are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have
to do," verse 13, "be either."
And then look at verse 14, "Seeing then that we have a
great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted, like
as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So Jesus Christ is greater than humans.
He's greater than the angels.
He's also greater than all humans because we could pick one
of the greatest humans that there is, Moses, greater than
Moses by a factor of man being greater than the house that man
built.
Also we see that he's greater than us because he was tempted
in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
Moses sinned, I sinned, you sinned, we all sinned.
There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
So Jesus Christ came to this earth and had the opportunity to sin and he had temptations
presented to him that would have given him an opportunity to sin and yet he was without
sin.
So unlike us who are constantly giving in to sin and committing sin, coming short, we're
not perfect.
Jesus is the only one who's perfect.
Even though he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
You don't want to misunderstand the word "tempt" there.
When it says he was tempted, it doesn't mean that he thought to himself like, "Hmm, maybe
I should do this."
That's not what that means because that's a different meaning of the word "tempt," okay?
Because we would sometimes say like, "You know, I was kind of tempted to have a second ice
cream." And we constantly give in, amen? You know? "Can I get a witness?" So, you know,
that's how we would use the word "tempted." Like, "I was tempted" means like, "I thought
about it. I wanted to do it." Obviously, Jesus did not have wicked thoughts or envious thoughts
or he wouldn't be without sin. If Jesus was kind of like, "Meh," you know, then that's
a sin in and of itself when you're kind of just thinking about doing stuff and, you know.
Hey, look, if you lust after an ice cream in your heart, you've committed gluttony already
in your heart. No, I'm just kidding. I'm joking. But anyway, the point, I'm not trying to create
some new doctrine with that, okay? It was a joke. I want some ice cream right now, actually.
Who's going for ice cream afterward? No, I'm just kidding. So when it says he's tempted
in all points, the word "tempt" in the Bible often means to test or to try, and it's from
the same root word as our English word "attempt." You know, if we're going to make an attempt,
it means we're going to try something. So this is sort of like when the Bible says that
God tempted Abraham, it means that God tested him. You know, he put a situation in front
of him where he's being tested, what is he going to do? That was God tempting Abraham.
But then the Bible tells us elsewhere that God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man. So when the Bible says that God does not tempt any man, it means God doesn't
try to entrap man like, "Hey, are you sure you don't want to do this?" Because that's
another meaning of tempt, right? Like when Satan is trying to tempt Jesus, like, "Hey,
why don't you do something stupid?" And Jesus tells him, "Get the hint, Satan. Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God." You know, and basically what we see is that tempt can either
mean, you know, to dangle something in front of somebody, and if I'm tempted it means I'm
thinking about doing it. That's not what we're talking about here with Jesus. Tempt in this
case is being put in a situation where the wrong thing is right in front of you and you
have the opportunity to do wrong, and you say, "No, I'm not going to do wrong. I'm going
to do right." That's what the Bible's saying, and the way that Jesus was tempted is that
he was put in positions where he's hungry, he's thirsty, he's tired. He went through
the entire human experience, and so there are all kinds of opportunities to sin. There
are all kinds of people that would put sin in front of you. I mean, do you really think
that Jesus went through his whole life without seeing something that was wrong? It's impossible
to walk through this world without seeing wrong things. I mean, if Jesus Christ were
alive today in Phoenix, Arizona, you know, he's going to see things that aren't right.
He's going to see maybe an inappropriate billboard, or he's going to see a magazine cover. He's
going to see these things because they're just in front of us. And I guarantee, there's
nothing new under the sun. I'm sure that he saw things that were wrong and saw temptations
or opportunities to sin or things that, you know, the flesh would want to do that are
against God. But Jesus Christ didn't take the second look. Jesus Christ didn't covet
those things or look with lust on those things or think about, "Hey, maybe I will just steal
this thing that doesn't belong to me or something." Although I guarantee you there were situations,
we've all been in situations where something was available to steal, you know, where somebody
just leaves something somewhere and there it is, some expensive item or cash or whatever,
and it's just right there, and it's like, "Hey, I could steal this and get away with
it," right? That's a temptation. It doesn't mean that you're thinking about doing it.
Because I could be in a situation where there's money sitting there and I have an opportunity
to take it and no one's ever going to know, but that doesn't mean that for one second
the thought crosses my mind of actually taking it. But there's an opportunity there. Now,
if you stop and sit and think, "Oh, hmm," you're already sinning at that point 'cause
it's lust and covetousness and whatever. Jesus didn't have those kind of thoughts, but I
guarantee you Jesus was in situations where somebody left some coins laying there or whatever.
You could use your imagination. Obviously, this is just completely made up fiction fantasy,
but you could use your imagination of a situation where somebody overpays Joseph doing carpentry
or whatever, and he could have just skimmed off the top and put some money in, but then
instead he says, "Hey, sir, here's your change," or whatever, instead of just keeping it. So
that's a totally made up story, but you get the idea. We all have stuff like that in our
life where we're tested. Am I going to do the right thing or am I going to do the wrong
thing? Jesus was tested like that, but he was totally without sin, so he did not flinch.
He did not do any of those things. Now, obviously, it's because Jesus is of a superior nature.
It's not that Jesus just tried really hard, you know, and I guarantee you that he struggled
and went through difficult things and hard things, but it's not like I could just try
super hard and never sin, and there are people out there trying to do that. Every time they
have a bad thought, they're flogging themselves and just doing all these meditations and doing
all these austerities and trying to kind of beat their will into submission, but we are
are incorrigible. The old man can't be fixed. That's why every day we gotta put off the
old man and put on the new man. But that's a daily thing. We've gotta die daily. We gotta
crucify the flesh daily. We gotta walk in the spirit daily.