the estate and condition of the brethren required. Their sorrows, tenderness, weakness, miseries, disconsolations were such that if there be not a co-tempering of his sublime holiness and absolute perfection in fulfilling all righteousness, which he could have done had he taken our nature in an unfallen state, But tempered with that, there must be some qualifications inclining him to condescension, to pity, to compassion, and a tender sense of their condition.

23:35 Whatever might be the issue of their safety in the life to come, that is, had he taken human nature as it was in the garden, He could well have provided for our eternal salvation and satisfy all the demands of the law. Whatever might be their safety in the world to come, says Owen, their comforts in this life would be in continual hazard. To be such a merciful and faithful high priest, it behooved the divine Savior, not only to be conformed in nature, but in condition to the brethren. There is a kind and degree of compassion and fidelity in giving comfort and relief, which nothing but fellowship in suffering can teach.

24:24 And then John Brown goes on to say, Child of God, suck sweetness from that wonderful truth of Holy Scripture. Christ is truly man, so what? Oh, dear child of God, he is fully qualified to be a sympathetic priest. In a sense, in the Spirit, to mingle his tears with ours now when we face the wrenching grief of death, even as he mingled his tears then with the tears of Mary and Martha and the friends of their common friend Lazarus.

25:01 To know that in the Spirit, even now, He mingles with our apprehensions and fear and dread of the dark providences of God. That fear and dread that He Himself experienced when in the garden of Gethsemane He prayed, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. To know that in the Spirit He exalts and rejoices with us as He exalted and rejoiced in the Spirit. When, as we read in Luke chapter 11, He beholds the mighty work of God in hiding truth from the wise and prudent and revealing it unto babes.

Application: Comfort for the Suffering Saint

25:47 Oh, this opens up lines of thought that every Christian who values his Savior cannot help but seek to lay to heart and to obey the injunction, consider the high priest of your confession. And oh, you dear children and young people, listen to me. God hasn't put you in the Garden of Eden. You must live out all your days in a condition marked by the reality of sin.

26:20 Grief, disappointment, sickness, heartache, death, frustrated plans, dashed hopes, blasted dreams. What a tragedy to go through life with no high priest who can sympathize with you. With no high priest to be your consolation. With no high priest into whose presence you can come in the confidence that he knows, he feels, he understands, he cares.

26:58 Oh, if there were no other reason to become a Christian, isn't that that reason enough, dear young people? Right now life is relatively simple. Few of you, boys and girls, are sons and daughters of tears. But mark my word you have your share for man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward Oh how blessed to enter into living communion with Christ In the days of your youth cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the throne of grace Cultivate intimate communion with a sympathetic high priest.

27:38 Learn to look to Christ in all the glory of His offices as your priest. And then when the greater trials of your adulthood come upon you and press in upon mind and spirit, until at times it feels as though the human spirit must break beneath its pressure, then having known some acquaintance with the throne of grace, some acquaintance with Him who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, God will be glorified in the supportive grace conveyed through your sympathetic high priest. Well then, we move to the fourth and final consideration. What are the consolations of Christ's humanity?

28:25 There is not only the consolation that by His true humanity, He is the authenticated Messiah. He is the efficient mediator, the sympathetic priest. But because of the reality of that true humanity, he is fully suitable to be our perfect pattern. Fully suitable to be our perfect pattern.

Christ as Our Perfect Pattern: 1 Peter 2 and 1 John 2

28:53 Will you turn please to 1 Peter and chapter 2.

29:03 In a context in which the Apostle Peter is exhorting servants, bond servants, slaves, to be in subjection to their masters, he envisions a circumstance or a situation in which the master is a very unjust and cruel man. And the servant then must bear the brunt of that injustice and that cruelty. And of course the temptation to such a servant would be to retaliate. And so the apostle says, verse 18 of 1 Peter 2, Servants be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

29:50 For this is acceptable if for conscience toward God a man endures griefs suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it? If when ye sin and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently. For if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

30:12 Now you see his line of argument? He says, now it's no big deal if when you've goofed, or you've disobeyed, or you haven't put out 100%, and the master discovers what you've done, that he comes along and cuffs you across the ears, or he gives you a tongue lashing, He said, so what when you've done wrong and you're buffeted for it? That's no big deal. But he says, if when you've worked and you've put out 110% and you've done what you were commanded, and instead of praise and gratitude, all you get is a rebuff from the master.

30:42 He says, if when that happens, you don't retaliate, but you maintain submission and gentleness. This is acceptable with God. For he says, now notice carefully, verse 21. The reason it is acceptable with God is explained in verse 21.

31:01 For here unto were ye called. When you act in this way, you are acting consistent with your calling. Well, in what way is it consistent with my calling? Well, he's going to tell us.

31:14 Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Now do you see what Peter is telling them? He's saying when you act in this way, you're acting consistent with your calling because you were called to imitate your Savior. And the word used here for example is a word which means a pattern of a word to be copied.

31:48 Let me illustrate. Some of us can remember back when we had our first year Greek class. and looking at all those letters, some of which looked like the English alphabet, some of which didn't, we can remember how grateful we were when our teacher went to the blackboard and then put a big alpha on the blackboard. And then he put a big beta.

32:11 And then he put a gamma, and he said, now you notice, you start about the middle of the space and come down before the line and up. And what did we do? Well, we sat there then, with one eye to the blackboard and one eye to our own paper, and then we tried to make an alpha. And then we tried to make a paper.

32:29 What did we do? We looked at that letter which he drew, and we sought to reproduce a copy. Now that's the thought bound up in this word. Christ also has left you an example that you should follow his steps.

32:47 He has left the outline and the pattern, And you are to consider your life and its reactions to the world of sin and evil as being one that should reflect the great pattern that is set in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now a second verse which sets Christ before us as our example. And then we'll see how His humanity fully suits Him to be a perfect pattern. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6.

33:20 Not only is Christ the propitiation of his people, their substitute who died in their stead, but he is, according to Peter, their example, their pattern to follow. And similarly in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6, He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked. Notice the word ought. It's the word of obligation.

33:54 Whoever says that he is joined to Christ in the bond of faith, united to Christ by the indwelling of the Spirit, is under solemn obligation also to walk even as Christ walked. Alright, we've established the principle. Jesus Christ is the mandatory and perfect pattern for his people. Now the question is, in what sense is he our pattern?

34:25 Is he our pattern as to his deity? Well, of course not. That's the doctrine of paganism. The doctrine that those who are human shall one day rise to godhood.

34:41 Jesus Christ never was, never shall be our pattern as to His divine nature.

34:52 Rather, He is our pattern as to His human nature. When the scripture says in 1 John 3, We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What does it mean we shall be like Him? Does it mean we'll be elevated to Godhood?

35:06 It does not mean that. It means we shall bear the image of His perfect, glorified humanity. Humanity no longer in a state of humiliation. And we will also reflect that same image.

35:24 Bill, can we cut out that speaker, please?

35:29 And I'll just seek to work hard enough to project so all can hear. Let's pray. I feel the enemy doesn't want our minds to be gripped with these truths. Let's ask God to help us.

35:42 Oh, our Father, we feel ourselves to be such weak words of a dust, so easily distracted from high and holy things that ought so to capture us. Nothing will turn the mind away. O Lord, help me that these things will not dull my mind nor the minds of your people, but that we may give ourselves without distraction to hearing your voice and feeding upon your Son. O God, bind the powers of darkness that would in any way improve upon the holy exercise of the ministry of the Word.

Pattern in the Use of Body and Faculties

36:25 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Having established then that Christ as our example is our example as to his humanity, think for a moment as to how perfectly suitable he is to be our perfect pattern. Now I hope you begin to see why I labored for weeks to establish in detail the full dimensions of his humanity.

36:58 As man, he had all bodily facilities, faculties, and he indulged them freely within the bounds of the will of God. He ate, but he was never guilty of gluttony. He drank, but was never guilty of drunkenness. He slept, but was never guilty of idleness.

37:21 He took needful recreation, but was never guilty of avoiding duty in the pursuit of that recreation. He gave himself to laborious tasks, but he never abused his body, which was the vehicle of God's mighty work in redemption for sinners. Do you see how Christ then becomes a perfect pattern, perfectly suited to be our pattern as to his humanity? What are we to do with these bodies and their physical capacities and appetites and functions?

37:57 Are we to do as the monastics say? Are we to batter down all of these things as the enemies of the soul? Shall we pick the body as the great enemy of the soul? Never!

38:09 This is to deny the sinless humanity of our Lord. We can look to Him, some of you who perhaps have problems with gluttony and the resultant fruit of overweight, look to Christ and say, Lord Jesus, by the Spirit that rested upon you, work mightily in me and harness my appetite for food. To the end that I may know you as my perfect example, follow in your steps of temperance in all of my eating and drinking. That's what it means that Christ is your perfect battle.

38:52 Some of you who are sluggards and who love your beds too much, you need to look to Christ and you see in Him the One who after great labors rises up a great while before day and goes out into a secret place to pray. Who disciplines the legitimate appetites for sleep and for rest, Yet who at the same time does not abuse his body and his whole psychological composition as a man. For he says to the disciples, come ye apart and rest a while. We read that he went over the brook he'd drawn into a garden where he oft resorted with his disciples.

39:37 He had a retreat from the crowds and the pressure of ministry. and only the person who knows what it is to have not just the demands of one-to-one counsel. Some of you will never understand the drain of what it is to be engaged day after day in spiritual activities, to stand before a congregation like this and to seek to be an instrument to lead them into the presence of God, the drain upon the humanity. Our Lord knew that.

40:07 It says He felt virtue go out from Him. Yet in the midst of all those pressures, he knew what it was to use good judgment in taking legitimate rest, retreat from the pressures and the crowds and the demands, there to resort with his disciples. Oh, what a wonderful and perfect example is our Lord of how to handle this body and its legitimate faculties and appetites. He is perfectly suited to be our perfect pattern.

Pattern in the Actings of His Soul, Mind, Will, and Emotions

40:40 Think of him in the actings of his soul. Think of him as we saw him in the Gospel records, with a mind that never thought independent of dependence upon God, or detached from the standards and framework of light in the Word of God When he would combat the subtle temptations of the devil it is written it is written it is written the Scriptures must be fulfilled This must come to pass that it might be fulfilled. Here was one whose mind was reverently subject to all the dictums of God in Holy Scripture. Here was one whose will in all of its actings, and it was freely and consciously active.

41:28 It was a will that would shrink from suffering, so much so that the prayer goes up, If it be possible, my Father, let this cup pass nevertheless. Not my will, but Thine be done. There was the emotion of joy that never drifted into giddiness. There was grief that never became moroseness.

41:51 There was crushing sorrow that never became bitterness. There was anger and zeal that never became an inordinate passion. And these were the passions, the emotions of the man, Christ Jesus. All of that delicately balanced emotional life, under the control of and in dependence upon the Spirit, And the Spirit of Christ indwells us And has continual access to all the channels of our emotional life To do what?

42:31 To enable us to follow His steps To walk as He walked How? By becoming Stoics Who somehow neuter the reality of their emotional structure This is not God Redemption does not destroy anything essential to your humanity or to mine. And our emotions are essential to our God-given humanity. And therefore, redemption does not destroy them.

43:02 Redemption purges them of their sinful elements and then harnesses them and controls them so that they may function to the glory of God and to the good of men. Oh, how perfectly suited is our Lord. To be our perfect pattern. We see him in the actings of his physical necessities.

43:24 Our perfect pattern. In the actings and expressions of his soul. Our perfect pattern. Think of him with reference to the two great demands of the law.

43:34 Love to God and love to fellow man. So often with us, the one suffers at the expense of the other. As we seek to nurture our inner life. And know what it is to love God more with heart, mind, soul.

43:47 and strength, we become selfishly indrawn or drawn in, and we are not sensitive to the needs of others. Or on the other hand, in seeking to give ourselves to the needs of others, we do so at the expense of the nurture of our own souls. And so we kick between one error and the other. Oh, behold your Lord this morning.

44:10 Behold Him, in that perfect fulfilling of obedience to that commandment to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. And yet in the midst of a crowd with people milling around, He is sensitive enough to hear above that milling crowd the cry of a poor blind beggar. Son of David, have mercy upon me. And the Scripture says, in what to me is one of the most beautiful phrases in all of the Bible, And Jesus stood still, occupied with the needs of multitudes, and yet sensitive to the need of an individual.

Pattern in Love to God and Love to Neighbor

44:58 Well, I don't want to try to, as it were, preach and rearrange all of the gospel record under this heading, but I hope I've given you sufficient fuel for thought and meditation. When the scripture says you were called to follow Christ in Christ's steps, to embrace Him as your God-given pattern, do you see the implications of this? Dear child of God, you ought often to be studying the Gospels. Don't limit your reading just to the Epistles.

45:30 Just as you'll be warped if you only read the Gospels, You'll be warped if you read only the epistles. Because there is a wonderful, wonderful design of God. In the believer's reverent contemplation of Christ. In the perfections of His person.

2 Corinthians 3:18: Transformed by Beholding

45:52 And you know what that wonderful design and purpose of God is. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. As we conclude our study this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18.

46:14 But we all with unveiled face, the contrast of course with Moses, but we all with unveiled face behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, or beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Here the Lord Jesus is brought into the closest proximity to the Holy Spirit. In verse 17 we read, And where the Spirit of the Lord is, He is the Lord's Spirit.

47:03 Verse 18, it is the Lord, the Spirit. And this proximity between the Lord as the Lord of the Spirit and the Spirit of the Lord is in a context of the pattern of progressive sanctification. And what is that pattern? Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.

47:24 We do not behold Him directly. We thank God someday we shall. We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. But it will take humanity rid of humiliation to take that sight.

47:36 Our glorification occurs that we might as well as at the time that we see Him as He is. But now we behold His glory as in a mirror. It is a reflected glory. And where is that glory reflected?

47:52 not in mystical flights of irrational fancy, not in dreams and in the rustling of angels' wings. You behold His glory in this book. In this book. And as you behold the glory of Christ reflected through the pages of His own Word, and as you do what the writer to Hebrews says, You consider the high priest of your confession.

48:25 You meditate upon his humanity. You meditate and ruminate upon what it means that he is truly man. And as man, he is your perfect pattern and example. What happens?

48:38 Look at the text. As we behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image from one stage of glory to another. There's the wonder of the process of sanctification, another facet of that mysterious work by which God carries on His purpose to conform us to the image of His Son. And as more and more our minds and hearts are cast into the mold of His perfect humanity, so God the Spirit carries on that work of making us like Him.

49:23 Last Lord's Day morning I gave you a warning and I simply want to repeat the essence of it this morning. Unless we learn continually to contemplate perfect humanity as seen in our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel records, we will either on the one hand make little progress in sanctification, or on the other hand we will drift off into false views and a distorted aspect of professing sanctification. The tendency on the one hand to libertinism or license, and on the other hand to asceticism, is native to our remaining corruption.

50:09 And only as we behold the Lord Jesus, the perfect man, who in the language of one author, and I feel free to tell you now, and this is why I've struggled this morning. I brought the notes from last week And I haven't had a note From this morning's study before me And have just tried to God To bring all the fruits of my study To remembrance without those notes But there was a wonderful quote That I had written down I'll see if I can reproduce it Setting forth the concept That Christ is truly human He said in Christ there is nothing But true humanity Real humanity Only humanity as to his human nature, but humanity, ah, it's lost me, something about the effect,

50:55 to the effect unmixed with error, unmixed with sin. But the point the author was making is that we will never accept the validity of this principle. Christ is our legitimate example unless we've grasped the glory of his true humanity. As long as you think of him as a creature who, because humanity was joined to divinity is somehow something halfway between God and man, how can you accept the validity of His example?

51:28 Because you say He existed and lived at a plane different from mine.

51:35 But when I come to grips with the truth, tempted in all points like His weed, yet without sin, He hath suffered being tempted. When I catch the glory of His humanity, then I can begin with all of my faculties and powers to say, O God, by the same Spirit that supported and sustained and directed the humanity of Christ, O God, by that Spirit, support and direct. And then I have to pray something that He never did. purify this humanity of mine so that more and more I shall become like the one

Closing Appeal and Prayer

52:20 who loved me and who gave himself for me. I feel that I very poorly and inadequately and with a deep sense of frustration, dear people, have set this truth before you. It deserved a far more efficient treatment. But if God's the God who takes the weak to confound the mighty in the things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are.

52:47 May God be pleased for the glory of His Son to bless us with a new sight of that glory today. Let us pray. O our Father, we thank you that you know our hearts as your children. You know the heart of your servant who longed to set forth this truth.

53:24 with much greater precision, with a much greater sense of its glory and wonder. But, O Father, take that which is so evident in its inadequacies and weaknesses and be pleased for the sake of your Son to bless it by the power of the Spirit.

53:51 O Lord, may not your hungry sheep because to suffer, because the carelessness, because of whatever other factors that caused your servant to feel crippled in the effort to proclaim your truth. We thank you for so wonderful a Savior as our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for one who is truly man. We thank you for one who is and ever shall be truly God.

54:29 We bless you that he is the God-man, perfectly suited to all of our needs as the people of God. O Lord, receive our thanks for him and be pleased to dismiss us with the benediction of a new appreciation of his person resting upon us and abiding with us. we ask in his worthy name Amen