I please the Lord to bless us
this evening as we consider his word for a few moments. Let us
turn to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, chapter 7, and we'll
read verse 25. The epistle of Paul to the Hebrews,
chapter 7, and reading verse 25. Wherefore he is able also
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." It is a very sad truth that all
the trouble and all the difficulties that we find existing in the
world today is caused through just one thing, and that is sin. Just consider that if there was
no sin, the world would still have been
in existence like it was in the Garden of Eden. when Adam and
Eve were created and lived in that perfect paradise. But what happened? What spoiled
it? Sin entered in. The devil tempted Eve. What did she and Adam do? They
disobeyed God. And that disobedience meant they
had sinned. And because of that, sin entered
into the world. And it was a curse. The hymn writer says, O thou
hideous monster sin, what a curse hast thou brought in. He goes
on to say that all creation groans through it. And how true it is,
as we see all around us, the terrible effect of sin. Terrible effect it has in each
of our lives, in the world at large, the terrible effect that
sin has. God has not changed. God is still
holy and righteous. God has not sinned. And the holy
righteous God cannot look upon sin. And so, how desperate is
the situation of mankind in that condition. In that condition
we can describe as fallen. That means fallen from that perfect
condition or lost. Mankind is lost. He's ruined
because of sin. And that's where all of us were
or are in that condition. And so all of mankind are in
that condition. And all of mankind need a saviour. someone to come and save them
and to deliver them from that terrible wretched state which
we are found in. We need to be delivered. We need to be saved. And if we
are to be delivered and to be saved, what does that mean? It
means very simply this. we need to be cleansed from our
sin. We need to have our sin forgiven
because no sinner can enter heaven. You and I need then to have all
our sins forgiven and it means every sin, every sin. We may in our own mind categorise
ourselves and say, well that was only a small sin. Well, nothing
really is small before God in that way, but even if we do categorise
it like that, the truth is that we still need forgiveness from
that sin, because one sin condemns. The Word of God tells us The
soul that sinneth it shall die. That means the soul that commits
a sin indeed dies. There's no hope for a lost sinner
unless we are saved, unless we are cleansed from our sin. That's the whole purpose that
we are here tonight, to hear the gospel preached. To hear
the gospel proclaimed. to hear the good news that there
is hope for a lost and ruined race. There is hope for those
who are condemned by the holy law of God. There is hope for
those who have disobeyed God's holy law. And that is only through
one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have this wonderful
word before us tonight. And it speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it tells us this. Wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. the chapter that we read in Romans
and this chapter in Hebrews and also the preceding one, it's
speaking about the unchangeable priesthood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it analyses the situation
which existed and which had been in existence, and that was that
the only way of access was through the anointed and appointed priest
and high priest. And that only came through the
line of Levi. You may remember that Aaron was
the first high priest. He was of the tribe of Levi. And therefore the only way of
forgiveness was to bring a sacrifice, and to have it presented by the
high priest or by the priest in the tabernacle or in the temple. And that sacrifice was made.
But what the point that was declared so clearly was that all those
high priests, they died. They didn't live forever. And
the truth was they were sinners themselves. And they had to bring
a sacrifice to cleanse themselves before they could bring a sacrifice
for the people. We know that the high priest
had to bring that blood into the holy place for himself, as
well as for the people. And that was the condition which
existed. until the promise was fulfilled that the Lord Jesus
Christ should pay that price for sin in giving his life as
that great and glorious and perfect sacrifice. So the Apostle is speaking to
us very clearly about the wonderful merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, we're blessed
today to have the Bible in its fullness. But we mustn't forget
that when these epistles were written, really, the Church of
God only had the Old Testament. And of course, in the Old Testament,
it spoke of the sacrifices and the priesthood, it spoke of the
Messiah, but it was couched in dark terms, and they weren't
very easy to understand. And so the Lord ordained that
the epistles should be written, and especially the Apostle Paul,
who as we know was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed
in the law of God, in all the laws, and was very aware of the
truth of them. And then when God came and opened
his eyes, on that wonderful occasion in Damascus Road. And we know
that after that he went into the desert and the Lord instructed
him there for some three years about these great and glorious
truths. And he was then able to come
and to write the wonderful epistles that he did. And so we have,
and we're thankful that we do have these explanations which
direct us so clearly I'm in need of a saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, the sacrifices, as good
and as perfect as they were, they were never perfect. They
were never without sin. There was always something not
perfect with them. But we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ the perfect sacrifice. Well, my friends, tonight, praise
and bless God for it. We read in this fifth chapter,
Paul's epistle to the Romans, wherefore, as by one man, Adam,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, because we know
the word of God tells that if they partook of that fruit and
sin, they would surely die, and that was the truth. And so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. for until the
law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there
is no law nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
transgression who is the figure of him that was to come and so
we're told now but not as the offense so also is the free gift
for if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the
grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus
Christ hath abounded unto many. The last verse we read together
in this chapter, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now surely as we ponder such
great truths, oh may we be very aware that if it were not for
this man, The Lord Jesus Christ, there would be no hope for you
and me tonight. We should remain lost and ruined
by the fall. But tonight, what does Jesus
Christ mean to us? Perhaps we should ask, is he
precious to us? My friends, the Saviour is invaluable. No one else can deliver you and
me from our sin. No one else can save us from
our sin. No one else can take away our
sin. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ. How vital it is that you and
I have a right view, a right understanding, a right appreciation
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. That means the one
who has redeemed us from our sin. And how has he redeemed? How is it? It's through His precious, sin-atoning
blood. It's through His glorious death. What a death it was. The Saviour
was willing, so willing, to lay down His life that we might receive
the gift of eternal life. Now, this is the truth. wherefore He is able also to
save them. He is able. Oh, bless God for
that. My friends, tonight, may all
of us be on the stretch after God to have this bestowed upon
us, the evidence that the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, has died
to take away our sin. that I was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate
to heaven and let us in. No one else. My friends, what
do we think of Christ tonight? We hear much of Christ. We read
much of Christ. But it is the personal application
of Christ's blood, Sanatanian blood, to our soul, which will
save us, which will deliver us, will give us that hope of eternal
life. He is able to save them to the
uttermost. It's a lovely word this, I think,
uttermost. And it goes to the farthest depth,
the farthest off situation. It picks up the smallest sin,
the uttermost. Wherefore He is able also to
save them to the uttermost. If we are to be saved, if we
are saved, it's only through what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done. when he died upon that cross at Calvary. Oh, what a
price it was. And a price the Saviour had to
pay. We could not keep ourselves. We could not deliver ourselves.
We could not pay the price ourselves. We were condemned. We are condemned.
We are guilty. We are under the curse. And the only way of deliverance
is through the work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the perfect work. Well, just try and think of that
wonderful work. The Lord Jesus Christ was given
to do, His Father gave Him this work to do, and it's glorious
to read, isn't it? For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life." If the Holy Spirit of God has
come and convicted us of our sin, so that we realise that
we are indeed lost and hopeless in and of ourselves, and we look
out of ourselves And we come to the Saviour, we hear those
glorious words, come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Are we burdened? Burdened by
sin? Do we desire to hear the Saviour's
voice? Do we hear the great good news? The Saviour speaks Himself when
He says those words, come unto Me. Is it good news? Is it good news to you and me
tonight to hear those words? Because it is this Saviour who
is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him. We are to come unto God. We are
to pray unto God. We are to seek unto Him. Remember
the illustration that the Lord Jesus gave about those two people. One a Pharisee and the other
a publican. And he describes them. And he
says the Pharisee, a religious man, a man who would appear to
be doing all the right things, wearing all the right clothes,
reading all the right books, saying the right words, but how did he pray? He prayed to
himself. And instead of seeking forgiveness,
instead of seeking to know Christ, He thanked God that he wasn't
like other people. He was as proud of his religion. And it wasn't God's religion,
it was his religion. And that's the great desperate
situation. We don't want our religion, we
want God's religion. By comparison, we read the publican. The publican was of course a
tax collector. He was a despised man and usually
tax collectors were corrupt people because they took bribes in order
to let people off some of the tax they should pay. No doubt
this was one of those. And so we read about this man,
this publican. What did he do? Was he proud? Did he want the best seat in
the temple? No, we're told he stood afar
off. and smote upon his breast and said, God be merciful to
me a sinner. What did the Lord say? I tell
you, this man, this poor man, this sinful man, he went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. Because what
had he done? He had come to the Lord. He was burdened. He was bowed
down. with his sin, and he come to
the Lord, just like this, that come unto
God by him. He come to God. My friends, may
we come to God, realising the great truth we have here, wherefore
he is able also to save them through the uttermost, that come
unto God by Him. Now we have to realise that God,
as I said earlier, is a holy God who cannot look upon sin. So how can we approach to God?
How can we come to God? How can we pray to a God who
cannot look upon sin? This is the glory of the Gospel.
We have a mediator. the Lord Jesus Christ. We have
a high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Old Testament times,
the people couldn't come to God directly. They could only go
through the priest and the high priest. They could not go because
God was a holy God. Remember, God came down into
the holy place in the tabernacle in the temple, the holiest of
holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, And the high priest
was only allowed to go in there once a year, not without blood.
God was there in all his holiness, could not look upon sin. My friend,
you and I cannot come to a holy garden of ourselves, but we can
come through God the Son. God the Son, that one who is
co-equal with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. We can come
through Him. He is the only way. He is the great and glorious
High Priest and that really is what the Apostle is speaking
of. As we read in that chapter in Romans and also much in these
Epistles to the Hebrews, it's a beautiful picture of poor sinners
being able to approach unto a Holy God through our great and glorious
High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way. We spoke this
morning in the 14th of John, the 6th verse, where it says,
I am the way, the truth and the life. There's no other way to
the Father. It's only through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so as we come in prayer,
to come to the Saviour, We have it here. He is able also to say then to
the uttermost, that come unto God by him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth. Now, as I said, the old priests,
they came and died. One generation passed away, another
one continued. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
lives forever. He lives forever. He is ageless. He is the same yesterday and
today and forever. Men come and go. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the same. What a wonderful blessing then
to think of that. To realise that down through
the ages, the Lord Jesus Christ has remained the same as the
great and glorious High Priest. What does that really mean? Well,
the High Priest of course, in Old Testament times, had to go
into the holy place, not without blood, to plead for the pardon
and forgiveness of the sins of the people. We come today to the Lord Jesus
Christ and He pleads for us before His Father. He presents our prayers
to His Father and to our Father. And so as we pray, the Lord looks
upon His Son and He sees in the Lord Jesus Christ perfection. He sees no sin, perfection. Therefore He can look upon His
Son and He sees there His Son, His only begotten Son. He gave
His life. to redeem, to save his people
from their sins. He gave his life as that sacrifice
once for sin. We didn't carry on reading in
the 8th chapter what we could have done. There's so much in
these Hebrews, but just to read this, the Apostle says now of
the things which we have spoken of. This is the sum. He's really
saying I've said a lot of things here, but just to bring it together
in just a few words. This is the sum. We have such
a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the
majesty in the heavens. A minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.
You see, man pitched a tavern in the wilderness. This is the psalm, isn't it?
And we have this great and glorious saviour who hath obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much also he is also the mediator
of a better covenant. A covenant is a sworn conditional
promise And this is the better covenant, which was established
upon better promises. This would never fail. The old
covenant had conditions. The conditions were that they
had to keep the commands of the law of God. My friends, every
person failed. They failed. But this covenant was ordered
in all things and sure would never fail because the Lord Jesus
kept that promise. He fulfilled it and he willingly
laid down his life to atone for the sins of his church. The truth is that today our only
hope For the gift of eternal life is in what Christ has done. We often say, as you well know,
what do we think of Christ? What do you and I think of Christ
tonight? Is He our Saviour? There's no one else, my friends.
Don't look anywhere else. Don't go anywhere else, as only
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and I must know Him, as that One who has and does
save to the uttermost, yes, every sin, black as they are. And I
believe the Lord shows us more and more of our sinful condition. He shows sins that we never knew
existed. Hidden sins, vile sins, wicked
sins, hypocritical sins. They're all there. We're ashamed
to see them. Ashamed to believe they exist. Yet we have the glorious truth.
If we confess our sins, He is willing and able to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us not
pretend we're not sinners. Let us come to our God confessing
our sins. He is able, He is willing to
forgive us our sins and to present us faultless before the Father's
throne, faultless, without sin, because He has taken our sin. He's taken our sin. Every sin. He's borne it Himself. Yes, the sins of His Church were
placed upon the Saviour. The Saviour carried our sin.
No sins were washed away on that cross at Calvary when that great
work was done. And the Lord Jesus spoke those
wonderful words. It is finished. That plan of
salvation was complete. There was no failure. The devil
perhaps thought he'd won. The devil may have thought that
the Lord Jesus Christ had died and therefore he was defeated.
The truth was that the saviour defeated the devil. Yes, he kept
and lived that perfect life. And as we know, on the third
day he rose from the dead, a conqueror over sin, death, hell and the
grave. Also to save them to the uttermost
that cometh to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. To make intercession, my friends,
the Lord never sleeps. The Lord is ever ready to hear
our prayers and ever ready to present them to his Father Don't
give up praying. The devil says, pray no more. Give up all your hope. My friends, if you and I possess
the life of God, you won't be able to give up. You may be brought
near to it, but you won't be able to give up. You have to
pray on. You have to hope on. have to believe, you do come
to a God who hears and answers prayer. A prayer hearing God. The wonderful thing is to have
a God who is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. We read that fifth chapter in
the Romans. We move on to the eighth chapter,
we come down to the 34th verse towards the end, or perhaps the
33rd. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died here,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us, this same Saviour. Here we have this truth, who
also makes intercession. The one who died, who rose again,
who now makes intercession for us. And with that truth, the
Apostle is able then to go on and demonstrate the wonder of
redeeming love. He speaks in these terms, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ. Perhaps you think,
well, your sin has what it has by nature. But you see, if the
Saviour has come and washed us in his blood, my friends, then
there's no separation. We're one with Christ. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword, as it is written, for thy sake, for thy sake, the Lord's
sake, We are killed all the day long. We are accounted a sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him, the Saviour. That's the place of victory.
We are more than conquerors through Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He not worthy of all our praise
and adoration this evening? So He says, for I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't it amazing to think we
have such a Saviour who loves us so much that he was so willing
to lay down his life. He loves us so much. He's gone
to repair a place for us. He loves us so much that he will
receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be
also, throughout eternity, to praise and glorify his great
and wonderful name. and to be with him forever, without
sin, and no sorrow, and perfect joy, and peace, and unity, and
love. Oh, what a prospect it is for
the Church of God, is it not? You know, the Apostle John, when
he was on the Isle of Patmos, he had just a little glimpse
of the position there, and he says he saw a great The great
multitude, which no man could number of all nations, kindreds,
people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and they
cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood
round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne in their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and
honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever.
Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And all the church of God will
possess a white robe. And whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. and he said to me these are they
which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the lamb therefore are they
before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his
temple and he that sits on the throne should dwell among them
they should hunger no more neither thirst any more Neither shall
the sunlight on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall lead
them, and shall lead them into living waters, fountains of waters,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." The prospect
set before the Church of God is a glorious one. And so may
you and I be encouraged tonight by words that we read, wherefore
He is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto
God by him, and may we each be numbered amongst those, and come
with living faith to believe the truth of these words, come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth, to make intercession
for them. Amen.