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[0:00] Go to Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, we were learning last week about the fact that Jesus is our priest.

[0:30] Christ is the priest. And we've been talking about here lately in these passages about the fact that Jesus is the high priest. And back in chapter 2, verse 17, Wherefore, in all things it behooved him that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

[0:57] So he is the high priest that we have. Chapter 3, we learn more about that. Chapter 4. And now here in chapter 5, we're learning about the fact that Jesus is the great high priest.

[1:12] He is the better high priest than the ones. We learn, first of all, that human priests are imperfect. Human priests are imperfect. And we learn that in verses 1 through 5.

[1:23] It says, For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin.

[1:33] Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, those who are going astray, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

[1:45] And by reason hereof, he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

[2:01] We've gone from the end of chapter 4. Let me show you those verses, too. Look at chapter 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed from the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

[2:17] For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need for every high priest.

[2:35] Then he goes into explaining what the high priest's job was and how they got selected and what they did. As we go through those first four verses last year, out last year, man, I did not sleep well last night, so certain things may come out of my mouth.

[2:50] It's like, where did that come from? Last week, we learned some things about these high priests. First thing we learned was that the priest was taken from among the people so he could serve as their representative before God.

[3:04] Look at verse 1 again, there in chapter 5. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things pertaining to God. So they were taken from among men.

[3:17] It had to be somebody who was from their ranks. How did that apply to Jesus? Well, Jesus came from among men.

[3:27] He was born as a human. He came, and he came in the flesh, and therefore he could be a high priest because he understood us, because he was one of us.

[3:40] Second thing was they had to offer sacrifices for the sake of sin. Look at the last part of verse 1 there. So that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

[3:51] That was part of the high priest's job. He offered to sacrifice for sin. Jesus could do that. He could come, and he could offer a sacrifice. He could offer himself. And remember, it had to be the high priest that did the job.

[4:04] We looked at Samuel 13 last week, 1 Samuel 13, where Saul got ahead of Samuel. Samuel hadn't shown up. He was waiting for Samuel to come, and he wound up offering sacrifices himself.

[4:19] Saul did. And when Samuel got there, basically Saul was told, you're going to lose your kingdom because you took on yourself a job that was not yours.

[4:31] Third thing, priests could sympathize with his sinful worshipers. Look at verse 2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

[4:48] Because he's human, because he's a man, he understands what it is to go through the trials and the temptations and things that people do. Jesus came.

[5:00] What did he do? Look back at chapter 4, verse 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

[5:13] Jesus understood everything that we go through. The human priest had to give sacrifices for himself.

[5:25] Remember we went to Leviticus chapter 16, and in four verses, 6, 11, 17, and 24, seven times they talk about the priest giving sacrifice for himself.

[5:36] He had to give sacrifice for himself. Jesus did not have to. He did not sin. That's going to come into play in a few minutes. The fourth thing, the priest was a sinner like everybody else.

[5:52] That's why he had to offer that sacrifice for sin. And then finally, the priest had to be called by God. And we went back to Exodus chapter 28, when they first set up the priesthood, and they were called by God.

[6:05] God said, I want Aaron, his sons, those that come after him, those of the tribe of Levi. In chapter 5, verse 4, it says, And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he did his called of God, as was Aaron.

[6:19] Jesus was called of God. He was given that position to be a high priest, and to serve as that high priest. Then we said, second of all, Christ is the perfect high priest.

[6:34] He is the perfect high priest. Verses 5 through 10. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that saith unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee.

[6:46] As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.

[7:04] Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered. And being made perfect, he became an author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[7:21] Three times in there, it says that he was called of God to have that position. The most clear one there is in verse 10, but in verse 5, it says, So Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that saith unto him, Thou art my son.

[7:40] So God called him to be the high priest. Verse 6, As he saith in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus did not take that title on himself.

[7:52] God gave it to him. And I said back with Aaron, God called them to be the high priest. And it's important that he was called of God and didn't take it on himself.

[8:06] Again, in verse 5, the beginning of it, it says, So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest. In John chapter 8, verse 54, it says, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.

[8:23] It is my Father that hath honored me, of whom ye say he is our God. So he said, The one you call God called me to do this position. He is the one who called me to be a high priest, not myself.

[8:37] He did it, which is in line with all the rest of the rules and regulations for being a high priest. He had to be called of God. So, oh, yep, we talked about the fact that one of the things about Christ, he was a high priest, but he was a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[9:00] See, the priests that came in the line from Aaron all had to be from the tribe of Levi. That's the way God set it up for them. So it was Aaron, his sons, and their sons, and their sons, and their sons, all from the tribe of Levi.

[9:14] Jesus was of the tribe of Judah. How did he get to be a high priest? Well, it says he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. If you go back and you study Melchizedek back in Genesis, you find out that he was a high priest of God before Abraham and Isaac and all those and Moses and all them.

[9:33] So he's after that order. And therefore, he could be a high priest, even though he was another tribe of Levi. And Jesus never sinned.

[9:45] So he didn't have to give... Hang on to that. He didn't have to give any sacrifice for sins, because he never did sin. Fred?

[9:55] Is that order of Melchizedek, his lineage still right up through as far as people go? Today? And would it just continue with Jesus?

[10:07] That I cannot answer. I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm thinking that there might have been a break there somewhere because of using Aaron and his family. But I'm not sure.

[10:19] I'll have to look under that. So, hmm, good question. So Jesus was sinless, and he did not have to go through doing the sacrifices for himself.

[10:33] But he did, like I said, understand what we go through because he had gone through those infirmities of the temptation. As a matter of fact, if you read, you don't have to turn there, but if you read over to Mark, because we looked at this last week, Mark 14, verse 32, starting there, it says, And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, And he said to his disciples, Sit ye here while I pray.

[10:56] And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy, and said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.

[11:08] Tarry ye here and watch. And then when Luke talks about this, he says this, in Luke 22, 44, And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.

[11:22] When you look at Jesus describing this, and the writer of the Gospels describing, describing says, sore amazed, very heavy, seeding sorrowful unto death, in agony.

[11:34] Can you picture in your mind what Jesus was going through? Can you picture what he was facing? He understood exactly what we were going through.

[11:46] He knew exactly what things were, because he was taking that sin on himself. His obedience to doing what God had called him to do made him the perfect sacrifice, the perfect priest for Christians.

[12:01] In the Old Testament priests, they offered the sacrifice. They were temporary. Jesus came, offered himself for us. Look at verse 9, there of chapter 5.

[12:13] He says, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.

[12:27] That's verse 1. Wait a minute. Chapter 2. Wait a minute. I want to go to chapter 5. Go back there. Verse 9. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

[12:41] Being made perfect, complete, mature, perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. Whenever people talk about losing their salvation, here's a verse you can take them to.

[12:54] He gave them an eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. We have an eternal salvation. God has given us everything that we need to be saved for all eternity.

[13:07] I mentioned before, he doesn't necessarily quote that fifth qualification of being a priest, but if you go back to chapter 2 and all the way through from verse 9 to verse 18, it taught that Jesus Christ had come and had a human nature so he could have the role of high priest because he was human.

[13:40] Okay, so we've talked about human priests are imperfect. Jesus is the perfect high priest. Now he's going to point out to them some problems they had.

[13:50] They're going to have trouble understanding this. They're going to have trouble making that leap from the Jewish faith of having a high priest to the Christian idea of Jesus Christ being the perfect high priest who made a sacrifice for sin once.

[14:07] Why are they having such trouble? Look at verse 11. He says, You think about this.

[14:56] This is a hard subject. Talking about the difference in the priesthoods and things and everything that took place there. Why don't we teach this to two and three year olds?

[15:09] They're never going to get it. They don't understand. They don't have the mental capacity to understand everything that's going on here. So, he says, Look, you need to be maturing.

[15:20] You need to be growing. You need to be making sure that you are growing in Christ so that you can understand things that we have here for you. He says, Look, he's a perfect priest under the order of Melchizedek, and he wanted to tell them a whole lot more.

[15:37] But, he says, You're not ready for it. You still have the mind of a babe. You haven't been exercising the things that God has given to you already.

[15:47] You haven't been growing in things. See, this area of theology is not easy. And then he says, Not only that, but you're kind of dull of hearing. Look at verse 11 again. He says at the end of it, Seeing ye are dull of hearing.

[16:01] They weren't listening with a mind to hear. They weren't listening with a mind to obey. They weren't listening with a mind to do what God had for them.

[16:15] You notice down in verse 14, Be strong, but strong belongeth to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern.

[16:28] You ever go to the gym? Why would people go to the gym? To exercise, right?

[16:41] They want to take... There's a... At the Y, there's a whole lot of us older people who go there, and we go there because things are not what they used to be.

[16:53] You know, they kind of... Things kind of jiggle around and stuff, you know, and everything. And we go there to try to tone things up, to get them more solid, to get them...

[17:04] He's saying, Look, because of lack of use of the Word of God, we tend to get flabby. Because we don't exercise. Because we don't use it.

[17:16] We don't use... We don't... You know, we're not growing. We're not getting stronger. So often, you know, we... We hear things. But that's it. We come to church on Sunday.

[17:28] We hear it. Okay, that sounds good. And then we go home and forget all about it the rest of the week. Instead of getting into God's Word, growing, learning more about it, see what God has to say about it, taking it in, and using what's there.

[17:43] He goes on from this chapter into chapter 6, and he's giving them a warning that looks... This spiritual dullness, this dullness that you have, is a warning that things are not what they ought to be for you.

[17:59] You should be growing all the... Again, those who are going to the gym now in their 60s and 70s, why are they doing that? Because they want to firm things up, tone things up a little bit.

[18:12] They want to... They're not trying to go out and be, you know, Mr. America. They're trying to just get things so they're solid, firm. When we don't do that, what happens?

[18:27] Like I said, everything is kind of getting flabby and jiggly, and we don't have a lot of strength. He says, look with the Word of God, you're doing the same thing. If you don't keep growing, what happens? You start going backwards, don't you?

[18:40] If you don't keep doing it, you know, I always wanted to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in his 60s and 70s when he didn't work out.

[18:55] You know, he still works out. He still does things, but can you imagine him being that, and then just not doing it anymore, just stopping? What's he going to look like?

[19:08] I'll tell you who you see this. A lot of people who played high school and college football. Then you see them in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. They look like everybody else.

[19:23] That's right. He says, look, I want you to be not dull of hearing. I want you to exercise yourself in the things of God. I want you to take it in, just like we would take in nourishment, but then I want you to use it and exercise with it and tone it up.

[19:40] We just sit and take it in, eat the Twinkies, and eat the Twinkies, and stuff, and it's like, he says, no. Keep exercising, using what God has given to you.

[19:53] Know how to use it in the way you should. He's writing kind of sternly to them. He's showing them, look, you need to be taking the word of God in, but don't just take it in.

[20:08] Use it. I know I've heard other people's explanations about this chapter and that chapter and different things, and people go around and think, oh, God is loving and Jesus is forgiving.

[20:24] You've got to be a blind. But I always go back to the Bible and say, God, what do you say? You know, because sometimes if I'm tired and not paying attention, it kind of sways me to their side, and I get a weird feeling and I say, something's not right.

[20:43] So I've got to go look. You've got to get back to the book. Yep. And that's true. You know, sometimes we, if we're not digging in, we're not, we hear things and we're like, well, that sounds kind of interesting. Instead of going back to the word of God and saying, okay, is that right?

[20:57] I hear from a lot of these TV preachers and radio preachers and different ones and say, oh yeah, they say that and that sounds good. I'd really like to. But is it biblical? We need to be exercising ourselves with the word of God to make sure it's what it's supposed to be.

[21:13] See, when we take time and we keep growing, we get mature. He talks about being mature, being complete, being perfect. Perfect has the idea of complete and mature.

[21:26] If we take time and we don't, take the word of God and exercise what happens to us. We just kind of stay where we are, which is what these people have done.

[21:38] They just, he says, you're still babes. You should be teaching, but you're still babes. And he says, look, there's no excuse for your inability to understand what God is saying.

[21:49] You need to be exercising in the word all the time. You probably all know some people in your life or you've met in the past who are spiritually mature.

[22:03] What was, as you look at those people, what was some of the things that they had or they exhibited that showed how they got to be where they were?

[22:17] How did they get to be spiritually mature? for it? Well, my sisters, my sister especially, wouldn't go to church.

[22:31] She says, oh, that's for good and two shoes. But then she'd turn around and say, well, God loved me. Why am I not rich? Why am I in this situation or that situation? Yep.

[22:42] And it's just, it's almost like she was using God to change her situation when she didn't want to invest anything in it. Okay.

[22:52] In a sense. So that's an example of what not to do. Okay. All right. Anybody else? Money. People who are humble and have come through an awful lot in life and have learned to trust God for all of it are the ones that I see being spiritual that they would always say someone not.

[23:22] I'm so proud of them. Yeah. They're spiritually maturing all the time but they don't see themselves that way. There's a humility that goes along with it as they continue to grow too.

[23:33] Fred? To me, most of these people that they're talking about are more interested in the well-being of others regardless of what what it does for their situation.

[23:46] That they care more about people than they do themselves. Okay. Good. That is true. They care more about people. Why did Jesus come?

[23:58] According to Luke 1910, to seek and to save that which is lost. He was concerned about others. That's why he came. So if we're going to be like Christ and we're going to be maturing and we're going to be growing, it should be the same for us.

[24:12] We should be more concerned about others. Good. Anybody else? Okay. You know, it's perfectly appropriate for a baby to drink milk.

[24:24] but once they get to be three, four, five years old, something's not right. That's why we learn to live ice cream.

[24:36] Okay. So, you know, and when they get to be 25 and you're still on milk, there's a really big problem. See, we should be growing all the time, maturing all the time, becoming more and more what God wants us to be.

[24:51] See, they become, it says, mired in the first principles of God. The first things. We learn the basics, but do we grow from there?

[25:04] Do we keep on going? He says, look, I want you to be of full age. I want you to be mature. I want you to be perfect, complete.

[25:18] Look with me here in Hebrews. Look at chapter 7. Verse 19. Chapter 7, verse 19 says, For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, for the which we draw nigh unto God.

[25:38] He says, look, the law was there to help teach us some things, but it was not perfect. But he says now, he says that which is, now that we are, but the bringing in of a better hope, who was the better hope?

[25:53] Jesus. Now that we have a better hope, he says, we draw nigh to God. Look at chapter 10. Chapter 10, verse 1. For the law, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which are offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

[26:18] He says, if you've got to do it year after year after year after year, it's not going to make you perfect, because you have to keep doing the same thing year after year. So he says that, it's going to come.

[26:33] Those comers who come to Christ are going to learn what perfect is. And look at verse 14 of chapter 10. Chapter 10, verse 14 says, for by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

[26:51] He says, by one offering, death of Jesus on the cross, his burial, his resurrection, by that one sacrifice, he says, look, he has perfected them that are sanctified.

[27:07] God has taken care of us, met our need. We do not have to keep doing things over and over. We come to Jesus once, and we have everything we need. To be spiritually mature doesn't happen just by being exposed.

[27:26] You come in here on Sunday, you hear my message, you listen to the things from the word of God, okay, I am now spiritually mature. No, that's not what he's saying. Nope.

[27:36] He's saying, look, you've got to respond to the things that you hear. You've got to respond to the things that God is telling you, the things the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about.

[27:48] You need to respond to those things. And he says, that will help you to grow and be perfected, be complete in the things of God. we kind of touched on this, but what happens to a believer who's growing and growing and growing and then all of a sudden they stop?

[28:07] You start going backwards, don't you? We as Christians, you know, some of you in here are older than I am. I'll be 68 in December.

[28:19] If I don't keep growing and growing and growing and growing, what's going to happen? We're going to go backwards and backwards and backwards. Need to keep exercising myself in the things of God.

[28:29] I just love that verse 14. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

[28:45] Who by reason of use just don't take it in and listen to it, put it to work. Use it. Why do we do things like apologetics and things like that?

[28:57] We're learning how to use the word of God to be a testimony to others. We're using, taking the word of God and using it to build our faith, to help us understand that God has the answers for everything.

[29:11] So we need to make use of the word of God and keep exercising with it. Next week, we'll look at chapter 6. Okay? Let's have a word prayer.

[29:21]  Father, you can find out of God's as people as people they seren and continue