Let's look in our Bibles in the
book of Philemon. I've entitled the message this
morning, The Intercession of Christ. I'm sure everybody here
is familiar with the story of Philemon and Onesimus. If you're not, we'll tell the
story as we go through it this morning. It's a very beautiful
story that shows an example of forgiveness and brotherly love.
But the key to this story is a picture of redemption in our
Lord Jesus Christ, by His grace, by His blood, and the intercession
of Christ for His people. If you look in verse 17, here's
the key to the letter. Paul says, If thou count me therefore
a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth
thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written
it with mine own hand. I will repay it. Albeit, I do
not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides."
During, in this course of this letter, Paul makes intercession
for a man named Onesimus, a man who God had saved while he listened
to the Apostle Paul preach. And Paul loved Onesimus. He loved
him with a special love that's just hard to explain. I think
the closest thing I can use to explain it, it's like a love
of a parent that watched their child come into this world with
life. Paul watched God give life to Onesimus and he loved him,
he felt responsible for him. And the spiritual significance
of all that story is this. It's how Christ intercedes for
the people that he died for. How he intercedes for those that
he redeemed with his blood. The people that he loves, he
cares for, because he did cause them to be born again. And he
is entirely responsible for their eternal souls. So here's the
first thing I want us to see. Christ makes intercession for
somebody. Who is it that Christ intercedes
for? He intercedes for sinners. Just like in this letter, Paul
is interceding for Onesimus. Now who is Onesimus? I'll tell
you, Onesimus was a psych. I mean, this man is a mess. Onesimus was a slave. He belonged
to this man named Philemon, who lived in Colossae, a Roman colony. Philemon was a wealthy man. From
what we read about him, he was a kind and a generous man. Philemon
was a believer. He had a church that met in his
home. He had entertained the apostle
Paul there a number of times. Paul would come there visiting,
and Onesimus would gather the church together. Paul would preach
to him. Philemon would give Paul a room there and a very hospitable
man. And Philemon was a good master.
He was a good neighbor, a good brother. He's known for communicating
his love and his faith that God had put in his heart. And he
communicated that faith that was in his heart by the way he
showed his love for his brethren, with love and kindness to others.
That's the way we communicate what's in our heart. You can't
know what's in my heart until I tell you. The way we communicate the
love God's put in our hearts by our actions to our brothers
and sisters. Now Onesimus had a good master.
Philemon was his master. He had a good master. But Onesimus
was a bad worker. He was such a bad worker, Paul
called him unprofitable. Philemon did not get any profit
by employing Onesimus. It cost him more to employ Onesimus
than Onesimus produced on his farm. Philemon actually ended
up getting more profit when Onesimus ran away. I mean, that's a bad
worker, isn't it? When you're better off without
him. Yeah, I make more profit, you know, even though he's run
off. And then to make matters worse, Philemon stole from, he
stole from Onesimus all the time he worked for him. You know,
he's stealing, he didn't give him an honest day's work. And to
make matters worse, he stole from him again when he ran away.
You know, Philemon's a slave. He belonged to Onesimus. So when
he ran away, he deprived Philemon of the work that his slave could
do. Then he stole jewels or valuables or something. A slave don't own
anything. So if he's gonna make it very
far, he's got to steal something to finance his trip. So he stole
from Philemon twice. He stole his labor and he stole
his valuables. But now in this story, Onesimus
is a picture of all of us, unprofitable, worthless servants. Philemon
is a picture of God the Father. And the Apostle Paul is a picture
of Christ, our intercessor. This is who Paul is making intercession
for, worthless Onesimus. And that's who Christ makes intercession
for, worthless sinners. You and I are just like Onesimus.
Onesimus was Philemon's property. You and I are the property of
God Almighty. It's he that made us, not we
ourselves. And in the exact same way, a
hammer is the property of a carpenter. You and I are God's property.
That hammer belongs to the carpenter. He can use it and do whatever
he wants with it. You and I are God's property. And he can use
us in whatever way he sees fit. We're his property. God can do
with us whatever he will. Whatever he pleases and whatever
he pleases is right. Because where's property? And
God who owns us, we're the property of God. He's good. He's gracious. He's kind. He's generous. He's
a good master. But we're unprofitable servants.
By nature, we can't add anything to God. It's not in our ability
to add anything to God. And by nature, we don't want
to add anything to God. We don't want to serve God. We
don't have any desire to serve Him or to worship Him. We don't
have any desire to know Him. All we do is steal from God.
We take from Him. We take God's air, we take His
water, we take His food, and we don't even bother to say thank
you. And when it comes to the matter of salvation, what we
try to do is steal from God. We try to steal the glory of
his son by taking some of the credit to ourselves. And I tell
you how we steal the glory of Christ in salvation by attributing
something we do to make our salvation effectual. That's stealing from
God. There's nothing profitable about
us. Look back at Romans chapter three.
It's a description of all mankind. Not just Onesimus, not just somebody
that Paul knew, but all of us. This is the nature of man. Romans chapter three, verse 10. As it's written, there's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Each of us is unprofitable, and
you add us together, we're unprofitable. I've got a note written out here
in my Bible, zero plus zero, zero. Add all of us together,
we're still zero. Unprofitable. Not only do we
not serve God, we don't have any desire to serve him or worship
him, we rebel against him, and we try to get others to rebel
with us against him. False religion, big business.
They do everything they can do to get you to join their ranks
and rebel against God together with them. That's what Onesimus
did. Onesimus didn't work. I bet you
everybody knows somebody like Onesimus. He spent more energy
not working, trying to hide from work than if he would have just
worked, you know. He's out there hiding. He's not doing any work
and he's setting a bad example for all the other workers. And
then he actively tried to get other people to hide in the shade
with him, hide in the barn with him. He actively recruited others
to be rebellious against Philemon's authority over them. He'd say,
it's not right to have this authority over us. He actively encouraged
rebellion. He just caused nothing but problems
for Philemon. Unprofitable, that's the only
word that Philemon could use about Onesimus, a mixed company.
I bet he had others, but unprofitable, that's the word he could use
in mixed company. And that's us, unprofitable servants. Look over at Luke chapter 17.
And you know, really that never ends. Even after we're converted,
we are the servants of God, but even then we're still unprofitable
servants. Luke chapter 17, verse seven. But which of you, having a servant
plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when
he's come from the field, go and sit down to me? And will
not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and
gird thyself, and serve me, till I've eaten and drunken, and afterward
thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant, because
he did the things that were commanded in him? I don't think so, I trow
not. So likewise ye. When ye shall
have done all these things which are commanded you, this is what
you say. We're unprofitable servants. We've done that which was our
duty to do. We're unprofitable servants.
Just we're unprofitable. Everything about our nature is
unprofitable. And the only way there's anything
can be profitable about us is if we're in Christ. The only
way we can be made profitable is God's grace. God's grace has
got to make us something that we're not if we're ever going
to be profitable. But just like Onesimus, by nature,
we're unprofitable. And just like Onesimus, we've
run off from God, haven't we? By nature, we try to get as far
away from God as we can. Look at Psalm 58. When did this
start? When did this running off from
God start? Well, Look at Psalm 58. Verse 3. The wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. We started running away from
God in Adam and that continued from the moment of our conception.
It began in the womb. In our experience, it began in
the womb. And as soon as we are born, we start running away from
God, speaking lies. We've been running a good long
while, everyone. Now, to you and me, it would
seem like that's the end of the story. This is Philemon. He hears one day, Onesimus has
run off. And we think, well, we're never
going to find him. That's the last we'll ever hear
of Onesimus. I bet you, Philemon one morning is sitting there,
he's eating his breakfast, drinking a cup of coffee. Somebody comes
in and says, Philemon, Onesimus, he must have run off. We can't
find him anywhere. We're getting up a search party
to go look for him. And Philemon said, don't you
do it. Don't go looking for him? I don't want him back. Just let
him go. He's unprofitable. The household
is better off without him. That's our message. And we think
the story's ended. It didn't have a happy ending.
That's what we think. But the God of Providence has
overruled this thing. I told you this in the class,
and let me say it again. Next time you lose hope for one
of your loved ones, Oh, such a burden on our heart. Our loved
one. Let that know, Lord. Oh, our heart breaks for him.
It seems like they're lost cause. Seems like they're gone forever.
How are they? They've run off? Oh, they've run off. How are
they ever going to hear the gospel? They thought about Philemon and
thought, well, at least I had a little bit of hope for him.
You know, he sat back there on the back row with a scowl on
his face while Paul was preaching, but at least he was there. Now
he's not going to be here next time Paul comes to preach. What
are we going to do? The situation's lost. Next time you feel that
way, you remember our brother. He tried to run off, didn't he?
He couldn't do it. You can't outrun the God of Providence.
He ran off and he thought, boy, I'm getting away scot-free. And
the providence of our God, he ran straight in the arms of the
Apostle Paul. He ran off to the big city, he thought, just like
New York City. If you've ever been there, you've
seen those crowds? We were there after Holly graduated from high
school. And boy, we went out in those
streets. We hung on to Holly and Savannah for all we're worth.
You know, if they get lost, we'll never find them. You know, look
at this crowd. That's what they thought about
Onesimus. He thought, they'll never find me there. And for
a reason Onesimus never could explain, he felt drawn. to go there to where the Apostle
Paul was. Paul was in prison. He had his
own rented house, but now it was still prison. He was chained
up in that house. He couldn't leave. Paul couldn't go out and
grab Onesimus and have him come surface. He was in prison. Easily,
Onesimus could have avoided Paul. But somehow he couldn't. He just,
for a reason he could not explain, was drawn to the Apostle Paul
to go hear him preach. Now, I'm just sure of this. Onesimus
had heard Paul preach before. He was there at Philemon's house.
Paul come to visit. He'd heard Paul preach before,
but he'd never heard the gospel until now. He'd come in and Paul
thought, what on earth is he doing here? Oh, I hate preaching
to that guy. He's got that scowl on his face. Oh, he's a discouragement to
preach to. But Paul kept preaching. Paul's
faithful. God took that rebellious, unprofitable
slave. Safety, by His grace. You know
why? That's who God saves. Rebellious,
unprofitable slaves. God's safety. Paul took Onesimus,
right? Just hugged him up to his bosom.
He'd spent some time with him. Here's this babe in Christ. He
got to be fed. He's got to be strengthened.
Paul spent some time teaching him. And Onesimus, he became
a big help to Paul. You'll hear this fellow that
was so lazy. Suddenly, he's got a great work
ethic. He's just doing everything he
can to help the Apostle Paul. And he became a big help. But
Paul knew this. Lord saved him. He saved Onesimus. But now, oh, he's a help to Paul. But Paul can't keep Onesimus
there. Onesimus still belongs to Philemon.
He got to send him back to his master. And when he sent him
back, he didn't send Onesimus back empty handed. He sent him
with this letter that we just read. Now can you imagine one
day, Philemon's out doing whatever he would do on his farm. Maybe
he was raising grapes or figs or something. He's checking his
grape vines, his fig tree. He looks up and sees coming down
the walk. He sees it, he's thought, oh no, I recognize him. That's Onesimus. I bet his heart
just sank. He thought, I don't want him
back. What's he doing? It could be
Philemon thought, I'm not dealing with this anymore. I know what
I'm going to do. I'm going to kill him. I'm going
to put him to death. And he would have been just to do it because
in Colossae, this was the law amongst all the slave owners.
If you caught a runaway slave, you very publicly very painfully
put him to death. To be an example, a warning to
the slave, don't you run off, because this will happen to you.
Justice required Philemon put Onesimus to death. The law had
a price on his head. And here comes Onesimus. I bet
he was, I bet he didn't even say anything, he just took that
letter and he handed it to Philemon. He opened up, he recognized the
Apostle's handwriting. He thought, what is this no count
slug doing with a letter from my friend, the Apostle Paul? These two fellas don't belong
in a room together. But then he looked that up, scowled,
just like, you know, he scowled at Onesimus. He started back
down reading that letter. As he read it, his heart was
softened. He might have had a little tear
in his eyes as he read it. How could his heart not be softened?
This is a letter from Paul, his beloved friend, the man that
he heard preach the gospel. The only way I can think of this
is Brother Henry. John, imagine if you got a letter
from Henry. He said, John, I'm writing to you as Henry the aged. I've lost my hearing. I need
you to do something for me. Boy, you'd jump up, wouldn't
you? Oh, your heartbeat just softened just out of love and
respect. We owe this man our life, just
like Paul told Philemon, you owe me your life beside. That's
why Philemon fell about Paul. His heart was moved, wasn't it?
Paul said, he said, I know this. I have confidence in your obedience.
You're going to do more than what I ask because you love Christ.
You love me. I know our relationship. And
you know, that letter is still moving the hearts of God's people
today. The heart of a believer is moved
by this letter because this letter is a picture of Christ our Savior
interceding with his father for you and me. So when Christ intercedes
for his sinful, unprofitable people, what does he plead? How does he plead with his father
for you and me? Let me give you four or five
things. Number one, Christ, our intercessor, pleads his blood,
the blood of his sacrifice to pay for the sin of his people.
Verse 18, Paul says, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught,
you put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand. I will repay it. I'm sure Philemon is reading
through this letter. He got to that and he thought,
if he's wronged me, he wronged me every day of his life. He's
wronged me every day since I've known him, he's wronged me. Yeah,
he's wronged me. Paul says, I know he has. But
whatever he's wronged you, whatever he cost you, you put that on
my account. I'll pay it all. I'll pay it
all. Now, like I told you in the lesson,
this is a personal letter. This is a personal letter concerning
personal matters about real people that live. In reality, next time
Philemon saw Paul and Paul tried to start giving him money, Philemon
said, Paul, your money's no good here. I will not take a penny
from you. But Christ our Savior, He paid it all. He paid all of
the debt, all the sin debt of His people, and He did it with
His blood. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the sin debt of his people
by making their debt his debt. That's what Paul's doing here.
He says, you put that on my account. You get out your ledgers and
you create a page for Paul. Put what he owes on my account,
sum it up, and I'll pay it. Paul's making a legal IOU there.
That's what our Lord Jesus Christ did. He legally made the debt
of his people to be his debt. He made their sin His sin, so
that He could pay for it with His blood. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter five. He made that sin His sin. He took it away from His people
and made it His. 2 Corinthians five, verse 21. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, God the Son, sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now, what does
that mean, He hath made Him sin for us? Well, the Bible means
exactly what it says. Christ was made sin. He wasn't
made a sinner, but He was made sin itself. Well, how far does
that go? What does that mean? I don't
know. And you won't find anybody else
who knows either. But this is what I know for sure. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ paid the sin debt for all the sin
laid on Him. All the sin that the Father made
Him to be, His blood blotted out. The Apostle John said the
blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. All the sin that was put on Him
The blood of Christ cleansed it, made it white as snow, put
away the sin debt of his people by paying their debt in full. So when God's justice comes looking
for God's people, justice of God comes seeking God's elect,
and it demands their eternal damnation, just like the law. Colossians demanded Onesimus
be put to death. There can be some pressure brought
on Philemon to put the slaves to death. Justice says they've
got to die. Christ our Savior intercedes
for his people, pleading his blood. Father, don't let them
be put to death. Let them live. My blood is paid
for their sin. Justice demands death for their
sin. What sin? Their sin's gone. under my blood. Father, don't make them pay a
thing. I know they sing how much I owe. Christ our intercessor says,
Father, they don't owe a thing. I paid the debt in my blood.
And the father will never reject the blood of his precious son.
So the father, not in cold, hard justice, not in the heat of his
wrath, but in warm, loving grace, he accepts that runaway slave,
makes him a son, sets him at his table among the princes.
Not because that sinner did anything good, not because that sinner
decides to sit down at the table, but because the blood of Christ
paid his sins. Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it quite a smile. When
Christ our Savior pleads, intercedes for his people, he pleads his
blood. Justice demands that we become
prisoners, just like the Apostle Paul was a prisoner. He wrote
this letter. He wasn't a prisoner because
he didn't do anything wrong. He's a prisoner for preaching the
gospel. But the prisoner made intercession for Onesimus, for
Onesimus, didn't he? Christ our Savior satisfied justice
by being made a prisoner in the place of his people. Not because
he did anything wrong, but because he took the sin, he took the
guilt of his people and he suffered the penalty of the broken law
for them. So now God's justice doesn't demand they die. God's
justice demands that they go free and that they live because
the prisoner has already suffered and died in the person of our
Christ pleads his blood when he pleads for his people. Second,
Christ our intercessor, he pleads for his people, and he does it
by pleading the love of God. Look here back in our text, Philemon,
verse 8. Wherefore, though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,
yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a one
as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Our Savior pleads for his people.
He pleads for love's sake. But when he pleads for love's
sake, he's not saying, Father, ignore their sin because you
love them. You know, we do that for our children and we make
a grave error when we think God's like us. You know, we sometimes
overlook the faults of our children and don't punish them even when
that's what they deserve. And we do it because we love
them so much. We think they're so cute. You know, spanked them
already once. I don't want to do it again.
You know, for all those reasons. But now you remember this. The
holy God can't do that. I'd still be God. He can't. So
here's how the Savior pleads for his people for love's sake.
He says, Father, accept my people, accept the people that I died
for because of your eternal love to them. Father, you chose them. You chose to set your love upon
them. Not because they are holy. They're
not holy at all. They're unprofitable servants.
But you chose the people. You set your love upon them because
you purposed to make them holy in your love. Look at Ephesians
chapter 1. I'll show you that. Ephesians
1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be,
that he's going to make us holy and without blame before him
in love. See, this is God's love for his
people. He set his love upon them, and it was his purpose
to make those people holy. Christ our Savior came and He
accomplished God's purpose. He made His people holy by imputing
His righteousness to them, by giving Him their obedience and
making them holy. So this morning, if you believe
Christ, you're holy. It's not that you'll be holy
someday. Right now, you're holy. Well, if you're holy, there's
nothing there for God to hate, is there? If Christ has made
you holy, There's no reason for God to kill you. The only reason
He'd kill you is to have sin in you. But if Christ has made
you holy, there's no reason for God to kill you. And that's the
love that Christ pleads when He pleads for His people. Father,
accept these whom you love. You set your love upon them because
you've made them holy in me. Here's a second way Christ pleads
the love of His Father when He pleads for His people. He says,
Father, accept my people. because you love me, because
you love me, and they're in me. And that brings me to my third
point. Christ, our intercessor, pleads
for his people. He pleads union with him. Look
at verse 12 here in Philemon. Paul says, whom I've sent again,
thou therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels. Philemon,
you receive Onesimus just like you're receiving my own heart. Ooh, that's gonna take grace,
isn't it? Verse 17, Paul says, if thou
count me therefore a partner, you count me a friend, receive
Onesimus as myself. You receive him, you hug his
neck, you show him the same hospitality and love that you'd show me.
Christ our Savior is one with his people. He is the head and
we're the body. You can't separate Christ and
His people anymore. You can separate a body from
the head. If you separate a body and the head, the body's going
to die, isn't it? But the body of Christ can't die. He's our head. He rose again
to never die again. He ever lives making intercession
for us so we can't die. That means we can't be separated
from Him. Christ and His people are one. So when you see Christ,
you see His people. And when you see his people,
you see Christ. You just see one. You see Christ. Just now
look at Isaac. Isaac comes in and I don't say,
oh, there's Isaac's head. Oh, there's Isaac's body. No,
I see there's Isaac. He's one. When the father looks
at his son, he doesn't see, oh, there's my son. Oh, there's my
son. And there's those people are
with him. Nice. There's my son. I love him. Oh, he's the darling of my heart. And I accept his people in him
because I love him. The father sees them as one.
The father sees his people as perfect. Because Christ is perfect. He sees them as spotless and
righteous because he sees his son as spotless and righteous.
And he sees his son that way because that's what he is. And
he sees you who believe as spotless and righteous because that's
what you are in Christ. That's being accepted in the
beloved. being accepted in the person
of Christ because you've been made part of His body, you've
been made one with Him. And the Father loves His people
with the exact same love, the eternal, bottomless, endless
love that He has for His Son, that's the love where the Father
loves His people. What could be more sure than
that? If Christ pleads with His Father and He says, Accept my
people, just like you're accepting my own heart. Accept my people
with the same love, where with you love me. Oh, if he pleads
that for you, you're going to be accepted, aren't you? So sure,
there's no doubt about it. You'll be just as accepted of
the father as the son himself. So when justice comes looking
for God's elect, Christ pleads, Father, don't let them be put
to death. They've already died. They already
died in me because they're one with me and they can never die
again because God's justice won't allow it. God will never allow
us to die twice for the same sin. And if you're in Christ,
you've already died to sin. Reunion with Christ. And then
here's the fourth thing. When Christ, our intercessor,
pleads for his people, he pleads the new birth. Look here at verse
10. Paul says, I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I've
begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable,
but now he's profitable to thee and to me. And yes, by nature,
in Adam, we're runaway slaves, aren't we? Unprofitable, useless. But we've been born again. A
believer is born again. You're born into a new family
from a new father. You're born into the family of
God. And a believer is not born with the nature of a slave. You're
not born with the nature or a relationship of a slave to the master. We're
born with the nature of sons and daughters. And we're born
with the relationship of sons and daughters to our father. We were eating breakfast over
at Brother Marvin's the other day. And mid-conversation, the
phone rang. He looked at it. and immediately
answered it. You know why? It was his son Gabe. He gonna answer the phone when
Gabe calls. They've got a relationship of a son and a father. That's
the relationship you who believe have with our father. Now we must fear and reference
the Lord. When we come before God in prayer,
we're coming before Almighty God. Don't come before Him in
reverence. But don't come before Him in
a slavish fear like He's going to whip you for asking for something.
He told you, Father, would you teach us to pray? After this
manner of praying, Father, give us this day our daily bread.
He's not going to whip you for doing what He told you to ask
Him. Would you whip your children for asking Him for some deed?
We have the relationship of sons and daughters to our father.
By nature, we're unprofitable. But you know, in the new birth,
we're made profitable. That's right, look at 1 Timothy
chapter four. In the new birth, we're made
profitable. 1 Timothy chapter four, verse eight. For bodily exercise profiteth
little. What he means is the bodily motions
of religion, there's no profit in that. You know why there's
no profit in that? Because we're unprofitable. Anything
we do, there's no profit in that. But godliness is profitable unto
all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of
that which is to come. God's people, they're born again,
they're given a profitable nature. So when justice comes looking
for God's love, Christ our Savior makes intercession. He pleads
the new birth. He says, Father, don't let them
be put to death. They've been born again. They've
been born again from incorruptible seed. So they can never die. And you know what? They never
will. They never will. That's what
it is to be born of God. That which is born of God can
never die. Now that's the intercession of
Christ for His people, what He pleads for His people. And I
want to give you this in closing. It's something you can take home
with you. And remember this about the intercession of Christ our
Savior. When Christ pleads for His people, it's sure, it's guaranteed,
He will always get what He asked for every single time. And the reason is this. When
Christ pleads for His people, He's not asking his father for
a favor. You got that? He's not asking
for a favor. That one might not be too sure
if he's asking for a favor. You know, if you ask me for a
favor, the outcome completely depends upon my mood. If I got
up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, you ain't getting
it. If I got up on the right side of the bed, enjoyed a good
cup of coffee and got a good breakfast, I feel pretty good,
you know, might give me a favor. Our intercessor is not asking
his father for a favor. When Christ pleads with His Father,
He's pleading for justice, absolute, strict justice. When Christ pleads
for His Father, He's pleading, Father, I've already satisfied
your justice for my people. Really, He doesn't even need
to say anything to intercede for His people. There He sits
on the throne of glory, in the right hand of the Father. John
said, I saw him as a lamb slain, freshly slain. The father looks
at his son. He sees those marks in his hand,
the marks in his feet, on his forehead where they thrust those
nails, those crown of thorns down his head. He sees that hole
in his side. It's the sacrifice of Christ,
constantly speaking. His blood constantly making intercession. The father, sees that justice
has been satisfied through the sacrifice of his son, and the
holy God will always accept that. Always. If Christ ever lives
making intercession for his people, if he's making intercession for
you right now, your soul is secure. Let me show you that. First Romans
chapter 8. Oh, what peace. What peace and security
there is in knowing Christ is interceding for you. Romans 8,
verse 33. See, he's pleading God's justice. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. So because that's true, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it's written, for
thy sake we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we're
not defeated. We're more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I'm 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, that pre will cover it, Nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. One more scripture, Hebrews chapter
seven. Hebrews seven, verse 23. Here is talking about the different
priests, you know, Aaron would die and his son would take his
place and he died and his son would take his place. And they
truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. Oh, but this man, because he
continueth forever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able
also to save them to the uttermost, to come to God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us, whose holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for his people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself, and that's the sacrifice he pleads. This
he did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men
high priests which have infirmities, but the word of the oath which
was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. He's consecrated forevermore,
the son. He pleads for you. He's pleading
justice. He's pleading that he's satisfied
God's justice on your behalf and your soul's security. Let's
bow and pray. Father, how we thank you for
your word. How we thank you for this precious,
blessed promise that Christ our Savior ever lives, making intercession
for his people. Father, how we beg of you that
you would hear us and see us and accept us only in our Lord
Jesus Christ. How thankful we are that he makes
intercession for us even as we pray, that through him we can
come before you boldly, offer up our praise, our thanksgiving,
our petition. Father, how we thank you for
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, pray how we beg of thee
that you would reveal him to the hearts of your people, that
you cause us to leave here this morning in full assurance of
faith, knowing that Christ died for us, making intercession for
us, our souls eternally secure in him, because he has done all
things well. Father, how we thank you. Bless
us for Christ's sake, we pray.