Christ as Our Priest

The Nature and Focus of Saving Faith

0:01 We're looking at this matter of saving faith. Having concluded several ministries elsewhere this summer, I came back from these ministries convinced that there is a great dearth of understanding amongst professing Christians on the nature of saving faith. We're all pretty straight on the importance of saving faith. He that believeth on the Son hath life.

0:26 He that believeth not shall not see life. He that believes the gospel Mark tells us shall be saved. He that disbelieves shall be damned. But now what is the nature of that faith which is unto salvation?

0:42 And as I mentioned each week, I want to mention again, we have no desire to make faith our God or our Savior. Christ is our Savior and Christ alone. But the Holy Spirit in bringing men to know Christ brings them in a way of faith. Faith is the empty hand taking the provision of God.

1:04 Faith is the hungry soul feeding upon the bread of God. Faith is the thirsty soul drinking of the water of God who is Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we're looking at this matter of saving faith and using as our general sphere of reference two things. A definition of faith and then the focus of faith being Christ in all his glory as prophet, priest, and king.

1:31 What is saving faith by way of definition? It is self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is offered to us in the gospel. Faith is not nodding to some facts about Christ. Faith is commitment to him in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is offered to us in the gospel.

1:57 Well, how then is he offered to us in the gospel? He is offered to us as the anointed prophet, priest, and king, the only redeemer and savior of men. We spent three weeks looking at his office as a prophet and seeking to lay hold of this principle that there is no saving embrace of Jesus Christ if we have not been brought subject to the word of Christ. You can't have Christ apart from his words and you can't...

2:30 truly have his words apart from him. The two are inseparable. And so faith embraces him as God's appointed prophet. The same Christ who said, come ye that labor, said, learn of me. The word of God says, the Lord shall raise up unto you a prophet like unto me, speaking of Moses, as the type of Christ, the anti-type, and to him shall ye hearken in all things. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall not hearken unto that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. You'll be damned by refusing to submit to the word of Christ as much as if you refuse to submit to the wounds of Christ. And when men begin to take exception with what our Lord teaches concerning himself and sin and the necessity of saving grace and a new birth and the doctrine of eternal hell, let us not be overmuch scrupulous.

3:29 We're scrupulous overmuch in being kind with our words. They are anti-Christ who will not receive the Christ of the Bible, a Christ who's always set before us inseparably identified with his words. And so faith in its initial actings embraces the Lord Jesus as a prophet, and faith in its continued action continually comes to him as our prophet, so that the cry of the heart of the Christian is, oh, that my heart be healed. And so faith in its initial actings embraces the Lord as a prophet, and faith in its continued action continually comes to him as our prophet, so that the my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Now this morning we come to consider the Lord Jesus as the object of saving faith in his office as a priest. And what I hope to do, if time permits, if not, we'll leave it till another Sunday morning, the Lord willing, is first of all to establish the fact of Christ's priestly office, and then secondly to consider his qualifications for the priestly office, and then thirdly just to introduce what we would call his functions in the priestly office. First of all, the fact that he is a priest, then his qualifications for that office, and then what he does in discharging that office. And all of this is involved with faith. Don't consider this

Establishing the Fact of Christ's Priestly Office

4:52 some unnecessary theological yarn, dear ones. The only Christ who saves sinners is the Christ who's a priest. And that's the only Christ who saves sinners. And that's the only Christ who saves a priest, as well as a prophet. And faith is commitment to him in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he's offered to us in the gospel. So this is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of truly knowing him. Very well then, let us establish from the scriptures first of all the fact of his priestly office. We'll be spending much time this morning in the greatest treasury of information concerning this particular office of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1. And this is really the basic text giving us clear scriptural warrant for spending a few messages on the priesthood of Christ.

6:00 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest, of our profession, Christ Jesus. Now, several principles in this text. First of all, any profession of Christ is automatically a profession of him as a priest. Notice he says, consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession. And so you cannot profess Christianity apart from confronting Jesus Christ as a high priest. If you are in Christ, then you ought to understand something more of his priestly office, for this is primarily addressed to Christians. If you are outside of Christ, then you must see him as a priest, so that in the embrace of faith as God is pleased to open your eyes and enable you to embrace him, you will embrace him as he's offered, the high priest of our profession. The second principle is that God wants us to focus our attention on the high priest of our profession.

7:09 The second principle is that God wants us to focus our attention on the high priest of our profession. Upon this office of Christ, the word consider here is a strong word. It means consider attentively, fix one's eyes upon. This would be a literal translation of the Greek word. So God calls us this morning to do this. Fix your eyes upon Jesus Christ, our high priest, for faith has regard to its object. Don't fix your eyes upon your faith, but fix it upon the object of faith. Jesus Christ, the great high priest of our profession. Now notice how he's called this again and again in the book of Hebrews. We'll just take several references at random. Chapter 4 and verse 14. 4.14 of Hebrews, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the

8:03 heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. And again you have our profession identified with Jesus Christ as a high priest. Then chapter 5 and verse 6, speaking of Christ, as he said in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so we have established in these references and in many others the fact that the Christ who is the object of saving faith is the Christ who has this glorious office of a high priest.

8:41 Now again, the confession of faith is very helpful in the, I'm speaking this morning of the larger catechism. It has an excellent question and answer concerning this. Why was our mediator called Christ? And the answer is this. Our mediator was called Christ because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure and so set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability to execute the office of a prophet, priest, and king of the world. And so he was called Christ. Now his church in the estate both of his humiliation and his exaltation. God anointed his son, the word Messiah means anointed one, to be prophet, priest, and king of his church both in the state of his humiliation while he walked among us and now in the state of his exaltation where he is at the right hand of the Father. The scripture clearly teaches the fact of his

9:38 priesthood in the state of his humiliation. Hebrews 5, verses 6 and 7 is a clear reference to this. Having stated in verse 6 that he was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, verse 7 says, who in the days of his flesh. And so the priesthood of Christ is identified with the days of his flesh. He is a priest anointed of God to be this in the state of his humiliation while he walked among us with the glory of his deity veiled in the shroud of his humanity. He was a priest. Now in the place of his exaltation, chapter 4 and verse 14, we read this a moment ago, seeing we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. There in the heavens, in the third heaven, at the right hand of the throne of God, our Lord now is as a high priest.

10:35 We find a similar reference in chapter 7, verses 24 and 25. Chapter 7, verses 24 and 25, I should say, and 26.

10:49 Wherefore he is able 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. And so his priestly office is identified with his ever living to make intercession for those who come unto God by him. Now I don't want to labor the fact, but I wanted to give you enough biblical data to convince you, of the fact of the priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm convinced this is necessary because I've moved around in evangelical circles for 13, 14 years, and I don't remember ever having heard a sermon on the priesthood of Christ.

11:28 I've heard about his death. I've heard about his sufferings. But for someone to bring into focus what the Bible said about the priesthood of Christ, both in the state of his humiliation and exaltation, I confess that this has been an almost new revelation to begin to understand, a little bit, what this is. Now having established the fact of his priestly office, what does this say to us by way of practical application before we move into the qualifications for this office?

Practical Implications of Christ's Priesthood: For Unbelievers and Liberalism

11:56 Well, first of all, it tells us that to believe in Christ is to commit ourselves, for faith is commitment to him in the glory of his person. Faith in Christ, to believe in Christ, is to commit oneself to him who is a priest, to know why I need him as such, and what he does as a priest is part and parcel of saving faith. If faith is commitment to him as a priest, then there'll never be that faith unless I see why I need him as a priest, and what he does and is as a priest that is suitable to my need. Now immediately this leads us to the conclusion that liberalism, that so-called wing of Christian Christianity, I won't call it liberal Christianity, it's not Christianity, but for sake of identifying it, we'll call it, which denies the necessity of a blood atonement, which looks upon the Bible teaching of this matter of Christ offering up his blood, not only upon the cross, but now in the presence of the Father as the priest would bring the blood into the holy place, now he pleads the merits of that blood for us. They look upon all this as an outdated intrusion of old heathen concepts, upon Christianity. Whoever would have Christ depart from his priesthood has a Christ that cannot save,

13:23 for it's another Christ. The only Christ who saves is the Christ who is a priest, both in the state of his humiliation and the state of his exaltation. I would say to you among us who know not the Savior in a vital relationship with him this morning, labor to know why you need such a high priest. Try to God to show you.

13:48 You'll never believe on a Christ whose priesthood you do not desperately feel the need of. And the first work of God in bringing sinners to embrace this priest is to get them to see how desperately they need this priest, that they have needs which only he can meet by his office as a priest, both in the state of humiliation and exaltation. And then I would say to you believers this morning, the words that the writer to Hebrews said in the last part of chapter 5, notice what he said. As we begin to consider Christ's priestly office, this is going to make some demands upon you.

Practical Implications of Christ's Priesthood: For Believers and Spiritual Sensitivity

14:29 The fact that you're here and half awake is not any proof that you're going to get something, because listen to what he says. Having mentioned Christ as a priest after the order of Melchizedek, verse 10 of Hebrews 5, called and high priest after the order of Melchizedek, the writer to Hebrews says this, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. I make no apologies for making you think. We wouldn't be scriptural if we didn't.

14:57 And the writer says, I've got some things hard to be uttered. He said the problem is not that we're dealing with things that are difficult, he said the problem is that you've become dull of understanding. Why? For the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

15:19 He said you people are in the place where you can't take the meat of deep study on the priesthood of Christ. And he said this is why. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongs to them who are of full age, even to them who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now what he's saying basically is this.

15:49 You can't live carelessly and come Sunday morning and have rapturous revelations of the priesthood of Christ. He said because you are unskilled in the moral realm of discerning between good and evil, because your conscience has in measure become encrusted, and in some measure has become hardened, he said I can't teach you these things, for you see the illuminating work of the Spirit and the sanctifying work of the Spirit are inseparable. And when we are quenching the Spirit in the realm of sanctification, we cannot know his ministry in the realm of illumination. And that's why some of you get absolutely nothing here week after week.

16:31 It's amazing to me as a pastor. Some people, of course, may just be talking to try to impress, but I believe there are some of you who genuinely are honestly expressing what's in your heart. And to see people go out of this place Sunday after Sunday, some of them feeling like Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, almost bawling me out for stopping too soon and all the rest, hearts warm and burning, and others go out week after week as dry as dust, being under the same ministry. What's the problem?

17:08 I'll tell you the problem. The Holy Ghost is not opening your eyes. He's not illuminating. Why?

17:16 Because he's grieved and quenched in an area of sanctification. You can't be quick and short with your wife on Saturday, not confess it and deal with it, and call it what it is, and mourn before God in true repentance over it, and look to Christ for cleansing. You can't do that and leave it there. Be quick and short with work companions and work associates.

17:39 Be un-Christ-like in the way you drive, or the way you speak to your children, or what you watch on TV, and come here Sunday and have a heart enraptured with the revelation of Christ as a high priest. You can't do it. You can't do it, dear ones. You just can't do it.

17:56 And that was the problem here. He said, I long to convey some precious things about Christ and the great type of Christ, Melchizedek, this priest who burst on the scene for a few verses of Holy Scripture and then is gone, and we hear nothing more of him. He said, Oh, I have some wonderful things to tell you, but you can't receive it. Not because he said you only got as far as the eighth grade.

18:18 No, no. The problem wasn't their mental capacities. It was their spiritual insensitivity. That was the problem.

18:28 I plead with you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Cry to God for renewed moral and spiritual sensitivity, that you'll exercise your senses in the realm of moral choice, sensitivity to sin, sensitivity to the slightest prickings and woundings of the spirit. Then when you come to hear about Christ the high priest, the Holy Spirit will make your heart burn as he takes his truth and opens it unto you. So that's my word to you Christians as we begin this study on the fact and the implications of the priestly office of Christ, that if we would know this in ever increasing, satisfying measure, it's going to make spiritual demands upon us. All right, then, having established the fact of his priestly office and some of the application of that fact to us, let's move to consider in the second place the qualifications of Christ for the priestly office. There are three things which qualified our Lord to this priestly office. The first one is mentioned in chapter 5 of Hebrews, verses 4 to 6.

Qualification 1: Divine Appointment

19:39 Hebrews, chapter 5, verses 4 to 6. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, the honor of a priest, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, yea, have I begotten thee, as he said also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The first qualification for the priestly office was this.

20:16 It was never to be assumed except by divine appointment. Notice the wording. No man takes this honor to himself. So Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but God said, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee.

20:34 Now that phrase, today have I begotten thee, comes from Psalm 2. And I had to preach on Psalm 2 Friday night down near Philadelphia. And I had to do some study on it. And the term here, begotten, is not used in the sense that we think of physical birth.

20:51 But when one was set apart for a specific office, in Psalm 2 and also in Acts 13, 33, where it's quoted, it's used with reference to the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of the Father, when He sat down as King of kings and Lord of lords, the glorified God-man, the Father said, this day have I begotten thee, or, this is the sense of it, I have set you apart officially for this office. It is said that when a king, when a father who was a king, was to give up the rule of his throne to his son, he would say, this day have I begotten thee, in the sense that I've begotten thee into this official office, as a king. He begot him the day of his birth, or literally the day of his conception, and then more really birth. But when the king would give up his throne to the other, he would say, this day have I begotten thee. So here's the picture that the father is putting the son into the official function and office of a priest. Now we can't emphasize this too much, for God through the Old Testament tried to give some clear illustrations of how vital this matter was.

22:00 Will you turn back to the book of Numbers for a moment please? To the book of Numbers chapter 16. The chapter begins talking about a man by the name of Korah. And these people came with several hundred princes of the assembly and they said to Moses and Aaron, you've got a power structure here and we don't like it.

22:29 That's 20th century paraphrase. You've got a power structure, we don't like it, so we want to have a union here and begin to tell you fellows what to do. And so they usurped. A place that did not belong to them.

22:45 And they had a test to see who God would accept. And you can read the story later on today. We don't have time to read the entire story. But to make a long story short, when these people dared to take the priestly office apart from divine appointment, God did a new thing.

23:01 He opened up the earth and he swallowed up the whole bunch of them alive and sent them down into their death as living men. And then we read in verse 40 the conclusion of this matter. Numbers 16 and verse 40. Why did all this happen?

23:17 This is why to be a memorial unto the children of Israel that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and his company. God was using this as an object lesson that no one dared draw near in the priestly office unless he had a divine appointment. And God had appointed that that would come through the line of Aaron. We find a similar reference in chapter 18 and verse 7.

23:51 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest office for everything of the altar and within the veil and ye shall serve. I have given your priest office unto you and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. God was teaching that the only one who could take the office of a priest was the one who could take it by divine appointment. And so the Lord Jesus took this office by the appointment of the Father.

24:21 And when the Holy Spirit came upon him there at his baptism, he was being anointed not only as God's final prophet to speak the truth of God and be the mouth of God to men, but he was being officially set apart as God's anointed priest, the one who upon his very announcement was called what? Behold the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. So the Lord Jesus who is the object of our faith is no come by himself priest. He is the priest of heavenly appointment.

25:01 All who assume that role are under the curse of God. What does this say to us? It shows the curse of God on that system of Romanism where mere men take an office that God never instituted in the New Testament. And to call men priests who actually offer up sacrifices is to assume a role contrary to the word of God.

25:30 Now, every believer is a priest in the sense that we have direct access to God through the blood of Christ to offer up spiritual sacrifices, praise, worship, service, all of the rest. The Bible teaches that. But the Roman priesthood claims to be a true priesthood which enacts a true sacrifice whereby the pronouncement of their words and the waving of their hands, you have there the actual body and blood of Christ offered up afresh upon their altars. And all the changing of Rome's face is but the putting on of a different color makeup.

26:07 It's still the abominable system which at its heart usurps the priesthood of Jesus Christ. And the curse of God is upon it. Because God says that anyone who takes that role of a priest, who takes it apart from divine appointment, has the curse upon him. Another thing it tells us is that all who reject Jesus Christ as a priest reject the only Christ who can save them.

Qualification 2: Uniqueness of Person - True Humanity

26:38 He is a priest by divine appointment. Now, secondly, the second thing that qualifies him for his priesthood is not only divine appointment, but the uniqueness of his person. To be the priest who would meet our need in the realm of a sin offering, our Lord had to be a unique person, and he qualifies in a very wonderful way. First of all, by his true humanity, and secondly, by his essential and true deity.

27:08 Will you turn, please, to Hebrews again, chapters 2 and 5, where we see that the first qualification of a priest was not only that he had to be that by divine appointment, the second qualification, but he had to be, first of all, true human, a true human being. Hebrews, chapter 2, verses 17 and 18. Or we could back up to verse 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

27:45 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made light unto his brethren. Why? That he might be a merciful and a faithful. High priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

28:01 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Why did he take on him true humanity? Made in all things, except sin, made in all things like unto his brethren. Here, we're told why.

28:20 That he might be a merciful, faithful, succoring, understanding, sympathetic high priest. Oh, may God grip us with the wonder of this. Taking a human form added nothing to our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, you and I have no existence apart from a human form.

28:43 If you weren't born with a body and a soul, you just weren't here. But you see, our Lord did not gain anything by the assumption of a true humanity. He was the eternal Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

29:02 He was the object of the adoring wonder and praise of the host of heaven. But it says here that it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful high priest. And the priest does not exist for himself, but the priestly function is one that exists solely for the sake of others. And so he assumed this true humanity that he might be identified with the worshipers and those who come by way of his priesthood, that he might be identified sympathetically, understandingly.

29:37 Notice the same thing in chapter 5 and verse 1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may both offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Now, here's the key verse. Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way?

29:57 Why? For that he himself is compassed with infirmity. Why did God ordain in the old economy that the priest should be a man amongst men? Why, that he might be able to sympathetically identify with men?

30:16 If God had sent an angel from heaven to be the priest, he could have done this. He sent an angel to give the law. Could he not have sent an angel who would have presided over all the tabernacle worship and who could have assumed the physical form as angels did again and again and take the sacrifice, take the young bullock from the worshiping Jew who would come, Hebrew who would come and offer up its blood and go in and plead before? Sure, God could have sent an angel, but why did he choose to have a man amongst men?

30:48 This tells us why. So that when that priest would go in with the offering of his blood and plead the efficacy of that blood on behalf of the worshipers outside, he could plead with a sympathetic heart, for he himself was compassed with weakness and infirmity. What a beautiful picture of our Lord's qualification for his priestly office. He assumed a true humanity.

31:12 I may have told this story one time some several years ago, but I want to repeat it because most of you have forgotten it, I'm sure. Of a Moravian missionary who went to the West Indies seeking to work amongst the slaves who were there under the rules of men who had bought them and were putting them to work for their own ends. And he came as a missionary, left his home, left his country and everything to try to minister to these poor slave workers. And he sought to establish contact with and communicate the gospel, but he found he was getting nowhere.

31:46 For you see, he came as a free man to enslaved men, and he couldn't establish any solid basis of rapport to communicate the gospel. And remember that, dear ones, it's a general rule. People aren't going to receive your message till they receive you. There comes a time when you've got to give your message whether they receive you or not.

32:05 But in most of our witnessing, never forget, people won't receive your message till they receive you. And to receive you, they've got to see you love them. So you know what he did? The next time there was a slave auction, he put himself up on the slave block and he sold himself as a common slave that he might go out into the fields with those other slaves.

32:28 And now, being sympathetic, empathetically identified with them, he communicated his message with power. What a picture of our Lord. He could have come, hypothetically speaking, theoretically speaking, he could have come in those manifestations as he came in the Old Testament as the angel of Jehovah in pomp and glory, with some of the outshining of his glory that caused men to fall before him in awe. But it would have been awfully hard for you and for me to come to one like this, to see the people.

33:05 And when we feel the pressure of weariness and weakness and the sneers and jeers of men, and if you've never felt them, I doubt you're a Christian, how could we come with boldness and say, Lord, meet me in my weakness? Lord, meet me in my fear. Lord, meet me in this problem. We feel he doesn't understand.

33:28 He's a free man. We're slaves. But he put himself on the slave block in the sense that he identified himself with everything that is truly human except our sin. He became weak.

33:43 He went through all the processes of normal human development. The one in whom all the treasures of wisdom is found had to learn to read and write and talk and walk. The one who has all power in heaven and earth and upholds worlds by the word of his power had to learn how to hold a fork and throw a ball with his plane. True humanity.

34:07 The one who was unwearied when he spoke worlds out of the womb of nothing had to rest by a well in Samaria and ask for a drink of water. He who made the oceans asking for a drink of water. Why? Because this was part of his qualification to be a priest.

Qualification 2: Uniqueness of Person - Essential Deity (Eternity and Sinlessness)

34:27 Not only must he be appointed of God, but there must be a unique person, one who is, first of all, truly human. But secondly, to qualify as our priest, he had to be essentially truly divine. He is called the priest in Hebrews five, six after the order of Melchizedek. We don't have time to go into this in detail or in any depth this morning.

34:54 But what was the unique thing about Melchizedek? Well, if you'll read the seventh chapter of Hebrews, see, we're giving you plenty now to do this afternoon. You say, well, I don't know what to do on a Lord's Day. Will you read the entire account of Korah's rebellion and how God opened up the earth there in Numbers 16?

35:10 And then you read Hebrews chapter seven to kind of bring into focus the rest of the message. The unique thing about this man, Melchizedek, is that he came out of nowhere and went back into nowhere. I mean, he just comes on the scene there in Genesis 18. You know nothing about his genealogy.

35:26 You know nothing about how long his priesthood was extended. And what was the order of his priesthood? All of the priests were to come to the line of Aaron. But now here comes this man, Melchizedek, who was king of Salem, priest to the Most High God.

35:40 And you can read about it in Genesis chapter 16. I think I said 18, Genesis chapter 16. But here's the unique thing about him that we want to bring into focus. Notice carefully Hebrews chapter seven and verses, I have it now, 15 and 16.

36:15 And yet it is far more evident that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life, for he testifieth thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. His priesthood did not begin in time. You could trace the Aaronic priesthood back to Aaron and then down through his sons so that any priest who legitimately stood offering sacrifices could trace his genealogy back to Aaron. But now Melchizedek comes with no genealogy, neither beginning of life nor end of days, made like unto the Son of Man, we read earlier in this chapter.

36:58 The power of an endless life, so that which qualified our Lord for his priesthood was his essential deity, the first part of which is his eternity. John 1.4 says in him was life. He had no beginning.

37:13 And this is what qualifies him for a priesthood, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek. Aaron's priesthood could be traced back to a given point and down through that line. But this man, Melchizedek, he comes out of nowhere and he goes back and we find no record. A beautiful picture of our Lord who came out of eternity, stepped into time, assuming the role of a priest after not the order of Aaron, but the order of Melchizedek.

37:42 And now he goes back to the right hand of the Father with this unchanging Melchizedek priesthood, a priesthood that abides forever. And not only do we see his deity in the type of Melchizedek eternity, but in his sinlessness. Notice Hebrews 4 in verse 15, a key word on the priesthood of Christ. Hebrews 4.15.

38:06 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Everything about him like us, excepting sin. We find a similar reference in chapter 7, verse 26. Hebrews 7.26.

38:30 For such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Now, how is he separate from sinners? He was called the friend of sinners. That's the accusation the Pharisees and scribes continually threw into his teeth that he was hobnobbing with the riffraff of his day.

38:52 And yet, though he was identified with them in compassion and love and grace, his holy nature was unstained by that unoriginal sin that we're studying about in our catechetical instruction. He was not defiled with that polluting influence of inbred sin or of actual transgression. And this is what makes the virgin conception of Jesus Christ one of the cornerstones of our faith. For how did he come as a true man and yet not partake of the sinfulness of our humanity?

39:29 Luke gives us the answer in chapter 1. Notice carefully the wording of the angel who's speaking to Mary. Luke chapter 1, verses 34 and 35. The angel has made the prediction that Mary will be the mother of Messiah.

39:52 And she says in verse 34, Then said Mary unto the angel, How can this be, seeing I know not a man? How can I be a mother when I have not experienced that union of husband and wife, which is necessary for procreation? How can it be? What's the modus operandi would be the Latin term.

40:14 What's the mode of operation that God's going to use? Now he tells her. And the angel said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

40:28 Therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. He said, Something unique is going to happen. You will conceive not by the normal process of the union of a man and wife, but there will be a supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost conceiving in your womb the true humanity of the Son of God, but unstained with human sin. Don't let anyone tell you that whether or not you believe Christ is born of a virgin is simply an inconsequential thing.

41:04 It is not inconsequential. It's one of the cornerstones of having a Christ who is equipped for the office of a priest. Take away that shadowing of the almighty in a supernatural conception and you've taken away that holy thing. And when you take away that holy thing, we've got a high priest who can't offer up a sacrifice for us because he needs one for himself.

41:33 So all forms of Christianity that reject the virgin birth are rejecting the Christ of the Bible. You say, oh, that's. It's no more narrow. It's no more narrow than the book, beloved.

41:43 And when you see yourself a lost, hopeless, undone sinner, if there's one thing you want to know is that the one whom I'm trusting is not like me at that point, for if he's like me, he can't help me. But oh, blessed be God, when the smitten sinner, conscious of defilement and uncleanness, looks to God's high priest, he looks to one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, made like unto us. Yet. Without sin.

42:14 And so he qualifies not only by his true humanity, but by his essential deity, which involves his eternity. Made a priest like Melchizedek. Secondly, involves his sinlessness. The Holy Ghost conceived him in the womb of the Virgin.

Qualification 2: Uniqueness of Person - Essential Deity (Absolute Power)

42:30 But the third thing about his deity is absolute power, absolute power. Hebrews one speaks of this same person and says in verses two and three, that the one who's been appointed the high priest is the one who is the very outshining of the person, the glory of God, Hebrews one, verses two and three. He is the one by whom the worlds were made. The brightness of God's glory, the express image of his person.

43:01 He upholds all things by the word of his power. When he purged our sins, who purged our sins? One who upholds all things by the word of his power. That's God.

43:14 No one but God upholds all things by the word of his power. A created thing needs the power of God to uphold it. For all things that are created derive their life from God and their living and existence is dependent upon God in him. We live, move and have our being.

43:33 And it's only the uncreated that upholds all things. The Jehovah's Witness comes and tells you Christ was created. He's way, way, way, way back before the world and the angels. But he was created.

43:46 Then he himself needs to be upheld. But this Christ is the one who upholds all things. He is God omnipotent, omnipresent. And so he qualifies for the office of a priest with his true humanity.

44:02 He's able to come where we are in his essential deity. He's able to lift us where he is. Do you get it, dear one? His true humanity.

44:16 He qualifies him to come into the fields of our slavery where we are and identify with us. His true humanity brings him to us where we are in our need. But his true and essential deity qualifies him to lift us to where he is. What's it mean to believe in Christ?

44:36 It means to commit yourself to that one who was divinely appointed to be our priest, who was uniquely qualified as the God of man to meet the need of our sinfulness. So liberalism with its human Jesus is not Christianity. Any kind of Christianity that has a human Jesus without a divine Jesus is not true Christianity. You rob our Lord of his true humanity.

45:05 Then there can be no true death, no sacrifice. There can be no true temptation if he wasn't truly tempted as a man. How can I come to him, as the scripture says, with confidence and boldness? Knowing that he can sympathize if he didn't really suffer being tempted?

45:22 How can he succor those who are tempted? The whole argument of his priesthood is that he can sympathize because he suffered. How can I come knowing that he experienced real sorrow if he wasn't a true man? But he was true man.

45:38 But rob him of that humanity. No death, no temptation, no sorrow. There is no sympathetic high priest. Rob him of his deity and he's not sinless.

45:49 Therefore, he needs to sacrifice for himself and he can't help me. Rob him of his deity and there's no power. He's just among us as one floundering in the sea of sin. He can't lift us any higher, for he is with us.

46:04 Rob him of his deity and you take away the worth of his sacrifice. For it's because he was God that his one sacrifice can meet the demands of a holy God for an innumerable company, which no man can number. And so the Bible doctrine of the two persons, the two natures in one person, true humanity and true deity. This is not some theological hair splitting, dear ones.

46:29 This is a matter of life and death. The salvation of your soul depends upon having a Christ who's truly human, truly divine, united in one person forever. Hallelujah. Now our time is gone.

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

46:44 I can't wait to get to heaven where there won't be any clocks. What is his function as a priest? Well, you study this section. Will you?

46:55 And the Lord willing, we'll pick up there next time we're together. Twofold function, that of offering sacrifice and intercession. I want you to pray the Holy Spirit will make the priesthood of Christ a reality and precious. And I plead with you this morning, we may not meet together again.

47:13 Death may intrude with me or with you. And oh, dear one, if you don't know Christ as your priest, if you've never seen yourself as one who is so undone by sin, if you've prayed that you need one who came among us as a man, but who is above us as God, look to Christ this morning. Plead, plead for mercy through his wounds, plead for mercy through his intercession at the right hand of the Father. And oh, children of God, let us meditate upon his priesthood today that when we gather by his table tonight, we'll meet him with burning, thankful hearts.

47:53 Let us pray.