In this sermon, Jeff Pollard explores the love of God in Christ's priesthood, as demonstrated through Jesus' crucifixion in the place of a skull. He highlights five horrors of the crucifixion that display God's love, including Jesus being crucified in the place of a skull, humiliated, kept from any help, mocked, and degraded. Pollard emphasizes that Jesus was both the priest and the sacrifice, actively offering himself to turn away God's wrath and reconcile sinners to God. He explains the concepts of propitiation and reconciliation and encourages unbelievers to embrace God's love in Christ and believers to find motivation for repentance and preparation for glory in Christ's priesthood.

Bibles to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, we're going to read just a few verses, but I wanna read them so that you have something of the context. We're only going to look at four words this evening. We're ahead of Hebrews instead of just one word. And we are on, we will do four this evening.

So Matthew chapter 27, we're going to read verses 33 through 38. If you would stand with me, we want to give our attention to this blessed passage. Passage. Brethren, we have before us the precious, precious Word of God. Beginning in verse 33, here are living words.

And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them, and Upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there, and set up over his head his accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word.

My Father in heaven, these are thy eternally loved people. Thou didst fix thy incomprehensible love upon them. For all eternity thou hast loved them with a perfect and infinite love, a love so great, a love so divine, a love so amazing, that thou didst sin thy son to save them. Wouldst thou now come and bless them in that holy thought? Wouldst thou lift up their heart, whatever their condition is?

May they be brought to love and adore the Lord Jesus and we ask it all in his blessed name amen please be seated The glorious attribute of God's love is on display in Golgotha, the place of a skull, a place of darkness, a place of death. Of death. And in Christ's suffering and bloody cross we may see five horrors out of which that astonishing love shines forth. No one but God could do that. Who could take a place of the most horrifying murder in the history of this world.

And bring out of the darkness and the blood and the gore his great and glorious love. First, Jesus was crucified in the place of a skull. Skulls are universally considered as symbols of death. While his father's fury and wrath rained down on Jesus' body and soul, he was the substitute of God's people. There shines the love of God.

Secondly, Jesus was humiliated in the place of the skull. The soldiers took all his clothes and gambled for his undergarment, stripping him of his last human dignity. Believers deserve that humiliation. There shines the love of God. Thirdly, Jesus was kept from any help in the place of a skull.

An execution squad made sure no one delivered him or killed him prematurely to ease his suffering. Christ would die mercilessly. Believers deserve merciless suffering. There shines the love of God. Fourthly, Jesus was mocked in the place of a skull.

King of the Jews was the crime for which Jesus was nailed in agony to the cross. King of the Jews was the title that the Sanhedrin rejected. King of the Jews was the title by which the Roman soldiers mocked our Lord. King of the Jews was Pilate's mockery of the Jews, who had forced his hand to crucify Jesus. Believers deserve that mockery.

There shines God's love. Fifthly and finally, Jesus was degraded in that nightmarish place of a skull. This truly was the King of the Jews. This truly was the Son of God. But he was degraded there.

Men did not love him. The people from which he was born did not love him. The Romans did not love him. His father loved him but gave him to this death because he loved us. What kind of swap is that?

Cut with whips, crowned with thorns, drenched with spittle, swollen with beatings, stripped of his clothes, nailed to a cross, and hung between two thieves. The king was viciously brutalized, viciously. To all that were gathered in that place of the skull, to all that passed in and out of the city, and to all that look on the pages of scripture with an unbelieving heart, the suffering and broken body hanging on the cross did not look like a king. He had no army, No weapons, no horses, no chariots. To many, it just looked like another Messiah counterfeit failing.

But if the Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of your faith, you see God's love in the priestly substitute on the cross. You see, something entirely different that the world does not and cannot see. So let us think carefully about the scene set before us. From it, we will consider just one doctrine, one doctrine only, the priesthood of Christ, and one attribute of God the Father only, his mighty love. All of God's attributes come together and focus on Christ as he hangs on the cross.

But we're just gonna look at one. So the title of this message is God's Love in Christ's Priesthood. May our blessed Heavenly Father, and He is blessed, we should bless Him more, may our blessed loving Heavenly Father look upon us with favor through the work of the Holy Spirit, through the work of His precious Son Jesus Christ. We hear about God's love. Can you touch it?

Can you taste it? Well, can you believe it? There's one way to believe it. That's to believe this text. May he show his favor by the work of His Spirit and by His Son.

And may He feed our hungry souls. I hope you're hungry, at least for Christ. May He feed our hungry souls with his word by the power of the Holy Spirit. So our first major heading is this. In his torture and crucifixion on Golgotha, Jesus was our priest.

In his torture and crucifixion on Golgotha, Jesus was our priest. We often think of him as Lord, we often think of him as Savior, and of course he is. And we say We believe in Him as prophet, priest, and king, but often we do not sit and meditate upon what that means to us. What does it mean for Jesus to be my priest? Generally, in our culture at least, When we say priest, we think of someone dressed in black with a white collar turned around or something of that effect, especially those of us who grew up in Roman Catholic areas.

But they might be priests of Anglican churches or Lutheran churches or others. We're only going to consider four words from this text. And these are they. And they crucified Him. And they crucified Him.

Now here are some of the most solemn, but most beautiful and joyful words in all of Scripture. And I know that goes against our senses. How can, and they crucified him, this most dreadful of deaths, how could that fill us with joy? Because in those four words, you're seeing your priest. You won't get to God without a priest, and this is the one.

Here are some of the most amazing words in all of scripture, but it's easy for us to run over them fairly quickly. Yeah, we know what crucifixion is all about. It's really ugly, it's a terrible thing. Thank you, Jesus, and we move on. Or I have.

Probably no one here is as sinful and fleshy as I am. But I will say to you, we can look at these words of life and not get a spark of life from them. And I hope that we will get more than a spark tonight. I hope that we will. I pray that the Lord will jump start our dying batteries.

So here are some of the most solemn, solemn words that you'll ever hear. But they should fill us with joy unspeakable. When we put them in the context of the entire Bible, one of the things we discover is the priesthood of Christ. There's certainly more in this text than I will talk about tonight. But Even though the word priest is not mentioned in this passage, you couldn't find a more clear string of words that presents Jesus as your priest.

And they crucified Him. So to understand that properly, we must answer this question. What is the biblical concept of a priest? The necessity of a priest, in case you're wondering why do we have to have one, the necessity of a priest arises from the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. Before Adam and Eve fell into sin, they had direct communion with God.

Nothing clouded their relationship. Nothing stood between them. We can't understand that. We're on the other side of the fall. Before Adam and Eve fell into sin, there was beautiful communion with God.

No distraction. But when the pollution and corruption of sin entered human nature by Adam's rebellion, God separated the sinful couple from his presence. Drove them out, the text says. He loved them, created them, and drove them away from him because of sin. He drove out the man says Genesis and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

Sin separated Adam and Eve from God's holy presence and it separates us and keeps us from reaching Him. That is why we need a priest. A priest is a man qualified and authorized to represent sinful people to God. It's very simple. A prophet is one that receives the word of God, receives a word from God, and delivers it to God's people.

He represents God to men. The priest faces the other direction. He represents men to God. Therefore a priest is what we call a go-between, a mediator. We see it in Hebrews chapter five, verse one.

Every high priest taken from among men is ordained, ordained for men in things pertaining to God. In other words, God has put them there. Men cannot make themselves priests. Now, they do all the time, but they can never make themselves God's priests. That only comes from God's appointment.

Unless God appoints you to be a priest, you never will be a priest that will intercede from men to God. So every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God. Without the God-ordained priest, there was no acceptable sacrifice and therefore no acceptable approach to God. In other words, you can't get to God, I can't get to God without a priest. So a priest's primary function is to represent people, and not just people in any sense, but sinners to God.

The Old Testament priests were all types of the Lord Jesus. A type is a symbol, a foreshadowing of something that becomes a reality. The Old Testament priests, all were types of the Lord Jesus. He was taken from among men, he was ordained, he was anointed by God to represent them to God. By the way, that's the amazing grace of God.

We would never get to God apart from the fact that God gave us a priest. In that, we see the love of God. He didn't owe that to us. It was His love to give us a priest. And for that reason, the doctrine of the Incarnation is essential.

It's essential to Christ's saving work as a priest. He had to become a man to represent men. The Lord didn't send an angel. The Lord didn't give us any more creatures. He sent his son.

His He sent his son. His son was the eternal son of God. He had no body until he was united with the flesh, with flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So, if that's what a priest is, how was Jesus our priest at Golgotha? How was he our priest?

We often miss the most vital aspect of Jesus' arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion because we think in terms of what men did to Jesus without considering what Jesus was doing for men. And I'll repeat that. We often miss the most vital aspect of Jesus' arrest, his trial is torture and crucifixion because we think in terms of what men did to Jesus. They beat him, they spat upon him, they nailed him to the cross. It's all true.

They did do that. But very often our thoughts don't carry us past that. It's not wrong to think about that. Don't hear anything overly negative in that. I'm just saying missing part of the picture for part of the picture.

We often do not consider what Jesus was doing for men. He was doing something. I've very often asked people over the years when we get into a discussion about the Lord Jesus, I say, well, What was Jesus doing on the cross? They would say, well, he was dying for our sins. That's good, but he was doing something.

He was doing something in order to purge away our sins. What was he doing? It's not a head game. It's not a word game. We just don't think that he was doing something.

He was just having something done to him. So theologians often speak of, number one, Jesus's active obedience. And by that, they mean the works that Jesus did in his ministry. Obeying his father's law, teaching, miracles, et cetera. It's active.

But there is also, number two, Jesus' passive obedience. Now this is where you need to listen carefully, just for a moment. By that, theologians mean what his enemies did to him. He was passive and they did something to him. Now this is true, it's not wrong, it's just part of the picture.

And this is, it's the other part of the picture that I want to focus on. It's completely true what men did to Jesus. So there is a truth in that twofold division, active obedience and passive obedience, but it can be misleading if not properly explained, which I hope, at least I attempt to do that. The words, and they crucified him, express the Roman soldiers, dreadful violence to Jesus' body. Now that's true.

He was passive. But those words come to us with even greater power when we by the Holy Spirit understand not only what was done to Jesus but what Jesus was doing in those four words. One of the most extraordinary things about our beloved Lord Jesus is that he was both priest and sacrifice. We focus on the sacrifice, often to the exclusion of his priestly work. Again, it's not wrong to focus on his sacrifice if we understand the rest of the picture, It just gets bigger and better.

That's the point. Not criticizing, looking at that sacrifice. Without that sacrifice, we're lost. But how was that sacrifice made? Was it the hands of the Romans that really saved us?

Was it Pilate that really saved us? Was it the Jews that beat and spit upon the Savior? What was Jesus doing? He was doing something. He was the priest and the sacrifice.

He was the offeror and the offering on that cruel cross. As Hebrews declares, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, listen to these two words, offered himself. The Romans didn't offer him. They killed him. But he was offering himself.

The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. What are we being told? It was the fact that Jesus was the priest and the offering by which our consciences are cleansed from all our foul and wicked works, whether they were works of the law that just didn't quite make the grade, or whether they were clear and open violations of God's righteousness. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knocked down the cohort of soldiers and temple guards by the word of his power. John's Gospel says, Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth.

You hear your salvation? Do you hear your salvation in that? Jesus went forth. Knowing all things that were coming, Jesus went forth. This is what Hebrews means when he offered himself.

John's gospel does tell us that he went forward and then said, whom seek ye? He demands that they answer. Who are you looking for? There's a number of reasons that he did that, but one of them was just to make absolutely clear that they got the right man. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus showed who He was.

When they said, whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He. As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground. The Roman soldiers didn't take Jesus.

He offered Himself. This is what this was about. They were not going to take Him and roughly carry Him away. Not at all. Jesus said, all right, I'm the one you're looking for.

Let me just make sure you understand this. He knocks them all down. Now let's go. Are you seeing your salvation in this? The temple guards didn't save us.

Jesus did. Not just because he offered the sacrifice, but because he was the priest who offered the sacrifice. And that's what he's doing right here. The words, all things that should come upon him describe what the Jews and the Romans would do to him. He knew everything they were going to do, and he went forth.

There's your salvation. The priest said, I am gonna go to the altar at the place of the skull and offer the only sacrifice my Father will receive for the sins of His people, Myself." So all things that should come upon Him describe what happened to Him passively. But the words, Jesus went forth, describe Jesus' active presenting of Himself as the sacrifice for His people. Glory to God! Furthermore, Jesus rebuked Peter who tried to protect him with a sword.

What do you think that was about? You are not gonna hold up what I'm gonna do. I came here to make this offering. You're not going to stop that from happening. You think you're doing a good thing.

You're doing the devil's work. Poor Peter stepped into those shoes several times. Jesus rebuked him by saying, Jesus rebuked him by saying, thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels." Jesus refused human force to save him because he intended to offer himself freely. A free and glorious sacrifice. And that is why he gave himself into the hand of the enemies that would do the work.

Jesus had the power to obliterate them, but he went on with them voluntarily as he had done so with the Sanhedrin and as he had done to Pilate and to Herod and to the soldiers of the Praetorium. He did not resist his enemies, nor their brutal mockery, but actively gave himself to them. This is what we all need to grasp. When they beat him, spat upon him, cut him with the whips and did all the things that they did to him, it was the power of the Holy Spirit offering up his body. It was active.

There was never more greater activity than Jesus offering himself to the hands of his enemies. He was offering himself for us. For us? It was prophesied in Isaiah, I gave my back to the smiters. They didn't take it from me.

I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Do your best! And they did. He carried his own cross until he could no longer bear it.

But he still walked to the place of his execution as a lamb to the slaughter." That's the picture. He rejected the stupefying sour wine offered him. They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him." Those words grow in their beauty and their bigness if you think in both of these ways, priest and sacrifice. Jesus was doing something all the way to the cross and he was doing something on the cross.

He was the priest offering himself as the lamb, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, the lamb to the slaughter. But no one was dragging him, no one was forcing him. In other words, Jesus did not merely endure suffering and death passively. He was not merely a victim. He was actively offering himself as the sacrificial lamb.

Certainly he suffered. There was a certain passivity in the fact that the soldiers drove the nails, but Jesus gave himself to it. They may have thought they had a prisoner. He was as free as he could be. By the power of the Spirit, he was actively, intensively giving himself to those violent afflictions.

That's what he was doing. That was prophesied as well in Isaiah 53 12. So let us listen to the words of that inspired passage, that Holy Spirit given passage. He hath poured out his soul. Isn't it easy to read over those and not get that?

He hath poured out his soul unto death. That's what he was doing on the cross. He was pouring himself out to save us. What did Jesus himself say? The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

He gave his life. He declared, the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep. When we start seeing that other side of the picture. The glory and the beauty of Christ shines forth brighter than ever.

It isn't just, oh, poor Jesus, that they were nailing him to the cross. It's true, they did, but he gave himself holy and freely to that. It took the anointing of the Holy Spirit for him to give himself to the wrath of God. And again, Jesus said of his life, no man taketh it from me. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross, what do we see? Jesus the priest offering himself as the sacrifice. That's what you're watching. Paul said, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now how many times have you read that? And we think of, well, Jesus, you know, voluntarily went to the cross. Well, he voluntarily went to the cross, but he was walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, making absolutely clear that no one took his life from him, that he gave his life, not simply in the passive crucifixion, but in offering up himself to it. It is then no exaggeration or reading into the Scriptures to say that he was acting as a priest. Hebrews 2 17 says, In all things it behoved him to be made, behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.

That is, he had to be made like them. He became a man, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. It doesn't say so that he can simply be a merciful and faithful sacrifice, which he was. He was both the high priest offering and the offering that received death. He did this so that he could be the faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 3, one, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus the Son of God. Hebrews 5, 10, He was called of God or designated by God and High Priest. This is not fanciful language. This is exactly what Jesus was doing. It's exactly what He was being, that we might love Him, that we might know Him, that all of our sins might be washed away in His precious blood, and that we might love and rule with Him for eternity.

What a great priest. No earthly priest comes close. Hebrews 7, 27, that beautiful verse presents Jesus, our high priest, who needeth not daily as those high priests, the earthly, the Levitical high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's, for this he did once when he offered up himself. So, when we read the words, and they crucified Him, we must by faith lay hold of two things. One, the Roman execution squad nailing Jesus to the cross, passively.

He didn't fight back. And number two, the great high priest offering himself to the burning wrath of God. And why did he do that? For the sins of his people. That priest saved us.

His crucifixion, his humiliation, his helplessness, his being mocked, his degradation in the place of the skull were all part of his priestly work. And what else do we see in that active priesthood? Listen carefully, God's love in Christ's priesthood. God's love for sinners. Before we leave these thoughts, let us briefly answer the following question.

What did Jesus' active work as our priest accomplish? Of course, The answer is many glorious elements of salvation that magnify the love of God for His people. But we will only consider two, and that's propitiation and reconciliation. What is the meaning of propitiation? It only appears four times in the Authorized version and it's only translated propitiation three of those four times.

So when we view the place of a skull and we consider those words, and they crucified him, why would we introduce another word that's not in the text? Priest isn't in the text, but it is exactly what Christ is doing on the cross. It is exactly what Christ is doing in the text. And so it is with propitiation. What was he doing?

He was propitiating his father. The rest of the Scriptures hold this up. This is not something we read into the text. When we see this, the word propitiation is important because we want to answer the question, What was Jesus doing? He was turning away God's wrath from me and from you.

That's what he was actively doing. A propitiation is an appeasement, a pacifying. In other words, an offering that turns away wrath. This is extraordinary. In volume three of John Owen's An exposition of the epistle to the Hebrews, he gives four elements of a propitiation.

One, an offense. Two, a person offended that needs to be pacified. Three, a person offending to be pardoned. And four, a sacrifice or other means of making an atonement. We've got to have those four things.

Well, we do in Christ our high priest. There's an offense. It's called sin. Number two, the offender is every human being except Christ. Is that so?

It is. Every human being who is the offended, it is the living God, offended by our sin. And the offering that turns away God's wrath is Christ's precious blood. That's what he was doing on the cross, pouring out his blood to save us, to save us now and forever. Paul put it this way, sinners are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.

And if we're listening carefully, there's something very interesting here. What a glorious mystery this is. God, the offended party, The offended party turned away his own wrath by pouring it out entirely upon his Son. The only way and the only reason you and I are saved is because God finished our sin debt to him in the place of the skull, in that wretched place, that stinking, dark, demonic place Jesus Christ purged all our sins. And when we look at the ugliness of that sin, I mean of that scene, with the eyes of faith, we see the most beautiful picture ever.

Christ in my place. Christ the high priest offering up the acceptable sacrifice. Can there be a greater expression of God's love? It's right there in Christ's priesthood. It's in his priesthood.

Christ the high priest is a fountain of love that will never run dry, never. We can't dry it out with our sins. They're finished. Does that make the Christian sin okay? No.

But it should always take us to that place. That's a different message. So, let's consider reconciliation for just a few moments. As John Owen again defines it, quote, Reconciliation is the renewing of friendship. It is the renewing of friendship between parties before at variance.

Both parties being properly said to be reconciled, even both he that offendeth and he that was offended. God and man were set at distance, at enmity and variance, by sin. Man was the party offending, God offended, and the alienation was mutual on either side." This goes hand in hand with propitiation. Why are we reconciled to God? Because of Jesus' propitiation.

He turned away the wrath of God. The remarkable thing is that Jesus turned away the wrath of God and God the Father turned away his own wrath in Christ. What a beautiful picture of the love of God. We would have never thought this up. Here is the love of God magnified in its infinite beauty and soul-saving power.

You can't save yourself, but Jesus Christ saved all his people by offering himself on the cross. Paul by the Holy Spirit puts it this way, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. In God's great love for us, he reconciled us to himself through the blood of Christ, our great High Priest. So with those two thoughts in mind, I would like to make three applications. Number one, I speak first to unbelievers.

For those of you in this room that have not believed on Christ, when unbelievers understand their sinfulness before God, the love of God in Christ provides for forgiveness, the forgiveness of their sins and everlasting life. It's all in what Jesus was doing upon the cross. The five horrors of the place of skull, of a skull, all shout that God loves sinners. Why would you doubt that? How can you hear what He's done?

How can you miss the love of God in Christ's priesthood? Are you a sinner? Do you know God's law condemns you because you have not kept it perfectly? Do you really know that? Do you believe that?

Maybe you've heard it, but if you haven't come to Christ, surely you can't believe that God's judgment is awaiting you. Do you understand that you are already under His judgment? He is your Holy Creator and you're living your life without Him. Do you know that you are dead in trespasses and sins, that you walk according to the course of the world? You want the world.

That's what you want. You want to be cool. You want to be like everybody else, you want to be normal. The only real normal is walking with God. The world has lied to you.

I ask you with all my heart, will you embrace your sin that will surely damn you instead of embracing the love of God in Christ that will save you? Come. Come. Come. He's shown His love as clearly as it can be shown in that dreadful place.

You are on your way to a fire that never shall be quenched. You are on your way to a place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, a place of unspeakable, unrelenting suffering. You have heard of God's love and you are responsible to respond. Come, Come to him, repent of your sins and believe him. Believe that the blood of Christ washes away all sin.

Number two, when believers sin, the love of God in Christ stirs up their repentance. God's law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. It reveals God's righteousness and our sinfulness. It is a blessed rule of life informing us how to walk in the will of God, but it has no power to make us love God whatsoever. It has no power to break sin's death grip on us.

But nothing is more calculated to make believers see the horror of our sin than the place of the skull, where the law takes its full revenge on Christ. The day of judgment for us was right there in that awful place. God's love in Christ's priesthood. Brethren, meditate upon it. There, my brother, there, my sister, you will find love motivating your repentance.

The grace of God, repentance to life, and restoration of fellowship reconciled with God, his anger turned away forever. That's what Christ was doing on the cross. Finally, when believers face death, the love of God in Christ's priesthood prepares them for glory. Do you believe that? It prepares you for glory.

Doesn't it feel good to be loved? Be honest. You like for people to love you. Now you may be very picky. You only want certain people to love you.

That's another sermon too. What about God's love. It's sitting before you. It's plainly in that text, and they crucified Him, your substitute, your priest. The infallible word declares, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Dear brethren, God's word sets before us mighty, immutable, and unfailing love. I don't care who it is, the love of human beings at some point, at some time, will fail you. But never with God, because of our great high priest. Because of our great high priest. Because of our great high priest?

Brethren, God loved us before he created the world. He loved us in the covenant of redemption. He loved us by choosing his eternal son to be our prophet, our priest, and our king. He planned everything infinitely necessary to save and keep us to the end of our journey. Amen.

Our journey. Amen. We sing a beautiful hymn. One of its verses is, Death cannot destroy forever. From our fears, cares, and tears, it will us deliver.

It will close life's mournful story. Make a way that we may enter heavenly glory. That's what Jesus was doing on the cross. He was saving our souls that we might not fear death and that we might enter into glory for all eternity. Can you see, can you hear the love of God in the priesthood of Christ?

Well then let us face death trusting God's love displayed in that blessed priest. The great truths we expect, the great truths expressed in the fact that Jesus was both the active priest and the suffering lamb are so high, so deep, so wide, so glorious, so astounding that we should meditate on them long and hard until that biblical truth of Christ as priest and sacrifice is forever stamped on our souls. That will change your life. So let us forever rest on God's love in Christ's priesthood. Amen.

Thank you, Father, for loving us. Thank you for that great high priest. Thank you for everything He did in His life, everything He did in His sacrifice. We thank Thee that He was passive. We thank Thee that He was active.

We thank Thee that He did everything as our priest to finish our sin debt. Now we bless Thee and praise Thee in the name of Christ. Amen. Please stand with me.