Our New Testament lesson is taken from the book of Hebrews, the 4th chapter verses 12 through 16. For the word of God is living an active, sharper than any two-edge sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of moral, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Yet, without sin, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The word of the Lord. So you can see from the overhead the verses that passages that I'll be speaking from this morning, they kind of all flow or at least are connected in my mind from 1 Samuel 2, 35. And I'll read that to you again. God is speaking through a prophet and he says, and die, that's God will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure house and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. My burden, my goal, my desire this morning is to help you fill, have a sense of wonder and amazement at what is in God's heart and mind. That's what I want to do. So the proposition I suppose is let your heart be filled with wonder and amazement of what is in God's heart and mind. If your heart is going to be filled with wonder and amazement at what's in the heart of God and the mind of God, then you'll have to indeed not quench the Holy Spirit but as David has just prayed for you to be open to the Spirit's gaze, let the word of God as it's preached find its mark in your heart and let's together just have a time where we are filled with amazement and wonder at what is in the heart and mind of God. This verse, this promise of God that he would raise up for himself a faithful priest who would do all that is in his heart and mind and promises to build him a sure house and that this priest would go in and out before the anointed had a historical context. It's found in 1 Samuel chapter 2, that right there, if you know your Bibles, Samuel was the, we call him the first of the prophets in the school of the prophets and such. He's the guy who leads us from the time of the judges into the time of the kings and your historical understanding of what's going on in the Old Testament. And before Samuel's just a little boy barely alive, this prophecy takes place and it's to a man named Eli who's a priest he has two sons, Hothnian Phineas. And Hothnian Phineas are scoundrels. The law talks about when you offer sacrifice what portion belongs to the priest but what they did was they had this three pronged fork and they put it into the cauldron and they pulled out whatever came out and that was theirs. And if anyone contradicted that or said, hey, what are you doing? They said shut up or we'll take it by force. They would take the food that still had the fat and such on it, not trimmed off, not burned off. And the law had prescribed that the fat belongs to God. No one was to eat that but God or to have that I should say but God. And the text tells us, well they ate the fat. They wouldn't take no for an answer. They required it. And if profaning the sacrifices of God was not enough, they took advantage of the women who would minister at the house of the Lord as well and they were known for their immorality. And so, verse 17 of Samuel 2 tells us, thus the sins of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord for the men treated the offering of the Lord with content. Now the immediate fulfillment, if you will, of this prophecy of our Lord probably took place in the time of both King David and his son Solomon. And King David's time, there is a faithful priest named Zadok who served faithfully and also in Solomon's time, Abathar. So there's probably that kind of almost not quite immediate fulfillment but it follows that idea of what's going on in first-second sandals as we move or as history moves from the time of the judges to the time of the kings. But I'm convinced this verse also speaks to us about our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not going to look at the historical setting this morning. We're going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ in his fulfilling all that is in God's heart and mind. But as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ, probably the easiest way to show that is to read the book of Hebrews. And because we don't have the time to read the book of Hebrews and for me to preach, I'll just read you a little segment from chapter 3. It tells us in Hebrews 3, therefore, holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling, consider Jesus the Apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him just as Moses was faithful in all God's household. So there we have the New Testament saying that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment as far as being the priest, the great priest, the great high priest. And Hebrews will talk about, he's of the order of Melchizedek, not of the sons of Levi and such, but he's a great high priest. It should be noted, he's faithful just like God said, I will raise up a faithful priest. He's over the house of God. God said something if you remember in that verse about causing his house to dwell forever and listen to what it says about this one whom God has appointed. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For even a house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son whose house we are and it goes on. And it makes me think of our Lord Jesus and upon this rock, I will build my church. We are the church. We are the house. We are the people of God and God has indeed built Jesus a house that will endure forever. The fact that he is the anointed, he is prophet, priest, and king. For those of you who do the catechism, when we speak of Jesus, we ask, who is the Redeemer of God's elect? And the catechism tells us, the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ and tells us some more about him. And then it tells us as our Redeemer, he serves as prophet, priest, and king. We are looking at that priestly aspect today. And so I want to focus our attention on the fulfillment of that section that says that this high priest shall do what is in my heart and in my mind. It is in God's heart and mind for his priest to do a couple things. We'll look at the two primary things of priest does. The first one is this to make a tonement for the sins of the people. For a priest to do what is on the heart of God, he must make a tonement for the sins of the people. Again, if we were to look back at the law of Moses, the law of Moses is commonly determined for the first five books of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy, sorry, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the law that pertains to the priest, those laws are found mostly in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. And altogether, the words in the Old Testament make a tonement or found 70 times. And 61 of those times, it's in the law of Moses and Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. And it's because that's where we learn about the work of the priest, the priestess to make a tonement for his people. Now that Jesus is the one who did that is, again, from Hebrews, very clear, in 217 we are told, therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful, there's that word again, faithful, high priest in service of God to make propitiation for the sins of this people. Now this is where the wonder comes in, the wonder of what God is in God's heart. If you remember any teaching about God, you know one thing for sure about him, he's holy. In fact, if we think about the verses that talk about his holy, there's some that speak about him being holy, holy, holy, to give emphasis to the fact that that is an aspect of God's nature and being that is incredibly important. And as a holy God, he is incredibly zealous for the holiness of his name and passionate that he be treated as holy, so much so that his anger and wrath are fully stirred up when his name is profaned, when God himself is treated as unholy. And he has promised to show that wrath and anger, and it's done so in the world before, in the flood, in Sodom and Gomorrah. We've seen pictures of what God's holy anger and wrath towards sin looks like. And so the wonder and amazement is this God who created all things with infinite power in might, who speaks in the world and the stars and the solar systems and the galaxies come into being and there's billions and billions and billions of light years of galaxies. This God who is so holy, it's in his heart to make a tumult for yourself. Let me too, me too. That's wonderful. This God who created all things, who dwells in light, who is a most pure spirit, desires that our sins be atoned for, that we can be with him. Well, look at that along the way, that we who were originally made in his image might again reflect the truth about God. Wonder, amazement, marvel that God, it would be in his heart to deal with his anger and wrath in atonement, to cover the sins, to make propitiation, to satisfy his anger and wrath. By punishing it fully on the sacrifice. And as you know, our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself up once. We'll look at that more and more as we go along the way. Here's just another verse from a couple verses from Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11 and 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say of this creation. And not through the blood of bulls and goats, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption. Little creatures of space and time. And God takes note. And it's in his heart to make atonement for his people, that is priest, make atonement for his people. That's one aspect of the work of God that is great and we could spend an awful lot of time looking at that. In fact, we could just do a series on that one aspect. But I want us to move on this morning. There's another aspect of what is in the heart and mind of God for the priest to do. And that is to purify a people for God, to purify a people for God. Let's consider from the passage that was read in the Advent reading from Malachi chapter 3, it said, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me, by the way my messenger is John the Baptist, who comes, fulfills that passage. And the text goes on, and the Lord atonai, whom you seek, Lord atonai is the Hebrew and it means Lord master is the great one, the sovereign, that kind of thing. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, so this atonai, this Lord is the one who owns the temple, it's the Lord God, it's the Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. So here comes the Messiah, and then maybe your mind goes immediately to handles Messiah, but who can endure the day of his coming, I love that text in song, who can endure the day of his coming. And who can stand when he appears, where he is like a refiner's fire, and like a fuller's sow, he will sit as a refiner and purifier a silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, the priests. And refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord, and then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in the former days, maybe during the days of Zaduk, the priests who served for David or Abathar, the priests who served for Solomon when there was a faithfulness because you see the job of the priest is not merely to serve at a temple or tabernacle, or the place of the Lord. And to offer the sacrifices of people as though he is a robot or something, but he is to be the representative of the people of God before the face of God, and he has to care about the people. If he is going to have the heart and mind of the Lord, he must love the people, and loving the people, it is not enough for them to offer whatever they want, the priest himself must care about their purity, their holiness, their godliness. By the way, if you read the book of Malachi, you will see that God gets after the priests majorly in chapters 1 and 2, and he tells them the reason they are in so much trouble is they are allowing people to bring worthless sacrifices, lame animals, they have no respect for the honor and glory of God, and the priests allow that. And yet it is the priest job to care about it so that after the prophet Malachi kind of lays out the priest, he says, so that you will know that I have sent this command that my covenant with Levi May Stan says the Lord, my covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear and he feared me and stood of awe in my name. Here it is, true instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips, he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of priests should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth where he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. You see the work of the prophet? It is pretty clear isn't it? True instruction is to be on his lips, he is to lead people to Christ, he is to show them the glory of God Almighty. I would think of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you get any greater fulfillment than the God, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity being born of a virgin and made like us in every respect with all the flesh and blood and humanity and being tempted in every way we are? Yet without sin? There you have to read the gospels to see his glory and majesty and how he taught the people and called them to reverence God and to see him and to turn to him and be saved. Oh yes, Jesus is indeed the great high priest who purifies the people for himself. I think of a prayer that Jesus offered. It is often called, I think by others not just me, I certainly often call it this, the great high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus. Do you know what I am referring to? John 17. Listen to how your Lord, your priest, prays for you. The one who started his prayer, well, I am sorry, I would just go on forever if I start with John in all the places where he shows his glory that he is, the creator of the universe, the I am the one who was God, who was God with Abraham and such. But this is how he prays for you, starting at verse 13 of John 17. But now I am coming to you, he is talking to the father and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy in themselves. That is a very important thing. Jesus is our great high priest, it is not to make us, I don't know, maybe a little bit of puddle glum is okay, but there should be a spirit of joy, of gladness in the people of God. And following him and trusting him as our great high priest does not lead us into a joylessness, it brings us into a joyful place. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I cannot ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. This is how he prays for you. Listen, sanctify them in the truth, sanctify, make holy, purify, make them to be conformed to the glory of your holy image. sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in the truth. I do not ask for these only, for the 11, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, for you and for me, he prays that they may be one just as you father or in me and I and you that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Listen to this, this is verse 24. Father, I desire also, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am. That's the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest who shares the heart of the Father. That's where things are going. I desire that they be with me where I am in peace and holiness and in perfect communion and union with each other and with the Lord to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Let your heart drink this in, that God has raised up a prophet, excuse me, a priest to do all that is in God's heart and that it is in God's heart to make atonement for your sin and to purify you to be a people for him that you may be where he is. That's just very beautiful because Jesus is our great high priest and because he does have the heart of God and is doing this, we can expect certain things. Look at the things we can expect God to do, number one, therefore I should expect Jesus to move me to treat God as holy. Again, I think of Malachi and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old. So he's talking about how the people of God will treat him as holy or bring holy offerings which was the context really in Malachi's day. Again, let me just refer to the law for a second. The word holy, it's used more in the book of Leviticus than any other book in the Bible. It's used there 76 times. If you again take Exodus, Leviticus and numbers, it's huge. It's significantly more than anywhere else. If you take the word priest, it's used 154 times in the book of Leviticus. The idea being that a priest job is to treat God as holy and to make these sacrifices and such. And that their work in our lives, that the work of Jesus in our lives to make us want to treat God as holy. I'll choose two verses from Leviticus or two passages. Leviticus 11, 44 and 45, for I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, that word consecrate means set yourself apart for God. It's totally related to the idea of holiness. Consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves on it goes for I the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy. One other place, Leviticus 19, 1 and 2 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God and Holy. And there's a lot more. And I could go back to Jesus's great high priestly prayer where he calls, ask God to sanctify us in the truth. In fact, they just kind of stop there and say, you should expect that Jesus will sanctify you in the truth as you go to the truth. And he finishes that that that what for us verse sanctify them in the truth. You know how it goes, dire your word is truth. We we we come to God through word and prayer primarily, even in our worship service we gather together here to do hopefully what we do on our own during the week. That is to come before God by faith in word and prayer. We sing some too, but it's usually even in our singing word and prayer response to God someone. You should expect Jesus to be changing your heart to be purifying you as you come to God through word and prayer. That needs to be the motive to coming to the Bible by the way. Don't read the Bible so you can read through the Bible in a year. I'm not opposed to it. Don't read the Bible so you can do something religious. Go to God through reading the Bible. All right, I'll move on move on to the next part. By the way, just one more thing before I do move on. After the Malachi, do you know what he says after the people bring sacrifices in righteousness? He says, then I will draw near to you for judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and so on and he talks about judgment. And I just want to go back to this sense of wonder and amazement and offer a second and say the God of the universe who created all things who holds all things in his hands, who is zealous for his holiness like nothing else. Who has in his heart that the high priest make a ton for your sins and to purify you. Yes, indeed. This God when he has finished his work and the lives of all his children will bring judgment. That's what he's going to do so it is totally in our vast interest to come to Jesus. And to let him be our high priest and we should look for the work of Christ in our lives this way is he moving in my life to where I want to treat God as holy. Just one example of how you can do that. How do you use his name? Do you say, oh my God, without meaning it? Isn't that a breaking of you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless. Who takes his name in vain. What about the things of God? Do you treat them as holy? Do you? I'll stop. We'll never get done if I don't. You should be looking for Jesus to move in your life to how low God's name. That's what he does. Jesus also will deal with the thoughts and intentions of my heart. And that's from the Hebrews passage. And that's this great interplay between the word of God and Jesus. The word of God is living and active makes me think of John one right in the beginning was the word was with God and the word was God verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirits of joint and moral and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It has to be that way. By the way, it goes on to speak of Jesus after it talks about the fact that we're naked and exposed before him. And since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, and it goes on to call us to cling to him. So we go to the word of God and what does it do? It exposes us. There we are all of a sudden. We're naked and exposed before the eyes of God. And it's like, this takes faith. Right here, it's written outward. Thank you. You know why? Because you're naked and exposed before God. His eyes see it all. And our Lord Jesus Christ knows all about it. If there's anyone who's deceived about how sinful you are, it's you. And me, he's not deceived. And our great high priest will take us there to purify. And that takes faith because it's very uncomfortable to go there. Think about Jesus as our prophet, priest and king, right? On Palm Sunday. He comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, right? And that fulfilled all sorts of prophecies. That's the way a king would come in and they saw it. They got it. Hail, you know, to King Jesus. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord to David and Hosanna and all this. They see that king aspect. And he goes into his temple. It's something. It's not like he's transmortified from king to prophet or priest or something. He's all three at the same time. But he goes into the priest and into the temple and as a priest he cleanses it. Saying, you have turned my father's house into a denathese. It's unsettling. As a prophet, by the way, he starts to call woe to the scribes of Pharisees, hypocrites and those who obscure how to get to Jesus, how to worship God. But as a priest, as he cleanses the temple, as he, as he unsettles things, he will do that in your life. Let me ask, what's going on in your life? How is he unsettling you? Where's the broken relationship, the uncomfortable situation, maybe his joblessness or are you ready to get cut from your job or whatever it is? What's the unsettling thing? God's involved in that. Once to purify you through that, where our faith has proven and trusted, right? As we respond to our great high priest who shakes things up in our lives. He will help you to deal with the thoughts and the intentions of your heart. We often get stuck in saying, I've got to do a better job of controlling my anger. I've got to stop looking at pornography. I've got to treat my wife, my husband nicer. I've got to quit yelling at the kids. I've got to work harder at my job. I've got to do all this stuff that's external. And your great high priest says, that's an intention of the heart. Let's start there. You know why, don't you? It has to be that way. You can't be good on the outside, if you're not good on the inside. I think our great high priest said something about this, that from the heart flows, what comes out of the mouth and what we do. This Lord Jesus who purifies the people for himself is our priest. It makes us want to treat God as holy. He deals with the thoughts and intentions of our heart. And he also calls us to live sacrificially for God and to others. And I want to close. So I'm not going to read again Malachi and tie it to there. I just am going to close with a verse from Titus and we'll move to the Lord's Supper. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem us from all lawlessness, as the work He's doing in us, isn't it? And to purify for Himself, there it is. To purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. You can expect Jesus to move you on the outside as He moves you from the inside. Let me just give some simple application points. We're all in different places. I realize that. If you hear this and you say, you know, I've not thought much about what it means to be zealous for treating God as holy. I've never thought about honoring Him as holy in the way that He deserves. Let me suggest you start by just praying that. Lord, help me to see you as you really are and help me to watch your holiness. That's what you got to do to pray the Lord's prayer, isn't it? Because it starts off, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Just start there. Maybe you're further along in your faith and you do take time to reflect on the majesty and grandeur of God and that He fills heaven and earth that He's majestic and holiest and most pure spirit and you fill your mind with that. Then all the more you can pray for yourself, God make me to be zealous with the same zeal so that I am as passionate for the holiness of your name as you are and as concerned that I have the heart that you have regarding making a tonement and purity and other people. Give me a heart to seek you myself and to know how to encourage and stimulate others to love and good deed. Another application is, Lord, I'm exposed before you, cause your word to search me and to reveal to me the truth that needs to be repented of. And just every time you go to the Bible, say, Lord, I'm open before you, please show me my sin. I trust that Jesus died for it all and I'll confess it to you. I just need your help or I won't change. He'll deal with your heart. He'll deal with your heart. And as God is already dealing with the hearts of many of you, I'm sure. Just consider how you can stimulate others to love and good deed. What, how would you show the love of Christ today? Especially as families gather. And we all know, it's how amazing how we fit into the little ruts, you know, moms like this, that's like this, first born like this, second born like this, the very well-adjusted middle child, thank you very much. You live sacrificially for your glory and the way I love my family members this week. Let me ask you, do you know that? Do you know God? Very easy to know about Him, especially if He kind of church. You know about the things with God. But He knows. You know His Son, He is His Christ. You know God sent Him to die with His sins of all who will turn to Him. Have You turned to Him and He trusted Jesus so that forgiveness will send Him back inside of you to God? Because if you've trusted Him for the forgiveness of sins, but not reconciliation with God, I don't think you can do that. That's not why God sent Him. You have to want to be reconciled to God. You come to Christ to be reconciled to God. He said at the beginning of the call of worship this morning, constantly, all of you who are weird and have been like, I'll give you that. Take my gift and learn from me that it's faithful and true.