THE LORD JESUS AS PRIEST
David Spinks
Hebrews 4: 14-16; 7: 25-26; 10: 19-23
John 13: 3-14
I spoke a few months ago as to the matter of the priest; it is something that has been on my heart, and I seek a little help from the Lord to say something as to it. I think it is something that we need to understand in a greater manner, so that we rely and lean on the Lord Jesus in this wonderful character.
At the beginning of this epistle, the Lord Jesus is spoken of as the Son, and He is the one who inaugurated this wonderful system of Christianity; not only does He inaugurate it, but He is the one who sustains it. That is a wonderful thing to take account of, the One who inaugurated it, who brought it to pass; the blessed Lord Jesus who it speaks of in the beginning of Hebrews, who is the effulgence of His glory, the expression of His substance, the One who created the heavens, who made the worlds. It goes on to say, “and upholding all things by the word of his power”, Heb 1: 3. That might be in the physical universe, but I think it is true in the moral universe that He upholds all things by the word of His power. I think there is great comfort, great grace, and great help for us today to see not only that the Lord Jesus brings things to pass, but He sustains it all. He sustains it all in His might, and He sustains it all in His love. He upholds each one of us as a real and loving Man.
We need our hearts and our affections uplifted, and we need to look upwards - I say that for myself. We are passing through a difficult day; we are passing through exercises, but it is wonderful to take our eye away from the earth and see things as they are in heaven, see a Man who is seated at God’s right hand in heaven, and see a Man who sympathises for the people of God; see a Man who cares for His people; a Man who has been here in like manner to ourselves, sin apart. This is a blessed Man who cares, and who sympathises, and who is able to sustain every saint here in this room. That is a wonderful encouragement. It is a wonderful thing to know that the One who is your Saviour is also your Priest; One who is your Lord and Master is also your Priest. I wonder if we can take that in. I say to my younger brethren today, lay hold of this matter, that the blessed Lord Jesus, the one who is your Saviour, is the One who can hold and sustain you all the way home.
It has been said, in relation to the Priest, that you need to put your hand into His hand and never take it out. I think Peter, as walking on the water, failed in that matter and so do I, so do all of us. We need to put our hand into the hand of the Priest and never take it out. His hand is always available to every saint, but is my hand ready to go into His? I think it is a friendship; it is something that you trust. Do I trust Jesus enough? Do I trust this blessed Man enough to know that He can sustain me whatever exercise I pass through? Do I put my hand into His hand and never take it out? Dear young believer here today, you may be wondering what is going on. You may be wondering what is going on even in the circumstances around you, at your work, in your household, or even amongst the saints. I would encourage you to look upwards and see how things are working out in heaven. See the Man who has gone into heaven, and see the Man who is able to sustain you as One who has feelings in relation to yourself. How wonderful and glorious a matter that is. How wonderful it is to see that this blessed Man, who was here in a condition of flesh and blood, who was tempted, who was sin apart, is able. The Lord Jesus is not only glorious and great in His own Person, but He is a real Man; He feels for every one. He feels for everyone in this room. He has sympathy for you in the exercises and trials through which you pass, but not only does He have sympathy for you, He is able to carry you through. I think that is wonderful to know. We feel for one another, but it is a greater thing to know there is a blessed Saviour, a blessed Priest in heaven that is able to carry you through every exigency in which you pass.
It is a wonderful thing today, dear brethren, that we can rely on this blessed Man, who, it says later in this epistle, has gone into heaven for us, Heb 6: 20. How wonderful and great a matter this is. There is a blessed Man who lives in heaven, ever living to intercede for us. He holds the saints in His heart. The high priest had the names of the tribes on the shoulder pieces and on the breastplate, and every name is there. The breastplate is encompassed in gold and has the seal on it, and it is never taken away. How wonderful a matter that is. Your name is there; my name is there; every true believer that loves Jesus is there. And He is able to carry you through. He is able to sustain you, and give help to those who pass through many exigencies - think of those passing through pressure in their bodies. He is able to give you the grace that you need, to carry whatever your exercise is. He was one who passed through here; He passed through this scene like you and me. He was tempted, but He was sin apart; the enemy never ever had an inroad into this blessed Man. Not like you and me, because the enemy has inroad into us, and we fail. I would like each one of us to lay hold of this, that we do not need to fail. Sometimes I say to myself, ‘Well, I have failed’. If I laid hold in a greater understanding of the glory of who this Man is as Priest, I would never fail. I would never fail because He will carry me through. He will sustain me, and He will sustain me in relation to the place where I can come in and sit down and understand something of the heart of God. That is a wonderful thing. He sustains me in the testimony. He sustains me, I believe, in every exigency through which I pass, and He knows what I need. “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession”. He has passed through the heavens; there is only one Man could do that. There is only one Man who could go back into heaven. And that is His place. It gives us some indication, some touch in our heart, of who this blessed Person is - Jesus the Son of God. He is a real Man, but He is no mere man. He is divine, and He is glorious in His own Person. This blessed Man has the ability to sustain us. How blessed a matter that is. “We have … a high priest … able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”. Think of the Lord Jesus, as being tempted by the devil, tempted by the enemy. Think of Him in Gethsemane; He was sin apart. This blessed Man is distinct, unique, and beyond compare. He was different than every other man. Let us lean on Him; let us lay hold of that, and this blessed Man is able for you and He is able for me. He is able to carry us. “Tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Whatever the season may be, the Lord is able for it. He is able to come in, and He is able to bring in the comfort. He is able to bring in the grace and He is able to sustain those who need it.
There are many today passing through infirmities in their bodies; He is able to bring in comfort. There are many exercises on the hearts of the saints. He is able to direct the saints in relation to God’s thoughts, because another thought of the priest is that he sustains the saints in relation to what they are in the light of the purpose of God. He does not sustain us in our self will, but He will sustain us in our weakness. If we are all honest with ourselves, we all have a will; we go and do things we ought not to do. I do not think we will get the sustaining grace of this great High Priest in that, but if we feel our weakness, feel what we are in our weakness, and cry out to the Lord Jesus, He will sustain us. That was Peter in the boat; he walked on the water to go to Jesus. He had faith to see the Man who would see him through every exigency. And he walked on the water through faith, but he took his eyes off the Lord Jesus, and he began to sink. How often we take our eyes off Christ. We take our eyes off that blessed Man and we begin to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me”, Matt 14: 30. Maybe we need to do that tonight. You need to put your hand again back into the hand of the Saviour, and know what it is to rely, in your weakness, on One who never fails you - to rely upon the One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and to the ages to come”, Heb 13: 8. You are to rely upon One who will keep you through every exigency through which you pass, and sustain you in the light of what you are, as a son of God. How wonderful and glorious a matter that is.
He sustains you because you are part of the divine family; that is true of every saint here. Every saint here is a son of God. Every saint here, in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, is dignified. And He seeks to maintain you in the dignity of what you are in the eyes of heaven. That is a wonderful thing to take account of. The Lord Jesus is the Son, and it is through sonship He came into priesthood; that underlies His priesthood. So He knows something of what the dignity and the relationship is that is due to God, and how we are meant to be held in relation to our walk here as sons of God. I say again, do not think for one moment that you can do your own will and find the comfort and strength of the Saviour as a Priest. He will recover you, yes, he may do that; He might bring in discipline to pull you back, but you will never know the comfort of the Priest in doing your own will. You will know the comfort of the Priest if you go on, feeling your dependence and your weakness. It is a wonderful thing to go to God and cry for help in whatever you need. Weakness in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of men, is failure. Weakness before God acknowledges that He has abundance to come in and support you. He will support you in whatever you pass through. He will hold you; He will maintain you; He will succour you through every circumstance, and He will keep you above the circumstance. And He will give you the grace to walk here in the dignity of what you are as a son of God. I think that is wonderful. Every believer who has faith in Jesus, and who has the gift of the Holy Spirit, is a son of God. That is a wonderful thing. Do not hold yourself at some low level, dear young friend, dear fellow believer; do not hold yourself down somewhere where you are not dignified and not able; you are one of the sons of God; you are dignified. You are able to be taken alongside and loved as Christ is loved; that is how the Father views you. And the Son, who is a Priest, seeks to hold you in the dignity and majesty of that relationship. We use failure as an excuse; I do anyway. We do not need to fail because there is One who can sustain us in our infirmity. This blessed Man it speaks of here is “able to save completely those who approach by him to God, always living to intercede for them”.
I wonder if I could ask every soul here if you have asked the Lord today to intercede for you, to come into your circumstance, whatever that may be, and to help? He is “always living to intercede” for me. This is a living matter; it is something that is current today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. This blessed Man is holy; He is separated. It speaks of the matter of holiness; He is one who knows good and evil, actually willing good and not evil. There is something distinct about Christ, something distinct about this blessed Man. He knows good and evil perfectly. What evil there is in the world; what corruption there is. Lay yourself in His hand, and He will keep you in the dignity of what you are, and strengthen you to see what is right and what is wrong, what is morally right in this world, what is according to God in this world; and He will sustain you and maintain you, and He will help you on your way.
He will give you guidance as to what you need; He will open your eyes to who He is. Think of the two walking on the way to Emmaüs; He opened their eyes, Luke 24: 31. “He made out as if He would go farther” (v 28); the Lord as Priest will go as far as you need Him to go. He would go with you all the way, and would go even farther. He would take you by the hand, and if you are exercised, He would lead you. He is like a shepherd in that sense; the shepherding and the priestly character of the Lord Jesus go on together. Think of the ninety-nine in Luke 15: He leaves them, and goes off, and finds the one sheep; He puts it on His shoulder, and He brings it back to the house. You might be lost for the time, but you are not lost in the sight of the Priest; you belong to the company. Maybe you are not functioning as you should; maybe you are not enjoying Christianity as you should; maybe the Priest will come in and touch you tonight, and put you on His shoulder. It shows the strength of His love. The shoulder pieces and the breastplate are held together; the strength of His love and His affection go together. What strength there is in Jesus; what strength in this great High Priest. It does not matter where you are.
I believe we would be encouraged tonight to look up. A blessed Man in heaven is feeling for you in your circumstance, and is able to come and meet you. I say again, put your hand out. Put your hand into His hand, and He will guide you, and keep you, and keep you in relation to the purpose of God, keep you in relation to what you are as dignified in the sight of God. He will strengthen you and keep you all the way home. We speak of Him as an ‘all the way home’ Saviour: this is Christ; He is a wonderful High Priest. This is something that has been on my spirit a while, because we need Christ. We need Him in this function because we are passing through difficult times. We are passing through times of exercise. We are passing through matters which are concerning the saints; leave yourself in the hand of the High Priest; leave yourself in the hand of One who cares for you. He will guide the saints together; that is another beautiful matter. We sometimes waver and wander; the Lord will only lead His saints in one direction; He will keep the saints together. The number twelve has the thought of administration, and that was on the breastplate - He is holding the saints together in unity on His heart. When we see things as Christ sees them, as we are led as He was led, He will teach us to see things as He sees them Himself. We need to follow, and we need to hold on because then we can see as the High Priest sees, in the dignity that He holds us in; we see things as God sees them. We view things from a different aspect and we move in the light of that. Let us be encouraged; let us be uplifted. Let us hold on to the greatness and glory of what divine Persons are doing at present in this dispensation, and let us move.
That first scripture stands in relation to our help. In chapter 7 in relation to the Priest, He is holy, and He is harmless, and He is undefiled. He is approachable; there is an approachable character in Jesus. Do not be afraid, dear young believer. He is harmless, and He is undefiled. We touch things; we see things; we go to things which defile us. There is no defilement in this blessed Man. He will hold you in relation to the purpose of God, and He will sustain you in relation to the purpose of God. He will hold your heart. He is unique and beyond compare. Not only does He help us in our trials, He will help us as feeling for us in the trials through which we pass. He has gone into the holy of holies. Somebody said, I read, and it affected me, that you do not go into the holy of holies to speak - you go into the holy of holies to listen. I thought that was very interesting. You go into the holy of holies to listen, and you come out to bear praise in the assembly. It affected my heart to think of that. You can go into the very presence of God and you can see things as God sees them; there is no variableness here. There is nothing to distract here. We go in with a pure heart. We must go in with right feeling; we must go in with right desire, and go in to listen. I wonder, I say again to my own self, do I go into the presence of God? In the past dispensation the high priest went in once a year for his own sins and the sins of the people, but we can go in at any time. What a blessed matter that is. This blessed Man has gone in once; He has established an eternal redemption. We can go in at any time, and as we can go in, we can listen. It says of Asaph in the psalm, he went into the sanctuary, and there he understood, Ps 73: 17. Maybe you do not understand; maybe I do not understand; there are many things we do not understand why. Go into the presence of God and sit and listen, and He will give you direction. He will give you help. He will let you see the glory of the relationships that are established there. I think you come out and you answer in the assembly. What a blessed matter that is. May every heart here be encouraged by that, to see that we go into the presence of God, the very presence of God Himself where we can sit and we can listen.
And we can come out - I think you come out a worshipper, and you come out with some substance in your soul. There is something added of character, there is something added of colour, something added in vibrancy to the service of God, by those who have gone in, and sat at the feet of God, speaking reverently - sat and listened to what God has to say. There are many elderly ones here today, and you can see and you can tell those who have been there far more than I have ever been, but I get some touch in my soul that there is something to sustain the believer today as we see things as God sees them. And we come out and the answer is in the assembly, to God.
Well, may we be encouraged. May our hearts be thrilled to see that this blessed Man has made a way in for us. How wonderful a matter it is that we can approach, through “the new and living way”. We can approach through that, “in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water”. We need to be right, in accord with the divine presence; it is a holy presence. We need to wash, need to be sprinkled, need to be clear in our conscience of everything else. We need to go, I say again, and sit and listen. I think if you listen, and you are in dependence, and you are feeling your need, and you are pure in your thoughts and in your motives, God will answer you; and if God answers, I think there will be something in your heart that will be wrought for the glory of God. That is the priestly side of the grace of Jesus; if He is a priest, it is due to each one of us that we should be likewise.
That is why I read in John 13; not only is He a Priest and carries us right into the presence of God, but He shows us the manner in which we can take up priesthood and how we should care for one another. This is something that we should do more often, and especially in the days in which we live. The enemy is attacking the saints, and he is attacking relations with one another. I believe this is a matter which will help. Am I low enough, or am I too great to go low and to wash the feet of the saints? The Lord was showing this matter by example. Wonderful matter, that this blessed Man - who He is in the greatness and glory of His Person! - was prepared to lay aside His garment, and to put on a linen cloth. He was prepared to lay His glory aside, and here He was prepared to wash the feet of His disciples, as He had walked through a defiling scene, where He had been rejected. We are in an environment in the meeting where He is loved and adored, but as we go out of that door, and as we go to work, or wherever we go, that Name is rejected; it is counted as worthless - the world’s system places no value on that Name. How wonderful that was then, when this blessed Man was prepared to stoop down. He is prepared to show, by the way of example, how we ought to wash one another’s feet. I say for myself, we need something of the character of a priest who would take this matter on, that would go and wash another’s feet. Am I prepared to go down? Am I prepared to go down so that I can wash, and bring someone back? Bring back someone into the area where they can be responsive in the praise and worship to God, and to the Lord Jesus Himself. The Lord Jesus will always show us how we should do things. That is another wonderful trait of this blessed Man. As a Priest, He will show us the way in which things are done. I sometimes go and do a matter, I jump in, I barge in, I maybe do things which upset someone. The Lord will never do anything that will upset a soul. Are we prepared to go down? Am I prepared to go down? Am I prepared to wash? The enemy is seeking to bring in anything that will spoil things for God. He is seeking to bring in things that will distract you, and take you away from the wonderful matters of Christianity and from the service of God. It is a wonderful matter to be a priest therefore - to seek to have these exercises, that I care for God’s people as He does. As we take the hand of Jesus, as priests, we will learn how He cares for His people, and we will care for them as He cares for them. This is my simple desire, and my impression, dear brethren.
I just close, reading from Romans 8: 35-39. This is a wonderful portion of scripture. It says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Well, I think this would encourage every heart that, wherever you go as you go out through the door, when you go to your work on Monday morning, take courage from this, that you can triumph over the world, and triumph over the enemy, as knowing that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ - tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or sword. We do not have some of these things in this country nowadays, but there are those who were prepared to be persecuted for the name of Jesus. How great, or how strong is my love for the Saviour? He will sustain you through every exigency, everything that you pass through, but not only that: “we more than conquer through him that has loved us”. There is a triumph for God, I believe, in a saint who overcomes, who walks through this world as cast out. You might be rejected; you might find there is no place for you at school when you confess the Lord’s name, but you triumph over the world. There is recompense for you because the Priest will sustain you. He will give you the grace to move through this scene until the Lord Jesus shall come. Let us be encouraged.
Let us look up, and see things that are being sustained in heaven. There is no breakdown there, no failure in heaven. There is no failure in God’s thoughts. The failure lies with me; the failure lies with those who have to hold these things - and that is myself, but there is no failure with Christ. Let us hold on to these wonderful and glorious matters. Let us hold on to the Man who will sustain us all the way through and let us go into the presence of God, to find and to listen to what He has to say.
May the Lord bless the word, for His Name’s sake.
Grangemouth
11th November 2017