May the Lord be gracious to us
and bless us together as we gather here for worship this morning. Let us turn to the epistle of
Paul to the Hebrews in chapter 4 and we'll read the last three
verses, 14, 15, and 16. So the epistle of Paul to the
Hebrews, chapter 4, and reading verses 14, 15, and 16. 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 a feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. should be very thankful that
God in his wonderful purpose and providence enabled the Apostle
Paul to write this letter to the Hebrews, the Hebrew people,
who of course were very convincent with the law and the Old Testament
situation. But in this epistle to the Hebrews,
the Apostle sets before them really the glory of the Gospel
and what those Old Testament things referred to. And in these
three verses we read this morning, these last three verses in the
fourth chapter, we have this wonderful position set before
us of the high priesthood of Christ. Now, the Jews would have
been very familiar, of course, with the high priest, which existed
for centuries, indeed, from the time when they were in the wilderness
when the high priest was appointed. Aaron was, as you probably know,
the first high priest, and he was wonderfully favoured, and
then the generations following him took up that position of
high priest. And one very significant fact
was that the high priest was the only one who was allowed
into the most holy place, the holy of holies, both in the tabernacle
and also in the temple. And that only upon one occasion
in a year, that great and glorious day of atonement. And that he
entered in then Not without blood. He had to have blood as he entered
in, shed blood, entered into that holy place to have the sins
of the people taken away. That wonderful statement, at
one moment with God. Well, that followed on right
down really until the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. when he
died upon that cross at Calvary. And you may be familiar with
that wonderful statement that occurred then, when the Lord
Jesus Christ gave his life, gave up the ghost, and spoke those
wonderful words, it is finished. What happened at that very same
time was the veil of the temple, the veil that had separated the
most holy place from the holy place, was rent, torn from the
top to the bottom. Prior to that, the high priest
could only enter in on that one occasion in the year, not without
blood. But now, what had occurred, what
had occurred was the Lord Jesus Christ had taken that place. He was now the high priest. but as we've read here, he was
the great high priest, because he had entered into not the holy
place which signified heaven on the earth, but into the holy
place in glory, there to sit upon the Father's right hand. And therefore there was no more
need for a natural high priest, a man, because the Lord Jesus
Christ had fulfilled that great and glorious role by his death
and the shedding of his most precious blood. And therefore
it is our wonderful privilege, and it is, and you young people
realise, it is a wonderful privilege that we today can pray unto our
Father in heaven through the merits and by our great and glorious
High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes our prayers and presents
them to his Holy Father on our behalf. This is the glory of
the Gospel. This is the glory of these words
that we're able to read this morning to you. And as the Apostle
says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed
into the heavens. Jesus indeed has passed into
the heavens, the son of God. What a wonderful blessing it
is to believe that he today is there in glory. Now, my friends,
these things are beyond our natural comprehension. And it's a great
blessing if God gives you and me faith to believe in this great
and wonderful Saviour. There He is, interceding for
us. And just try and imagine. There's billions of people in
the world. There's no doubt millions of
Christians in the world. And there are millions of Christians
who pray to God and the blessed Saviour. takes all of our prayers
and presents them to his Father. Isn't it wonderful? That's the
Saviour that we have. It's not surprising, is it, that
the Apostle uses this wonderful expression, seeing then that
we have a great High Priest. He is a great and glorious High
Priest, and how essential it is that we do have a great and
glorious High Priest, because without Him, our prayers cannot
be accepted. It's only through Him, because
the Father sees Him, and we are accepted through Him. And so,
on this Lord's Day morning, may we truly come and be greatly
thankful unworthy as we are. Remember, we're sinners of the
earth, black sinners of the earth. And the Holy Father cannot look
upon sin. He looks upon his Son and he
sees us forgiven. He sees our sins taken away,
washed away in the precious blood of the Saviour. And therefore
we are accepted through him. Do we not have to? come this
morning and say, what a great and glorious Savior. And then
to meditate and consider the great cost of that position. The Savior didn't just come into
this world and just pass out of it without any difficulty.
He passed through this world with many trials and many difficulties
and much suffering. to pay the price which was required,
the ransom price required to deliver our souls, that which
was necessary to cleanse us from all sin. Well, this morning,
I hope we can. Rejoice and by God's grace, believe
that we do have a great and glorious high priest. When we come to
God in prayer, how needful it is to come and conclude our prayer
with for Jesus sake. I'm always disappointed when
people Do not close their prayers with such a statement because
it is only through Jesus Christ and for his sake that our prayers
are accepted. Otherwise they would not be accepted. What a great high priest we have. Well I hope all of us can enter
in a little to realise how great this high priest is. What a glorious
saviour we have. We as unworthy sinners cannot
approach unto the majesty on high, but here is, as we read
in an earlier chapter in the Hebrews, the new and living way
whereby unworthy sinners can approach unto the majesty on
high. Again, it's good if we have some
little comprehension of how great God is. what a great majesty
he is, how holy he is, how righteous he is, and to think that we have
today the wonderful gospel and the wonderful way of salvation
set before us so that we can come guilty and hell-deserving
sinners and seek mercy for Jesus' sake. Well, it's a great blessing,
isn't it, that we have, he says, seeing that we have a great high
priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. And then he says, let us hold
fast our profession. That means hold fast that which
the Holy Spirit has revealed to us. in these great and glorious
truths in making the Lord Jesus Christ unto us a precious, divine
reality. He was a man. Jesus, the man. He was also the Son of God. Again, it's difficult for us
to comprehend, really, the wonderful love of this gracious and glorious
Saviour, that He should come into this sinful world with the
one purpose, to redeem His people from their sins, so that one
day, through His sin atoning death, we shall be with Him in
glory. But the great blessing is today,
He sits there on the Father's right hand to intercede for us,
It's good just to stop and ponder and realise that as you and I
pray, such unworthy sinners, this blessed Saviour doesn't
pass us by, doesn't cast us off. He knows all about us. He takes
our prayers and presents them to His Father and it's for His
sake we are accepted in the Beloved. Well, may we this morning rejoice
indeed that it is our great privilege. You see, if there had been no
Saviour, if there had been no sinatonic death of the Saviour,
if there had been no resurrection of the Saviour, if there had
been no ascension of the Saviour, There would be no intercession
for us today. So we see, I hope we can see,
the wonderful plan of salvation and realize that this plan was
agreed in eternity past. It wasn't something that was
just thought up. It was an eternity past again.
We can't enter there. We don't understand it. It's
just too vast for our little minds to comprehend. But what
a blessing if God has given you and me faith to believe. And that's why we have a statement
like this. Let us hold fast the faith given
to believe in this great and glorious truth, our profession. Let us hold it fast. The devil
tries to wrench these great truths from us. and tries to pretend
that it's just something which is a fantasy and not true. But my friends, the Church of
God rests on these truths. They are foundational to us.
They are the gift of God to us. And therefore, says the Apostle,
let us, you and me, hold fast profession they will because
Jesus takes them and Jesus is God's Son and Jesus presents
them and he is to you and to me a great high priest he's passed
into the heavens If you think of it, we have that wonderful
picture you see in the Old Testament of the tabernacle and of the
temple and there in that holy place, the Holy of Holies, where
was the Ark of the Covenant and the testimony. And to think that
there, the Mercy Seat and the Ark of the Covenant and there,
once a year, the High Priest went in, not without blood, first
of all for himself, And then for the people, without shedding
of blood, there's no forgiveness. The high priest showed the picture.
It was there for hundreds of years. And then the Lord Jesus
came and shed his precious blood so that he was able to enter
in to that holy place once, only needful to go in once, And therefore,
there was that new and living way. Well, my friends, it's a
great and glorious truth. These things, I hope, are real
and I hope are precious. They're not just a theory. They
are a living reality. because we have that new and
living way so that you and I can pray unto God and it's wonderful
because as the Holy Spirit shows to us what we are in and of ourselves
as the Apostle said, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing we look out of ourselves out
of ourselves and we look to Jesus We pray to Jesus. There's our
hope. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. The hymn writer had a view of
it. It's good if you and I have a view of it. to realize the
wonderful favor and the wonderful blessing that this is. And we should truly be so, so
thankful that it is our wonderful, wonderful favor. You know, we
have a number of many references in the Hebrews to this high priesthood,
but in the seventh chapter, we read verse 26, for such a high
priest became us. who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Just
a little glimpse, don't we, of the greatness of the Saviour. And let us never have small views
of the great and glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. May
you always be lifted up in our hearts and in our minds to realize,
yes, we have a great high priest, a great high priest, and how
condescending of this high priest to look upon us and to remember
us for good with that favor he bears unto his people. Well, it is a great mercy to
have such a great and glorious Savior. And you know, again in
the second chapter of Hebrews, just read one verse here, which
just brings this, gives a little clue. 17th verse, wherefore in
all things It behoved him to be made like
unto his brethren, like unto us. He took unto himself his
human nature, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. Well, you know, there's so much
in the Hebrews we could refer to and could read. It's a lovely
epistle. It speaks so much of the glory
of Christ and his wonderful work for which he performed and his
great position now that he has as he's on the throne in glory
with his Father. And it's wonderful to think that
we are wonderfully privileged to have the Word of God to explain
these things to us. My friends, do study the Word
of God. Don't just pass it over. You
know, it's there for our instruction. It's there for our encouragement.
It's there to strengthen our faith, to realize that these
things are true. They're not just figments of
our imagination, but it's the very Word of God. And may the
very Word of God therefore come to us and be a great and wonderful
blessing. And so let us hold fast our profession. If God has given you and me faith
to believe the truth of these things, my friends, may God give
us grace to hold them fast. Why are we told this? Because
the devil wants us to lose sometimes Prayed for things just so that
we could consume them upon our lusts We are to pray for those
things which are in accordance with God's will Which will be
for his honor and for his glory and for our eternal good It's
always good to have a right perspective of these things and not to suddenly
think well I want this and therefore I'm gonna pray for it. You may
want it, but it may not be God's purpose to give it to you Yes,
we have to be willing to realise we have a God who gives to us
everything that we really need. not that which we think we need
and there's a big difference in those things. So let us hold
fast, hold fast our profession. Now the next verse goes on to
just explain a little about this saviour, this great and glorious
high priest so we have some idea why he is so exceedingly suitable
for us. He tells us this, for we have
not an 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. This is the wonderful Saviour. Just think, my friends, the only
begotten Son of God, the eternal and yet you see he didn't fall
he didn't sin but he knows the temptation now today the devil's
a great tempter and my friends he's always on the stretch after
us to try and make us sin and try and make us fall and sometimes
we might be tempted to say well none are so tempted or tried
as i am no one ever understands my position, well don't forget
here we have the great and wonderful statement that the Lord Jesus
Christ knows all about it. Now that should be a wonderful
comfort to you and me. Therefore there's no situation,
no situation which you and I can come into that the Lord is a
stranger to. The Lord knows all about us. And we're told this, which cannot
be touched. He's touched, you see, with a
feeling of our infirmities. It's really very amazing, isn't
it, to think that here we have Almighty God, the creator of
the universe who spoke the world into being such a powerful God
yet so gloriously merciful that he knows all about us and we
can come to him with that precise knowledge that he does know about
us he knows exactly The temptations that we are passing through. It's very easy to think, well,
that's not true. Well, it is true because the
Word of God is true. And to the true believer, sometimes
this is a wonderful strength and a wonderful comfort to know
that we have a God, an almighty God. And this is a description
of Him. description of him. We have not a high priest, which
cannot, that means he is, touched within feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Isn't it wonderful to think that
here we have such a wonderful saviour, a wonderful glorious
saviour. We have, as I sometimes refer
to, that wonderful chapter in the Isaiah, the 53rd chapter,
which speaks so gloriously about the Saviour, a picture of Him,
and in this 53rd chapter and from verse 3, He is despised
and rejected of men. You may feel despised, you may
feel rejected of men, the Saviour walked that path. A man of sorrows, you may have
sorrows, The Saviour was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. You may have grief. The Saviour
had grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised. You perhaps
might feel despised. I don't know. You may feel despised.
He was despised. You see, you have Brother here
a brother in the Savior a friend who knows and understands it
understands all about us And he says and we esteemed him not
that sad, isn't it? But it's true, isn't it? We haven't
esteemed the Savior as we should Well, it's a great blessing when
you and I come into this path of fellowship with the Saviour
and then we understand and we're thankful that He understands
where we are He is surely has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows yet we did esteem Him stricken smitten of God and
afflicted it's very humbling isn't it Almighty God Almighty
God He's borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. How humbling. You and I are worthy sinners
of the earth. We have such a friend. What a friend we have in Jesus,
and we do. And so he says, and we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. It's a very glorious statement
really. It's quite amazing to think that
this describes the Saviour. and to think therefore, because
he passed this way on our behalf, unworthy sinners, this should
make us very humbled and very grateful to almighty God that
we have such an account. Here it is, hundreds of years
before, to say you actually walked this path on this world, in this
world, but he did. And to realize, yes, he walked
this way so that you and I might have a friend, a companion, someone
who understands our position. Other people often don't understand.
They haven't passed that way. They don't know it, but the Lord
Jesus has. In all points, don't forget,
in all points, you can talk to people and they don't understand.
They might pretend they do, but they don't, but the Saviour does. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes. We are healed. How willing. was Jesus to die, that we fellow
sinners might live. Oh, my friends, what a Saviour
we have. How gloriously this speaks to
us, doesn't it? It was in all points tempted,
like as we are, yet without sin. Sometimes perhaps the Holy Spirit
enables us to realise how Impossible it is not to sin. Sin is mixed with all we do,
and yet we have here a glorious God, a glorious Saviour, a glorious
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was without sin. If the Saviour
had sinned, He could not have been our Redeemer. But he lived,
my friends, that perfect life and died that sin-atoning death. And so the Apostle comes, having
set before us this great and glorious truth. He says now,
let us, let us, you and me, let us, let us not stand back. Let
us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace. boldly,
unworthy sinner, a glorious invitation. We can come as bad as we are
because the Lord understands. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. What a mercy it is to know that
we have a prayer hearing, a prayer answering God, We have a Saviour
who understands and knows our position and graciously and gloriously
invites us to come, bad as we are, boldly, to this throne of
grace, to the mercy seat. And there's a reason. There's
a reason for it. You didn't just come in a vacuum,
in a void. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Well, that brings us back
to the beginning of our spiritual life, of our spiritual cry, perhaps,
when we understand what the Lord Jesus said when he spoke about
the Pharisee and the publican. The publican's prayer was, God
be merciful to me, a sinner. Here we have this answer. yes
that he may obtain mercy if we come you see to that throne of
grace bow to that throne of grace that we may obtain mercy he may be crying for mercy if
you're crying for mercy is it because God's put that prayer
in your heart and here's the encouraging word
Bad as you may feel, bad as we do feel sometimes, we can come boldly to this throne of grace. Yes, what a mercy, what a saviour
it is. And of course, it is, we don't
just come without any real desire, we come because we desire to
find mercy. And we find grace, the free unmerited
favor of God to help us in our time of need. Well, we have many
needs, don't we? As we pass through our little
life here below. And here is a gracious and glorious
invitation to come boldly that we may find
grace in time of need. As we come rightly, humbly, not
proudly, humbly before our God, realising that as the word of
God tells us, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. We come like that, not thinking
that we're good in ourselves. We're not good at all. But Jesus understands where we
are. He understands the temptations
we've been in because He's been there. He's been there. What
a Saviour then we have. Surely we come back then to understand,
seeing then that we have a great High Priest. We do. We do and
we can bless God for it. And I hope we can today. God,
we're rejoicing to be thankful that we have The Lord Jesus Christ,
now in glory, sitting on the right hand of the Father, interceding
for us as we pray. Oh, my friends, may we be given
faith to lay hold upon this glorious truth and to realise it is our
wonderful privilege and our wonderful favour as the Apostle says, let
us therefore come boldly, not because what we are, because
we're not anything, but the Lord Jesus Christ is all and in all. Let us come therefore boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Well, what a mercy, what a mercy
we have a merciful God. What a wonderful thing it is
that he dispenses his grace to unworthy sinners and what a wonderful
favour to be able to come and to praise him for looking upon
us, for enabling us to come to cast all our care upon Him, believing
truly He cares for us. Well, do we not, can we not say
with Paul this morning that we do have, that I do have a glorious
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God. Let us hold fast our profession. Oh, my friends, hold it fast. the belief that the Lord has
enabled you to possess and to trust in the Lord at all times.