The Priest On The Throne

and for the work you're doing in him. God, please bless us all through him this morning as he preaches your word, and we lift all this up in Jesus' name. Amen. Are we good? We're good. So if you had turned to 1104 in those white Bibles in the pews, page 1104, we're going to be in Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. And I'll start by reading the text while you get there. It's right after Timothy or Philem. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let's pray. Lord, we draw near to you as sinners who love you, and who fail constantly, daily, hourly, and need a Savior, a sacrifice, an advocate.

and who fail constantly, daily, hourly, and need a Savior, a sacrifice, an advocate. We thank you for being those things to us and ask that you shape our hearts to come to you humbly, recognizing our sin and need for you and confidently, knowing that there's no condemnation because your sacrifice was so utterly complete and done in just perfect love. God, I ask that you shape my words, not with eloquence, but with truth and with power, and that you soften the hearts of everyone here to receive your word, the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, folks, Brian, unfortunately lied to you. This is about a three and a half hour sermon. So I'm just going to jump right into our outline here and tell you the three main points that I really want to discuss. We're going to go through this text piece by piece, but there are three main topics that we'll talk about. So the first, is that Jesus is our great high priest. And so we're going to spend most of our time here, particularly with our local Utah culture. It's really important that we talk about this a little bit. That number two, he is sympathetic to our lives. We don't have some foreign, distant God, but actually a God who understands us, not just because he made us, but because he's lived this life.

That number two, he is sympathetic to our lives. We don't have some foreign, distant God, but actually a God who understands us, not just because he made us, but because he's lived this life. And he's been tempted more than any of us have ever been tempted. And that because of that, because of that, Number three, we can draw near to the throne of grace and mercy with confidence. With confidence. So let's give you a little bit of a background here. I'm going to cite a bunch of scripture. I'm not going to read all of it to you. So if you're like me and you're one of those Berean nerds who likes to listen to Brian, but on the side, very quickly write down every single verse that he's sight so that you can go back home and make sure he's not a heretic. Get your pins ready because there's going to be a lot of that coming today. Before we do that, let me give you a little bit of text or context on the whole book of Hebrews. This letter, we don't know who actually authored it. The Holy Spirit, of course, but we do know that it was written prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and it was written right after Timothy was just released from prison, so probably 67 to 69 AD, something like that. We don't know who wrote, it as I said, but this author used a lot of other people's stories. So this was very likely

so probably 67 to 69 AD, something like that. We don't know who wrote, it as I said, but this author used a lot of other people's stories. So this was very likely not one of the disciples, not Paul. This was somebody who got their testimony and wrote this letter based off of the witness of other people who lived with Jesus or witnessed Jesus' Acts. They preferred to cite the Old Testament version, the Greek version of the Old Testament. So, ironically, this was written to Hebrews, but they didn't use the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. they chose the Greek version. And it was written to the Hebrews. So specifically, three types of Hebrews. The first is believers who were being persecuted. So again, this is right before the fall of the temple. And I know that we have a Sunday school class here with church history. I actually have not been part of that because I'm catechizing your four to seven-year-olds. I was in the Marine Corps for a long time, and catechizing your four-to-seven-year-olds is almost as challenging as that. So I don't really know where you are in church history, and I should have probably asked, but if you've made it through the destruction of the temple, this is right before that. So just a lot of persecution against Christians. The second group was unbelievers, non-believers, who were on the fence about should I accept this Jesus as my Messiah as a Savior, but they were very

and they understood the Levittical priesthood very well. were still regularly happening for everyone 40 years ago, right around Jesus' time, and they were still taking place now by the majority of people. So now they have a little bit of context in Hebrews. Again, 1104. Let's look at point one, the great high priest. What does this, what does this mean? So since then, verse 14, since then, we have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens, a great high priest. Well, if we look at, the very next verses right after our text. Chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. Chapter 5, 1 through 3, for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his sins, just as he does for those of the people. So what do we take away from this? Well, first of all, there's a God. There is sin, and it separates us from God. Most of us know this, accept this. God is all-powerful, and so he made a provision for us to be reconciled to him. And this happened through human priests who would offer these sacrifices as a substitute

accept this. God is all-powerful, and so he made a provision for us to be reconciled to him. And this happened through human priests who would offer these sacrifices as a substitute through the Levitical bloodline of Aaron. This is important. We're going to talk about this in a few minutes. Through the Levitical bloodline of Aaron. He Hebrews 5-1, which we just read, tells us that the high priest must be a man. Now, I don't just say that a man versus a woman, but a man, a human. And because of that, we couldn't have an angel or some sort of a spirit come and be our high priest. It had to be a man, which is one of the reasons why Jesus came and tabernacled with us in the flesh. He had to be a physical man in order to become our great high priest. No angel or spirit could do this for us. So what did the high priest do? Well, the old covenant high priests offered these gifts and these sacrifices, two different things, but offered gifts and sacrifices on behalf of the people to God to fix that relationship. He was the mediator between God and the people. So God would come in righteous judgment. God would come in righteous judgment, ready to condemn sin. And the high priest would offer these sacrifices to appease that, that satisfied God's justice and demonstrated

in righteous judgment. God would come in righteous judgment, ready to condemn sin. And the high priest would offer these sacrifices to appease that, that satisfied God's justice and demonstrated his mercy by punishing an innocent animal in place of a guilty human being. So the high priest would have to put hands on this animal, take the life of this animal, and that death was the atonement for sin. That is the penalty for sin, as we know, is death, not merely blood. So he couldn't just make the animal bleed and count the blood as a sacrifice. It requires death. Christ fulfills this. This whole process of offering this death for our sins, by offering himself as the final sacrifice. And this is made clear later in Hebrews 5-7. Hebrews 5-7. We see in Hebrews 7-11 that Jesus was descended of Judah. So this is an important part. This is like 10% of my message. Pay attention. Jesus was descended of Judah and not descended of Levi. And therefore did not hold a Levittical priesthood after the order of Aaron. We see this in 714. Now, you had to be of the bloodline of Aaron. You had to be a Levite to be a priest. You could not be a priest unless you were a

of Aaron. You had to be a Levite to be a priest. You could not be a priest unless you were a Levite. So how was it, how is Jesus able to do this? Well, he's God. Well, we'll get to that. But Jesus was our, and is our great high priest and was not a Levite. So this brings us to our first friction point in the text. Jesus is God and can therefore do anything. but sin, but he is unchanging. How then was he and is he able to be our high priest if he's not descended from Levi? We find our answer all the way back in Genesis 14. So if you'd like to turn to Genesis 14, you're welcome to. It's discussed briefly in Psalm 110.4, and then half the book of Hebrews will talk about this. So if you're in Genesis 14, there's a section there where Abram, before he was Abraham, has this stupid little nephew named Lot, who owned a ton of stuff and was an absolute foolish man. And so Lot runs off. We know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot runs off, and he's doing foolish things, and he gets captured. He and his whole household, all of his household goods, everything he owns, carried off. And so Abram takes 318 of his family, his related men. Think of these as Father Abraham's special forces. These were chosen men, dedicated warriors, knew what they were doing, practiced with

gives a tenth of all of it to this figure, Mokizadec. That's a huge deal. But then we don't hear about him anymore until about a thousand years later when King David writes about him in the book of Psalms. So for a thousand years, nothing. Mokizek, nothing. So who was this Mokizek character? Well, we live in Utah, and so many of us have heard this name. His name is thrown around quite a bit with Mormons believing that they graduate or move from an ironic or levitical priesthood into this Melchizedekian priesthood. And I want to tell you that's incorrect, not because we want to disparage anybody, but to correct out of love in the hopes that others, to include maybe some of us in this room, seek the truth, seek after God, and are transformed by his gospel. So who does the Bible say Melchizedek is? Well, he's is the great high priest of God. His priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood. It's superior. How do we know this? Because Levi, later on, later generations, offered sacrifices to Mokizek through Father Abraham, since he was still in the loins of Father Abraham. So in terms of priesthood, the Levittical priesthood, this system of sacrifice that the Jews were so familiar with for so long

of priesthood, the Levittical priesthood, this system of sacrifice that the Jews were so familiar with for so long was subservient, was underneath this Melchizedek priesthood. Hebrews 722 tells us that this makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. A better covenant. We can read 719. Hebrews 719. For the law made nothing perfect. The law, which everyone was so familiar with, the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is, introduced through which we draw near to God. We know that the law is holy and a law is a curse. It is both holy and perfect. We see this in the New Testament. And we also know from Paul's writings that the law was a curse, that it cannot make perfection. The law is here to condemn. And in 722, Hebrews 722, Jesus, we're told, is the guarantor of a better covenant. The very next verse 723, Jesus holds this priesthood forever, unlike the Levitical priests who would die and could not make a perfect sacrifice. So the book of Hebrews draws very heavily from Leviticus all the way back at the start of the Bible.

So the book of Hebrews draws very heavily from Leviticus all the way back at the start of the Bible. And if we read, so Berean nerds, write this down, Leviticus 4 3 through 12. There's a section in there where it says, despite the fact that we have this whole sacrificial system, these sacrifices are all offered on this day of atonement, they're offered by a high priest who himself is a sinner. And so there's this whole special section, 4, 3 through 12, just dealing with the great high priest's sin. Because if he was dirty, if he was unclean, the entire nation was unclean. And so it's this very important concept that we understand that there's this priesthood, but then there is this great high priest, the high priest who is overseeing all the other priests. So what is the point of all this? Why are we spending so much time on the first, like, three words of our text. I told you, three and a half hours. Buckle in. In Hebrews 813, this is a point that really rubbed me raw the first time I read it. Like, it was kind of a shock to me. This was a big growth point for me. Hebrews 813. The old covenant is obsolete. The old covenant is obsolete. We no longer have animal or grain sacrifices. We understand this. We know this. All Christians are priests. We are all priests. We are all priests. We are all priests. because we're descended of Abraham by faith, even if not genetically.

this. We know this. All Christians are priests. We are all priests. We are all priests. We are all priests. because we're descended of Abraham by faith, even if not genetically. Jesus was, is, and will forever be our high priest. So there's point one. Jesus is our high priest. All of us are priests as believers. Who has passed through the heavens. Hebrews four, back to our text. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. So once a year in the Old Testament and all the way up through Jesus time, once a year the high priest of Israel had to pass through three areas to offer something called the atonement. So it was this unusual sacrifice. And it was for the entire nation. So if I sin or I'm unclean or I get a disease, there were so many rules. Again, many of us are familiar with this. I had to go and I had to offer a sacrifice. But once a year, the high high priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of the entire nation of Israel. And he had to pass through three areas. The outer court, the holy place, and then into the most holy place to make this atoning sacrifice. Jesus passed through three heavens. Three heavens. And again, in our local culture, there's some confusion here. Don't read too much into it. The authors in the Bible make

discuss in a minute, right, that the temple, as we're told later in the Bible, is our bodies and that we are to offer our lives as this sacrifice. But Jesus, having been this perfect, ongoing sacrifice has accomplished all of this. So what's the takeaway here through the heaven's portion of our text? Jesus is alive. Jesus is still alive. He's not a dead priest like those in the Old Testament who had to make this atoning sacrifice for themselves. And he is seated at the right hand of God as our advocate. And so this means that he's constantly advocating for us in real time all the time. So when you sin, ten seconds, ago, which just about everyone in here did, or 10 hours ago, or 15 minutes ago, or you will sin in 30 seconds, or some of you who became indignant at me when I said that you sin, he's advocating for us all the time, right now. Let us hold fast our confession. We have a great high priest, passed through the heavens, Jesus. Let us hold fast our confession. What is our confession? What is our confession? I had to ask myself that. What is my confession? What does this mean. Hold fast our confession. So turn with me, if you would, please, to Hebrews 10. Turn to Hebrews 10, 19 through 23. And I'm going to read this passage to you. 10, 19 through 23.

mean. Hold fast our confession. So turn with me, if you would, please, to Hebrews 10. Turn to Hebrews 10, 19 through 23. And I'm going to read this passage to you. 10, 19 through 23. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, So we don't need temples with curtains. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Brothers and sisters, our confession, our confession, is that all of our hope, every last drop of it, is in Jesus Christ and has perfectly finished and ongoing, atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we can draw near to God. There is no God plus us. All of the work is done by God. That is your confession as a Christian. If it is not,

plus us. All of the work is done by God. That is your confession as a Christian. If it is not, you are not a Christian. Our confession is that Jesus did all of it. Everything took the full wrath of God and imputed total righteousness to us so that when God the Father looks at us, he doesn't see us at all. He sees Jesus Christ. That is our confession. Verse 15. Hebrews 4, verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin, yet without sin. We have a sympathetic high priest who's been tempted more than any of us. So, if you've been attending refuge for a while, I'm going to take a slight dig at Pastor Brian Salvei for a moment. You're welcome for that. I know like eight of you texted me if I would do that. So if you listen to the sermons online, you're familiar with his somewhat of a man crushed, almost unhealthy relationship with the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. So while I cannot and will not quote that Boromir son of Aragon wrote on the mythical luck dragon, Falcour, chasing bullies in the alleys, and slayed a werewolf or something.

dragon, Falcour, chasing bullies in the alleys, and slayed a werewolf or something. I will read a quote from C.S. Lewis. So C.S. Lewis says, only those, only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full extent what temptation is, the only complete realist. So Jesus was absolutely God and absolutely human. This, by the way, is one of the hardest catechism questions to teach to a four-year-old, the Trinity. But I want to discuss just for a minute, Jesus' humanity. I want you to fully accept Jesus' humanity. And here are a few examples from John Piper, just a few times throughout his life that Jesus could have sinned, but resisted the temptation to. He never dishonored his parents. Can you imagine that? Parents?

He never had self-pity. And he never felt anger towards God when John the Baptist, which by the way, was his blood cousin, got his head cut off at the whim of a stupid little dancing girl. And he never gloated over his accusers when the Pharisees couldn't answer his questions. Have you not read? Is it not written? And these Pharisees who spent their entire lives reading scripture couldn't respond. He never gloated over them. Many of us have temptations outside of what Christ had as well. So I'm going to talk about two groups of people. The confident, sure-footed. Like, if you've ever heard this term explain to you, it's not what you said. It's how you said it. Okay, so that's one group. And then the other group is the self-doubters, the ones who, I'm just not good enough. You worry and stress about what every little thing, every person. Like when you're eating, you're worried on your first date if there's something in your teeth, but you're also worried 12 dates later if there's something in your teeth. So I'm going to talk to both groups here. Many of us want to do two things, depending on which of those two categories you have a tendency to fall into. Oftentimes, we will try to self-justify. We'll try to say, well, I did that, but, you know, we're all sinners. There's grace. I'm not perfect. We'll try to fix it up a little bit. And the doubter will clean up their sin. They'll try to clean up their sin. Well, I know Jesus will forgive me. He has forgiven me. He's our high priest.

Oftentimes, we will try to self-justify. We'll try to say, well, I did that, but, you know, we're all sinners. There's grace. I'm not perfect. We'll try to fix it up a little bit. And the doubter will clean up their sin. They'll try to clean up their sin. Well, I know Jesus will forgive me. He has forgiven me. He's our high priest. all right, this is a pretty nasty sin. Like, this is gross. And so before I take this sin to Jesus, I ought to clean it up just a little bit, right? Like, before I take the trash out, I'm at least going to bag it, right? Well, brothers and sisters, he loves us. Jesus already knows, and he's known from eternity past every single sin you would ever have inside and out. And I say this lovingly. The Bible tells us that all of your works and your good deeds and you're trying to fix it up are filthy rags. So just go to Jesus. The point here, having the sympathetic high priest, as opposed to this far removed, distant high priest, is that Jesus never broke the law by commission, breaking it, or omission failing to live up to it. He perfectly fulfilled every single requirement of the law. He was and is the perfect sacrifice offered, and as the Melchizedekian, priest, he intercedes on our behalf.

priest, he intercedes on our behalf. Verse 16, let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. When I think about confidence, when I think about confidence, there's a verse, a section of scripture that always comes to mind, and it's Romans 8. We actually had another guest preacher here, Jared, several months ago who preached on Romans 8. Hebrews 812 tells us God no longer remembers our sins. It's gone. It never happened in God's eyes. So if you would, turn with me to Romans 8, 1 through 4. Romans 8, 1 through 4. Romans 8, 1 through 4. Romans 8, get there myself, 1 through 4. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. According to the spirit, Brian spoke on this a few sermons ago. The word confident comes from the Latin confide with faith, with faith. So when you use the word confident, it means to walk by or to live by faith. Confidence means that we have faith in Jesus Christ and his perfect and ongoing work. Don't hide from Jesus. Don't hide from Jesus. You can't clean up your works. He knows everything. He created you. He knew exactly what you would do. millennia before you were created. So what's the personal application here that we can draw near to the throne with confidence? Well, if you're the husband or wife or kid who looked at pornography this week or the mother who got frustrated with her kids just this morning, getting them ready for church, and they didn't hustle fast enough, and the room wasn't made clean enough.

Snap my fingers and this nation is invaded. All of that comes from the same. seat, this throne. Power, a king, a ruler. God is all of this, but he's so much more. He is also our adoptive father. God is our adoptive father. I want to talk about the throne of grace and mercy, because grace and mercy, if you have kids, or if you were a kid, are very important words to a parent. I heard a long time ago grace and mercy described like this. Grace, when God gives you what you don't deserve. Mercy. When God doesn't give you what you do deserve. I have four small kids. There's a lot of grace and mercy in our house. Not as much as I wish sometimes, but there's a lot of grace and mercy in our house. Many people will tell you that we're all God's children. Has anybody here ever heard that lie? Raise your hand if you've heard that lie. We're all God's children. No, we're not. It's a lie. In fact, we're all God's creation and we are called God's enemies before we are Christians. We are enemies of God. We are not all God's children. It is only after we've become Christians when God has saved us through the work of Jesus Christ that we become adopted into his family. Romans 510 shows us this. Humanity is an enemy of God.

that we become adopted into his family. Romans 510 shows us this. Humanity is an enemy of God. But when our hope is in Christ, he adopts us as sons and becomes our Abba father. Now Abba is a word that I researched just for a little bit because when I was in, you know, youth camp years ago, I heard, Abba means daddy. And it turns out that's actually a total lie fabricated by a German Lutheran. It does not mean that. Aba does not mean daddy. Aba means my father in a very intimate, not formal way, but it's not the silly word of a child to mean daddy. It shows this intimate relationship between father and child. So if I were to ask to come and sit next to Dan, he would probably say, okay, assuming I'd showered fairly recently, he'd probably be okay with that. And if I said, well, could I sit really close to you, like rub shoulders with you as some of you were doing, he'd probably be okay with it. But if I said, Dan, I would like to lean into your bosom because we're just that close, we're that intimate. Dan would probably push me away quickly and cancel my elder candidacy. What's the response for most people if you ask, may I lean into your bosom? is probably no. And yet we had disciples who did this with Jesus Christ, and this is what the

is probably no. And yet we had disciples who did this with Jesus Christ, and this is what the word means. So I've got an 11-year-old son starting puberty. Hey, Rowan. I've got an 8-year-old boy who loves dirt and mud. Hi, Remy. I have a daughter who has a pension for makeup, and we'll just call it smells. Hi, sweetie. And I have a one-year-old baby, and there's some smell there too. All of them are welcome in my bosom. I've held every one of them right here. And many of us in this room, we can relate to this. And that's what God does to us. God is our adoptive Abba Father. He is the king. He is the great high priest. He is all of this. And he is dad. He is dad. Father's offer grace. Love culvers, a multitude of sins, like armpits, and much more. As we see in 1. Peter 4-8. So I took us back to 1st Peter. You thought we were done. We're not. So in closing, drawing near to this throne of grace and mercy, we need help. Every one of us needs help. We don't deserve it, but we have it as Christians. And if you're not in Christ, if you haven't put all of your faith into the holy and perfect work of Jesus Christ,

in Christ, if you haven't put all of your faith into the holy and perfect work of Jesus Christ, then I want you to. God is all powerful, all powerful. He made the entire universe. For those who deny God or believe atheism is the way and they seek after science. God made science. Science is just the observation of things your puny brain can comprehend. God gave you the brain. He gave you the senses. He is the creator of all of it. And he's all loving. Who here would willingly, willingly just give up your child to die. Have a child knowing specifically that's what they were made for to die. With Jesus as our great high priest who took all of our sin and gave all of his righteousness. We call this double imputation. All of our sin was taken away and all, all of Jesus righteousness and Jesus is God was put on us. We can go straight to God the way a small child goes to their father for grace, for mercy, for forgiveness, for love. Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, you're commanded to seek after God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We're also commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. How many of you do that perfectly every second of every day? So we are constant sinners.

was given, given as the penalty. He paid the ultimate price for us, God. And I just ask that we have the boldness and humility, that we are confident to come to you, that you work on our hearts, Lord, to seek after you day and day out, night and night out, for the entirety of our lives, Lord, that we draw near to you, to your throne, and we lay all of our burdens down at your feet. God, I am grateful that you love us. I love my kids. I can barely imagine a life without them, and you love us infinitely more. And God, there are just not words to say. Our hearts cry out to you in thankfulness, and we are grateful for your perfect love. for us. God, I ask that you be with us as we continue on this week, as we worship you, as we give our prayers to you, God, and that our lives be a sacrifice. That we die to ourselves. We walk with you, Lord. We ask these things in your name. Amen.

We walk with you, Lord. We ask these things in your name. Amen.