For this four o'clock family Bible hour tonight, we're going to look at Exodus chapter 28, and then we're going to turn to the book of Hebrews and spend much of our time there. Exodus chapter 28, beginning in verse one, if you would follow with me as I read from God's word. If you have a Bible that has headings there, the headings probably is something like garments for the priests. Exodus 28 and verse one. Here's what God says to Moses. This is in the setting, the context of the book of Exodus dealing with the tabernacle, the tabernacle, which is the place in which that tent, that location, that dwelling where God would live among and dwell among his people. In Exodus 28 verse 1, then bring near to yourself Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the sons of Israel to minister as priests to me, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. You shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister as priest to me. These are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate and a nephod and a robe and a tunic of checkered work, a turban and a sash, and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may minister as priest to me. They shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and the scarlet material, and the fine linen. Skip down, if you would, to verse 12. You shall put the two stones, that is, two stones that have engraved on them all of the names of the tribes, the people of Israel, verse 12. You shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his shoulders for a memorial. And then look a little bit later in the chapter in verse 29, Exodus 28 verse 29. Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breastplate, breast piece of judgment over his heart when he enters the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually. Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our time. Father, we know that even Exodus is all a part of your inspired and relevant word. Oh, how we cherish every word, every chapter of scripture. And even here, as we read about your commands, oh God, that you gave to Moses to deliver to the people of Israel so that they might approach you in worship at the place that you so choose. at the tabernacle, that tent of meeting. Would you encourage and stir our hearts to understand more of the beauty of Jesus Christ, our great high priest. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to talk to you today about something that God has put on my heart, something that I want to encourage you with. It's a motive. It's a motive for persistent praying in your life. Why do you pray? Why do you pray? I suppose many, many good reasons could be offered. There could be many, many good reasons for the people of God to pray, but why do you quiet yourself in the inner room of your prayer chamber, in the closet, and drop to your knees and pray? Why do you do that? Why would we rather pray than sleep? Why would we rather pray than eat? Why would we rather converse with God than converse with men? Why is there such an emphasis in the Bible on prayer? And why are there abundant accounts of men and women of God who sought the face of God and they pleaded his promises in their lives? Why at Christ Fellowship do we have a prayer meeting and put so much emphasis on the prayer meeting? Why is prayer so important? I suppose again that many reasons could be given and many good reasons could be given as to why we should pray and many good reasons and motivations to pray. But I want to provide for you just one tonight in our time together, just one. There's many that could be given, but I want to highlight one, just one. One reason, the great reason, a great motive as to why we should pray The answer is what John Murray, the great theologian, called omnipotent compassion. It's the doctrine that you could call the intercession of Christ. Here's the answer. One reason why you and I should pray is because you have, if you're a Christian, you have a great high priest right now. in heaven, who is praying for you. Think about that. Right now, at this moment, you have a great high priest in heaven at the father's right hand, who is interceding on your behalf. This is what theologians call the intercession of Christ. There was a man hundreds of years ago, Octavius Winslow, who said, there is no prayer in heaven except that of the great interceding high priest. For there is one who is the recognized intercessor in heaven, and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is praying for you. He is interceding for you. He is pleading the merits of His blood and the merits of His righteous life interceding on your behalf. Now we know Romans chapter 8, the Spirit of God intercedes for us as well with silent groans that cannot be uttered. We understand that as much as we can with our finite minds. But what I want to focus on today from Exodus 28 as we begin is that God told Moses to give the people of Israel that Aaron and Aaron's children, that is the Levites, They would be priests, and he was to bear their names before the Lord on his shoulders. We read in Exodus 28, verse 29, that Aaron would carry the names of the people of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment over his heart when he goes to the holy place to meet with God. In the same way, you have a great high priest. the Lord Jesus Christ who carries your name on his heart and on his lips and by his life and by his merits and by his blood before the very throne of God in heaven. It's an amazing thought. It's an amazing thought. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12. If you want to turn to Hebrews, we're going to spend the bulk of our time here. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12 tells us that that Jesus appeared and he entered not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption. What an amazing God! What an amazing priest we worship. In fact, if you look just a A couple of chapters before that, Hebrews 7 and verse 25. Therefore, Jesus is able also to save forever. The Greek word unto the uttermost. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Why? Because he always lives to make intercession for them. My goal for the next 30 or 40 minutes is to flesh out what that phrase means. What does it mean that Jesus always lives to make intercession for us? We have, as you know, a Christ Fellowship Bible Church catechism that we have put together through the years. And question 50 of the catechism is what are the three offices of Christ? And the answer, three offices are prophet, priest, and king. Question 52 tells us, how is Christ a priest? Answer, because he died for our sins and he pleads with God for us. What an amazing thought. He died for our sins and he's pleading with God for us. Question 55 of our catechism. Why do you need Christ as a priest? Answer, because I'm guilty. Cause I'm guilty and we are, we are guilty. I want to share with you this week. I was reading, I've been reading for weeks, preparing for Luke 11 next week as we start the Lord's prayer in Luke's gospel. And one of the books that I have is a couple of works by John Bunyan on prayer. He wrote an entire book on, on Hebrews chapter four, which talks about in verse 16, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, a whole book on that. whole book here's what he says a motive by which we are stirred up and encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace is this we have there such a high priest or a high priest who is perfectly qualified We have a high priest who is there in heaven. Bunyan goes on to say, the high priest is Jesus Christ, and he is there before God in his priest's robes, making continual intercession for your acceptance there. Think about that. Making continual intercession for your acceptance there. Let that sink in for a moment. That's amazing. Consider, beloved, in your outline, a little arrow there. You have a priest who has secured your redemption, who appears in the presence of God for you, making intercession for you as he remembers you and upholds you, bearing your name upon his scarred hands. That's actually my outline for our time together. I want to flesh that out by way of a number of points. In Bunyan's work, writing about Jesus as our high priest, he said the high priest was not to go into the Holy of Holies, nor come near the mercy seat without blood. He couldn't do it. But he could only come into the second place, the Holy of Holies. The high priest went once every year on the day of atonement. But even that was not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors or the sins of the people. And then the priest was to take the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. That is before the mercy seat. And it was put, it was put on the blood. Pardon me. He was to put blood on the horns of the altar before the Lord. And yet, Bunyan writes, the lamb who has been slain, Revelation 5, he sits right now in heaven for us, and he is in the midst of the throne in heaven as a lamb who had been slain, Revelation 7. And Jesus is the perfect, perpetual priest that provided propitiation in his blood through faith. What an amazing God. What an amazing plan of redemption. That Jesus Christ always pleads the merit of his life and his blood for us. It is by the blood of Christ that we have admittance into the Holy of Holies. Did you hear that? It's by the blood of Christ that you have admittance into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies. There's no more holy place in all of the universe. than the immediate presence of God. And Israel of old could not even dream to do that, except for one man who didn't choose that designation. It was bestowed upon him because he came from that tribe, from that family, from that lineage, from the sons of Aaron. And even that, only once a year. And he came with trepidation, and he came with boldness, but yet also with a little bit of fear as well. And yet for us to think that it is by the blood of Jesus Christ that we have admittance into the Holy of Holies, and not just admittance into the Holy of Holies, but we have the almighty invitation from God, from the one who thunders forth his voice and he could wipe the earth clean in a moment. He invites us to come and Hebrews 4 says, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. So what I want to do is I've been encouraged this week. I want to stir you up by way of reminder and perhaps maybe even instruct you if this is new, maybe a new realm of theology, perhaps for some of you. And I want to show you the glorious reality of Jesus, your great high priest, who is right now at this moment, interceding for you at the Father's right hand. Why should you pray? Why should you meet with God? Why should you commune with God? We could say because God commands it, because great blessings flow from it, because God answers prayer. It's a source of encouragement. He is worthy of praise. We ought to confess our sins and all of those are right. But another reason why we should pray is because you have a priest who has secured your redemption, who appears in the presence of God for you, and he makes intercession for you as he remembers you and upholds you, and he bears your name upon his scarred hands. Number one, we're going to briefly, we're going to fly through this outline until we get to point four, and then we're going to really put the brakes on and define what it means for Christ to intercede. So, number one, you have a priest. I mean, just look, we sing that and we could talk about that all day long, but just remember that you and I have a priest. That's the whole point of the book of Hebrews. Look at it with me. Hebrews 8, verse 1. I love it when biblical authors do this. Here's the reason why I'm writing. I like that. They state the main purpose of their writing, Hebrews 8.1. Now the main point in what has been said is this. What's the whole point of the book? We have a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. That's the point of the book. We have a great high priest and he has taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. What is a priest? A priest is a mediator. He is a middle man. He's an advocate. He was a man who brought God to the people, and he brought the people to God. He sort of functioned in both venues. He was the man chosen by God who brought God to the people, and he brought the people to God. And we learn that this high priest, the Lord Jesus, is the one who intercedes for the people of God. 1 John 2 makes this clear. John writes and he says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate. We have an advocate. We have an advocate. We have an intercessor. We have a middleman. We have someone that can bring us to God. We have that one who can do it with the father. He can bring us to the father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Hebrews 7 verse 25, we read it earlier, but let me set it before you again. Therefore, Jesus is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him because he always lives to make intercession. He's a priest. He intercedes. Well, let's talk about his priesthood. his intercession. I don't remember if I put this in your outline. Number one, his intercession never fails. Aaron, his priesthood failed because he died. And his children, his descendants, it failed. Why? Because they died. They were prevented by death from continuing. That's the point of Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10. But Christ's intercession never fails. Second of all, it's never weakened. It's never weakened. By your greatest sin, you don't weaken the priestly efficacy, the effectiveness of Christ. Third, the intercession of Christ is never unavailable. He's always available to you. Always. Now remember, on the Day of Atonement, that was the day, that was the day that Aaron could go into the Holy of Holies and his children one time to make atonement for the congregation, for the nation. But here is our Savior. He is never unavailable. Never. We also have a Savior, our Savior Christ, who intercedes. He's never unheard. His intercession is never unheard. He always hears when we pray to Him. He always hears. He never turns a blind eye or a deaf ear to His beloved children who are walking in His ways. And His intercession is never useless. It's never worthless. It's never useless. It's never pointless. It is necessary. In fact, that's the point of Hebrews 8, verse 1. The main point in what has been said is this. We have such a high priest. That's the point. So the first point is quite simple. You have a priest. And let that be just a reminder, you can't go to God on your own. No one can. There's not a man or a woman or a child or a prestigious or a poor or a rich or someone with no means and no earthly accolades that could ever approach God by their own merit. We need a priest. Which leads to number two, we have a priest who has secured your redemption. He has secured your redemption. This is an amazing thought. Do you ever read Ephesians 2 and you come across verse 4, But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. We love that. God regenerated us. We love that. God took spiritually dead people and He gave us spiritual life. We love that. That's regeneration. But then he says that God raised us up with Him and God seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So right now you might be living in St. Louis, Missouri, but spiritually you are seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places. That ought to speak of eternal security. that ought to remind you and assure you of the preservation of God for his people. God has secured us and he has us in heaven in Christ. God has saved us and he has secured us and he has washed us and protected us and he watches over us and he guards us. He who began a good work in you will perfect that work in you. Turn to Hebrews 10. And look at verse 11, look at how the author talks about this amazing thought that you have a redemption that is secure. Hebrews 10 verse 11, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But, verse 12, but he, that is Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Is that not good news? that God has secured your redemption in Jesus Christ. That ought to be a motive for us to pray. There was a theologian, a Puritan by the name of Stephen Charnock. He was reflecting on Jesus interceding for us in heaven and how Jesus accomplishing and perfecting for all time those who are sanctified and how that all fits together. Listen to what he said. It cements our assurance of salvation by demonstrating that Jesus Christ has a greater commitment to our salvation than we do. Did you hear that? He has a greater concern for our welfare, a greater pity for us in distress, a greater zeal for our advancement, a greater acquaintance with our needs. As Stephen Charnock puts it, our pity to ourselves cannot enter into comparison with his pity to us. What a great priest we worship. He is so committed to your redemption that He not only perfected it at Calvary, which He did, by that one-time sacrifice, which was forever accomplished at the cross, but He is right now eternally preserving you and continually interceding for you at the right hand of God. And Ephesians 2 says that you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. He cares about your eternal security. It's an amazing thought. You have a priest, number two, who has secured your redemption. Number three, in your outline, he appears in the presence of God for you. This, as if it can't get any better, look at Hebrews 9 and verse 24. This is almost too much. It goes beyond our finite minds to try to wrap our understanding around this. Hebrews 9, 24, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands. What does that mean? He didn't just go to the temple down the road and do a sacrifice. A mere copy of the true one. No, no, no. Jesus went into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Do you say that little phrase, for us? Jesus is right now appearing in the presence of God for you, in your place, on your behalf, for your benefit. John Bunyan writes of this, is not God unspeakably good? in providing such a throne of grace, such a sacrifice, such a high priest, and so much mercy for us. And then God invites us to come with boldness to him, to that throne of grace. Isn't that amazing to think about? We often call John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer. And, and I suppose it is because it is the Lord Jesus praying as the priest is the mediator on behalf of his chosen people. Well, in John 17 and verse 11, Jesus says to the father in his prayer, I am no longer in the world and yet they themselves are in the world praying for his own. And I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. Jesus knew that he, when he would depart from this earthly life, he was going to return to the Father, and he was going to be crowned with glory and majesty and dominion, and he would be seated at the right hand of God, and all of his people would be seated with him in glory. He knew that he would be returning to the Father. Jesus is right now in heaven at the Father's right hand. Hebrews is replete with scriptural references to this. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 13, the author says, but to which of the angels did God ever say, sit at my right hand. until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." Where is Jesus right now? He is appearing at the Father's right hand in the presence of God in heaven for you. He sort of bookends the whole book of Hebrews with this. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 12. We just read it a moment ago. Hebrews 10 verse 12. But Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, He sat down at the right hand of God. Where is Jesus? He is at the Father's right hand, interceding for you, for you. Turning your Bible to Romans 8, Romans chapter this great monumental chapter of the Holy Spirit and His sovereign work and salvation and preservation and regeneration and how the people of God can have victory in their Christian lives and how nothing can separate God's people from the love of God. Romans 8 and verse 33. Who's going to bring a charge against God's elect? I mean, really? Who's going to bring a charge against the elect people of God, before the judgment bar of God, that's going to dissuade God from saving you? No one. And then he says in verse 33, God is the one who justifies, verse 34, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, and he didn't only die, rather he was raised. But he did more than that. He is at the right hand of God. And he did more than that. He is interceding for us. Jesus died, he rose, he is at the right hand of God, and he intercedes for us. So here's what that tells us. You always, you as a believer, you always stand justified before God. Why? Because Jesus always appears for you. That's amazing. You don't stand justified before God because of the strength of your faith. Right? You always and ever and eternally stand justified before God because Jesus is right now in heaven appearing before God, interceding for you. And He invariably intercedes. He never changes. He never shifts. Never has a bad day. But number four in your outline, number four, You have a priest, number two, who has secured your redemption. Number three, who appears in the presence of God for you. Now, number four, he makes intercession for you as he remembers you. Okay, so what does it mean? Maybe you're wondering, yeah, okay, we sing hymns, we love this idea of Jesus interceding. What does that mean? What does it mean for him to intercede? Because Hebrews 7 verse 25 says that Jesus always lives to make intercession for them. That sounds good, but what does it mean? What does it mean? The whole point is really a word study, if I could do that with you for a few minutes. A word study on one little Greek word. What does it mean to intercede? To intercede? Well, The standard Greek dictionary in biblical and ancient and secular Greek says this, the Greek word here means to make an earnest request through contact with the person who is approached. That is to say, you're making an earnest and a passionate request with someone and you've approached them personally. faith to face as it were. It means to approach, it means to appeal to someone. This is how Acts 25 verse 24 uses the word. It's not talking about our standing and Christ interceding for us, it's talking about making appeal before a judge. The Greek word even means to pray. The Greek dictionaries say to pray. One theologian, Dr. Jim Roskopf said, to intercede means to plead. It means the idea is to meet with or communicate and it is used to make petition or intercession in and through prayer. I have on my shelf a set of books that is called the theological lexicon of the New Testament. The writer says, the meaning of this Greek word to intercede means to meet, to reach, to appear before someone, and it means to address someone or to have conversation with someone about a given topic. But then they go on to say this. But the word is always motivated by a precise intention to express a request, a request, a request. The idea, the dictionary goes on to say, is you're pleading with God or praying or asking or beseeching God. And in the Bible, the spirit of God And Jesus Christ, as the priests intervene and intercede. on behalf of Christians. And when Jesus intercedes for us, when he approaches God, when he addresses the Father, when he has a conversation with the Father about a person, about a subject, and then Jesus expresses a request to the Father on behalf of his people, the dictionary goes on to say, these are persons who are particularly qualified to appeal to the Father for divine mercy. Right? The Son is qualified to appeal for divine mercy. It's more, the dictionary says, more than just a mere meeting. This is a presence. It's an intervention with the maximum possible influence. Do you hear that? These are scholars who have tried to understand what does it mean when we talk about Jesus interceding. It means that he is approaching the Father and he is presenting a request in the presence, in the immediate presence of the Father on behalf of his people and he is appealing for divine mercy and he is achieving the maximum possible influence in doing that. Isn't that amazing? Thomas Watson, the Puritan, was reflecting on this, thinking, all of our prayers are put into the hands of a mediator. Though prayers may come from us, weak and imperfect, sometimes selfish, but as they come from Christ, who intercedes for us on our behalf, the prayers are mighty and they are powerful. What an amazing saving. What an amazing priest. Thus for Jesus to intercede means it means this, that Jesus prays for you, that he's communicating with the father for you on your behalf for your benefit. He always lives to make intercession for us. an amazing priest who right now in heaven is right now at this moment interceding for every one of his elect around the world. Always. Evermore. It's amazing to think about. And even when you're sleeping, he's still interceding for you. Even when you are sinning, he is still interceding for you. Even when your faith is growing a little cold, He is still interceding for you. The Spirit of God intercedes in you, we know from Romans, and He intercedes to heaven. But listen, the Son of God intercedes for you in heaven. The Spirit of God is in you. The Son intercedes for you. The Spirit intercedes to heaven The sun is interceding in heaven. It's amazing how there's this concert of communication within the Godhead, father, son, and Holy Spirit on behalf of his people forever. It's amazing to think about. Amazing. Now regarding prayer. Do we not rob our souls of the peculiar blessing, the support, the comfort, the grace, that is bound up in the intercessory work of Emmanuel within the veil? He intercedes for us in the heavens at the presence of God. And do we not rob ourselves of joy and blessing when we don't pray to the one who is right now praying for us? Beloved, why do we pray? What's one of the motives to pray? It's this, that Jesus is your intercessor. He's your advocate. He's pleading with God for you before the Father's judgment bar when Satan has every accusation against you. And there's many. And against me, and there's many. And yet the son is there interceding and pleading and praying. And as the spirit and the son intercede together on your behalf with oceans of love, does this not stir you up to want to pray to him? To want to fellowship with him. He's praying for you. He's loving you with compassion and his heart is kindled with beams of affection toward you. He's praying for us. What a great motive to pray to him. Is that helpful? Interceding. He's interceding. So again, Hebrews 7.25. Therefore, Jesus is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Let that encourage you. Let that be a motivation to pray. Now we begin our time by reading Exodus 28 about how Aaron and his children would go in with the ephod, sort of a little apron, as it were, over the priestly garb, and it would have the stones, and on those stones would have the engravings of the names of the people of Israel. Well, in the same way, You don't just have a human priest on earth who has your name or your family name engraved on a stone somewhere. Jesus, your great high priest, is bearing your name personally upon his scarred hands and upon his heart in heaven. Aaron was bearing the names of the sons of Israel before the Lord as a memorial for a memorial. God, here's the people that you've redeemed. This is your covenant nation, God, and I'm reminding you of that in the same way. Here's Christ in heaven. God hears your children. You've redeemed them. You've elected them. You've bought them. I've redeemed them. Spirit of God, you've sealed them. We are preserving them. These are your covenant people, your elect people. What an amazing priest that we worship. Aaron carried the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece over his heart when he entered the holy place, and in the same way, the Lord Jesus, our great high priest, he bears you on his heart and on his hands in heaven. Christ wears his ephod, as it were, in heaven, and he wears his breastplace, and he bears the burdens of his people, and he loves his people. and he pleads for his people, and he prays for his people. And because he wears us upon his heart, and he continually pleads for us, and he sustains us, and he presents us again, beloved, here is another assurance of our salvation, another security of our salvation, another way that we are preserved in our salvation. D.A. Carson writes, the intercessory work of Jesus Christ is invaluable to every Christian, for it makes clear that our ongoing acceptance before God is finally grounded in the utter sufficiency of the cross. And Jesus is before the bar, the judgment bar, saying, I bought them. I bought them. I bought them. What can be more encouraging? What can be more animating, more stimulating, even, even more thrilling, more humbling, more motivating than to know that Jesus Christ right now is remembering you. He is praying for you. He's upholding you in heaven. Consider Christ is thinking of you. with a friend's affection, with a lover's compassion, with a brother's sympathy, And he is praying for, and he is supporting you with the Savior's meritorious intercession. And with never-ending sufficiency in his blood, he is pleading our cause. That's why the old Puritan Wilhelmus O'Brockle could write, Jesus is pleading the cause of his elect. And he does so before a gracious and a benevolent father on behalf of his beloved children. and heirs. What assurance. If you're a Christian here today, hopefully your heart is being encouraged. Hopefully the security of your salvation is being impressed upon your heart yet again by the Spirit through the Word as you're coming again to grips with the power of your priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's hard. I'll be honest, it's hard to find books today on Christ as our priest, especially in relation to prayer. You have to go back hundreds of years, for the most part, to all the dead guys who spent time marveling at this amazing privilege of one of the offices of Christ, that He is our priest, that He brings us to God. It's an amazing, astounding thought. John Murray The theologian was writing and said, the intercession of Christ, I think I put this there. The intercession of Christ is interposed to meet every need of the believer. He continues, no grace bestowed, no blessing enjoyed, no benefit received can be removed from the scope of the intercession. And the intercession is the guarantee that every demand will be met by its efficacy. The security of salvation is bound up with his intercession. And outside of that intercession, we must say that there is no salvation. Boy, John Murray is right. Again, I think, is there another quote there by Wilhelmus of Brockel? Okay. He said, this intercession of Christ consists in advocating and pleading the cause of his elect against all accusations made against them. The apostle John, therefore, calls him an advocate. This is confirmed by the apostle who says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ who also makes intercession for us. Since he is able to demonstrate that he has fully paid for each and every sin and has fulfilled the law on their behalf by placing himself under and being obedient to the law. He concludes that there is no condemnation for his elect, but that they have a right to eternal felicity or peace or joy. And yet this is the very heartbeat, hear this, he's so wise in bringing the priesthood of Christ and prayer together. And yet this is the very heartbeat of coming before the kingly throne of God with boldness and prayer. Christ is our high priest provides freedom and boldness to approach God through Christ's mercy and love at his throne of grace, a sinner finds true boldness. Boy, Hebrews four invites us. Let us draw near. Let us draw near. Maybe as we close here, I wish I could elaborate on these. I would love to. I think you have these there. What are the benefits? What are the benefits of praying to your great high priest? I'll just read them briefly. You meditate on the salvation blessings from God. Answers to prayer are given. Beams of love are darting to your soul. Every spring of joy is granted because Christ intercedes. Divine riches of assurance are granted because Christ ever lives. Consolations of peace because war with God is abolished. You have unshakable peace swelling up in your hope. All your burdens are sustained because you have the throne of grace to come to. Every grief is soothed because you can find mercy and help. Every temptation is broken because he won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able to bear. You have a Savior who is worthy and alert and loving you. And you pray to this great high priest and you warm your heart with the tender affections of love. for him. Boy, as we close again, John Bunyan, we have to go back to these guys. Look at what he said, and we can close with this. John Bunyan said, I say, study what Christ has done and is doing. Oh, what is he doing now? With his priestly robes on, he is sprinkling his blood before the throne of grace. That is too little thought on by the saints of God. So he says, busy thyself fellow Christian about this blessed office of Christ. It is full of good. It is full of sweet. It is full of heaven. It is full of relief and rest for the tempted and dejected. Wherefore, I say again, study these things. Give thyself wholly to them because. Beloved, as Hebrews 7.25 said, Jesus always lives to make intercession for his people. Be encouraged. Amen. We come to you to the throne of grace. Oh, most holy and infinite father. Your holiness is so blinding that we would be blinded and we would be struck down Never to rise again if we were to come into the immediate presence of almighty holiness. And yet to think that through the blood of Christ, our priest, because of the merits of our savior and his righteous life, we can come into the throne room of God. Boldly with confidence, with courage. because of what our Savior has done and because of what our Savior is doing. Thank you, Lord Jesus, so great High Priest, that you ever live to make intercession for us. Thank you that we are seated with you in the heavenly places. In Jesus' name, amen.