[0:00] We're going to turn now to the letter to the Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. And we can read from verse 22.
[0:26] This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
[0:38] But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
[0:54] And especially the words that we have there in verse 25. Now, over the last few days, we've been focusing on the priesthood of Christ.
[1:08] And the apostle has been bringing before his hearers the superiority of the priesthood of Christ, which is after the order of Melchizedek in comparison to the Levitical priesthood that they were so familiar with.
[1:28] Now, the role of the high priest is to represent the people before God. Similar to the work that an advocate or a lawyer would have.
[1:40] If we committed a serious crime which carries serious consequences, we would surely seek the best lawyer that we could possibly have to defend us.
[1:56] Well, here is the best lawyer that can possibly defend you. And that's the similar kind of work that he does before God as our high priest.
[2:08] Because we've all sinned against God. We've all broken God's laws. Some of us to a greater degree than others. And the consequences of our sins, regardless of what degree of sin we've committed, all deserve the penalty of eternal death.
[2:30] But God in his mercy has appointed a high priest to represent us. He's appointed a lawyer to defend us.
[2:42] And this high priest that he's appointed to represent us is his own son. And he's committed him to take our place because God loves us.
[2:56] And that's why he sent his son into this world. It wasn't that Jesus earned God's love for us. It was God's love that sent his son to us.
[3:08] And yes, he has earned grace whereby God can remain righteous and at the same time show mercy to sinners such as we are.
[3:20] So the first thing that we want to consider from this verse is that it says that he is able. Now the verse begins with the word consequently, which connects it to the verses that are prior to this one.
[3:40] And it gives the reasons why he is able in the verses that precede it. Now, I'm just going to mention one or two reasons because we've been considering this for the last two days.
[3:58] And we've looked at the reasons. But just to refresh our minds as to what makes him able to represent us at God's right hand is that he has undertaken as the head of the covenant that God has made on behalf of sinners such as we are that he would be our guarantor.
[4:24] That's what he says in verse 22. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. A guarantor is a person who's willing to pay the debt if that person is unable to pay the debt for himself.
[4:42] So Jesus has stepped in as the one who is the head of the covenant and he has been willing to pay the debt on our behalf.
[4:55] And secondly, God has promised by taking an oath that his priesthood will never end. He will never stop representing us, in other words.
[5:08] Unlike the Levitical priesthood, it always came to an end because the Levites who were given the office of high priest would come to a point where they would have to die.
[5:25] So that priesthood would end. But here we have a constant high priest who continues forever after the order of Melchizedek to represent his people.
[5:37] And he's well able to represent his people because he put himself in our shoes. He came down, took our nature to himself, and in that nature he was willing to be tempted with all the temptations that we're tempted with.
[5:56] And to confront all the trials that confront us in this life. So he can fully sympathize with everything that we're going through.
[6:07] And that's what we need as we seek to approach God. Somebody that fully understands us. Somebody that can sympathize with us and draw alongside us and guarantee to us.
[6:23] Not only do I sympathize with you by knowing what you're going through because regardless of what your temptation or trial is, I've had a far greater temptation or trial than you're experiencing.
[6:39] And I've become your high priest in order that I might give you the grace to help you to confront this trial or temptation that you're going to.
[6:53] So he's superior, superior, superior to any high priest that ever lived before him because his term and office will never come to an end.
[7:05] He will always remain the same high priest fully understanding all that his people are going through. He is able to meet the needs of his people because as I said he's been in the place that they're in.
[7:23] and he presented a perfect sacrifice on their behalf as a result of their failure to resist the temptations that brought them into sin.
[7:40] He was willing to pay the debt that we owe to God because we can't pay it for ourselves because the penalty is eternal death and he was willing to experience that death.
[7:56] That death contains the pains of hell. He was encompassed by the powers of darkness. He descended down into the very depths of him who had the power of death which was Satan.
[8:14] He entered into his lair, into his den and he broke it to pieces. He blew it apart and he rose again having triumphed over Satan and having exhausted the powers of death that Satan had.
[8:36] So therefore he presented the perfect sacrifice by giving full satisfaction to the righteous judgment of God so that when he represents us God must acquit us because the penalty has already been paid.
[8:56] So he is able able to do what? Able to save us to the uttermost the apostle says. He saves us from our sins and he saves us from the consequences of our sins.
[9:13] And that's why he's called Jesus because he saves his people from their sins. It was sin that brought all the depravity and all the pollution that lies within our hearts.
[9:34] Remember Jesus on one occasion because they found fault that they weren't washing their hands before eating. He said it's not what you put into your body that's going to defile you.
[9:45] It's what comes out of your body. Because we have sinful hearts. Our bodies are already defiled because our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.
[10:01] And sin has control over us as we are by nature. sin. Because we don't desire to do what God wants us to do. We desire to do our own thing.
[10:13] We'll do as we choose. Not what God has chosen for us, but what we like to do. So sin has taken control. It's ruling in our hearts.
[10:26] And it's not leading us in the paths of righteousness. It's leading us in the paths of unrighteousness. grace. And this makes us the children of wrath.
[10:37] We are under the cloud of God's wrath. It brought down his curse upon us. Now Jesus can save us.
[10:49] And he says we can be saved to the other most. In other words, we can be saved completely. Not partially, but completely. Because his grace is sufficient.
[11:03] The sacrifice that he gave was able to cleanse us from all of our sins. Because that's the efficacy of the blood of the Son of God.
[11:17] And this was prophesied concerning him. In Psalm 89, we read at verse 19, God laid help upon one that is mighty.
[11:28] This is what makes Jesus superior as a high priest, as opposed to all the other high priests that ever lived. Now we cannot save ourselves.
[11:42] But we can be saved. Regardless of who we are, or what we've done, what we've fought, the grace of God can save us.
[11:56] us. And this is why he came to die. Didn't come to judge us, he came to save us. And this is the gospel that's been proclaimed from this pulpit, and from probably all the pulpits in our island, every Lord's Day, every midweek meeting, and every meeting that's called in the name of Christ.
[12:21] This is the gospel that's being preached. this is the word of God that reveals to us who God is, that reveals to us the seriousness of the consequences of our sins, that reveals to us the glorious Savior that has come to save us from these consequences.
[12:43] He is able to save to the uttermost. In other words, he doesn't stop halfway through his work. We can start a project and give up on it.
[12:54] He never gives up. If he begins a work in us, he carried through. And he will complete it. And we will be made perfect when he comes again.
[13:06] Because this is not any ordinary man we're dealing with. This is the Son of God who cannot lie and who knows no sin. This is the one that can represent us before God in his office as high priest and in his office as king.
[13:27] He can take control of our lives if we're willing to give him control of our lives. He's able to save us to the uttermost. Because this is the way that God planned to save sinners.
[13:41] There is no other priest in this world. There is no other Savior that's going to be given to this world. This is the only Savior that God ever provided to save sinners.
[13:59] From the beginning of time, this is the one as we've been considering over the last few days, that all the shadows, all the symbols, all the types of the Old Testament were pointing to.
[14:13] Now he has come. He has finished the work. And he has ascended up to heaven to make intercession for us. To present our case before God.
[14:27] This is God's chosen way of sinners being reconciled to himself. And there is no other religion that teaches this truth except the religion of this word.
[14:44] This Bible that we have before us which many of you are probably familiar with but never came to put your trust in the one that it's pointing to and speaking about.
[14:59] There is no other way to be saved. Jesus made the exclusive claim, God's love to saved.
[15:10] I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. So what's he saying?
[15:21] Well he's saying there is no other religion in the world that can save you. there is nothing that you can do that's going to save you.
[15:35] The only way that you can be saved is that you believe the truth that I'm presenting to you. That's the only way that you can come to the Father and it's only as you put yourself into that way by accepting me as your Savior.
[15:58] that you will ever come to heaven and that you will come to know God as your Father who loves you and who has made provision to meet with all of your needs.
[16:12] So we come to ask the question, thirdly, who will be saved? Well as I've just said, those who draw near to God through him.
[16:25] That's what the text says. he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. In other words, he's not able to save anybody except those who come to him.
[16:46] And to come to God is to believe in him. And if you don't believe in him, you will not come to him. you because unbelief is ruling in your heart and you're continually rejecting the light of the truth of God's word that is continually being brought before you.
[17:09] This is the accusation that Jesus brought against the Jews. In the chapter that we read in John's Gospel, you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.
[17:22] So that if you're unsaved, it's not because he can't save you, it's because you are unwilling to come to him so that you might be saved.
[17:33] He wept over Jerusalem, crying, how often I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her brood, but you would not.
[17:45] The responsibility lies with you, and you were continually refusing to come to me. Even although I was willing to gather you under my wings to protect you from the wrath that is to come, but you were unwilling.
[18:03] I was willing, but you were unwilling. So if we remain unsaved, it's not because God doesn't want to save you, it's not because God is unable to save you, it's because you remain obstinately stubborn in your refusal to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your high priest, as your lawyer, your advocate before God to represent you, because you are facing serious crimes, and you are facing serious consequences as a result of the crimes that we've committed both in thought, word, and in deed.
[18:47] so we don't have to act out on any serious crimes, serious sins against God. If we thought about it, we're guilty in God's eyes, and we're guilty of many things that we've said that have offended others, and hurt others, because if we have done it to the least of these Christ's brethren, we have done it unto him, and we have offended his children.
[19:20] We've offended him in many ways. Our access to God is worship through the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to God through him.
[19:34] Though the Old Testament priests weren't able to give their worshippers this assurance, because they were men, and they were sinful men, and they needed a high priest themselves.
[19:54] They needed the high priest of God Most High, as we were considering over the last days. We come to rely on his sacrifice, not on the sacrifices that were offered up through the rituals that they performed under the Old Testament dispensation.
[20:15] And it's not under the rituals that we might be engaged in daily, of reading our Bibles, saying our prayers, going to church. That's not going to save us.
[20:28] These are good things in and of themselves, but they will not save us, because they're all tainted by sin, and they all come short of the standard that God requires and deserves.
[20:43] The only thing that can save us is that we put our trust in him. So how does he save us? Well, he ever lives to make intercession for us.
[20:57] And that's the comfort that the Christian church can have. That Christ has ascended into glory. That he's already in the very presence of God in heaven.
[21:11] And that he is able to send his Holy Spirit forth into our hearts in order that we might be translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
[21:24] God. Because that's what his sacrifice has earned for the church. That the Holy Spirit could be sent to dwell in the hearts of those who come to him.
[21:44] To apply the grace that he has made freely available to us and to help us in all of our needs. Regardless of what our needs might be.
[21:57] Because it's the Holy Spirit that gives us this comfort. He is called the comforter. And he is called the comforter because he is continually coming forth from the Father as a result of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ praying on our behalf.
[22:20] And he ministers to our needs. The Holy Spirit ministers to our spirits. Now this intercession was foreshadowed in the Old Testament by the high priest.
[22:38] And it was also foreshadowed by the offerings that they gave. Foreshadowed by the sacrifice that was burnt on the altar.
[22:51] that sacrifice was continually on the altar. Both morning and evening. Being burnt up.
[23:05] The incense was continually on the altar of incense which represented the prayers on behalf of God's people. But the sacrifice that was being offered up represents the perfect sacrifice of Christ which is forever before God the Father.
[23:27] As God the Father looks upon God the Son, He sees continually the perfect sacrifice. sacrifice. And He doesn't have to offer it up morning and evening.
[23:39] It was offered up once and for all because it gave Him full satisfaction so that when He looks at His Son who is interceding on our behalf, what does He see?
[23:53] He sees exactly what John saw in the Revelation. He sees the Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world and He finds full satisfaction in His Son.
[24:08] And the Son finds full satisfaction in Him because the Father sees the efficacy of the work that Jesus finished on behalf of sinners and He's pleased to grant Him everything that He requires for those who believe in Him.
[24:31] That's going to be to that spiritual benefit because He sees the preciousness of the blood that was shed. Now, we needn't imagine that there is any words contained in the intercession because God only has to look at the Son.
[24:52] He doesn't need to hear Him say anything because He sees everything as He looks on Him. Just as on occasions it might give yourselves comfort for a person to be in the place that you're in without that person having to speak one word to you.
[25:11] If you're in hospital, for example, and you're in a serious medical condition, and your visitors aren't allowed to come near you, but you know that they're there round about you, and you might see them through the curtains, and they might not be able to say anything to you, but knowing that they are there speaks volumes and gives you the comfort that you're looking for, to know that you're not going through this on your own, that they are there having compassion upon you, that they're there if they're Christians praying for you, even although you're not hearing the prayers that they're offering up, you don't need to hear them, to know that they are praying, and the father doesn't need the son to continually use words in his intercession, he just simply looks at the son, and the son is ever before him, and he's always finding satisfaction in what he sees in the son, and this is what gives us comfort, and this is the guarantee that Christ is able to give us if we are seeking to approach God through him, because he's always living, to make intercession for us, and he could give us the words that he spoke to his disciples on the eve of his resurrection, because I live, you shall also live, because if we have put our trust in him, we will never perish, there is no power in heaven or on earth that can plug us out of his hands, or out of the father's hands, which is greater than him, and because he lives, we will also live.
[27:25] Now, we sometimes focus on the death of Christ, and we should focus on the death of Christ, because it's important, but if we don't focus on his resurrection, and ascension, and the intercession that goes on at the right hand of God, then our faith is in vain.
[27:49] Paul says, writing to the Corinthians, if Christ is not risen, your faith is in vain, and you're still in your sins. So we're not looking to a dead Christ, we're looking to a living Christ, a Christ who has ascended to the right hand of God, a Christ who is ever living to make intercession for sinners such as we are.
[28:16] This is the high priest that is far superior to any high priest that any religion can invent, even Judaism itself, because that was a temporary institution, until the time of fulfillment when Christ would come to occupy that office that was prophesied concerning him.
[28:43] Well, he's occupied that office, he has presented the perfect sacrifice, he has ascended up on high, and he's at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for every sinner that puts their trust in him.
[29:03] Are you trusting in him? that's the question for us all. Is this the hope that we have as we approach the judgment seat of Christ?
[29:16] Because this is the only hope that guarantees salvation. And it is a guarantee. It's not a flimsy hope, it might or it might not happen, it's guaranteed it will happen.
[29:32] if we put our trust in Christ, we will be saved. It's not that we might be saved, we can be assured, we have already been saved, we are being saved, and when he comes again, we will be saved.
[29:48] There is no question about it. This is the guarantee that he can give to us. so we're saved, if we want to be saved, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
[30:04] And as I said, if you're willing to receive him, he will save you to the uttermost, he will complete the work that he begins in you, because there's no half measures with him.
[30:20] He will not give up on you if you put your trust in him. He will persevere with you, even when you might backslide and fall and again be controlled by the power of sin in your life.
[30:35] You need to keep coming to him, because he will continue to make intercession for you. He ever lives to make intercession for sinners such as you and me.
[30:47] And he has guaranteed that he will save to the uttermost. May God grant, that that's the one that we will be looking to as we approach his judgment seat.
[30:59] Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you in and through your Son, Jesus Christ. We know that we have nothing that we can offer of ourselves to excuse us.
[31:17] We come with our sins because we believe that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. And we believe that he ever lives to make intercession for all those who come to you through him.
[31:32] So help us, O Lord, that if we haven't already put our trust in him, that this would be the night that we would seek the grace to do so. That we would throw ourselves over unto you, not knowing what prayer we might use other than the prayer, God be merciful to me, a sinner, so that we might go down to our house justified.
[31:57] Lord, you're able to lead us to that point. You're able to exercise your power to make us willing. So we're asking that that power would be poured forth, that you would bless your own word to our hearts, and that you would help us to give you our lives, so that sin would no longer rule over us, but that we would accept him as our Lord and as our King.
[32:24] Hear and answer our prayers, and have mercy on us, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to conclude by singing in Psalm 21 on page 225.
[32:39] Page 225. And we're going to sing from the beginning of the psalm. The King in thy great strength, O Lord, shall very joyful be.
[32:54] In thy salvation rejoice, so vehemently shall he. Thou hast bestowed upon him all that his heart would have, and thou from him didst not withhold what e'er his lips did crave.
[33:07] We're going to sing to the end of verse 5. The King in thy great strength, O Lord, shall very joyful be. Amen. The King in thy great strength, O Lord, shall very joyful be.
[33:32] In thy salvation rejoice, heart, are vehemently shall he.
[33:47] Thou hast destroyed upon him, O that is thwarted heart, and earth from him, filled with blood, and his lips and clear, for thou with blessings and be rest of goodness man gold.
[34:37] And thou hast set upon his head a crown of purest gold.
[34:54] When they desired life of thee, thou life to him did give, in such a length of days that he forever more should live, in life salvation!
[35:32] Lord, I thee, his glory is made great, O who art comely majesty, our hearts upon his spirit.
[36:01] The Kirk session will be closed with the benediction. Let us pray. Lord, we come before you to give thanks for the rich fair that you have set before us on the table that you furnished for us here over these last few days.
[36:19] We come before you to thank you, O Lord, and we now come before you for the rich fair that you have provided for the fellowship, the food for our bodies, and the refreshment that we might be in need of.
[36:35] And we ask your blessing upon that food and that drink that has been prepared for us here. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all, now and forevermore.
[36:55] Amen. Amen.