Our Great Savior, Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-5:3

l. A little boy stood outside of a grocery store and looked at the wonderfully red delicious apples. The wind sifted his blonde hair back and forth over his face occasionally dipping into an eyes making it water a little. The little boy looked at the apple and then he looked at the store window. He looked up the street and then back at an apple. In side the big kindly grocery man looked at the little boy outside.
He noticed the little boy rubbing one of the shiny apples and after a little while he went outside and said, “Young man, are you trying to swipe one of my apples?”   “No sir,” said the little boy, I am trying not to."

Temptation to sin comes to all of us. It is no crime to have temptation but it is sin to fall to the temptation. The Bible is full of illustrations of people being tempted. It is
full of men like Joseph who were tempted to sin but did not yield.

2. The receivers of this letter were men and woman who were tempted greatly to sin. The persecution led them to think about giving up the Christian life completely. The
immorality of the country in which they lived was a constant source of temptation. To counteract this temptation the writer of the book of Hebrews compares the Lord Jesus to the High priest in the O.T.  The High Priest  of the O.T. gathered all the people together once a year and made an atonement for their sins.  He was a high priest, yet a man and he also made a sacrifice for his own sins. He could  sympathize with his brethren but because of his own sin, he could not help them. The writer tells them that the Son of God took upon himself flesh like his brethren that he might know their infirmities and temptations but he endures his without sin. Therefore
he is able to help those that come to him.

3. There is a lovely story of a great and wise ruler who lived long ago in Persia. He was the wise and beloved Shah Abbis. He loved his people as a wise ruler should and to know his people better he sometimes mingled with them in disguise. Once he went as a poor man to the public baths and sat in the cellar with the man who tended the furnace; sharing his coarse food and befriending him in his loneliness. He repeated the visits, and the man became attached to him. At last the Shah told the furnace keeper that he was the emperor and waited for the man to ask some gift from him. Instead, however, the man looked at his ruler with wonder and love, and then said: “You left your palace and your beautiful home to sit with me in this dark place, to eat my coarse food, and to care whether my heart is glad or sad. On others you may bestow rich gifts, but to me you have given yourself. I only pray you never to withdraw the gift of your friendship."

The Lord Jesus had done that for us. He has given us his friendship as Lord and Saviour and he is near to help us in the time of temptation and sin.

He is a Sympathetic Saviour (High Priest), 2:17
l. In a day of growing mental illnesses, there is arising a profession called psychiatrist. He is a person who is trained to work with the disorders of the mind. A psychiatrist is a person who asks you a lot of expensive questions that your wife asks for nothing. Among other things he does is to listen to people's troubles. Often when people unburden themselves, they were greatly relieved. You have had times of trial when you have wanted to talk things over with somebody. It is good for the soul. In the area of temptation and sin we have the same result.

We have Jesus who is a sympathetic person who knows our  weaknesses. He knows the temptations that are ours because he had been tempted in the same manner. He is grieved when we sin, but he is sympathetic and compassionate.

2. Our  Lord deals with us as A father deal with us as sons. When we fall into sin, because he is our Father he sympathically chastens us. This is illustrated so well by McGinley the Scottish preacher. He was preaching one day on Christians fighting sin and being zealous for Christ. But he said sometimes we go about this task in the wrong way. But I’d rather get in a little fight once in a while standing up for Christ the wrong way than not stand up at all. He said, "I used to get into a fight once in a while when I was a boy. It seems to be natural with me. My father said to me one day, "Listen, the next time you come home with your face cut and your nose bleeding and your kilts in rags, I'm going to give you a licking you’ll never forget." For a few weeks I heeded his warning. Then one day I came home with my eye black, my nostrils stuffed with mud (we found that was good for a bloody nose); the pins that held my kilt were gone  so I had it held together with thorns. I was a mess.
My father looked at me and said, ”You’ve been fighting again I said, "Yes," "Didn't I tell you that you’d get it next time you were in a fight? I said, Yes; He said,  “You go to your room.” And I went in the room. Now kilts may be very picturesque on parade, but under the circumstance such as I'm describing, they are none too comfortable. He put me over his lap and, he lifted his belt above his head. But just before the belt came down he said to me, "What were you fighting about?
“During recess Duncan McCallum said that his pater was a better man than you. Since you weren't there to disprove it, I thought I would show him that you had reared a better boy than his father had, and I let him have it."
After this could my father lick me? I could feel him relax. My eyes were black, my face was cut, my nostrils stuffed with mud, my kilt all torn. I was fighting for the honor and glory of my father's name. He could hardly lick me.

When temptation comes let us battle with all we are worth for we are holding a name that we must defend. Let us remember that though we are scared and bruised when we have fought the fight against sin and against Satan we have a sympathetic Saviour who has made it possible for us to stand against even the whole world.

II. A Faithful (High Priest) Saviour
1. The Lord Jesus is a faithful Saviour and High priest in things pertaining to God. You all have had experiences with people who were unfaithful. There is nothing like the man you hire to help you in the busy season and he shows up at the middle of the morning for no reason at all. There is nothing like electing somebody to office and they  seldom show up for meetings. There are the unfaithful  ones  who get their
names on the church roll but who never show up at church. There are faithful members though. There are the kind of people who are faithful neighbors who are always there to help in adversity. There are church members who are always at their
place in church. Faithfulness is a quality that we like. Faithfulness is a trait we want in ourselves. Faithfulness is a virtue of the Bible. It is required of a man that he be found faithful.

2. Our Lord Jesus is described as a Saviour and High Priest. There is always forgiveness when we seek it humbly. There is always strength when we ask for it. There is also his faithfulness that we don't give credit for. There is care that he gives us when we are least aware of it. There is his faithfulness in the dark nights of our soul.. Such an example comes from the life of Peter Marshall. In his native Scotland,
Peter Marshall was walking back from a nearby village to Bamburgh. Thinking he would take a short cut he struck out across the moors or the waste land. He knew that there was a deep deserted limestone quarry close by the road but he thought he could avoid that danger spot. The night was inky black, eerie. There was only the sound of the wind thru the heather stained moorland, the noisy clamor of wild muir flowl as his footstep distrubed them, and  occasional far off were the bleating of sheep. Suddenly, he heard someone cell, "Peter.." There was great urgency in the voice. He stopped. "Yes, who is it? What do you want?" For a second he listened, but there was no response, only the sound of the wind. The moor seemed completely deserted. Thinking he must have been mistaken, he walked a few paces. When he heard it again, even more urgently: "Peter!..." He stopped dead, still trying to peer into that impenetrable darkness, but suddenly stumbled and fell to his knees. Putting out his hand to catch himself, he found nothing there. As he cautiously investigated, feeling around in a semicircle, he found himself to be on the very brink of an abandoned stone quarry. Just one more step would have sent him plummeting into space to certain death. This incident made an unforgettable impression on Peter. There was never any doubt in his mind about the source of That Voice. (Peter Marshall. (p14)

3. You may never have that literal experience but you will have experiences of being on the brink of sin and ready to plunge into the rocky pit of sin and the voice of the
Lord will be there to help you. His faithful voice will call out to you and keep you from falling. His hand will be there to help you. He cannot deny himself for he is faithful to his followers.

III.   Jesus is an approachable Saviour (High Priest) 4:14-16

1.  I like to think of Jesus as being approachable by me. The scripture says, “ Let us come  boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need.”' There is no chain of intermediaries thru which we have to go to obtain help. The Bible scoffs at the idea of angels or saints as mediators between man and Christ. Let us go boldly unto Him. Let us come to him directly.
Some people are not approachable. Young people will not talk over the problems of life that confront them because their parents are not approachable. Even our great leaders that can help in social  and economic conditions are not approachable because of their business. The best doctor in the country is not approachable immediately because of the number of patients that are looking to him for health. Great teachers are only able to have too many students because of their
limitations.    Abraham Lincoln was one of the most sympathetic and approachable presidents there ever was. Lincoln tried to help everyone that came to him but that was only a few thousand out of so many millions.
But the word here is-- Let us come boldly. What a treasure we have as Christian in our nearness to the Lord. He is approachable in the time of need.

2. T. De Witt Talmage tells a story of a young man who lived back in his day. During the Civil War days Talmage was at his height. The young man he knew of was the son of a lawyer. The boy stood at the bar of a court of justice to be sentenced
for forgery. The judge had known him from his childhood, for his father had been a famous legal expert and his work on the Law of Trusts was the most exhaustive  work on the subject in existence.
"Do you remember your father." asked the judge sternly, "that father whom you have disgraced?" The prisoner answered, "I remember him perfectly. when I went to him for advice or companionship, he would look up from his book on the "The
Law of Trusts," and say, "Run away, boy, I am busy. My father finished his book, and here I am.'

The Lord Jesus said, he that comes to me I will in no wise cast. out.... There is counsel and companionship with him. When temptation runs high and resistance is low, let us go to him that we might find mercy and grace to help in the time of need.

Concl.:

1. Jesus is a wonderful person. What a sympathetic and wonderful person he is. He is faithful. And we can go to him in the time of need. Temptation is an awful thing
But to sin is far worse. To give ourselves to the arms of sin is sin. There are two plans whereby men may resist temptation. The one has been called "The plan of resistance;" the other "the plan of counter-attraction." Both are illustrated from
two stories from Greek mythology. The first finds illustration in the story of the Greeks, who must sail by the Island of the Sirens as they returned from Troy. The Sirens were part bird and part woman and were creatures that sang seductive
songs. Bewitching strains of music came to the Greeks as they neared the island, so that they were seized with the desire to throw themselves into the sea and swim to the sirens. But this would have meant their certain and speedy death, and for this
alone the treacherous sirens sang their enchanting songs. But the leader made the Greeks to fill their ears with wax and had himself bound thoroughly to the boat so that when they passed the shore where the sirens dwelled, and they should begin their strains of entrancing music, the men with stopped ears could not hear, and the leader, though he should wish to go, would be bound hand and foot so that he could not; and thus they made the journey home safely. This is the method of resistance
but is not the best.

The other story illustrated the other method, the method of counter-attraction. It is the story of the Argonauts, who sailed with Jason in search of the golden fleece, and they also had to round that same southern shore of Italy, where sang the sirens. They took on board with them Orpheus, whose music entranced the very beast of the forests, and made even that trees to wave before him in homage. And now as they came where the sirens dwell, and as the sirens begin to play the soft music, Orpheus strikes the wondrous notes of his lyre, so that all the air vibrates with the sweet melodies, and all the sailors laugh to scorn the sirens and they voyage round the shore in safety.

This is the method where by you and I are to overcome temptation in the experiences of our earthly life. The Bible says, Walk ye in the Spirit , and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Make sure that you have the presence of Jesus
Christ with you and you will never have to worry.

2.  Do you know this Friend?  Are you flirting around with temptation?  Do you know Him  as the main attraction in your life?