With the hymn from the Soft Back
Temple, let's all stand together. We'll sing hymn number 21. Great
God of sovereign grace, we bow. Number 21. God sits upon his throne by right,
sovereign over all things. We gladly own his right to rule
and of his greatness sing. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. God in His sovereign majesty
appointed Christ to save, and every blessing of His grace to
us in Christ He gave. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise You for Your grace. We trust Your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. According to His purpose, grace,
toward His chosen race, our God predestined everything to save
us by His grace. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. From everlasting our God rules
in matchless sovereignty, always performing all His will and His
all-wise decree. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. Great God of sovereign grace,
we bow before your glorious throne. We praise you for your gracious
will to save us by your Son. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in the fourth
chapter of Hebrews this morning, Hebrews chapter 4. It's good to have Jared and Lauren,
Rachel with us this morning from Kingsport and Lexington. Let's ask the Lord to bless his
word to our hearts. Pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before thy throne of grace, thanking you for the ability
to worship you. For Lord, had you not revealed
to us the person of thy dear son, we would have no access
into thy presence. You've told us that you are pleased
with those who worship thee in spirit and in truth. Lord, we ask that you would bless
this hour with your Holy Spirit and that you would enlighten
the eyes of our understanding and enable us to set our affections
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. Lord, that you would reveal to
us him as the life, the truth, and the way. We ask it in his name. Amen. Angie, it's good to have you
also. Adam's mom is with us from Tennessee. You have your Bibles open with
me to Hebrews chapter 4 at verse 15. Oftentimes the Lord
speaks in the negative in order to give emphasis to a truth. He could say we have a high priest
who can sympathize with our infirmities and that would be true. But the
Holy Spirit has given us this truth in a double negative in
order to emphasize the truth of it. Look what he says, for
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. I'm so thankful for that. I'm
so thankful that we have a high priest who is touched with the
feelings of our infirmities. Now I want to ask you the question
that I've had to ask myself in light of this passage of scripture.
What are your infirmities that the Lord Jesus Christ is touched
with? I know that there are some who
suffer greatly with physical infirmities. They have critical
chronic illnesses that they have to deal with every day. Is the
Lord touched with the feelings of that infirmity? Yes, He is.
Yes, He is. Others have to deal with problems
in their home. problems on their job, problems
with their children? Is he touched with the feelings
of your infirmities? Does he remember that we are
made of dust? Is he sympathetic and compassionate
toward our every need? Is he able to meet those needs
according to his grace? Yes, yes, no question about it. But that's not what this passage
of scripture is talking about. It's not what this passage of
scripture is talking about. He is a compassionate God. He
cares for our needs and he meets every one of them. Not always
in the way in which we think he would meet them. Oftentimes
not so. I cannot stand before you and
give you any hope from God's word. that the infirmities that
we just mentioned are gonna get any better. I can't, there's
nothing in God's word that gives me any authority to say to you
that those infirmities that you experience in the flesh, in your
life, in this world, if you'll just trust God, they'll get better.
I cannot give you that promise. I can promise you that he's touched
with the feelings of your infirmities and that his grace is sufficient
for you in your every need. But whether or not he'll be pleased
to improve those circumstances? Maybe not. Matter of fact, probably
not. And if he does fix whatever infirmity
you're suffering with right now, just brace yourself because he's
got another one for you. You know, it is true that God
keeps his people in trouble. It keeps them either going into
trouble, in trouble, or coming out of trouble all the time.
And it's the way He makes us dependent upon Him. But what
are the feelings of infirmities that this passage of Scripture
is talking about? We don't want to be guilty of
taking a verse of Scripture or a part of a verse of Scripture
and pull it out of its context and interpret it to mean something
that it doesn't mean. If we're to understand what the
Lord is saying to his children when he says, we have not a high
priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
we have to understand it in light of everything that's being said
here in chapter 4. So if you'll turn with me to the first verse. Truth is that if God's made you
to be a sinner, You have an infirmity that no amount of money in this
world can fix. And you have an infirmity that
an eternity of time won't correct. You have a problem. I have a
problem. And it was the incarnation of
God. God cannot, He cannot act outside
of His nature. And so there are things that
the Lord can't do. And one of the things that it
would have been impossible for him to do before the incarnation
is to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities in terms of
our sin. That's what he's talking about
here. His eyes are too pure to look
upon sin, and until the Lord Jesus Christ was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, until He was born of a woman, born
under the law to redeem those who were cursed by the law, until
He hung on Calvary's cross and was charged with the sins of
God's people and satisfied all the demands of God's holy justice,
until that happened, There would have been no way for him to be
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. But as our sin-bearer,
as our sin-bearer, oh, how touched he was. He knows our infirmities
so much better than we know our own. He knows them. He felt them. He felt all the
shame, all the guilt, all the separation from God. When he
cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God forsook
him because God had charged him with all the sins of all God's
people. He bore in his body upon that tree our infirmities. And what he's saying now is that
we have a priest who has ascended into glory, who's seated at the
right hand of God, and he's in that same body. He's in the same
body that he resurrected. You remember when he came forth
out of the grave, the disciples were afraid. They thought he
was a ghost. And he had to convince them that he wasn't. He said,
give me fish, give me bread. He ate and he drank. He touched
my body. The Lord Jesus Christ is in that
same body, that same body, the resurrected body, seated at the
right hand of God, making intercession on behalf of us. My little children,
I write unto you that you sin not, but since we do sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.
That's our infirmity. That's our problem. I'm so thankful
when God is pleased to give some relief from an infirmity that
we have otherwise. But let me ask you this. Are
you able to rejoice and praise God for the delivery of your
spiritual infirmities even when he doesn't relieve you of those
temporal ones? Job said, shall we receive good
from the Lord and not evil? Has evil come into the city and
the Lord has not caused it? He caused those physical infirmities
in your life. And those who have been made
sinners, those who understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is
as the one who is touched with the feelings of their infirmities. Oh, they're able to praise Him.
They're able to worship Him when things are going well and when
their circumstances are hard because He has met the real need
of their life. Now, I know the world is full
of false prophets, always has been. And the false prophets
are saying, peace, peace. when in fact there is no peace.
They're telling you that God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. And that if you'll just believe
Him, He's going to deliver you from your temporal infirmities. It's not what God's Word teaches.
But there is an infirmity. There is an infirmity that money
can't deliver us from, and time will never deliver us from, that
the Lord Jesus Christ is touched with. He's touched with it. He knows it better than we know
it ourselves. What great hope we have in finding
our rest and our salvation in Him. Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, look
what he says. Look what God says. Let us therefore
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering in to his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. Oh Lord, don't let
me come short of finding rest, finding hope, finding salvation
in the only one. who's touched with the feelings
of my infirmity. This is my greatest infirmity.
For unto us was the gospel preached. The good news is that he is touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. That's the good news. He was
touched by God. Oh, he's sympathetic toward us.
Because the hand of God came down upon him, it pleased God
to bruise him. It was God Almighty that pierced
the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ with the sword of His own justice. He was touched by God. He knows
the heavy hand of God's wrath. In order to deliver us, we have
a priest who's been touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
and he knows what you're going through. He knows your sin better
than you know your own. You say, well, could he forgive
me of that? Oh, yes. He saves to the uttermost. What's the uttermost? You can't
get there. You can't get there. Go as deep as you can into the
darkness of sorrow for your sin and you've not gotten to the
uttermost. Go to the highest exaltation of glory. You've not
gotten to the uttermost. He is the uttermost. He's infinite. Oh, he's touched! He's touched
with the feelings of the infirmity of sin that his people are plagued
with. Come to him. Come to him. Look what he says. For unto us
was the gospel preached, the good news. The good news. that God sovereignly chose a
people before the world ever began, that He wrote their names
in the Lamb's Book of Life, etched them in stone, dipping His very
finger into the blood of Christ, and writing their names indelibly
for all eternity, that the Lord Jesus Christ is that Lamb that
was slain before the foundation of the world, that He came into
the world, satisfied the demands of all of God's righteousness,
He successfully saved His people. When he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished, it's finished. Everything necessary
for salvation was accomplished by Christ. That's the good news.
The good news is there's nothing for you to do. Nothing for you
to do, it's been done. It's all been done. God raised
him from the dead, proving that he was satisfied with what he
had accomplished. He ascended into glory, took
with him the names of those for whom he lived and died, and he's
interceding on our behalf. He's coming again. Salvation's
of the Lord. That's good news. If any part
of your salvation is determined by something you do, a prayer
you pray, a decision you make, a work you perform, a doctrine
that you come to understand, whatever it is, If you're honest
with yourself, you have to conclude it's not good news. Because you're
fallible. And you're not going to get it
right. Everything the Lord Jesus, everything that came out of His
mouth, every thought that He ever had in His mind, every act
that He ever performed, was done infinitely. He's God. He couldn't do anything part
way. He couldn't say anything part way. He couldn't have a
thought that was part way. He couldn't perform a deed that
was half done. Everything He does is eternal
because He's eternal. So it's perfect. Here's the gospel. Here's the gospel. For unto us
the gospel is preached. I've had people over the years
say to me, don't preach to me. If you're telling me what God
says, I want you to preach to me. Don't lead me any way out. And that's what preaching is.
Preaching is just saying, thus saith the Lord. This is not my
opinion. It's not your opinion. It's not
a doctrinal distinctive to our denomination, which we're not
a part of. It's not. It's not any of that.
It's what God says. And preaching is just saying,
thus saith the Lord. And God's people rejoice in it.
Amen. There's my hope. Oh, I'm so thankful
that there's a word from God. I don't have to depend upon my
own feelings. I don't have to depend upon my
own intellect. I don't have to depend upon the
politicians or the educators. I don't have to depend upon anybody.
I've got a word from God. And it's clear. It's simple. for those who are able to believe
it. Look what he says. Unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached to them did not
profit them. Why? Because it wasn't mixed
with faith. They heard it, but they didn't believe it. They
didn't believe it. Faith is the only evidence of
salvation. There's no other evidence. You
say, well, I feel saved. Well, that's nice. I'm glad you
do. But if you're a child of God, you know that there are
times when you don't feel saved. Well, you know, I've quit doing
some things that I used to do. Good. Like I said, you shouldn't
have done them anyway. You should have quit. A whole
lot of other folks have quit doing bad things who never heard
the gospel. You know, there's 12-step programs
out there, and there's self-helps, and there's religious persuasions
that will help you to reform your life. That's not salvation.
Salvation is faith in Christ. It's trusting Christ. It's looking
unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of your faith.
That's the evidence of salvation. Look what he says. Unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them. It was of no benefit to them.
Why? Because it wasn't mixed with faith. They didn't believe
it. They saw the acts of God, but
they did not believe his ways. Well, what were his ways? Look
what he says. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. That's what faith does. Do you
want a definition of faith? There it is, right there, that
first phrase in verse 3. To believe God is to enter into
His rest. It's to quit working. It's to
quit trusting in your own efforts. It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. to enter into his rest. As he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although, here's
the rest, the works were finished before the foundation of the
world. Do you get that? The works were finished before
the foundation of the world. That means that you didn't finish
the work, That means that when the Lord
Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and cried,
it is finished, he was just repeating what he had already done before
the foundation of the world. He's the lamb that was slain
before. This covenant of grace was established by God before
time ever began. Otherwise, God's mutable. And salvation's fallible. You
see, if it's not all done by God before time ever began, then
there's some other factor. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He doesn't change. He said, I
change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. The only hope that we have is
that our God is immutably the same. The works were done before the
foundation of the world. That's what God says. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise. Now, when the New Testament was
being written, the Old Testament wasn't chaptered and burst like
we have it today. So when you read the New Testament,
oftentimes there'll be references to Old Testament verses that'll
just say, in a certain place. You had to know the Old Testament.
You couldn't just say, well, Genesis chapter so-and-so, verse
so-and-so. Those were added later. So here's
what the writer said. Here's what God says, for he
spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, for
God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Why did he
cease from his labor on the seventh day? What's the number of man? Six. When was man created? On
the sixth day. What's the perfect number? Seven.
Man gets right to number six and he can't get any further.
And God says, I rested on the seventh day. Oh, perish the blasphemous
thought that God had to rest because he was tired. That's
not what the scripture says. He rested because he was finished. And that's the point of this
whole passage. It's finished. It's finished. Rest in a finished work. Men don't want a finished work.
They don't want a finished work. They want something that they
can contribute to salvation. Something they can pride themselves
in. Something they can hang on to.
Oh, I remember when I did this, or when I prayed that, or when
I... They want something. They will not give to the Lord
Jesus Christ all the glory for salvation. They just won't do
it. And you won't do it, and I won't
do it. unless the Lord gives us faith to rest in the finished
work of Christ. Verse 5, And in this place again,
if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief." Now what he's talking,
he's taking the physical picture of the children of Israel who
were wandering in the wilderness and were eventually going to
be taken by Joshua into the promised land. Moses couldn't bring them
in. Moses is a picture of the law.
The law can't save. Joshua, whose name means exactly
the same thing that Jesus means, Jehovah saves. He's the one that
had to bring them in. But what the writer of Hebrews
is doing here is he's making sure that we don't get hung up
in thinking about the historical events of the Old Testament.
Those things happened in order to portray a spiritual truth. It wasn't about God bringing
the children of Israel physically into Palestine. It was about
the Lord Jesus Christ bringing his people across the Jordan
River into the land of rest. Again, verse seven, he limited
a certain day saying to David, today after so long a time, as
it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts. Oh, hear, hear. Lord, if you're a believer, if
God's dealing with you right now, you know what you're saying?
Oh, Lord, give me ears to hear. Give me ears to hear. This is
not something you're gonna figure out. It's not something you're
just gonna, they heard, but they didn't believe. We're not talking
about just hearing with the natural ear and intellectually understanding
the doctrine. We're talking about hearing the
voice of God. Lord, enable me to hear so that I can rest, so
that I can have you as my high priest feeling. Feeling being
touched with the feelings of my infirmities for if Jesus had
given them rest Then would he not afterwards have spoken of
another day? Now the word the word is the
same as Joshua so whether or not We understand this as the
Lord Jesus Christ himself or Joshua who is a type of Christ. That's the same to say the rest
in the promised land was not what it was about and any more
than your rest in your temporal circumstances is what it's about.
That's not what it's about. It's not a health and wealth
gospel. It's not a peace and prosperity.
The Lord Jesus Christ didn't come in order to make your pursuit
of happiness more prosperous in this world. That's not why
He came. He came to save sinners. That's
what He's saying here. Don't think about it as just
going into the promised land, defeating the Amalekites, and
having your land flowing with milk and honey. If that's all
you can see, then you've not seen anything beyond what the
flesh is able to see. The eye of faith looks beyond
that. For there remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. For he that entereth into his
rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God has from
his. Cease from your works. Quit trying to impress other
men. Quit trying to earn God's favor. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only one that was ever able to impress God. And he's
the only one that was ever able to win God's favor. Only one. Let us labor therefore. Now here's
where our labor comes in. Because this is impossible to
do. Man wants to do something. I
mean, when there's a problem around me, I want to fix it.
Isn't that the case for you? I mean, we're just fix-it people,
aren't we? We're always trying to fix everything.
You can't fix this problem. You can't fix it. Let us labor therefore to do
what? To enter into his rest. Lord, give me grace to rest in
Christ. lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. They died in the wilderness.
They never came into the promised land. Again, that's a picture
of spiritual death and eternal separation from God. Now, I know
the fundamentalist, as I was one, loved, quote, verse 12,
in order to prove the infallibility and the inerrancy of the scriptures.
And it does. It says so much more than that.
So let's understand verse 12 in light of the Lord Jesus Christ
being touched with the feelings of our infirmities. For the word
of God is quick, it's alive, and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of the soul and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of art. Has the word of God done that
for you? What has it said to you? If it has done its work,
it has said to you that every imagination of your heart is
only evil and that continually. That's what it says. Look at
the next verse. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Verses 12 and 13 go together. He's saying the word of God exposes
us for what we are. Dead dog, mercy-begging sinners. God shows us what we are. There
is a God in heaven who's holy. A God with whom we must do. How are we going to stand in
His presence? How are we going to find acceptance with Him?
How's it going to be? What's our hope? If the Word
of God has done its work in our hearts, then we know that we're
desperately in need of a work done outside of ourselves. We
need grace. We need grace. So seeing then,
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. What is our profession? It is
finished. That's our profession. Salvations
of the Lord, Jesus Christ is all and he's in all and he's
done it all by himself. And the only hope that I have,
the word of God has exposed me for what I am. It's stripped
me naked before God. I'm in need of one who is able
to be touched with the feelings of my infirmities. This is the infirmity of sin. And he is. For God made him who
knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. For we have not a high priest, I love the emphasis that the
Lord's putting here by using it in the negative, in the form
of negative. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. In other words, he himself was
not guilty before God for having committed sin. He is righteous
before God. And yet he bore in his body upon
that tree. God imputed the sins of all of
his people. You think he hadn't felt the
shame of sin? You think he hadn't felt the guilt of sin? You think
he hadn't felt separation from God? You think he hadn't felt
all the agonies of hell? That's exactly what he felt on
Calvary's cross. And all the Lord's saying here
is it wasn't for his sin, it was for ours. But he made it
his own and satisfied God's divine justice by being the sin bearer,
by being our substitute. He's touched with the feelings
of your infirmity. And you know, if God's made you
a sinner, you know that your greatest infirmity is not the
trials of your circumstances. It is your sin. He's touched with it. He was
touched with it. He is touched with it. He understands
better than we do. So what do we do? Let us, therefore, come boldly. That doesn't mean with a cocky
attitude. That means with confidence in
Christ. Confidence before God that is
born out of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us come boldly
before the throne of grace. Grace. That we may obtain mercy. What
do you need mercy for? Your sin. and find help. What do you need help for? Your
sin. In your time of what? Need. What
is your greatest need right now? Right now, what is your greatest
need? What is your infirmity? What is it? I promise you that all the false
prophets of this world are giving men false hopes in believing
that By coming to church this morning, God's going to improve
their life. It's what all religion's about.
Health and wealth and prosperity. God's just a heavenly bellboy. You just ring the bell, he'll
come running. He'll fix everything for you. It's our sin, isn't
it? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would minister grace and faith to the
hearts of your people by that word. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.