Christ's Priestly Sacrifice

Review of Christ's Priestly Office

0:02 Under the title, Here We Stand, our Sunday morning studies in the Word of God have been, for a number of months, concerned with setting forth the essence of the Christian faith, or to state it a bit differently, what is the very heart and soul of biblical religion. We have been concerned to examine those main pivots around which everything that the Bible sets forth as true and saving religion turn. And the broad area of our present concern, having looked at something concerning the Bible's teaching about itself, about God, we are now concerned with the salvation that the Bible sets before us as the only way of deliverance for guilty, needy sinners. We are doing so under the general heading, The Salvation We Receive and Proclaim. And under that broad heading, our present preoccupation is with the work of the Redeemer. We considered the person of Christ, something of the biblical teaching concerning the mystery of his being true God, true man, one person in two natures forever.

1:19 And now our attention is being directed to the majesty of God. For it is in his official functions of office that he accomplishes the work of redemption. He does not accomplish the work of redemption simply as the God-man. He accomplishes the work of redemption as the God-man functioning in his offices peculiar to the work of redemption.

1:48 Thus far, we've looked at the name and the number of those offices. They are three. Their name, prophet, priest, and king. We've considered something of the inseparable relationship between what he is in his person and what he does in the function of his office.

2:07 He has constituted precisely what he is in his person in order that he might do what he does in his office. And he's able to do what he does in his office precisely because of what he is in his person. Why must the Redeemer be God and man, one person in two natures forever? Well, it is only by being such a person that he can function as the prophet, priest, and king of his people.

2:41 And why does he function with such efficiency and power as prophet, priest, and king in the redemption of his people? Precisely because he is true God and true man, united in one person and two. natures forever. These two things are inseparably joined and we've considered something of the necessity of these offices. They are not offices arbitrarily conceived by God simply to give to the Redeemer a plurality of function, but each of the offices is calculated to meet the essential need of the sinner whom this Redeemer has come to save. Are we blind? Then he has constituted a prophet to teach us. Are we guilty and polluted? He has constituted

3:30 a priest to forgive and to cleanse us. Are we rebels and are we helpless? He has constituted a king to subdue and to defend and protect us. And so there is this beautiful consummance, this suitability between his offices and the need of the sinners whom he came to save.

3:53 Now then, we have begun to zero in upon those offices in particular. And we've begun with the priestly office simply because it is central in the Word of God and because the perspectives of his office as priest regulate the functions that he has as a prophet on the one hand and a king on the other. As we've considered him as priest, we've seen the reality of his priestly office. Jesus Christ is a prophet.

4:24 He is called a priest. No fewer than 18 times the various terms for priest are used of him in the book of Hebrews. His work is described as a priestly function. And then we've looked at something of the concept of priesthood as given to us in the Word of God, the key text being Hebrews 5 and verse 1. Here the writer to Hebrews gives a summary of the whole notion of the priesthood. He is taken from men. For men. To God. On behalf of sin. And everything that attaches itself to the priestly function is at least in seed form found in the teaching of Hebrews 5 and verse 1. He is taken from men in a representative character for men. But he has to do with God. And he has to do with God in connection with the problem of sin. And he has to do with God in connection with the problem

5:23 of sin. And he has to do with God in connection with the problem of sin. And he has to do with God in connection with the problem of sin. And he has to do with God in connection with the problem of sin. And then last week, and this concludes our review, we asked and then sought to answer the question, how does the priest deal with the problem of sin? Granted, he's taken from among men as the representative of men to mediate between man and God to make a way of access to God. How does the priest actually accomplish that goal? And we saw that both in the Old Testament ritual, And in the New Testament fulfillment, the function of the priest broke down into two fundamental categories. The categories of sacrifice and of intercession. The oblation and the presentation. The shedding of the blood of the innocent victim and then the presenting of the blood with the incense in the presence of God.

6:19 And as we turn to the book of Hebrews, we saw that in precisely the same way as is indicated by the Old Testament ritual, Jesus Christ is described as a priest who in his priestly functions offered a true sacrifice and now is engaged in true intercession without which there could be no salvation of the people of God. And the essential thing to remember as this morning we...

6:49 Break down these two aspects of priestly function is that we must never separate them in our minds so as to conceive of them as two isolated activities with two distinct functions aimed at two different ends, securing two different results on behalf of two different groups of people. No, no.

7:13 Sacrifice and intercession. The shedding of blood and the presentation of the blood are one. One complex, coordinated, priestly activity. They have one distinct function with one specific end in view, with one specific result on behalf of one specific people, the elect of God.

7:37 And I hope you remember the illustration of breathing. Breathing is one complex, physical activity. You inhale, you exhale. Inhaling and exhaling is called breathing.

7:51 Now, if you try to separate them and do one without the other, the results will be evident to all of us. We'll be attending your funeral before long. So, although breathing has two distinct elements as a complex, physical activity, it accomplishes one specific end. It sustains life.

8:12 At least, it's part of the life support system. Well, then, having brought into focus that broad overview, then, of the concept of priesthood taken from men on behalf of men towards God with reference to sin, dealing with sin in terms of two distinct activities that form one complex, priestly work, sacrifice and intercession, let us now, as it were, take the magnifying glass and zero in upon the first of those two functions, that of sacrifice. That of sacrifice. That of sacrifice.

Outline of the Sermon: Fact, Context, Essence, Effect

8:50 That of sacrifice. That of sacrifice. And we begin this morning, then, a consideration of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Eventually, I hope to traverse with you the following lines of thought with our Bibles before us.

9:06 First of all, the fact of Christ's priestly sacrifice. Then, secondly, the context of the biblical activity of priestly sacrifice. Then, thirdly, the essence of Christ's sacrifice. Then, fourthly, the effect of Christ's priestly sacrifice.

The Fact of Christ's Priestly Sacrifice — Denied by Some

9:28 First of all, then, let us establish from the word of God the fact of Christ's priestly sacrifice. From the earliest ages of the Christian church down to the present day, there have been voices raised vehemently denying that there is any real priestly sacrifice, in connection with the death of Jesus Christ upon Golgotha. In other words, voices have been raised and pens have been active throughout the history of the Christian church, who, when describing what happened upon Golgotha, will describe it in any other terms other than that of a bona fide, real, genuine, use any other adjective you want, priestly sacrifice. Priestly sacrifice offered by Christ unto God on behalf of specific sinners. The work of Jesus Christ upon the cross will be described with the word sacrifice loosely used. He manifested the sacrificial spirit.

10:40 He was willing to deny himself for others. It was a sacrifice of his reputation, of his own comforts. The term sacrifice may be used. But, there has been constant opposition to any notion that he was offering a true, a genuine sacrifice to God.

11:02 There has been the constant denial that his blood shedding upon the cross had any reference whatsoever to appeasing an angry God. There has been a denial of any concept that his sufferings were expiatory, that they were propitiatory, that is, that they turned away divine wrath by the offering up of an innocent victim. Now, because this is true and it touches the vitals of the Christian faith, we must establish on biblical grounds alone whether or not when Jesus Christ died, he was performing a true priestly function of sacrifice. When I assert, as I shall, again, and again, in opening up this theme, that the death of Jesus Christ was a real priestly function involving the offering of a real sacrifice to God on behalf of real sinners, am I merely being a twentieth century parrot of traditional orthodoxy? Or am I being a faithful expounder of the word of God? Now, if I'm the former, the best thing you could do in the interest of your soul is to say, excuse me, and get up and walk out of here.

12:24 I mean that sincerely. It wouldn't bother me at all if I'm in a building where a man is supposed to be expounding the word of God, and all he's doing is parroting the substance of some religious heritage that he's received. That's a prostitution of preaching. Well, if I say I'm doing the latter, simply expounding the teaching of the word of God, then the burden of proof is upon me to make it evident that the word of God, in plain language, unequivocal terminology, asserts that the death of Jesus Christ upon Calvary's cross was a true priestly sacrifice.

13:04 Now, there are many texts which allude to his death as a priestly sacrifice, many more which infer that he offered a priestly sacrifice, but I want to give you three texts of Scripture which unequivocally, explicitly affirm that the death of Jesus Christ, upon Calvary's cross, was a priestly sacrificial offering. The first of those texts is found in Ephesians chapter 5. This is why you must beware of all clever little outlines of the Bible that say, well, this part's doctrinal, or as our British friends would say, doctrinal, and the other part is practical. Those two things are so interwoven in the word of God that you cannot make such artificial distinctions. For we find in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, in what is usually considered the practical section of Ephesians, Paul giving an exhortation, in verse 1 of chapter 5, with reference to walking in love. Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us,

14:26 an offering and a sacrifice to God, for an odor of a sweet smell. The pattern of our love is to be that of God's love revealed in Jesus Christ, but Christ seen in a specific category of manifested love. Notice, the love manifested in Christ is not the love shown in his compassionate, bearing with ignorant and sinful people, though that was a manifestation of love. It is that manifestation of his love attached to his self-giving.

Proof Text One: Ephesians 5:1-2

15:09 Verse 2, walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us. An obvious reference to his cross. He gave himself up for us. He gave himself up for us.

15:27 He gave himself up for us. He gave himself up for us. us. But now in what precise capacity did he give himself up for us? Did he give himself up for us to be the supreme example of self-giving? No. He gave himself up for us, look at the text, an offering and sacrifice to God. In other words, the significance of what happened upon the cross is not its manward impression, but its Godward objective influence. You see it? He gave himself a sacrifice to God. That's the key phrase. A sacrifice to God. And what

16:24 is this little phrase? For an odor of a sweet smell. Well, that takes you right back into the heart of sacrificialness. This is sacrificial territory in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 29 and verse 25. Look at it for a moment, if you will. Exodus chapter 29 and verse 25. In the midst of the directions given for Aaron and his sons and their conduct as priests appointed of God, we read in Exodus chapter 29 and verse 25, and thou shalt take them from their hands and burn them, that is, burn them. The ram of consecration and the bread, all of these things that are to be brought as an offering to God, thou shalt take them from their hands and burn them on the altar upon

17:16 the burnt offering for a sweet savor before the Lord, for it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. So the very language the apostle uses precludes any other conclusion other than this, that the death of Jesus Christ is regarded as a true, a bona fide, a genuine sacrificial offering given up in a priestly function. And there is no way to claim submission to biblical authority and to handle this passage in such a way as to come to any other conclusion. So when we consider Christ's priestly sacrifice, we are not parroting a traditional orthodoxy. We are being true to the category of thought in which his death upon the cross is given to us in the word of God. All right, the second passage is Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. And if some of you wonder

18:31 why labor a point that you already believe, you just meet someone who is clever and denies it and then you will wish you were armed with some specific text. So please don't be impatient with me as I try to arming you. It is for your benefit. Hebrews chapter 9, verses 24 through 28. Now, just a word about the setting. The whole context is one in which the parallel yet the contrast between the priestly activity of Aaron and his sons and Christ is continually set before us. For instance, under the old economy, the concluding statement, verse 22, in according to the law, when the creation of Adam and Eve, in the first verse of John, will be established, no matter what the situation will be, it will law I may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission now in the priesthood of Christ there must be blood but it must be better blood is the emphasis of the writer and in that context he says verse 24 for Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands like in pattern to the true but into heaven itself now to appear before

19:38 the face of God for us nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place year by year with blood not his own else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and in as much as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this cometh judgment so you you , having been once offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation now the key words are these verse 25 nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest you see what he's doing he's showing there is this close proximity between the activity of the priest in the old

20:39 economy but while there is this similarity there is contrast that all priests had to make offerings again and again and again and again but if Christ is to be a priest he must make an offering no offering no priest where there is an offering there is a true priest and so the writer goes on to say therefore as a true priest what has he done verse 26 he hath been a priest Manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now the phrase sacrifice of himself is in what kind of a context? It is in a context that breathes of priesthood. It is not just a general offering of the great man Jesus, or even the general offering of the God-man Christ Jesus. It is a specific offering of the high priest Jesus. You see? That's the context.

21:44 And we go on then in verse 28, So Christ also having been once offered. Here it's as though Christ is being offered, and in the previous phrase, he offers himself, which gives us a wonderful hint of that which we hope to come to next week. He is offered, but he does offer. Well, is he?

22:06 Is he offered, or does he offer?

22:10 Both are true. For there meet in the Lord Jesus what could never be found in the Old Testament type. The lamb could not slay itself, so there had to be a priest who would take the submissive lamb and slay it. The priest had no warrant to offer himself, for he himself was a sinner who needed to offer sacrifices on his own behalf.

Proof Text Two: Hebrews 9:24-28

22:34 But because our blessed Lord was wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, he can be the priest who offers himself unto God, and he is both lamb and high priest in the accomplishment of the redemption of his people. But suffice it to say for now, this passage establishes beyond dispute that the death of Jesus Christ was nothing less than a true priestly sacrifice. And then chapter 10, the final passage, verses 11, and 12. Again, just a word about the setting.

23:13 He's speaking about the imperfections of the priesthood of the old economy. Look at chapter 10, verse 1. The law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered.

23:34 He says the repetition is eloquent demonstration of imperfection, repetition equals imperfection. Imperfection manifested in repetition. That's the whole thrust of the first few verses of chapter 10. Then he begins with verse 5 to say, but now a sacrifice and an offering and a priest had come, which need no repetition because there is perfection in that sacrifice.

24:04 And in that priest, verse 10, by which will we have been sanctified, by which will we have been sanctified, by which will we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest indeed standeth day by day, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins. Repetition equals imperfection. But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.

24:36 Do you see the key words again? Verse 10, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Here he comes so close to the very language of the Old Testament ritual, in which the body of the offering was actually placed upon an altar. And here it speaks of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

25:00 And then verse 12, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins.

25:08 Therefore, only by the most torturous abuse of language can the work of Christ as a priest be cut loose from these categories of thought. They are inextricably woven into the warp and woof of all that we are taught concerning the death of Jesus Christ. In summary then, it is proper to say that the only Redeemer offered to sinners is offered to them, clothed in priestly garb, functioning in official priestly capacity, offering up a true priestly sacrifice, a sacrifice of blood, a sacrifice that turns away divine wrath, a sacrifice that secures entrance into the presence of God and acceptance before God. And if you will not have that Christ, clothed with his priestly garments, and may I say, those garments battered with his own blood, you must make your own Christ. But he'll be as powerless to save you as the God of wood and stone and jade made by the pagan in the darkness of his own pagan night.

26:33 That's the only Christ set before us in the Word of God. The only Redeemer of God's election. And the perfect is our Lord Jesus Christ. Who being God became man and so was and continues to be both God and man in one person and two distinct natures forever.

26:56 And what offices does he execute as our Redeemer? Christ executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest and of a king. Both in his estate of humiliation and his state of exaltation. Both in his estate of humiliation and his state of exaltation.

27:10 Both in his estate of humiliation and his state of exaltation. And my friend, there is no other Savior. Why is it important for us to wrestle with these biblical concepts? It's because our Savior comes to us in that biblical context alone.

27:24 And so I trust we've established on the basis of these three texts the reality of Christ's priestly sacrifice. Now then, let us at least begin to consider the context of the biblical activity of sacrifice. If God goes to such pains to tell us that all that Christ did upon the cross He did in true priestly function, then the question that ought to be uppermost in everyone's mind who's following it all is this. Why is God so fastidious about this?

28:02 I mean, the book of Hebrews. Hebrews always puzzles me. I read through and there's all this business about, but if Aaron was this, then he must be this. And if he's, why has this died?

28:13 That's enough for me. Well, is it enough for you?

28:19 Apparently it wasn't enough for God.

Proof Text Three: Hebrews 10:10-12

28:22 Perhaps God would say to this generation, I have written unto him the wonderful things of my law, but they have counted them a strange thing.

28:32 Why has God given us a whole section of this book to open up His priesthood? Ah, because listen. There are few things more calculated to strengthen the faith and deepen the affection in and for the blessed Redeemer than is an understanding of His work as our great priest. But what are those categories of reality, those things about God and the sinner that necessitate all this business about a priesthood?

29:05 Well, that's the thing we want to address ourselves to now. And I'm calling it, for lack of a better term, the context of the biblical activity of sacrifice. If we are rightly to understand, believe in, and draw comfort from the mighty priestly activity of Christ, we must have some understanding of the fixed categories of spiritual reality which give meaning to that act of sacrifice. So our concern for the remainder of our time this morning, and looking at my watch, I can see it's going to have to spill over into next week, will be to wrestle with this issue.

29:40 What is the context of the biblical act of sacrifice? Now, we're not going to glean ideas from the sacrificial consciousness of humanity. A lot of people have done that. Why is it in every tribe, in every nation, people left to themselves will come up with a religion that somewhere along the line has got sacrifice in it?

30:00 Well, that's a very interesting study, but I'm not concerned with that. We are concerned to ask the question, when God instituted the sacrificial system, what were the reactions? What were the realities assumed by God? What realities was He seeking to impress upon the people that would come into contact with that sacrificial system?

30:23 To ask the question a bit differently, is there any rationale, is there any sound reason behind, beneath, and surrounding all the ritual? Think of it now. Try to go back into Old Testament ritual. Day after day, the cry of the bleeding lamb, as the knife is plunged into its innocent breast.

30:44 The catching of the warm blood in a basin. The sprinkling of blood upon people, and upon the accoutrements of the tabernacle, and then later the temple. Why all this concern with the bleeding of innocent lambs, and with the spattering of warm blood, with the stench of burning flesh upon altars? We read the very poetic language, and it was a sweet incense to God.

31:08 You know what happens at home when the meat burns? You say, hey, the meat's burning, turn the stove off. We've got furnace fixation with the cold wind. But the smell of burnt flesh all the time.

Why All the Detail? Introducing the Context of Sacrifice

31:22 You come within the proximity. It wasn't a barbecue, my friends. This was burnt flesh. Burnt flesh.

31:30 The stench of it, day after day. The spattering of blood. What a purpose of all of this. You kids, you listen.

31:42 You had some lambs, and one of them became your pet. And it was the sweetest little lamb in all the flock of lambs. And one day your daddy comes and says, son, I want your pet lamb. Why daddy?

31:59 Because daddy must take him up to the tabernacle, or up to the temple. What are you going to do with him, daddy? Will I have him back? No, son.

32:07 You'll never see him again. But why, daddy? What did I love? Son, trust me, you just come along with daddy.

32:14 What do you think would go through the mind of that little child? Who sees his daddy carry that pet lamb up to the place appointed by God. And then he sees his daddy go through a ritual where he places his hand on the head of that lamb. Then he hands it over to the priest.

32:31 And he sees the priest take his pet lamb and kill it in cold blood. And he sobs and he cries and he says, daddy, daddy, and my pet lamb, why daddy? And daddy says, well son, God required it. You think that's going to satisfy the little boy?

32:51 You say, but daddy, why? Why would God want you to take my pet lamb, daddy? And my pet lamb, daddy, why? Now what would you answer if you were an Israelite father?

33:02 Is Jehovah some arbitrary deity who delights to see the spattering of the blood of little Israelites' pet lambs? Well, if that father was well instructed as an Israelite, he could give his son a reason, a rationale. For the slaying of his pet lamb. And that's all I want to do.

33:29 Is to try to set before you from the word of God the context of the sacrificial activity of scripture. Unless we understand that, unless we have some feel for it, we shall never grasp the glorious reality of what Christ accomplished when he was both offerer and offering. And as I've wrestled to reduce that context to its simplest, irreducible common denominators, I've come up with two things. And I'll have time perhaps just to touch on the one this morning.

34:07 Or maybe give them both in summary form. The first is this, the context of the whole sacrificial activity of the Old Testament that forms the framework of the sacrificial activity of our blessed Lord himself. The first part of it is this, it is the reality of God in his holiness, justice, and grace. You who've memorized the Shorter Catechism wrote truth, but you were wrong.

34:45 The first fundamental aspect that forms the context of all the sacrificial activity of scripture is the reality of God, the living God, the true God. The God who is the God of holiness, of justice, and of grace. And then the second common denominator that forms the context of all the sacrificial activity of the Holy Scriptures is this, man as accountable to God, as guilty, and as polluted. So the great realities that form the context of all sacrificial activity of the Holy Scriptures are God as he is, and man as he is. And if you do not understand something of what God is as he is, and what you are as you really are, the sacrificial activity of the Scriptures from beginning to end will be sheer nonsense.

35:59 And when you contemplate Christ in his sacrificial activity, it too will be sheer nonsense. But if you understand, and have some appreciation for that which God is in himself as holy, as just, and as a God of grace, and something of what you are as accountable to that God, as a creature who is under condemnation and in a state of guilt, who is in a state of pollution, then the priesthood of Jesus Christ is the most wonderful news in all the world, because it is by the activity of Christ as a priest, and by that activity alone, that the great gap between that God and this creature is bridged, and bridged within the unbreakable bonds of everlasting covenant love. Well, I'm torn to know what to do, as our time is slipping away from us. Let me just briefly underscore some of the aspects of the former. The context of this sacrificial activity is God as he is.

37:23 God of holiness, God of justice, God of grace. Some of you familiar with the Old Testament will remember that the high priest wore what in the Old Testament language, in the Old English version, is called a mitre. He had a special headpiece. Do you remember what was inscribed upon that headpiece?

37:45 The holiness to the Lord. So that everything the priest did is reminded it has to do with the God who is holy. What was that inner place called where the high priest went but once a year? It was called the Holy of Holies.

38:06 That's where God dwelt in a peculiar way. And of all the things that God could call it, he says, I think of my presence as inseparably identified with holiness. So it was called the Holy of Holies. Right?

38:27 All the activity then behind the veil had to do with burning holiness. Everything in that whole sacrificial system was calculated to make it plain that none but the holy could have fellowship with the God who is holy. So the priest has to wash himself and wash his garments and go through all of these ceremonial cleansings. Why? He is to have dealings with God!

38:53 And that which is defiled cannot have direct dealings with God. He is holy! That's why the Scripture says he is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. He will by no means clear the guilty.

39:08 You'll never understand the sacrificial activity of the Bible, including that of Christ, unless you have some impression of the great reality that God is holy. He is the God of Isaiah 57, 15. Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. The God that Isaiah saw in vision and cried out, Woe is me! I am undone!

39:31 Mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of hosts. But not only must he be seen as the God who is holy, but the God who is just. Very little was inside that inner sanctuary. There was the mercy seat, like a table, upon which the priest would sprinkle blood, before which the incense with the blood was placed.

The Context: God as Holy, Just, and Gracious

39:56 Above it were the cherubim facing inward upon one another. But what was within that ark of the covenant? What was within? The law of God.

40:10 The ten words of Moses. For part of the time Aaron's rod that budded was also there in a pot of manna. I don't want to go in what the significance of those two things may be, but one thing is clear. Inseparably identified with everything that the priest did in the bringing of the blood of an innocent victim into the very presence of God was those ten words of Moses.

40:35 Everything he was doing had a relationship to the ten words of Moses. The ten words of Moses. Every activity of the priest could not in any way be understood and rationally conceived apart from ten words of Moses. Mr. Priest Man, everything you're doing inside this veil has something to do with those ten words of Moses in the ark. What's that tell us? That priestly activity is carried on in the context of the inflexible justice of God. For what are the ten words of Moses?

41:14 They're an expression of God's demands upon all of His creature for all time, which if they do, they shall live. If they fail to do, they shall die. And the priest was within the veil because God is a God of inflexible justice. The scripture says of him, he will by no means clear the guilty.

41:37 The psalmist said, Oh God, if thou shouldst mark iniquity, who could stand? And therefore the priest and the people on whose behalf he acted knew that the priestly function had to do with the living God. Who was not only the God of burning holiness, but the God of inflexible justice. But thirdly, they knew he was the God of amazing grace.

42:03 It was God who, as it were, walled himself in behind the veil and said, no one may come or he dies. But it's God who said, one taken from among the people may come. And not only will he live, but all on whose behalf he acts shall live also. What grace.

42:30 God who can wall himself off because sin has separated the people from him, is the God who in grace says, one may come. But in coming as the one, he does not come as a private person. For you remember, after the high priest and the day of atonement, this is all in Leviticus 16, had made the offering and the sacrifice. God says, the sins of the nation are passed over for another year.

43:06 Oh, do you see the rich fulfillment in Jesus Christ? How can I appreciate Christ as my priest until the painful awareness has been brought home to my heart that I have no access to God by nature. I'm defiled and polluted. My sin shuts me off from his burning holiness.

43:31 His inflexible justice demands my death in the burning pit forever. But wonder of wonders, in grace he has appointed a representative of the people. In the person of his own dear son, he's appointed a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek, who will function as priest in the power of an endless life. Who will bring to his priesthood not the virtue of being part of the proper tribe, but the virtue of being eternal son of God, joined to true humanity.

44:11 Who when he offers himself, offers himself in all the virtue of his person unto God. My friend, has anything of that context become real to you? There is a living God who is holy. A living God who is just.

44:34 A living God who is gracious and merciful. The other part of the context should be made clear just by reflecting on what's already been said. Man, the creature who needs the priest, is guilty. And in his guilt he's accountable to this God.

44:54 He cannot escape it. He was made in his image, made to know him, made to obey him. And though man turns away from God, he's dropped out of his accountability to God. For the scripture says, Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

45:09 And man is so polluted as well as guilty, that he has no way to come into the presence of the God for whose fellowship he was made. That's why every Israelite who understood anything of what was going on. Oh, how he loved his high priest. Oh, how he leaned upon his high priest.

45:33 For he knew that all of the concerns that he had as a sinner, guilty and polluted, were in a real sense in the hands of that priest. When he came with his son's lamb, he didn't offer it himself. No, no. He laid his hand upon it and in symbol transferred his sins to it.

45:53 But it was the task of the priest then to offer it upon the altar and to sprinkle its blood upon the penitent sinner, as well as upon the altar. And if the priest did not act on his behalf, he was done! He had had it! In the same way, everyone who in this day begins to take seriously his sin, his guilt, his pollution, knows that if Jesus Christ does not act on his behalf, he's had it, he's done.

46:29 Now has that context of sacrificial activity ever become real to you? Our God, in his holiness, justice and grace, his man, in his accountability, guilt and pollution, are those as real issues to you as the seat on which you presently sit? Are they as real to you as the skin upon your own face? Are they?

46:57 Because they are spiritual issues doesn't mean they are phantom issues, my friend. They're real issues. That's why we needed a real priest. No phantom priest.

47:08 That's why we needed a real sacrifice with real blood, offered up to the real and living God, making a real satisfaction for real sin, that my real guilt, impressed upon my real conscience, might have real forgiveness. Helen, thank God we don't deal in shadows and phantoms. Thank God for the realities of the New Covenant. That priest in the Old Testament, God says, he was a shadow.

The Context: Man as Accountable, Guilty, and Polluted

47:37 You say, what do you mean a shadow? You could feel him and touch him. He was a shadow. That's all.

47:41 That's why he's gone. He's done. But the real priest is gone. And he abides forever a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

47:50 Oh, have you embraced him? Notice I didn't say, have you trusted in his sacrifice? You don't just trust in his sacrifice. You commit your cause to the priest himself.

48:02 You commit your cause to the priest himself. Have you? Have you come and said, Lord Jesus, if you do not turn away the Father's wrath, if you do not gain my acceptance, I am undone. Have you said in faith and do you say in faith, Lord Jesus, I do believe that by one sacrifice you have put away sin forever for all who will entrust themselves to you.

48:36 Oh, may God grant that if you've not embraced him as your priest, even this day you would embrace in the context of seeing who God is and what you are embrace and dear child of God. Listen, you will appreciate Christ as your priest in direct proportion to the measure in which you maintain the sensitive conscience to the holiness of God and to the awfulness of your own sin. Think about it. It's true.

49:10 You begin to get low views of God and you'll have low views of Christ's priestly function. You begin to have a callous attitude to sin and the doctrine of Christ's priestly work will seem very irrelevant to you. But if you maintain a conscience sensitive to sin and a mind and a spirit sensitive to the infinite holiness and justice of God, and then all of your approaches to God will be in terms of conscious, constant dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ as your high priest. Is it not true?

49:48 Why do you have to stumble into some old besetting sin before you approach God conscious of your need of a priest? But it's true, isn't it? May God grant that the Holy Spirit will seal the truth to our hearts for our profit and for God's glory. Let us pray.

50:16 Our Father, how we do thank you for Jesus Christ, our great high priest. We thank you that he offered you a bonified, a genuine sacrifice on behalf of sinners. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would take the truths concerning him that have been set before our minds and hearts this morning and enable us not only to understand, but by faith to lay hold of them and to live in their light. Seal the word to us and be pleased to dismiss us with your own blessing resting upon us.

50:56 We pray that you would help us further to sanctify this day to our profit and to your praise. We pray that as we gather together tonight that it may be in the consciousness again of your presence to be with Mr. Fisher as he opens the word of God to us. Oh Lord, we need so much to hear your voice to be taught of you.

51:19 Do sanctify every hour of this day to our profit and to your eternal praise. We ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.