Today we're going to look at Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. But in preparation for reading Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, I want to read Malachi 2, verses 5, 6, and 7. These are magnificent verses. I memorized these when I was a cadet, and they were key verses to calibrate my thinking every day. So listen to the word of God as I read from Malachi and then from Hebrews. My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and justice, and turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." And then from Hebrews, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. May God add His blessing to the reading and the hearing of His perfect word. If I were to ask you right now, what comes to mind when you think about your biggest and most burdensome problem, maybe the biggest and most burdensome problem that you've ever faced in your entire life? Is it a spouse problem? Is it family struggles, child struggles, in-laws, outlaws, health issues, money issues, your education, your children's education, an evil boss at work, If you have all those troubles right now, all working against you, every one of them, I'm going to name for you one of your troubles that's the biggest problem that you have ever had, ever faced in your entire life. And your biggest problem, your greatest problem ever, is your sin. Sin is breaking God's law. Sin is not keeping God's law, 1 John 3, 4. Sin is odious to God. He hates sin. And we don't say that old thing, He hates the sin but loves the sinner. That's not what the Scripture says. You read Psalm 5. You read Psalm 7. God says, My soul loathes the sinner. This is the person who has given himself to sin. As we're going to read a verse later, it's a person who is a disciple of sin. And sin is such a huge problem because it separates us from God. And it's such a huge problem because we do not have the ability to fix it after we broke it. The problem, according to Isaiah, is your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. And if we were to go all the way over to the Newer Testament, we turn to the last book in Revelation 6, there we have that picture of the people who stand before God at that last moment, and they've had their whole lives, everything's been before them. They've heard the Scriptures, they've been faced with this truth, and it says, the kings of the earth and the great men and the rulers and the rich and the strong, and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said, O rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Well, the answer to that, what's the answer to that? Who is able to stand? only he who is in Jesus Christ, only he who has Jesus as that great high priest. And look at the people who are listed there. Look at the people who are listed as those people in sin, who are cowering at the majesty and justice of God. Those people who are there to give an account, as the previous verse we preached on last week, Hebrews 4.13 says, kings and presidents and dictators and royalty and children and wives and husbands and laborers and even slaves. On that day they will be reduced to cowering before God. They will be pleading for the rocks to cover them from His wrath. And all people in all statuses have the same problem. All will face the holiness of God, and there they will be declared either guilty, are not guilty for the sins they have done. And if they are guilty, they will beg to be swallowed up by the earth and for the mountains to fall on them. Because being crushed by an avalanche, think about how horrible that would be. Seeing the boulders come on you and roll down the mountains and there's no escape and they come to you. Being crushed by a rock slide. is less terrifying than to face the Holy God in your guilt. So sin is your biggest problem. We've been separated and we were separated by our own sin. And we broke ourselves so badly that we are completely unable to fix the mess we're in, or to bridge the infinite gap between us and Him. And the Scripture speaks of our inability. You can't save yourselves. Only Jesus can save you. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot. He is unable. He is, Ephesians 2.1, he is dead in his trespasses and sins. And how do dead men respond? They don't. They're dead unless they are resurrected. In Jeremiah 13, 23, can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin or can the leopard change his spots? If so, then you too, O man who are accustomed to doing evil, that's where it says, are a disciple of evil, can do good. But then if we look back at Isaiah for just a moment, and we read the verse of Isaiah 59.1, we find that what is impossible with us is completely possible with God. God has the ability. He says, behold the Lord's hand. And when you read the word the Lord's hand, that means the Lord's power, His energy, His strength. The Lord's hand is not so short. That means that it's not without ability. It's not short, it's not without ability. That it cannot save. God can save us in spite of ourselves. So what did God do to accomplish our salvation? Well, in Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 7, which points out that what the Bible says, it says, the distance between God and us, which was caused by our sin, is so great that to overcome our problem of sin, God entered into covenants. He entered into contracts. When you bought your house, you entered into covenants. You signed a contract. And why did He do this? He did this to guarantee that His people will receive what He wants His people, those He's choosing to be His people, to receive. And then the next chapter, Confession 8, begins with these words, It pleased God in His eternal purpose praise the Lord, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, the priest, and the king as head and savior of His church. You see, we were in deep trouble But God came to the rescue by sending a mediator. We needed a mediator. But now, you know, what is a mediator? Now, Carl would have a legal definition of that. He could help us here. But a mediator is one who is a go-between. for two parties. One person who represents both of the involved parties. One person who fixes what otherwise can't be fixed. And in 1 Timothy 2.5 we read, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He mediated as prophet, as priest, and as king. But here in our text, the focus is on him mediating as a priest. So a mediator is a mediator, a go-between. But what is a priest? A priest is also a go-between. They're almost synonyms. A priest and a mediator, they're synonyms. The priesthood was instituted by God for mediation, and to be made up of those men who set themselves apart for the service according to God's directions, to take that place, to offer sacrifices, and to offer prayers, and to represent through these sacrifices, us and our sin. They would act on behalf of another. They mediate. But notice here that Jesus is not just a priest, He is not just a high priest, but He is the high priest. Verse 14, seeing then that we have a great He's the Great High Priest, Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Because of who He is, the Great High Priest, we're to hold fast our confession. Confess what? We confess Jesus. And why do we confess Jesus? We confess Jesus because He is that high priest, that great high priest, the last high priest that God the Father authorized to make sacrifice for sins. And this sets him apart from all others and brings an end to the sacrificial system that used to be required as a picture of what was to come in Christ. And if you'll take your bulletin for a second, I want you to turn back to the confession of faith. Find in the Shorter Catechism question 25. I want to ask the question again, and I want to bring it back to your mind in a real solid way. Question 25 says, How does Christ execute the office of a priest? Or how does He perform the office of a priest? Let's say that together now. Together. Christ, in His once offering up of Himself a sacrifice to satisfy and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. Amen. Yours is updated, mine is the old one, because I did everything in my head. But let's unpack this for just a second. Jesus once, and only once, offered Himself. Christ the victim, Christ the priest. Other priests, they had to repeat their sacrifices over and over and over throughout the year. And the high priest had to make his sacrifice at the Holy of Holies once a year, but every year, year after year after year. But Jesus needed to sacrifice himself only once, only once for all sins past, present, and future. And when Jesus died 2,000 years ago, how many of your sins were future? All of them. All of them. He sacrificed Himself for all sins, past, present, and future of His people. People like us. And because his work was completely and fully satisfactory to God, God accepted it as payment for our sins. Now this Bible truth should be the dismantling of the Roman Catholic Church. because it claims to re-sacrifice Christ on a regular basis. It claims to perform a mass where transubstantiation, where the bread and the wine become the actual body and blood of Christ. And they go through all kinds of measures to try to make that sound right. But Jesus, you can forget all that. That one point that Jesus wants and for all, and never to be repeated, sacrificed Himself for our sins should be the undoing of anyone who would think of re-sacrificing or a mass, or anyone who would think that that sacrifice does not apply to me because it was so long ago and it's got to be repeated over and over and over. And there's some precision needed here in our theology. It's really important to the integrity of the gospel itself that we understand that Christ's sacrifice did not begin a process of salvation. Justification is an act of God's free grace. It did not begin a process of salvation or make you able to do that which would merit favor with God. You never, ever, ever merit favor with God. But what Christ accomplished once and finally, in and of itself, was all that was needed to completely satisfy God's just requirements from us for our sin. His one sacrifice, one time, fully paid for and accomplished salvation for all those who ever believed in Him, past, present, and future. for Adam, for Abraham, for Moses, for Jeremiah, for Carl, for Kevin, all of them. That's the gospel that saves. No other gospel will do. And as our great high priest, he reconciled us to God. and He reconciled God to us. He united us. He bridged that infinite chasm between God and us that was created by our sin. And now there's no more separation. He is the bridge that brings us together with God. And Ephesians 2.16 talks about He reconciled them both to God in one body through the cross. He did that on the cross. He did away with enmity and strife and wrath and hostility. In Christ, all of those things are completely removed. And also, this reconciliation has benefits. Again, Shorter Catechism 25 says that He makes continual intercession for us. As our great high priest, Jesus prays for us. And why does Shorter Catechism 25 say that? It's because what the Bible says, Hebrews 7.25, it says that Jesus always lives to make intercession for us, Hebrews 7.25. He talks to the Father on our behalf. Can you imagine Jesus, metaphorically, at the right hand of His Father, saying, Father, I want to talk to you about Kelly. Heavenly Father, I want to talk to you about Evelyn. Heavenly Father, I want to have a conversation with you about Christian. I want to talk to you, Heavenly Father, about Doreen. He does it. That's one of the benefits of reconciliation. Jesus is a great and active and praying and advocating high priest. And Jesus Christ is worthy of having this superior title as the great high priest. 73 times in the scripture, the phrase high priest is mentioned in the Bible. Aaron was a high priest and a great one. A good one, I mean. And Melchizedek was a high priest. But only Jesus is the great high priest. And only Jesus is referred to in the scripture as the great high priest. So what makes Jesus not just a priest, but the great high priest? Well, think about it. Well, first is His very person. Jesus Christ is both God and man. According to verse 14, He is Jesus, the Son of God. That alone makes Him greater and higher and different than any previous priest. Jesus Christ unites deity and humanity so that He can represent God to us and us to God. Secondly, not only in His person, but also in His position, Jesus Christ is greater than any other priest. Jesus ministers Think about this. From where? From a position of a throne in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. No longer from an earthly tabernacle. Jesus has left the earth and He has gone back to heaven. He is now re-seated at His Father's right hand. And Aaron and his successors ministered in earthly tabernacles that were all destroyed, they were all torn down, they all ceased to exist. But Jesus Christ, according to the first, passed through the heavens, and He now sits on a throne and ministers to us from a position that cannot be undone, cannot be destroyed, cannot be overturned. And He ministers to us from there by God the Holy Spirit. So it says 1 Corinthians 2.12, 1 Corinthians 3.16, and 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20. Just one book of the Bible tells you that. So in a real sense, think about this, in all its glory and all its power, the high priest is in touch with us right now, constantly and actively from heaven. How much greater is it to have a high priest who is so great that he ministers to us directly from God's throne rather than from just an earthly tabernacle? But another thing about this, Jesus is not only in heaven, but he is in possession of all authority in heaven and earth from which he dispenses mercy and grace. His throne is in a place from which we may obtain mercy and from which we may obtain grace. So says Hebrews 4.16. The mercy seat in the Ark of the Covenant was set aside. It was set apart that no one could go there but the high priest. It was recognized as a place that was way out there. It was not for the common man. It was not for us. It was not for those who weren't especially sanctified and set apart. But even that mercy seat was never called a throne of grace, as is the throne Jesus sits on today. Which meant that Jesus is in a position now, not to keep you away, but to welcome you, to call you, to permit you to enter that tabernacle, to enter that place where He is, where He is ready to give you both grace and mercy as you need it. He is the high priest that can do that. But according to our text, verse 16, every believer in Christ, that's you, believer in Christ. It's not you, non-believers in Christ. Every believer in Christ is not just invited to come, but he is encouraged to come. And not just to come, but to come boldly to the throne of grace. He calls us to come to Him, to be ministered to by Him as He offers mercy upon mercy and grace upon grace. Also, Jesus is the great high priest that has powers that other high priests didn't have. Jesus reconciled people to God, and therefore he has every right to give out mercy. He can keep you from receiving what you do deserve. He can keep you from receiving the wrath of God. And He also can give to you His grace, because He has earned grace. He has paid for grace. And if you paid for grace, it would no longer be grace. But because He has it and He gives it to you, He distributes it to you. Therefore, it is grace. And He wants us to come, to come boldly. That means with full liberty to His throne to speak to Him about ourselves, about our desires, and especially our needs of both mercy and of grace. So, again, think about it. Who is sitting on this throne? Who sits on thrones? Those with power, those with authority, those with wealth. Jesus. Our great high priest has all of those without limit. Jesus, our great high priest, has them all without stinginess. Jesus, our great high priest, has all of them to give to you, just waiting for you to ask. And just a reminder, you remember that mercy is not getting what you do deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve. So what controlling factors are Factor into what we get and what we don't get. Well, the good news is it's not dependent on you. It's His love. He takes joy in sparing His brothers. He takes joy in blessing His brothers. Also, His ability. He has all power, all authority in heaven and earth. And our personal situations. You see, There's not general grace and there's not just general mercy. You know, that people say, blessing or, you know, I'll pray for God to bless you. What is that? Is that that sticky stuff that gets in your hair that you have to wash out every other day, every day? What is blessing? No, God knows Chester. God knows what Chester needs. God knows Monica. He knows what Monica needs. He is personally and intimately acquainted with all of us who are his people. And because we are His people, He has the right to receive our confession. What is a confession? A confession is to state or to admit or to acknowledge that something is true. I want to admit that Jesus is my great High Priest. I want to admit, I want to confess that Jesus has risen and gone back into heaven. I want to confess that He is God. He is God, He is the Son of God, and He is God the Son. I want to confess that He reigns from His throne. I want to confess that He is at the right hand of God the Father Almighty with all authority. I want to confess that we have sinned against Him. And I want to confess that we are helpless apart from His work. And I want to confess that He loved us first and therefore we love Him and we now choose to follow Him because of the work He's done in our lives. I want to confess that we are not our own, that I am not my own, but I've been bought with a price, body and soul and life and in death. I want to confess that I'm devoted to Him as Lord and Savior, and I want to confess that I exist and you exist for the glory of God. That's our confession. But what makes this so sweet? The last thing is this. What makes Jesus the sweet, wonderful high priest is that he can sympathize with our weaknesses. Hebrews 4.15, again, for we do not have a high priest who cannot, which means he doesn't have the power to or the ability to, sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. You see, this verse gets to the central point of our lives and leads us to the important understanding about our greatest problem. Again, our greatest problem is sin. And Jesus would not have the power and ability to sympathize with our temptations and our struggles if He had not Himself taken on flesh and come to earth, come to earth and taken on flesh and endured all the temptations that you faced. Yes, every temptation you faced, He faced. Every temptation I faced, He has faced. And yet He did it without sin. So we need this high priest. It means that he is personally concerned for us and he understands us. It means that he can sympathize with us and he can relieve us of our suffering, the real suffering. It means that he can, in his sympathy, that he can identify with us emotionally, even when our emotions turn into temptations. You see, he... In the core of His being, He has faced all of those things and yet without sin. So think of that. Jesus always at all times sympathizes with you because He's been where you are. but he was victorious, completely victorious. He lived as we lived when he didn't have to because he loves us. So let us trust in Jesus, that great high priest. Let us love Jesus, which means he who has my commands to keep them. He's the one who loves me. Let us obey Jesus, that great high priest, and let us confess Jesus as our great high priest. Let us confess Him. When we go to work, when we go to school, wherever we go, we get in our truck to drive it. Let us confess Jesus and declare that He is the great High Priest who can give us mercy, who can give us grace, who sympathizes with our weakness. And let us do this every day with our families, with our workers, with our friends. Let us teach these truths to our children. Let us lead our wives in these things. And let us tell the world how great Jesus is. He's great enough for us to come out of the world on Sunday to be here. He's great enough for us to give our lives to Him. He's great enough for us to trust Him with our eternal destiny. Amen? Amen. So would you now prepare for the Supper of the Lord?