There is a real danger when attempting
to expound Scripture, attempting to expound the doctrines of Scripture,
a real danger of confusing things rather than clarifying things.
Often preachers start off somewhere and then start running this trail
of that and when they get done you wonder what were they saying.
I hope that God will prevent me from doing so. I think the
best way for men and women to be instructed in the gospel,
commonly, commonly the best way, is to take a text of scripture
and just see exactly what it says right in front of your eyes. So I want you to open your Bibles
tonight to Hebrews chapter 4. My text will be verses 14 and
15. Just hold your Bibles open there as I talk to you. I pray
God the Holy Spirit will speak through me as I talk to you about
Christ our High Priest. In the book of Hebrews, we see
the superiority of Christ in everything. his superiority over
angels, over Moses, over Joshua, over all who came before him.
However, the primary feature of our Lord's supremacy, excellence,
and superiority, the primary feature established in this blessed
epistle is Christ's priesthood. It is his preeminence as the
great high priest of Zion. In chapter 1, the Holy Spirit
describes him as our great, sin-atoning, almighty, effectual high priest. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down with the right hand of the majesty on
high from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. God highly exalted him because of that obedience
which he performed to his father's will of which Rex read just a
little while ago in John chapter 10. In chapter 2, we're told
that our dear Savior, that God who has redeemed and saved us,
is not just God our Creator, not just God the Son, but He
is Himself altogether a man, just like we are, a real man. He came in this world in human
flesh in order that he might become our Savior and be our
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
If he would be our Savior, if he would be a merciful priest
for sinners and yet faithful to his own holy character, The
Son of God must become one of us. It was absolutely imperative
that he who is our Redeemer be bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. As such, he must be made sin,
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so the second
chapter tells us how that Christ, our great high priest, became
our sacrifice, our sin-atoning lamb. He who is God assumed human
flesh, so that as God in human flesh, he might establish righteousness
and put away sin by his full obedience unto the Father as
our mediator and our surety. Now in our text this evening,
the Holy Spirit is urging us to a particular thing. If you
read this fourth chapter carefully, you'll see that he is urging
us to perseverance. He's urging us to persevere in
the faith. He's urging us to hold fast our
profession, to hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the
end. He's urging us to continue looking
to Christ, believing Christ, following Christ, worshiping
Christ. And he does so by showing us
the character of our Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest. Now
let's read the text together. Hebrews 4, 14. 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 an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now don't miss the argument that
is given to us in these two verses. We are urged to continue in the
faith. We are urged to persevere in
faithfulness to Christ, because Christ is our great high priest. If you realize what this means,
nothing could be a greater incentive for trusting Christ, honoring
Christ, loving Christ, and serving Christ firm unto the end, and
doing so with all the faithfulness His grace gives us as we walk
before Him, believing Him. Christ is our high priest, so
hold Him. He's our high priest, cling to
him. He's our high priest, continue
following him. He's our high priest, touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, and yet that one who sits upon
the throne of glory, interceding for us. So Paul tells us here,
persevere looking to Christ. Let us hold fast our profession. That's the admonition. We have,
by our words and in believers' baptism, made a public profession
of faith in Christ. We have confessed him as our
Lord. We have identified ourselves
with him, his cause, his gospel, and his people. We have said
to all the world, Christ is ours and we're his. We live by faith
in Him, by the merits of His blood, by the merits of His righteousness. He's our Lord and Master. We
are His voluntary servants. Like Jephthah, we've lifted our
hands to God, sacrificing our very lives to Him. Now let us
never go back. Let us never go back. We must
not allow the religious world to entice us, the material world
to seduce us, or anything to move us away from Christ. So
a pastor, that admonition seems to be a needless admonition. After all, salvation is by God's
free grace. Don't you ever think so foolishly. There are no admonitions given
in scripture that are needless. There are no warnings given in
scripture that are without cause. Salvation is by God's free grace
and yet it is our responsibility to persevere in the faith, in
the doctrine of faith. Many have been turned from it
for one cause or another. Many preachers and many who claim
to believe it at one time have turned aside from the glorious
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ the Lord
because of the cost involved in it. Faith in Christ embraces
the doctrine of faith and we must hold it tenaciously. Whenever
I see men start to waver. Whenever I see men start to hedge
a little bit concerning the gospel, concerning the decisive clarity
of the gospel, it urges me to stand before you and re-establish
the foundation truths of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
Let us not depart from the doctrine of the gospel. But there's more
than that. We must not depart from Him who
is the hope of our faith. We must continually look to Christ,
our Redeemer and our Lord, trusting Him alone for everything, looking
to Him alone for acceptance with God. And we must not depart from
the path of faith, faithfulness to our God. You see, faith and
faithfulness are synonymous terms. There's no such thing as faith
without faithfulness. There's no such thing as faith
in Christ without faithfulness to Christ. Those who have true
faith are faithful to Him and faithful to Him to the end. They are faithful in all aspects
of their lives. Perfectly? No. No. You know better
than that. But genuinely? Yes, sir. Faithful. Pastor, what about those people
who've been saved and they're not faithful? They weren't saved.
What about those who have been saved and they no longer adhere
to the gospel? They weren't saved. What about
those who've been saved but they no longer look on Christ alone
as all their hope before God? They weren't saved, Bobby. They
weren't. There's a big difference between
a dose of religion and salvation. There's a big difference between
giving assent to Christ and believing Christ. There is a huge difference
between holding on to the doctrine of Christ and holding Christ.
You got to hold Him, hold Him. This admonition is given us in
such a way that it suggests both the great value of Christ to
our souls, unto you therefore which believe He is precious. And at the same time, it suggests
the danger of dropping him, the danger of letting Christ, his
gospel, and his salvation slip, as it were, through our fingers.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Don't let
this slip. Don't slip away from Christ or
let him slip through your hands. You see, the perseverance to
which we are admonished. without question, without question,
is the gift of God's free grace. You understand that, I hope you
do. We persevere because he preserves. We hold him because he holds
us. It is written concerning all
those to whom Jesus Christ gives eternal life, they shall never
perish. That means they shall never perish.
No matter what anybody says, no matter how much folks object
to it, those to whom Jesus Christ gives eternal life shall never
perish. I know that whatsoever God does,
it shall be done forever. Nothing can be put to it and
nothing taken from it, and God does it that men should fear
before him. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Let me show you this.
Hold your hands here in Hebrews and turn to 1 Thessalonians 5.
Paul wrote to the Philippians, and he said, I'm confident of
this one thing, that he which has begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now this is
what that means. If God has saved Don Fortner and Skip Gladfelter,
if he's given us faith in Christ, he's going to keep us by his
grace. If we've got something short of that, we'll fall and
we'll miss him. And if we fall, if we miss him,
if we depart from him, depart from his worship, depart from
his gospel, it's because we never knew him and the religion we've
had was not a work of God performed in us, but rather a satanic delusion. Here in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse
23, the apostle writes to the Thessalonians and says, the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly. keep you and set you apart completely. And I pray God your whole spirit,
soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, how on earth can we have
such a hope? Look at this, faithful is he
that calleth you. If he's called you Bob, faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it. He will preserve
you and keep you. He will hold you. And yet this
perseverance, as I said earlier, is our responsibility. It is
something we must do. It is something that all true
believers will do. We must hold fast the profession
of our faith. We must not be moved away from
Christ and his gospel. It will require strength, it
will require courage, strength and courage that only God can
give. Yet, it is strength and courage which God gives to us
through the use of means which he has ordained and appointed
for our edification, for our strength, and for our courage.
God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching to give us the strength,
the encouragement that we need. He has ordained the assembly
of his saints, the worshipping of his saints in the public assembly
to give us this strength, this encouragement to continue in
the way. In fact, if you want to, when you get home, read the
chapter of Hebrews. where Paul continues to urge
us, and he does this throughout the book of Hebrews. He urges
us to this perseverance, and he does it this way. He says,
not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the
manner of some is. That's the first step toward
apostasy. Don't forsake the assembling
of God's saints. You say, well, we don't see any
value in that. We don't see how it's necessary
for folks to go to church. You can worship God and not go
to church. No, you can't. No, you can't. You're not going
to worship God, not hear his word. You're not going to worship
God, not assemble with his people. You're not going to worship God,
not serve him in the fellowship of his saints. I urge you then,
my brothers and sisters, hold fast your profession without
wavering for Christ's sake, for the glory of Christ. Whenever
I see one of our family begin to waver, Whenever I am compelled to approach any
of you personally concerning any matter for your soul's good,
the basis of my appeal is Christ deserves this. He deserves the
best we can give him. He deserves the best we can do
for him. He deserves that we continue looking to him. His
honor's at stake. The glory of God's at stake.
The cause of Christ is at stake. The reputation of the gospel's
at stake. The encouragement of others is at stake. So hold fast
the profession of your faith for all these reasons. But here,
in the book of Hebrews, we're told specifically we must do
so because it is absolutely essential to our salvation. Now then, it
is the priesthood of Christ that the Holy Spirit uses in this
text as an argument to inspire and motivate this perseverance,
our holding fast, our profession. He is our high priest. He is the one whom we profess,
and he is the priest of our profession. He espoused our cause, and he
abode by it from eternity unto this day. He bore witness to
the truth of the gospel while he was upon this earth, and he
still bears witness to it by his spirit and by his word. He
prays for the support of our faith. He pities us and he helps
us. He has passed into the heavens
where now he appears in the presence of God and there he owns us and
he will own us forever as his brethren. Therefore hold fast
the profession of your faith. Now let's look at these things
together. Here the Apostle tells us seven things which are great
arguments for perseverance. I'll give them to you one at
a time as we go through the text. First, the Lord Jesus Christ
whom we trust is a great high priest. What a description. Our Redeemer's greatness is spoken
of here, both with respect to his essential person, as we'll
see in a moment, and with respect to his office and work as our
priest. Here is the greatness of Christ
as our priest. First, his solitariness. He's
the only priest there is. Jesus Christ alone is that mediator
between God and men. Jesus Christ alone stands between
God and men. When we talk about the priesthood
of believers, when the scripture talks about believers being priests,
it's talking about us doing business directly with God, but we do
it through one mediator, through Christ the high priest. We approach
God only through him. We derive access to God. We are heard of God and we hear
from God only through the mediation of Christ. Christ alone is he
in whom the Father is well pleased. Therefore, he alone is the one
through whom the blessings of God come to sinners. Christ is
the solitary priest of our souls. Don't ever, don't ever refer
to any mortal man as a priest. Don't think of a man as a priest.
This preacher is not a priest. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
I can't do business with God for you. You've got to do business
with God for yourself. And the way you do it is through
Christ, our high priest. Not only is he superior to all
other priests in his greatness because of his being the solitary
priest of our souls, but also because of his sacrifice. The
Lord Jesus Christ alone has that to offer God, which God can and
will accept for the atonement of our sins. He alone has that
to offer God, which God can and will accept for the justification
of our souls. Jesus Christ, our great high
priest, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy place,
and by the merit of his blood, hath obtained eternal redemption
for us. And the Lord Jesus is set apart
here as our great high priest, because as our priest, he makes
intercession for us. The high priest in Israel, in
all of his day by day chores, wore the gorgeous array of that
high priest. He's the only man who did. He
wore the robe and the ephod. He had the breastplate and he
had the Urim and the Thummim. He had the names of the 12 tribes
of Israel upon his breast continually. He bared them on his shoulders
before the Lord. And so it is with Jesus Christ,
our great high priest. He wears our names continually. He bears us on his shoulders
continually, always in everything he does, making intercession
for us at the throne of God Almighty as our representative. Let me
show you this. Turn to John chapter 17. John
chapter 17. You remember John's words in
1 John 2, he said, my little children, these things write
I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he
is the propitiation. He is the sin atoning sacrifice
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for God's elect scattered
through all the earth. Now here in John 17 we have one
great example of our Lord's priestly intercession. This is called
his high priestly prayer. Sometimes we refer to the Lord's
prayer given in Matthew 6 where he taught us to pray. And really
that's not the Lord's prayer. He could not pray forgive us
our sins. but rather that is the Lord teaching
us how to pray. Here in John 17, we have that
which is properly called the Lord's Prayer. Here Jesus Christ
makes intercession to God on our behalf. Look what it says
in verse nine. I pray for them. I pray for them. I thank God for faithful friends.
who love me and pray for me. I'm married to a woman who prays
for me all the time. I have a congregation here who
prays for me all the time. I hear from folks all over the
world every day. People write to me and tell me
they're praying for me. Oh, I thank God for the prayers of His people. But oh, my soul hears my confidence. The Son of God says I pray for
them. I pray for them. That one who
is the father's own son says, I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast
given me. That is, I pray for them exclusively. Those whose names I wear on my
heart. Those whose names are inscribed upon my heart. Those
whom I carry on my shoulders. Those for whom I'm the high priest.
I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine,
and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in
them. Glorified in you and me? Oh yeah. Glorified because he says such
things as we are, brother. I'm glorified in them. Read on. And now I'm no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
Keep through thine own name, through the merit and power and
honor of your name, those whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one as we are. Look at verse 13. And now come
I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might
have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Father, I pray for them. I'm
glorified in them. I'm glorified in the exercise
of my grace upon them, toward them, and in them. And I'm glorified
by their faith in me. Now keep up, keep up. And cause
my joy to be fulfilled in them. Verse 15, I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world. Some folks think that the way
to live good Christian spiritual life is to live as a hermit.
You know, go move off up in the mountains somewhere, live out
in the woods, have no television, no telephone, just live by yourself
and read your Bible and study and pray. No, that's self-righteousness. That never produces spirituality,
just self-righteousness. You see, to live for Christ,
you gotta live for him here, in this world. And he says, I
pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil, the evil of the world,
but most specifically, he's talking about Satan himself, keep them
from the devil, keep them from the evil one. Verse 17, sanctify
them. Not by isolating them. Oh, no,
no. Separate them through your truth.
Your word is truth. Verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word. The Lord says, now Father, you've
given me a people and some of them are right here. I'm praying
for them right now. And these people who now know
me will go and tell others about me and multitudes shall believe
on me through their word. And now, he's talking about you
and me specifically. He said, I pray for them. I pray
for them. That they may be one as thou,
Father, art in me and I in them. I in thee. That they also may
be one in us. That the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. and the glory which thou hast
given me I've given them that they may be one even as we are
one I in them and thou in me that the world that they may
be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me one of
these days the whole world's gonna know because of what he
does for us and in us that Christ is the sent one of God and that
God Almighty has loved us as he loves his son. One of these
days, we're gonna know it too. I mean, we're gonna know it.
Read on, verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. Let's finish the chapter. O righteous father, the world
hath not known thee. Never has, never has. But I've
known you. And these have known that you
sent me. All who believe, they know you sent me. All my people,
they know you sent me. And I have declared unto them
thy name and will declare it. that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. The hymn writer
put it this way. My soul arise, shake off thy
guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written in his hands. He ever lives above for me to
intercede. His all-redeeming love, his precious
blood to plead. His blood atoned for all his
race and sprinkles now the throne of grace. Five bleeding wounds
he bears. received on Calvary. They pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him. Oh, forgive, they
cry. Don't let that ransom sinner
die. The father hears him pray. His dear anointed one, he cannot
turn away the presence of his son. The spirit answers to the
blood and tells me, I am born of God. And now my God is reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He
owns me for his child. I can no longer fear. With confidence
I now draw nigh. And Father, Abba, Father, cry. All right. I've got to hurry
through the rest of it. Go back to our text. Not only is our Lord Jesus Christ
the great high priest, he's ours. He's ours. Seeing then we have
a great high priest. Ours by divine gift. Ours by
his own assumption of our cause voluntarily. Ours by personal
faith in him. Thirdly, our text tells us that
our high priest has passed into the heavens. How do you know
that his work is effectual? How do you know that he has,
after all, brought in everlasting righteousness? That he has, by
the sacrifice of himself, put away sin? Yonder he sits. He said, I'm going to my father
that'll convince you of righteousness. There he is. Fourthly, he who
is our great high priest is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, who came
down here on an errand of mercy, who came here on a mission, who
came here with a work to do. Jesus, who came here to save
his people from their sins, the Son of God, able to save them
from their sins. Jesus Christ, the man who is
God, manifest in the flesh. All right, here's the fifth thing.
This God man, this man who is God, our great high priest, is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Oftentimes people say to me,
Pastor, you don't know what I'm going through. And I usually
don't, but he does. There's no human experience except
sin he didn't experience. Sorrow, bereavement, slander,
abuse, persecution, hunger, thirst, all he felt them intensely in
his soul. And now, Knowing what it is we
go through, Sam, he's touched with whatever touches you. A
loving father sees his child, no matter how young or how old,
endure pain. And the child's pain touches
the father. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. All right, look at this next
line. He who is our great high priest was in all points tempted
like as we are. Suffered all the temptations
we suffer. Nothing in him was found evil, inclining him towards
sin, but he was tempted with the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the heart, and the pride of life. And yet none of these things
would be of any real value, benefit, or comfort to our souls were
it not for this last thing, yet without sin. He who is our great
high priest is and must be altogether holy without sin. Because no
one else can make atonement for sin except he who is without
sin. All right now, let me send you
home with this admonition. Because Christ is our high priest.
Because he's such a high priest. Because he's so great a high
priest. Let us hold fast our profession. hold him with both hands, hold
him firm. But preacher, I'm weak, I know
it. My temptations are strong, I know it. Where can I find the
strength to heed this admonition? I want to hold him, but how can
I hold him? Let us therefore come boldly,
because he's our high priest, because we need him, we've got
to have him come freely to the throne of grace. And there you
can get all the mercy and all the grace you need in every time
of need. Amen. All right, Lindsay, let's
sing a hymn together.