Let us pray. Most gracious and mighty God, as we come to hear your word read this morning and to hear it preached, we ask that by the power of your spirit you would come and speak to our hearts. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. There are often times in our life when we are going through great trial and tribulation. And in those seasons of life, whether it be grief from the death of a loved one or someone close to us, whether it be through the trial of experiencing surgery or some debilitating illness, we oftentimes feel alone. And there are occasions when people will say, I feel alone, that there is no one who understands. And sometimes when we seek to comfort people in their grief and in their sorrow, we will often use those words that we just cringe, I understand. And I think in our human way, we want to feel sympathetic to people when they suffer, and we should. Particularly as Christians, we should feel compassion and sorrow for people who are suffering. But one thing about human suffering is that we don't often understand the nature of it or why we are going through that particular situation. And yet we have in this passage of Scripture some good news for us. Because this passage reminds us that when we face trial, when we face difficulty, that we have a sympathizing Savior who understands, who feels what we are experiencing. As we consider this passage this morning, I would like for us to understand what the Spirit says to us through these words from the writer of Hebrews, when he says that we have a great high priest. And so what do we observe from this passage about this great high priest? who is our sympathizing Savior. Well, the first thing we understand is that we have a great high priest who intercedes for us. He says there in verse 14, he begins by saying, seeing that we have a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. There was a tendency in that first century for many Jews who had come into the Christian faith to find themselves, particularly in times of great persecution, to find that they were falling away. Many of them were lapsing back in observing the old ceremonial law, which some who call themselves Christians today still find themselves trying to fall back into their observance of the ceremonial law. And the writer of Hebrews writes to them, particularly here in this section, to remind them to hold fast, to hold firm to their profession. But in order for them to hold fast to their profession, they need to go back to what he has previously said about this great high priest. And here the writer of Hebrews refers back to chapters one and two. Particularly in chapter 1, when he introduces to us Christ, who is greater than all the angels. Verse 4 of chapter 1, he says, For unto which of the angels did he at any time say, Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. So the writer of Hebrews begins by introducing this one who is called the Son of God, who is greater than the angels. And he shows there how much greater he is than the angels. For indeed, he is the Son of God. And so he begins to introduce for them the great work of Christ as our priest. And so he discusses there in chapter 2 that he who is made lower than the angels has been crowned with glory and honor to rule over all things and to help those or to come to the aid of those who are flesh and blood. But then He calls them in chapter 4 to enter in to that eternal rest with Him. Many of them were not entering into that rest. Many of them had fallen by the wayside in the wilderness. And oftentimes even in the covenant community, there are those who fall away under great testing and great trial. But He calls them to enter into that rest, which brings us to chapter 4. For he that is entered into his rest, seized from his own, And then he calls us to labor to enter into that rest. Now it's interesting there that he says to labor to enter into that rest. Aren't we good Calvinists? Aren't we good reformed people? That we are not saved by our works. We are saved by grace and grace alone. But he's talking to those who have already been justified. He's speaking to those within the covenant community who have already trusted in Christ, received Him by faith. But then he calls them to labor, to enter into that rest, lest they fall after the example of many who are filled with unbelief." And then when he brings in the effect of the Word of God upon the soul, that the Word of God can discern our thoughts and our intentions, and that none of us come before God hiding ourselves, as Adam and Eve attempted to do, but we come before a holy God, naked and exposed, who sees all things. And in light of that, he says, here is our great high priest. This is the focus of the letter of Hebrews, the priestly work of Christ. And He says that He is our Great High Priest. He's already introduced Him. And when He says that He is our Great High Priest, He shows that He is greater than all the priests who came before Him. He is greater than Aaron. He is greater than Melchizedek. He is greater than the Levites. Because He is greater, He can intercede for poor and weak and helpless people like us. By saying that we have this great high priest, he's not just a high priest, but he's a great high priest. That adverb that he uses to describe what kind of priest he is, one who is greater, shows that we need the intercession of one greater than those priests of the old covenant. We need one who will intercede who is greater than any earthly priest. For some, they still look to an earthly priest for their intercession. But Jesus is greater. He stands to intercede for us. And when he says that he as our great high priest has passed or is passed into the heavens, he's stating something that's already taken place. This idea of Jesus having already passed into heaven means that he has passed into that dwelling of God, indicating for us that there's a continuation of his priesthood. The priests of the Old Testament were only a shadow and a type of what was to be seen in Christ. And this place of passing into the heavens indicates that dwelling where God lives with the departed souls of His saints. And so when those saints die, Their souls are at rest with Him in this place called the heavens. And so Christ has passed there indicating that His priesthood continues, that He is there interceding at the right hand of the Father. That here He continues that present ministry of intercession. When Christ suffered and died and rose again, His ministry was not finished. His ministry continues. When we lived for many years in Fort Lauderdale, and we were at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and I was a student in the seminary, we saw the ministry of Dr. Kennedy for many years, but his ministry came to an end in 2007 when he died. Recently, Dr. Sproul went to glory, but their ministries are ended. Their ministries are complete, but Christ's ministry is not finished. His ministry continues. And so we have this great high priest who has entered, not just simply entered into the heavens, but he enters there on our behalf to intercede for us. Why do we pray? in the Lord's prayer, our Father, who art in heaven? Because we pray to a God who is present in heaven to receive the prayers of his people. And Jesus is there as our advocate. He is at the right hand of the Father, reigning as our prophet, our priest, our king. He is the one who has passed there so that He might intercede for us, that He might stand before the Father at His right hand. This One who has passed into the heavens, this Great High Priest, is Jesus, the Son of God. Much controversy even in Reformed circles today over the nature of the Trinity. But Jesus, as the Son of God, as the second person of the Godhead, has always been the Son of God. He did not become the Son of God at His baptism. as some still teach today, but Jesus has always been the Son of God. Jesus has always been God and will always be God. And so here we see the second person of the Trinity who came to earth, now passing into the heavens, God Himself interceding for us. And so He says, therefore, hold fast to your profession. What greater encouragement do you need? What greater motivation do you need to hold on than to know that Jesus is interceding for you? That He is at the right hand of God. When you feel like people ridicule you or your friends or your family think, ah, here he goes again, off on his religious tangents, hold fast. When you feel the pressures of life, when you feel stressed, hold fast. When you have those days when you just feel like giving up, don't. Hold fast. Hold on to that profession. Hold on to that which you have believed and continue to hold. To hold fast here means to remain firm, to remain constant. When you think about the situation of many Christians today in the Middle East, they know very well what it is to hold fast. Many Christians are literally being beheaded at this hour. Many Christians' lives are physically being taken away, and yet they remain firm, they hold on to that profession. But what is that profession which the writer tells us to hold on to because we have a priest who intercedes for us? There are two things that he says about that profession. First of all, is that profession of our lips that we confess that Christ is Lord, that we believe that Christ alone saves, that nothing else, that He is sufficient for our salvation. That is what we have to hold on to in a day when many so-called churches Many false churches have completely done away with any thought of the exclusive message of Christ alone as Savior and Redeemer. When we live in an age, a pluralistic age, that says, we're not tolerant of this Jesus, the Son of God. We're tolerant of Allah and every other God, but we're not tolerant of this one. Because He claims the right as King and Lord over all the earth. And no one wants to be in subjection to that. So when you're ridiculed, when you're facing great trial and tribulation, when you're under the stress of life, Hold fast to what you have believed. Hold firm to your belief in Christ. But there's a second idea here in this profession that he's already alluded to in verse 11. Not only the profession of our lips, but the profession of our lives. If you profess only with your lips that you're a Christian and you live contrary to that, that's not a profession. Anyone can say they're a Christian, anyone can say they go to church. But here he's talking about holding fast to that profession, which is that connection between our faith, what we profess, and our works. And that is something that oftentimes becomes a great difficulty to relate the two. But we are justified, as our confession says, by grace alone. But we are continually made holy or sanctified by our works. And so it's our faith in Christ alone, plus our labor, plus our works, plus our continuing to follow Him that he says hold on to. We are to remain firm as Christians. We are to walk in holiness before Him in an unholy world. We are to be holy and pious when those around you are using all kinds of foul language and when you see it in movies and entertainment. We are to hold fast because we are different, because we have a High Priest who intercedes for us. Therefore, we have encouragement and comfort. because he does intercede for us. But we also have the motivation for holding fast to what we profess with our lips and what we profess with our lives. Faith and works do go together in the life of the believer. For works are the fruit of our faith. And James says, without works, our faith is dead. But he says, do so without wavering. There should be a progress, there should be growth in your life. But there's a warning in the midst of this encouragement. There's a warning in the midst of what he tells us here, that we are to be careful. that we are to labor so that we might enter in to that rest, lest we fall after the manner of some. But there's a second thing to observe here. Not only do we have a great high priest who intercedes for us, but we have a great high priest who comforts us in all our afflictions. There in verse 15, The writer says, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. I am preaching from the King James Version and I don't think that many of the English versions bring this out very clearly. But if you notice there in verse 15, if you're an English major, what is the writer of Hebrews just done? He's made a double negative. Seeing that we have a great, or for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched. We don't use a double negative in English. It's not proper. But when the writer of Hebrews uses a double negative, which is used in old classic Koine Greek, that double negative shows an emphasis. It's there to make a point. It's seen we have this great high priest. We do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Every earthly priest cannot understand the feelings of our infirmities. This is why the writer of Hebrews shows that his sufferings are a comfort to us. The sufferings of Christ are a comfort to us, for we as Adam's children are corrupt and defiled. Unless you have any doubt about that, examine your own heart. Examine your own thoughts and your own motives and you think, where in the world did that come from? Our hearts are corrupt and defiled. We as children of Adam need that comfort. We need that intercession. And so we have one here who comforts us in our affliction. Whenever you have had the occasion, if you have, to go for pastoral counseling or to meet with a professional Christian counselor. Sometimes the best counselors, the best pastoral counselors are those who will sit and listen and who will be an encouragement and a comfort to you. Why is it that we look for those people, but we never look to Christ? who comforts us when we're afflicted. The writer of Hebrews tells us, we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He understands, he feels our infirmities. And he says there that he feels our infirmities because he is a man like us in all things but sin. Here is the great truth that is brought out concerning the comfort of this high priest. Because if we look to any earthly high priest for comfort, we would always be sorely disappointed. If we look to a human agent to comfort us, there are times when we will be greatly disappointed. You have had those times. I know, I've had those times as a pastor. When other pastors disappoint you. When Sessions may disappoint you. When Christians may disappoint you. But the one beautiful thing about this great high priest is that he comforts us in all of our afflictions and we are never disappointed. For He is always there with His grace, with His tender mercy. For He is fully man. He added to His divine nature, which always existed, that human nature, a reasonable body and soul, Not something that was a phantom, not something that was just an appearance of a man, but he took on real flesh and blood. And the writer of Hebrews describes that in chapter 2. when he says in verse 9, that we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all one. And here he reminds us that if we are in Christ, we are one. There's a union between us and Christ. And the union is not me. The union is all believers. We are united in Him. And He sanctifies us because He has gone through suffering. Not that Christ needed to suffer to perfect His salvation. That's not what the writer is saying. But that as one who is fully man, He had to taste death for us, so that He might come to our aid. so that when we face the end of our journey, and we're lying there, drawing our last breath, He is there to comfort us, because He has already walked to the valley of the shadow of death. Here it says that He is a heavenly priest who is tempted in every way Yet without sin. Here is the great truth of our confession. Here is the great truth of the scripture. That Christ has been tempted in every way that we have been tempted, yet he has never sinned. What is he referring to there? Could it have been possible that Christ would have sinned? Absolutely not. If there was any possibility that Christ could have sinned, do you know what that would have done? That would have made null and void His priesthood. That would have made it impossible for Him to be our heavenly and high priest. He was without sin. He was without both original sin coming from the first Adam, and He is without actual sin. It was necessary that He take on our nature, but our nature without corruption. The nature of man before the fall was human without corruption. And Christ did not know the corruption of sin. He was not conceived and born in sin, as the children of the first Adam are. It was necessary for Him to be without sin, because He united that divine nature to the human nature, so that He might be a perfect Savior, that He might become our righteousness, that Satan would have no accusation against us, For he is our priest who is without blemish." The shadow in the Old Testament, particularly there in Exodus chapter 3, shows that the lamb that they were to bring for Passover was to be without blemish. And if there was any blemish in that lamb, if it had been tainted in any way, they could not have used it for the Passover. And so in the same way, Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away our sin is pure and absolutely holy. But think of this thought. If Jesus Christ is eternally God, He could not have sinned, because God cannot sin. There are things regarding the nature of God that are not possible. God cannot lie. God cannot sin. God is eternal. He is unchanging. He is a simple God. And therefore Christ is without sin. And so we have one who is sympathetic, who understands the feeling of our infirmities. But thirdly and finally, we see that we have a great high priest who gives us access to him. He concludes by giving us an exhortation, an encouragement to come to His throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is the great climactic conclusion to this section. That He who is qualified to be our great High Priest because He is the Son of God, because He has taken our nature, because He is without sin, He assists us and encourages us so that we might come to Him. The picture here in this final verse shows us that of the Old Testament people of God coming to offer worship. The access that they were given to sacrifices in the Old Testament, the access that they had to offer sacrifices in the temple, that they had access to the holy place. And yet here Christ who fulfills the types and symbols of the Old Covenant comes. as our appointed priest to give us direct access to God. You can try to gain access to the president, and you'll have a lot of difficulty. You might have much difficulty gaining access to your senator or congressman, or even the CEO of a company. But as a believer, you never have any problem with having access to Him. For we, by nature, have no access to God. We have no right to come before Him. We have no right to call upon Him, to call Him as our God. But He says, draw near. Come, approach Me. And there are two things that we need to understand that have to be removed before we can approach a holy God. And that is the spirit of fear. People in the Old Covenant, especially as they stood before Sinai receiving the summary of God's law, what were they doing? They were trembling. They were afraid. They were in the presence of God. And so the one thing that gives us access is the fact that fear before a holy and righteous God must be removed. And there are many who profess faith in Christ who are filled with many fears, who are filled with shame and guilt, and have no reason to be. Because Christ has taken away the fear of shame. We should always feel remorse over sin, but remorse is not the same as shame. For shame is always filled with fear and doubt. But He's removed that fear. He's removed that doubt so that we can come before Him. But there's a second thing that has to be removed, and that is unbelief. arising from our own unworthiness. Well, I'm not really worthy to come before God. Who is? None of us are worthy. But He has removed that doubt, He's removed that disbelief of our unworthiness. And this throne of grace is the object of our approach to Christ. Because the throne of grace is a picture of one seated in royal estate. One who is seated as a majestic king. And that is Christ, who is God and man. He has prepared a throne of grace for us. There is a throne of judgment, but here he speaks not of the throne of judgment, but the throne of grace. And he says, But come boldly. This idea of coming boldly is not coming rashly. Not coming with some haughty attitude, but coming with sincere confidence and assurance to that throne of grace. Why do we come? Because we're in need. We're in need because we are weak and helpless. We are fallen creatures. And we need the aid of one who is our Savior, who pities us as His needy children. He gives grace to us. Where's the encouragement for us? It's in Christ. Where is our comfort and our consolation? It's in Christ. It's not in us. It's not in our friends or family. It's in Him. who calls us to come boldly to its throne of grace, without fear, without doubt, for we have access to come for help when we need help. We have access to come with our prayers, our petitions, our cries, our concerns, our worries. And for some of us, we can spend many years with that sense of shame. Oh, we can't approach God. We're not sure what He's going to do. But if He is the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God, His love for us never changes. His mercy never changes. His love never fails. He doesn't place conditions. Well, this is about the 10th time you've come. And you have really blown it this week. Some may say that to us, but Christ never does. He never turns his children away. John Calvin says that Christ has abolished sin, that he's banished the separation between us and God, and has acquired righteousness to render God favorable toward us. And He has achieved this for us by the whole course of His perfect obedience. If Christ was not perfectly obedient, passively and actively, He would not be a Savior. If He had any ability or possibility to sin, He would not be your Savior. For this Savior has faced every humiliation and suffering that we will face, but He is there to comfort us in our afflictions. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, He comforts us in our afflictions so that we might comfort others. He is our comforter, but we are called as His children to comfort one another. What a beautiful transition into our observance of the Lord's Supper. To realize that as we come to this table, we come standing in need of grace, standing in need of one who says, come. Do you feel shame over something you've done or something you're struggling with or something in your life? Come to Christ. Is there great temptation and trial? Is there an urge in your life that makes you think, well, I'm not so sure? You feel like kind of falling back? Stand firm. Hold on to Christ because He's there to offer grace and mercy to us in our time of need. and we all as fallen creatures need a sympathizing savior. We need one who will say, I understand. I am here to offer grace and mercy in time of need. Let me ask you this morning, do you see God as your judge? or as your Savior. Does this coming to this throne give an image of a God who is far away? Many people say, well, God's angry at me. God is angry with the wicked every day. That's why we have one who has taken our shame and guilt and given us his righteousness so that we can no longer be estranged from God and from one another. If you do not know this Christ this morning, if you have not trusted in him for your salvation, if you have no access to him, you are under his judgment and his wrath. And if you don't repent and believe in the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, you have no life, and you have no hope of eternal life. This morning, perhaps you, like me, and like all of us, are struggling along this earthly journey to that celestial city. Keep holding on. Trust in the One who feels and empathizes with us and who comes to us in our need. Let us pray. Almighty and ever-living God, thank you for giving us a Savior who understands all of our needs, who understands when we fail, who understands when we sin, who understands when we violate His law, and yet shows mercy and compassion to his children. Grant us your mercy, O Lord, and prepare us as we come to your table, for we ask this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. We are going to sing Together, Psalm 607. 607, the words, or some of the words from Psalm 69, remind us of the loving kindness of the Lord, which is good and free. Let us sing to his glory.