Smart, John: Studies In Hebrews 03 ~ Hebrews 3:

In our reading meditation last week, we got on to the last verse of chapter four, but I decided we should just reread the last three verses of chapter four for one simple reason, that is that the fifth chapter begins with a little word for, which links chapter five with what has preceded. You'll remember a week or two ago, we were remarking that chapter two begins with therefore, and chapter three begins with wherefore. And it's a good thing in our Bible reading, every time we come across the word therefore, to ask ourselves, why is the therefore therefore? And when it's a wherefore, wherefore the wherefore? And when he says for, for what? Well, that depends on what he's just been talking about. The for doesn't mean anything unless we keep in mind what he has just been dealing with. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews had a long and sustained discussion, and really the discussion begins at chapter one, verse one, and runs right through to chapter ten, verse eighteen. That's the watershed. That verse is the watershed of this epistle, and it's a sta- a sustained argument through. Now, there are little, uh, sidetrackings, should we say. He steps aside in order to discuss a side issue, which is very important, then back to his main theme. Steps aside to discuss some other issue, then back to his main theme, but he's making steady progress the way through. In order then to keep clearly in mind what's in view here, let's remind ourselves, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Now he's already indicated this in chapter 2 at verse eighteen. we have a great high priest. Chapter three begins with this. Wherefore, holy brethren, consider, meditate, think upon the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus. Then at the end of chapter four, again, he's back at the matter of priesthood. Now, this is what he's driving at, and bit by bit he's unfolding to us what he wants to arrive at when he gets to chapter seven. But all that he has to say about priesthood isn't developed until we get to the end of chapter seven, and the beginning of chapter eight. but bit by bit he's touching on it. But as he touches on this, he sets, uh, he seems to sidestep for a moment and discuss something just so. He sidesteps again and discusses that a bit, simply because he wants to meet what I believe would be questions in the minds of his readers. And if there's anything that becomes a good instructor, whether it's in classroom or in public preaching, is to try and anticipate as best he can what would be the reasonable questions and reasonable objections of the people to whom he's speaking, and answer those questions and override those objections. I mean override them by giving satisfactory answers, not just to ignore them. I think that's one reason, for example, why we have so many questions in Paul's great foundational letter, uh, the Epistle to the Romans. He raised a lot of questions and answered them because he knows in the minds of people who are trying to accommodate themselves to a great transition out of the Old Testament system of religion into the new, into Christianity, there must be a host of questions, and I question if we people in the twentieth century begin to understand what that transition meant for these people. And I think that's the same reason, for the same reason the writer to the Hebrews steps aside here and there to discuss things. Seeing that we have a great high priest. Now, he doesn't say, seeing there is, but we have is, I want you to know that there is a man in the glory who is our priest. They might be inclined to say, but oh my, you know, back there in Judaism, we saw that high priest. We saw him functioning in the temple. Now we can't see this priest you're talking about. This Jesus gone up to heaven. We've got no earthly temple. We've got no earthly priesthood. We've got no earthly sacrificial system. And this man is laboring to bring these people to see this, that everything that the Old Testament had to do with, as eh, as we find outlined in Hebrews chapter ten, The law had a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. In other words, to accommodate them, to qualify them, to equip them for entering into the presence of God and experiencing as worshippers what the presence of God really means. Now, the Old Testament system could never do that. Even the priests couldn't enter into the holiest of all. They were barred from that. And this is why he's speaking here of we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. They were taken up with a priest who came and functioned for them, first of all, outside the court on the Day of Atonement, because part of the ritual then was outside the court altogether. Then he came into the courtyard, and then he came into the holy place, the first sanctuary inside the, uh, the building. I'm speaking now in terms of the tabernacle, not the temple. And, uh, in that place he had certain functions, and on the great Day of Atonement he went inside the veil into the holiest of all, but he only went in once a year and not without blood. Now, what I'm trying to get at is this. Everything in connection with that Old Testament ritual met its fulfillment, met its conclusion, the whole thing was done. And when the Savior said, it is finished, he gathered up in himself, in his own person, all that was involved in that Old Testament ritual, and he said, it's done, it's finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now, one of the most remarkable and one of the most meaningful things in connection with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is this, that when he so cried, the veil in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. Now, if you will take some of Josephus' writings on this, as well as the writings of others, you will discover this, that the veil which stood in the temple, the top of that was a way beyond any man's reach. It was much too high for a man to reach, and furthermore, the material of a such weight that when that was swung into position, it took quite a company of priests to pull it into position. And we are told that if that veil had been taken down and anyone wanted to rent it, you'd almost have to get a yoke of oxen here and a yoke of oxen there and have them pull that in order to rip that veil apart. It was a very, very heavy thing, a beautifully adorned thing, and the idea that when the Savior cried, it is finished, the veil in the temple were rent from the top to the bottom. It must have been a divine hand that did it. And what he's saying is this: the whole Old Testament sys- system is done with now, and you haven't to do any longer with a priest who passes into an earthly sanctuary, you have to do with a priest who's gone into heaven itself. Hallelujah! We've got a Savior who's gathered up everything that was anticipated in the Old Testament. He's fulfilled it in his own person and his work, and he's entered into the heavens. We have a high priest like that. He's passed through the heavens, Jesus, the man, the son of God, the deity. Therefore, in the light of this, let's hold fast our confession. Let's not get buckled knees. Let's not fall down. Let's not be drawn aside who p- by people who say with a kind of a little sarcasm, uh, a note of testing in their voice. Where is your priesthood? Where's your temple? Where are your sacrifices? Look at all this ritual. Didn't God give all this to Moses and to the people of Israel through Moses? Yes, he did. Then why don't you go on with it? Simply because the veil is rent, and the whole thing is found its fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that called for a tremendous amount of faith. Anybody who's acquainted with the situation in mission fields today knows this, that in many a land, for a Muslim to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Lord and Savior and be baptized unto him will very likely cost him his life. It costs something to move out of that into this, and it costs these people something to move out of that Old Testament concept and procedure into Christianity. And this is what this man is laboring to get these people to see. We have all this realized in Christ. Now then, let's go on to the enjoyment of it. For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Don't think because he's gone to heaven he doesn't know what's going on down here. He knows it quite well. This is quite evident from the experience that Saul had at the time of his conversion. Saul was the earlier name of the Apostle Paul. A voice from heaven, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Persecuting you? Here's someone speaking from heaven. I'm persecuting on earth, to be sure. What's that got to do with heaven? The head of the church was in heaven. His members were on earth, and he felt deeply and keenly what his people felt down here. And brethren, this is one thing that the writers of the Hebrews want us all to grasp. Touched with a sympathy within, he knows our feeble frame. He knows what, he knows what sorest trials are, for he has felt the same. We have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. I rather think the double negative is put in there for a purpose. Don't think that we have one who's beyond being touched. We've not a priest like that. We have one who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Why? In all points, tempted like as we are, thin apart. Now, we dealt with that phrase just for a moment, but for lack of time, and I'm afraid for lack of time this morning, we can't develop it. It's one that needs to be expounded a little, and perhaps sometime we may get into this when we can take a morning to the temptation of our Lord. I sometimes wish that we used another word for that experience of our Lord. Trials, yes. Sufferings, yes. But temptations, in the light of what that word usually connotes in our thinking, that's another story. Apart from sin, not only that he did not sin, that's not the thing only. It wasn't a case of he was tempted but didn't sin in it. There's more than that. He was tempted in all points, like as we are, aside from the question of sin. There was no sin nature in our Lord Jesus Christ. He knew no sin. He did no sin. In him was no sin. And when men are speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, and especially in connection with such matters as the temptation in the wilderness, it behooves us to be very, very careful, lest we find ourselves saying things that we ought not. I recall I was just quite a young fellow at the time, I'm going back now some thirty eight, forty years ago in Toronto. I was speaking with an old man. He was quite a remarkable old man. He left his, he left his name on the pages of evangelical history, and deservedly so. In the course of our conversation, he told me that he had found himself in difficulty in a certain place, which of course I already knew, because he'd been saying things like that in his this, in his public preaching. Could our Lord Jesus Christ sin? No, he was God, and God cannot sin. Could our Lord Jesus Christ sin? Yes, he was man, and man can sin. That horrifies me. I hope it horrifies you. Our Lord Jesus Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, and he was separate from sinners in a very, very remarkable way. To a great extent, he was identified with men down here. But remember this, the letter to the Romans says he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not come in sinful flesh. And we were told explicitly from the lips of the Lord himself, the prince of this world cometh, he hath nothing in me. Let's bear that in mind. I said a while ago, I wish we used another word for the temptation of our Lord, because somehow or another, the word temptation always carries with it, at least it seems to me it carries with it, this idea, that of solicitation to sin, and accompanying that, of necessity, the idea that the one who is so tempted is quite capable of rendering a sinful response. Isn't this the idea that generally it conjures up in our minds? I think it might be better if we were to talk about a demonstration of sinlessness and a demonstration of holiness rather than a temptation to sinfulness in connection with this. Engineers. Engineers built a huge bridge over a chasm to carry trains. When it was completed, as I've indicated to you before, the work was all through, and when it was completed, they wanted to demonstrate to the people. Now, mark you, demonstrate to the people that would sustain all the weight that was put on it. Trains were rolled across one way, back up, forward, and back, loaded with gravel, rock, and all that kind of thing. Why did they do that? Were they testing the bridge? See if it would fall? No. They were demonstrating to the populace that it would hold the load that it was supposed to hold. And when God sent his only begotten son into the world, he had a great work for him to do when he came to the cross. But the only person who could accomplish that work was one who was in his own person, was absolutely. No angel could our take, our place have taken. It must be one who is God in manhood. And in order to demonstrate that in the person of Christ we have pure gold, he was subjected to this experience at the hands of the devil in the wilderness. Then the devil leaveth him. And as an old friend of mine, Victoria, used to say, God demonstrated at the very beginning of his messianic ministry that he was pure gold and was capable of sustaining and performing the work that God had given him to do. He was to bear away the sin of the world. He would be no savior if he were subject to collapse himself. I repeat, we need to be very careful how we handle matters of this kind. I hope that I haven't overdone the statement. This, however, is exactly what I feel in connection with the matter of the temptation of our Lord. Let us therefore come boldly. Let's hold fast our confession. It's in the veil for us, gone within for us. Let us draw near to the throne of grace. We haven't a priest who can't be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and all points tempted like as we are, sin apart. Therefore, let us come with liberty, boldness, absolute freedom to the throne of grace. What for? To obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Every high priest in those Old Testament times, for some fourteen hundred centuries or so, from the days of Moses and Aaron right on down to the days of Christ, every high priest was taken from among men, necessarily so. And all the priests in the Old Testament system were taken from a certain tribe, the tribe of Levi. They were not only taken from the tribe of Levi, they were all required to be of the house of Aaron. In the twenty eighth of Exodus and also in the eighth of Leviticus, we read, and the Lord so commanded Moses, Moses, take Aaron, thy brother, and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, and consecrate them to me in the priest's office. Aaron, thy brother, is to be the high priest. And it's interesting to note that come, the thing comes like a refrain in the eighth of Leviticus. Moses went to them and said, thus saith the Lord, thus hath the Lord commanded." And he laid down all that the Lord had commanded. At the end of every paragraph of those commandments, this is what he says, "As the Lord commanded Moses. As the Lord commanded Moses. As the Lord commanded Moses." Now, we'll come back to that just in a moment or two, but let's note this. Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Now, not only was a man to be of the tribe of Levi, not only was to be of the house of Aaron, but he must be free from certain forms of physical defect, and he must also be free from disease. God required that his priests be completely qualified for the work for the, which they were to do. And not only this, but we are told very expressly that he was to offer, by way of function, he was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. A little further down, we're told this, not only for himself, but for the errors of the people. He was a man who, when he presented himself before God on the Day of Atonement, he must first come in with the blood of a bullet for his own sin and for the sin of his household, and he must stand before God as a cleansed priest, that is, ritually cleansed at least. Here then he stands before God because it's a highly important matter that the man who functioned as high priest in Israel should have acceptance with God, for if he had no acceptance with God, then the nation had no acceptance with God. This was a pivotal point, far, far more important than most of us think. And by the way, so far as the divine side of things is concerned, the high priest was an infinitely more important personage in Israel than the king ever was. As a matter of fact, the king himself had to wait on the high priest for his cleansing. Israel was moved at the concept of a high priesthood. He was a man who fulfilled the keynote, the crucial point, so far as the needs of the people were concerned. This, then, was one of his functions. Why taken from among men? Well, he must be one who has himself experienced manhood and all the difficulties and the trials, the labors and the burdens of manhood, in order that he may have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. The high priest was a man who knew what human experience was. He knew what it was to live in the Holy Land. He knew something of the burdens of life. He'd gone through this himself, and as one who must come and offer for himself, he could understand the feelings of a man who needed representation before God, and he was to respond to that. He must be a man who is capable of striking the mean between undue leniency on the one hand and undue harshness on the other. He mustn't be a softy, and he mustn't be marked by rigidity. He must be a man who can respond in a becoming way to the feelings and to the needs of the people. Now, I like this kind of thing because if God expected this in a human high priest, what does this say to us of a divine high priest? And if this is the way Moses was to, to respond to the needs of the people of, or rather Aaron was to respond to the needs of the people of Israel, what must be the response of our holy priest in heaven, who feels for men in a way that Aaron never could? We have such an high priest. This is the kind of thing that's expected here. And by reason hereof, that is because of his infirmities, he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sin. Now, two requirements are laid down in these first four verses in connection with the high priest. One, he must be a man, not an angel. We don't want angels as a high priest for the simple reason angels haven't had a human experience. We want someone who can identify with humankind, who knows human need, and as a human can feel for humans and respond to human needs and function in the light of that. Aaron was such an one. Every high priest taken from among men, he must be taken from among men in things pertaining to God. Not only so, but in verse four we are told, and no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. I've already indicated that Moses came to Aaron and to his sons and said, this is what the Lord has commanded. And when Aaron was taken, and he was washed from head to foot in water, and he was invested as a priest, and he had on him the robes for glory and for beauty, and the ephod and the breastplate, the turban on his head, and the holy plate, the crown of glory over his head. All of this was ordained by God, and the more you look on this, the more you see the function and the adequacy of the priest that we have in heaven today. But the key thought here is this, he was called by God. Now, there were times in the Old Testament situation when certain men stepped forward. I think of Korah and his company. Moses, you take too much on yourself. You err, and you're just as bad. The people are just as good as you are. We're just as qualified for functioning in this way as you people are. That met with a condemned judgment of God. They wanted to function in a role that God hadn't called them to. There was a king called Uzziah, and on the whole he was a very good king, and he presumed, in spite of the remonstrance of the priests, to enter into priestly functions and function in the temple in ways he was never intended to do, and God smote him with leprosy for his impertinence and for his arrogance. He belonged to the royal family, but he had nothing to do with the priestly family, and men need to mind their P's and Q's when they're functioning before God. These are not the only instances that we might bring forward of men who entered into functions to which God did not call them. No man taketh this honor unto himself. Now, I've said already, and I repeat here because it's an, an immensely important thing to get hold of, that the reason why the priest must be called of God, as with Aaron, was the assurance to the people that having been called of God, he had access to God. Having been called of God, he had acceptance with God. And if the high priest had no exception with God, everything was lost for the people. Now, a moment, I mentioned a moment ago about that ephod which he wore when he came in for one of his functions to stand before God in his robes for glory and for beauty, not on the Day of Atonement. He was clothed otherwise then, but in his ordinary functions. And there in the breastplate were twelve stones bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, Two onyx stones on the shoulders bearing the names, six in each, of the twelve tribes of Israel, and a golden plate on the turban over his head. Inscribed on it were these words, Holiness to Jehovah. Lovely language, Holiness to Jehovah. Then we're told that when he entered into the sanctuary, this we read, it shall be always upon his forehead that they, the nation, may be accepted before the Lord. It was absolutely imperative that not only the priest be called of God, but that he be acceptable to God. For if he were not acceptable to God, then everything was lost so far as the state of the people was concerned. He was the key man. This was the crucial point. This was a crisis point, and if the high priest failed, the whole nation failed. No man takes this honor to himself. It's immensely important that he who functions as a priest is accepted with God, for unless he is accepted, the people won't be accepted. Now then he appears in his robes for glory and for beauty, and that plate over the forehead, Holy is Jehovah. It shall be always upon his forehead in order that he may be accepted and that the whole nation may be accepted in him. Now our man has gone in. He has passed through the heavens. On his heart, our names are graven. On his shoulders, we are born. Of our God beloved in Jesus, we must love him in return. And because he is accepted, we are accepted in the person of our great high priest. My friends, it's a tremendous thing, and if people can only grasp this, it'll settle their souls, set them at rest. And as my old brother, the late English Fleming, said to me on one occasion, John, is it labor to bring the people into a sense of acceptance with God, peace with God, for unless they stand there, they'll never be worshippers. How true. A man is never a worshipper as long as he's hanging on to something in order to save himself or work out his own salvation. But if a man finds acceptance in Christ, he's liberated to worship and serve God in a way he could not otherwise do. Now then, the argument flows on, so also Christ. What I've been saying about the Aaronic priest is true of Christ. Was the Aaronic priest called from among men? Yeah, so was Christ. Was the Aaronic priest called to this glory by God, this honor by God? Yes. All right, so was Christ. Now he goes on to demonstrate this a bit further. But instead of taking the order of things, first he was called from among men, and then he was called by God, the writer reverses the order when he's speaking about Christ, and he speaks about his call and then his manhood, not first the manhood and then the call. Let's look at it like that. Verse five: so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest. Let's halt there just for a moment. There's a thing I like about all of this. In verse four, when Aaron was called, he was given an honor. When our Lord Jesus Christ was called, he was given a glory, and this is one of the distinctions between the old system and the new. There are many others. We've touched on them before, but this is an added one. Aaron was called, and this honor was something to which he was called, but Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that called him. His ministry is not simply an honor, it's a glory, and he was glorified God- by God to fulfill this ministry in the glory. Aaron functioned in an earthly sanctuary. Our man functions in a heavenly sanction- in a heavenly sanctuary. Aaron functioned, and he knew perfectly well, because after all, away back a thousand years before Christ, this word had been spoken, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and there's coming a day they'd say to themselves, if they were at all intelligent in holy things, this priesthood must fail. This priesthood must be terminated. One day, this priesthood is going to be superseded by something altogether. The Aaronic order will come to a standstill, and it did when the veil in the temple would rest from the top to the bottom, and another man, after the order of Melchizedek, functioned not in an earthly sanctuary, he's gone into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. When I read language like that, I feel I, I just wish that I were a free Methodist. At this point, hallelujah, praise the Lord, but don't say that in River Forest Gospel chapter. Don't get excited, folks, don't get excited. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest. No man does this for himself. God called him, and if God called him, you can be sure he's acceptable. And if God has glorified him, you can certainly be sure he's acceptable. And if he's passed through the heavens, my brother, what more do you want than that? When I was a boy, we used to say, that is jam on it. It sure is. It's well buttered and it's well jammed. This is the whole thing. You've got all you want. He died, he rose, he lived, he pleased. There's love in all his words and deeds. There's all a guilty sinner needs forever more in Jesus. Our man has gone into the glory, and all that poor sinners need in a savior is offered in Christ, and all that God's people need in a priest is presented in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He glorified not himself, and if God called him, all is secure. Now, if you take your book of the Psalms and read in the second Psalm, you'll find something like that, that God said to him, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee," and he's addressing himself to his messianic king. "I've set my king on my holy hill of Zion." Now, the order of Melchizedek was an, an order which was not only a priestly order, it was a kingly order, a royal order as well. Melchizedek, as we shall see two or three Sundays from now, God willing, was both a king and a priest. He was priest of the Most High God, and he was king of Salem as well. And the man who has gone in for us is saluted by God as messianic king. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, I set my king on my holy hill, Zion. And not only so, but he says in the hundred and tenth Psalm, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Think on that for a moment. God wasn't throwing into, into action some kind of delayed program or some kind of an emergency thought, uh, when everything failed, and then he sent his son into the world to redeem men, as if that was a kind of a last gasp arrangement. My friends, this is all, all thought out in the council chambers of eternity, and God gave indication a thousand years before Christ came into the world. Thou art a priest forever, speaking prophetically through David. This is my intention. This is it. And quietly saying to the priests in Israel, there's coming a day when all of this is going to be ended. All of this will be terminated. It will find its fulfillment in my son, and I'm going to glorify him a priest forever. Those priests were not suffered to continue by reason of death. This man has an eternal priesthood. He's been glorified at God's right hand forever. What do you say about that? If you don't say amen, I don't know what you'll say amen to. This is it, but nobody says amen. Ha. What an audience. What a preacher. Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another place, the hundred and tenth Psalm, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now that has to do with his call and his glorification. God has called him, no question of his acceptance. God has glorified him. There he is. What a picture. So near, so very near to God. Nearer I cannot be, for in the person of his son, I am as near as he. He functions before God in things pertaining to men, and he functions perfectly. All that we need is met for us, first as sinners and then as Christians, in the person of our savior and priest. By the way, Christians need a priest as badly as sinners need a savior. Did you know that? Well, it's absolutely true. And the pity is we don't avail ourselves of his ministry more. In fact, as we said a while ago, one of our earlier meetings, the word priest is one of the most commonly used words in Christendom, and one of the words which is least understood. What is a priest? You'll find that all answered in the person of Christ. So much then for the call. Now, what about the human side of it? Verse seven: Who in the days of his flesh. I'd like you just for the moment to look at that phrase and then drop down to the last phrase in the next verse, verse eight. and read it like this. In the days of his flesh, he suffered. Now, this is the keynote in this passage. In the days of his flesh. What's meant by that? In the days when he is down here in manhood. Now, let us be careful not to think that the writer of the Hebrews is suggesting that our Lord Jesus Christ is not incarnate in the glory. He's not touching on that. What he's talking about is his incarnation and his walking as a man down here. That, and that alone, is a thought for the moment. Let's not carry the idea too far and, uh, come to the view that our Lord is not embodied in heaven. The fact of the matter is that he has gone into heaven in glorified manhood, and the fact that that has happened is the guarantee that it's going to, the same thing is going to happen to all these people one of these days. Because I live, ye shall live also. And he's gone into the heavens, God's glorified man, the first fruits of the harvest and resurrection, and by and ba- by every Christian is going to be raised after that same order. Does he wear glorified manhood in heaven? So shall we. We're going to be like him one of these days. What a priest we have. What a priest. Who in the days of his flesh, when he'd offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, to save him out of death, and was heard in that he feared. He was heard because of his godliness, because of his piety. This is a suggestion too, that wherever there is godliness in God's people, there will never be a failing on God's part to hear. There's something tremendous about language like this. I was reading in Clarence Roddy, as a matter of fact, I've been reading quite a few commentaries in preparation, week by week, for speaking here on this subject. Roddy has this to say. Here is the point where our Lord touched the bottom. He did. He went down to the depths, down to the dust of death. But this rather is Gethsemane than Calvary. Now, there are things told us here in the fifth of Hebrews that not even touched on the four gospels. And the four gospels have a very great deal to say about what happened in Gethsemane, and certainly about what happened at Calvary. The whole situation having to do with that last while, those last hours of our Lord's earthly pilgrimage, from the night before the crucifixion, when Judas left the company in the upper room and went out to betray the Lord, on to the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the arrest, the trial in all its phases before Annas, before Caiaphas, before Pontius Pilate, before Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee, and back to Pontius again, and then to the cross. Tremendous scene. All of this is set out. But in all of it, we do not read about the strong crying, nor do we read of the tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. While Gethsemane is not mentioned in this passage, it seems to me that it's imperative we turn there as the scene that's depicted in the language before us. In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. What's he thinking about? Quite a number of various thoughts have been brought before us. We haven't time to elaborate on these now. I sometimes feel, as Doctor Dwight Pentecost of Dallas sometimes says, I don't know that any man can speak authoritatively on this subject. We're just introduced to a point, and there we stand, and again, to quote the language of Peter Pell, we stand on the verge of Calvary, we peer into those depths that we'll never penetrate. We might as well leave it at that. There are points where we're best to stay and wonder and worship instead of trying to figure it all out. There are places where God seems to have drawn a veil over the situation in order that we might see so far, feel as far as we can feel, and then watching our Holy Savior there, pause and worship. It's good to remember this. When our Lord went into the Garden of Gethsemane, he had eleven with him. Judas had already gone on his errand of betrayal. Before long, a whole band brought by Judas came to the place where they might show him and identify the Savior, and he came with that fateful kiss. Dreadful business, a kiss of betrayal. God deliver us from that kind of thing, and it can be done without kissing him. Presently, he left eight, and he took Peter, James, and John, and then he left Peter, James, and John, and he went on alone. I wonder who intended to learn something from that. There are situations where our Lord must be left alone, and he's alone before his God, with prayers, supplications, strong crying, and tears to him who is able to save him out of death. I understand that in Israel there was a saying amongst the rabbis to this effect, that there are three gradations of prayer. There is prayer in the sense of invocation, prayer that is petition, where a man asks. Then there's a more intense stage of prayer that's marked by the outcry, as if a man is being ground in a situation that just forces a cry from lips that's wrung from him. I imagine something of that kind was experienced by our Lord, possibly in anticipation of being made sin. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Anticipation of that strong crying. And then they said the third group of prayers would be tears. And when a man's prayers are mingled with tears, he's feeling things. Our Lord, in the days of his flesh, suffered. He knows what suffering is. And may I state that, state that, I think it goes beyond all question, beyond all point of contradiction, that he suffered as no other man ever suffered. Oh, what a load was mine to bear, passing from Gethsemane to the cross, alone in that dark hour. Our sin in all its terror there, God's wrath and Satan's power. But he cried to him who was able to save him out of death, and he was heard for his piety. Let's hasten on. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Now, please note, it doesn't say he learned to obey. What it says is this: he learned what obedience, full obedience to the will of God, involves for men by reason of his suffering. Now, this could do a little further development. We may have time for that, uh, next Sunday, God willing. There's a saying among us, spare the rod and spoil the child. I don't imagine that Joseph ever said to Mary, I better get that rod down and teach him a thing or two. I don't think he ever spoke like that. We are told that when the Holy Family returned from the flight to Egypt, they went not back to the place where our Lord was born in Bethlehem, they went back to where Mary had lived beforehand and Joseph too in Nazareth, and we're expressly told, and he was subject unto them. And one of the finest things that's said about the youth of our Lord that can be laid upon youth in the twentieth century is this, and he was subject to them. And if a boy knows subjection in his boyhood, he'll know what subjection means in his manhood, and he'll subject himself to all those orders, to all those authorities that properly belong to human. And American youth in the twentieth century desperately needs to learn that lesson. I think it's fair at this juncture to remark that while I greatly admire Patrick Henry and the feeling of the man way back in the revolutionary days, give me liberty or give me death, some of us want liberty from everything, and God has not ordained human life on those terms. He has not. There are divinely established authorities, and we ought to recognize them. He did, and if he did, what's wrong with us that we don't? Something's wrong, surely. So much by the side. He learned obedience by the things that he suffered, and being made perfect, that is, being perfected functionally in this, that having gone through all these sufferings, in the light of that experience, he's qualified now to enter into his priesthood, and God salutes him a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Being made perfect and functional, being qualified to function perfectly, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He went through all of that. What's the issue? He obtained eternal salvation. Hallelujah. Nobody else ever did that. Did Buddha do that? Did Muhammad do that? Did Laozi do that? Did Confucius do that? Not a one of them. He obtained eternal salvation, and his apostles preached there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Friends, he's tasted death for you and for me. Is he your savior? I thank God he's mine. And not only that, he's passed through the heavens, a great high priest. Let's avail ourselves of the mercy and the grace that are to be found at that holy throne. Shall we pray? God our Father, how we thank you today. From hearts that cannot fail to be touched, as we think on thy son in the days of his flesh, amid prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. What an experience. We thank thee, our Father, that out of this and out of the death of the cross, which he suffered for us and for our salvation, he's been raised from it all. He's obtained eternal salvation for us, and he's entered into the glory of the command of God. Thou hast glorified him, our priest, and we rejoice in the blessedness of this truth and all that it brings to our souls. O God our Father, lead us all through faith in him into the blessedness, into the joy, the satisfaction, as we think on the total adequacy of the man who functions for us in the glory today. May thy blessing be upon us. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be the portion of thy people, now and forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.