A Priest by an Oath

Let's turn to the word, and we're in Hebrews chapter 7, and we'll go from verse 11 through verse 28. Not sure how far we'll get, but let's read that whole passage. So Hebrews chapter 7, reading from verse 11 through 28. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not to be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident, if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For he testifies, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as he was not made a priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath, by him who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. Also there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he because he continues forever has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. He does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weaknesses, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the son who has been perfected forever. And obviously these are difficult thoughts because there are so many ideas. Let's just recap. We got to verse 12 last time. Let's just very quickly recap verse 11 and 12 before we before we move on. And so therefore if perfection, remember the word perfection here, does not relate to maturity as it appears somewhere else. It is on Simon. It does not, are you good? It does not apply to maturity or completeness as he used the word in chapter 6 and elsewhere in the book. But here perfection relates to being made perfect to come into God's presence. Because obviously in order to come into the presence of God we need to be perfect. We need to have our sins dealt with. And so the law, the Levitical priesthood, could not present us into the presence of God, could not perfect us in order to bring us, give us access into his presence. If therefore perfection were through the Levitical priesthood for the people received the law, we'll come back to the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise according to the order of Melchizedek? And obviously this is just a very basic logical argument. If the law could bring us into the presence of God, well then there would be no need, sorry, the Levitical priesthood could bring us into the presence of God, there would be no need for another priesthood. The very fact that we need a different priest, another priest, means that the Levitical priesthood could not give us access into the presence of God. We'll talk more about what the priesthood and the Old Testament law did. And so in verse 12 he introduces the idea of the law now. For the priesthood being changed of necessity is also the change of the law. And we spoke about the fact that the law and the priesthood were tied together. The priesthood was brought into being by the law, the law specified who could be priests, how the priests had to function, what their qualifications were in order to serve, and all of those kinds of things. This was, so the law brought them into being, and we will see that Jesus is brought into his priesthood in a different way. But also they upheld the law, they were the executors of the law, in the sense that in government you have an executive branch. The executive branch's function is to apply the law. And so Jesus was the one, sorry, the priests were the ones who then applied the law, the executors of the law. So there was this marriage between the priesthood and the law. But if the priesthood changes, the law also then, he says, must change. Now verse 13. For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe. We've spoken about that. Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi, he was of Judah. He had to be of the tribe of Judah in order to be the king. And so of for he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no man is officiated at the altar, or served at the altar. So no one out of the tribe of Judah, or out of any of the other eleven tribes outside of Levi, ever served at the altar. Remember there was this one man, we spoke about him, Uzziah the king, and he tried to burn incense, and God, the priests resisted him, and God struck him, and he was driven not just from the temple, or from the the tabernacle, but he was driven out of the city. And so it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah. So he's saying, we understand, we know that he comes out of Judah, that both Luke and Matthew give us the genealogies of Jesus, and prove very clearly that he is from the tribe of Judah, going, tracing his ancestry back to David. Now, so it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. So the law that prescribed how the priesthood to function, said nothing about any priest coming out of Judah. So Jesus is therefore, in a sense, disqualified to be a priest of the tribe of Levi. But there's another, just a very important word here, at the end of the first line, it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah. Normally you would say that our Lord descended from Judah, but it says he arose from Judah. This is a messianic statement, the same way as the scripture speaks about the sun rising. And so this is, so the fact that he rose, not that he descended, speaks about the fact that he is the Messiah. It's something that the Hebrew people would have understand. Now verse 15, and it is yet far more evident. So it is clear, he says, that he was not from Judah. It is far clearer, far more evident, if in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest. And so Jesus is a priest, but he is after the order of Melchizedek. Who has come? Not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. So he's now going to, remember he spoke about the weaknesses of the Old Testament priesthood, of the Levitical priesthood, in the previous section up to verse 11-12. Now he's going to speak about the advantages, or the benefits, or the wonder of the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus. And so he keeps comparing the weakness of the Levitical priesthood to Jesus's priesthood. And so he has come according to, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment. So it was the commandment that made priests in the Old Testament. So if you ask the priest, why did you come to be a priest? He'll say, because we have a commandment. The law says that I am of the tribe of Levi, therefore I am a priest. But he is not made a priest because of a commandment. There is no commandment that makes him a priest. But he is a priest according to the power of an endless life. The fact that Jesus is eternal gives him the right, the power, to become a priest. And so the priests in the Old Testament, he's going to talk about that, could not continue because of reason of death. But Jesus's first qualification, or one of his qualifications, is that he has an endless life, that he is eternal. Now he comes back to Psalm 110, for he testifies, you are a priest forever. Now he's going, this is the second time that the writer is quoting from Psalm 110, from the same verse in Psalm 110. And he's going to quote a third time from it. Each time he's taking, just like when we exposit the Scripture, we emphasize different aspects of the same verse. He is taking the same verse, and he's emphasizing a different aspect each one of the times, that each of the three times he quotes the verse. And here what he's emphasizing is the word forever. Remember the last, the last verse said that he is one, because he's a priest because of his endless life. And now he quotes Psalm 110 to prove that, that you are a priest forever. And so Jesus, because he is eternal, he is a priest forever. His priesthood never ceases. So we must remember, and he's going to come to that and explain that in the next few verses, that Jesus was not a priest here on earth. He is a priest in heaven. In his three and a half years of earthly ministry, he never functioned as a priest. He functioned as a prophet, he functioned as a teacher, he functioned as a shepherd, in some senses as an apostle, the one that was sent by God, but he never functioned as a priest. After his resurrection, he also did not function as a priest here on earth. The sections that we're dealing with in the book of Luke right now, between his resurrection and his ascension, that 40 days, he appears to the disciples, but he never functions as a priest. So he doesn't operate as a priest here, he operates as a priest in heaven. And that priesthood never ceases. So it's not like, it's a, he's earthly ministry that started when he began at John's baptism and ended at the cross. But his ministry as a priest begins at the cross, and, or actually predates the cross, and continues thereafter forever. So you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. So there is a annulling, a doing away, a, when you annul something, you make it, the word, the key to the understanding that word is null, which means nothing. So making nothing, doing away, the former commandment. Which commandment? The commandment that made them priests. So that commandment has no relevance anymore, he says, because of its weakness and its unprofitableness. And in the next chapters, he's going to come back to this idea over and over and over, explaining the weakness of the earthly priesthood. So because of its weakness and its unprofitableness, the priesthood and the commandment could not make us perfect, could not bring us into the presence of God. All it could do is cover sin for a period. All it could do is point to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus would make. All those priests could do was point forward to the ultimate priest who would come in the form of the Lord Jesus. But for in themselves, they were weak and they were unprofitable. They were not able to be of value. They were not able to do much. And so verse 19, because the law made nothing perfect. Here again, we have this word perfect, meaning equipping us to be in the presence of God. So the law made nothing perfect. The law could not bring us into the presence of God. All the law could do was cover sin, but that still did not bring us into the presence of God. Because the problem was that the sin, this is an important distinction, the sin was not done away. The sins of the people in the Old Testament was covered, but it was still there. Because the blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sin. It can only cover sin for a period. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away sin and do away with it. And so even though your sin is covered, you still don't have access into the presence of God because the sin is still there. It hasn't been dealt with. It's almost like, you know, going to see the queen and you've been working in the yard all day and you're filthy and sweaty and what have you, but you put a new suit on and you say, well, you know, I've got a good suit. I'm fine. No, in fact, underneath the suit, you're still not good. And so that was the problem with the law. But what Jesus did was he made us new from the inside out so that we can come into his presence. So the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And now here's that word better again. Remember right from the beginning, we've been emphasizing this word better. We have a better high priest. We have a better hope. And Jesus has brought for us a better hope through which we draw near to God. This idea of drawing near to God, we've seen this idea before. He's going to come back to that in chapter 10 again. Let us draw near with a true heart, with full assurance of faith. And so remember Israel stood afar off when God began to speak to Israel at Mount Sinai. It says they stood afar off. And they said, Moses, you go and ask God what he has to say. Then they pitched Moses's tent outside the camp. And God said, if you want to speak to me, you can come and visit with me. And only Moses and Caleb go and visit with God, spend time with God. Sorry, and Joshua, Moses and Joshua. Joshua stayed in the presence of God. Moses would have to come and go because he had other work to do. But no one else, the rest of the congregation would stand at their tents, standing afar off, and watch Moses over there as Moses goes into the presence of God. But we are called to draw near. And we saw in the book of Luke recently that that veil was torn from the top to the bottom, giving us direct access into the presence of God. And so these are the things that the law could not do on the day of atonement. The high priest, once a year, would go into the holiest of all with the blood and sprinkle the mercy seat with the blood. And he would come out. And the people would rejoice because he is alive, that he survived being in the presence of God. It was also a sign that God had accepted the sacrifice. But at no stage could the high priest come out and make an announcement and say, well, the doors are open. You can now come into the presence of God. Those curtains, those veils, those doors remained closed all the time. The high priest would go and represent the people once a year. He would come out. But the people never had access into God's presence. But we are able to draw near into the very presence of God, into the very presence of God. And so that in itself, if you again think about these Jewish believers who are saying, well, we want to go back to Judaism because it's just too hard to be a Christian. And he's saying to them, but in the Jewish faith, you don't have access to God. Whereas as a Christian, we have access to God. And one thinks of many other faiths and many other sects of Christianity that cannot give access into the presence of God. Somebody else has to go into God's presence. Whereas each one of us has access into his very presence. We don't need an intermediary. We have an intermediary, and his name is Jesus. And so we have something which is far better. And we need to cherish that. And here's the problem, is that even though we have that privilege, very few avail themselves of that privilege. Even though we are able to come into his presence without doing anything, just come, because Jesus did it all. Yet we still remain outside of his presence so much of the time. And so we need to avail ourselves of that privilege which is ours to come into his presence. Now verse 20, in as much as he was not made a priest without an oath. Now remember the first thing that sets him apart from earthly priests is that they were made priests by a commandment. He was made a priest because of his endless life. Now he's going to bring another aspect. And he says, as he was not made a priest without an oath. The next verse explains that. For they have become priests without an oath. But he with an oath, by him who said. There is no oath that the priest took or that God declared them to be priests. God tells Moses, bring Aaron and set him aside for the work of the ministry. Set him aside as the high priest. Aaron is washed and he's dressed and he goes through the rituals. But at no stage does God make an oath and say, Aaron you are a priest. Or the Levites are a priest. There's simply a commandment that says they must be priests. And so they become priests without an oath. But he, that's Jesus, with an oath, by him that is by God. Now remember we dealt with this issue of an oath in the previous chapter. In the previous chapter God made an oath Abraham. So God makes a promise to Abraham and he confirms that promise by an oath. In that it's impossible, by these two things, that it's impossible for God to lie. And God made an oath by himself that in blessing I will bless you, is the covenant with Abraham. And so in the same way God makes an oath. In other words he is giving us absolute assurance that this is true, that this is so. Jesus is made a priest by an oath. Now again he's contrasting the difference. One is made a priest by a commandment, an order, an instruction. One is made a priest by an oath. Two very, very different levels. And so again he's quoting Psalm 110. Now he's emphasizing another aspect of that verse. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. He will not turn away. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So now he's emphasizing the first part of the verse. The Lord has sworn and he will not change. The Lord has sworn. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The priests in the Old Testament had authority because they could point to the law and say the law says we are priests. And remember that when there was a rebellion against Aaron and his sons being the priests, God judged those people. And there was a lot of trouble. So God upheld that. But when it comes to Jesus, it's a far more serious thing because God makes an oath and he says not only are you a priest, but you're a priest forever. This can never change. Now when we come to the Old Testament priests, does that change? Yes it does. Well for a start there are no priests right now because there is no temple. But when they rebuild the temple there will be priests again. But they are serving in a worldly human religion. They are not serving in the true faith, because the true faith is the faith of which Jesus is the high priest. And so while it is Judaism and while it is that which is established in the Old Testament, in rejecting the Messiah it is a false faith. And so whatever priests will function in the future, are serving in a false religion. Because the only true religion now is the religion that says Jesus is the Lord, he is the Messiah. And so that priesthood has been done away with. And effectively it was done away with in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed and God said this is it, no more. But Jesus is a priest forever. His priesthood continues forever. Verse 22, by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. So here again is so much more, not just more, but much more. Jesus has become a surety or a guarantee of a better covenant. When you sign surety for someone to get to buy a car or for some form of credit to buy a house, whatever, you are guaranteeing that if that person doesn't pay, you will pay. So you're giving surety to the to the lender, you're guaranteeing the payment. Jesus is the surety or the guarantee of a better covenant. So not only does God enter into a covenant with us, but he gives us an assurance and a guarantee that that covenant is going to stand. And how do we have that guarantee? Remember that Ephesians speaks about the fact that we have the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as an earnest of our inheritance. But here he's speaking about Jesus, not the Holy Spirit being the down payment or the earnest or the deposit. But Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant. So how do we know Jesus is the guarantee? Because God gave him for us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. So God did not withhold his Son, but he gave him, and that guarantees for us the better covenant. And so we have in Jesus's life and death and resurrection, we have the guarantee that the covenant that God has made with us is a sure covenant. Now remember, whenever he speaks about a covenant in Hebrews, whenever Hebrews speaks about a covenant, he's contrasting the new covenant with the old covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham, and you may remember how that happened. God puts Abraham to sleep, Abraham sleeps, and before that he takes carcasses of animals and he cuts them in half, puts them down on the ground, which is a ritual that they used at that time to make a covenant. Moses goes to sleep because this is a unilateral covenant, and he sees God walking between the carcasses, which is what they would do. So if you had two people making a covenant, they would together walk through these carcasses back and forth, making that covenant. God makes the covenant on his own because it is not dependent on Abraham, it's solely dependent on God. It's a unilateral, one-sided covenant. Abraham is the beneficiary, God is the one who makes the covenant. So Abraham had an assurance, even before Isaac was born, because he could say, I saw God cut, the language they use is, cut the covenant with me as he walked between the carcasses. But we have a better covenant and we have a more sure guarantee in the form of the Lord Jesus. Not animals that are broken and killed, but Jesus' own body. Remember, this is the blood of the new covenant. And so the covenant, the same way as the animals were killed in the Old Testament to make the covenant, Jesus is killed in the New Testament to make the covenant. And you can see the contrast, the greatness of the covenant we have, just by the way in which the covenant is made. Not animals cut down and put down on the ground, but Jesus crucified at the cross of Calvary. Now verse 23, also there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. We've spoken about that. There are different estimates as to how many priests there were and how many high priests there were from Aaron to the time of Jesus. And the estimates vary, but they run in the hundreds. So there were hundreds of high priests. There were thousands and thousands of priests, and they all died. And a new priest would come, and a new high priest would come. And you never knew what you were going to get, because some of these priests and some of these high priests were incredibly corrupt, as the high priests were, although they were not legitimate high priests at the time of Jesus, Caiaphas. But you may have had a good priest, or a good high priest. Remember that you related to them to different levels. But then just when you got used to him, he dies, and you get another one. And this one is no good, because he wants you to give him bribes so that he will make the sacrifice for you. Or he says, no, let me take the best part of the meat. Remember, that's what Eli's sons did. Give me, you know, let me first see what you got. Okay, yeah, these are the good cuts. I'm going to take these. You can sacrifice the rest to God. And so you never knew what you were going to get. Some were all right, some were not. But Jesus has a continuing priesthood. You're not going to wake up tomorrow morning and say, well, you know, what kind of priest have we got now? The same way as we wait for elections to find out what kind of mayor or governor or president we're going to have next. Never know what you're going to get. But with Jesus, we know who we've got. And he is always the same. He doesn't change. And his priestly ministries, high priestly ministry never stops. And so they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. And so I've spoken about the fact that these priests changed. Not only did they change because they died, but they would never be the same. No two men are the same. No two pastors are ever the same. No priests were ever the same. But he continues forever. And not only does he continue forever, but he has an unchangeable priesthood. He is not long-suffering one day and grumpy the next day. He is the same every day. And he is able to receive us the same way every day. There is nothing that makes life more difficult than not knowing what you're going to get the next time you meet someone. Sometimes they smile at you. Sometimes they frown at you. You never know what you're going to get. But with Jesus, we know exactly what we're going to get every time. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him. This verse was traditionally abused in early evangelical and Pentecostal circles because they used to speak about being saved from the gutter most to the uttermost. That's not what it's talking about. He's simply saying that he is able to save us to the end. To the end. He doesn't half save us, but he saves us completely. He saves us all the way. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost, to the very end. It doesn't matter what we go through. It doesn't matter what happens in life. It doesn't matter whether we go through war and like the people in Ukraine or, you know, what goes on around us in our world. He will save us to the end, to the uttermost. And he saves those who come to God through him. Now, we know that. We can't come through the church. We can't come through the pastor. We can't come through a priest. We have to come through him. And so, in the Old Testament, they had to go through the priest. Now, we come through Jesus. And so, again, he's highlighting the difference between them and us. Our privilege of being able to come straight into his presence through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. He always lives. He's eternal. He's emphasized that over and over. Just use the different words, but always meaning the same thing. He always lives to make intercession for them that come to him, obviously, who come to him through God, to God through him. Now, this is one of our privileges as Christians, is that he is interceding for us. Remember that the function of the priests was to act before God on behalf of the people. When the high priest would go in on the Day of Atonement into the holiest of all, he would come with the blood, and he is making atonement for the people, and he's pleading before God for the people. But Jesus comes, and he makes intercession for us. Now, he is able to make intercession perfectly. The priests in the Old Testament didn't know what was going on in people's lives. They didn't know all the sins. They didn't know all the issues. So, just on that basis, their intercession was imperfect. When I pray for my kids, when I pray for you, I can only pray to a certain point, as much as I know, as much as I see. But there is so much I don't know, so I cannot intercede for that. And because I'm human, I fall asleep, and I don't always know how to express myself. And sometimes, when we intercede for one another, we intercede for the wrong things, because we want things to be good for us, but it may not be what God wants. Now, Jesus is able to make perfect intercession for us, because he is, as he's already explained to us, he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows exactly what our issues are. He knows exactly what we struggle with. But at the same time, he also, because he is God, he knows what God's will is for us. And so, we have these two extremes. We have our issues, and we have God's will, and he is able to pray to bring these two things together. Whereas, we don't always understand God's will, and we don't always understand the issues that we need to pray for. And so, the best intercessor at a human level doesn't even begin to scratch the surface, but Jesus is able to make perfect intercession for us. And not only is he able to intercede, because we are on the basis of appealing to God's mercy, because that's all we can do. When we intercede for one another, and we should be interceding for one another, we can just say, well, Lord, save so-and-so because of your goodness. That's all we can say. But Jesus intercedes on the basis of his own sacrifice. And so, he's able to say to the Father, Father, I have died for them, and I'm praying that you would draw them. Remember, Jesus says, no man comes to me unless the Father draws them. Draw them, because I shed my blood for them. He's interceding also in the sense that he is our advocate. And remember that we have an accuser, the accuser of the brethren, the devil, and that he is bringing accusation against us before God. Remember Job. He comes to God, and God said, you've seen Job? He said, yeah, I've seen him. I know that he's just in it for the money. And so Job accuses, so Satan accuses Job before God, and Satan accuses us before God. You see what he just did again? But Jesus is right there, the same way as you would have an attorney for the defense, and an attorney for the prosecution, for the state. And the prosecutor will throw every kind of mud that he can at you, but the defense attorney's job is to say, no, it's not that way, it's this way. And there is the Lord Jesus, and he says, yeah, he sinned, but here's my blood. My blood cleanses from all unrighteousness. And so, as the accusations are brought against us before the Father, the Lord Jesus is there, and he's our advocate, he's our intercessor, he's pleading our cause all the time. Remember that he is comparing, in a sense, Moses and Aaron. And remember that many times God said, I'm done with Israel. I want to wipe them out. And Moses says, no, no, no, Lord. Please be merciful. Remember your name. In other words, what are the Gentiles going to say when you kill these people that you said are your people? And so Moses intercedes for the people all the time, pacifying the wrath of God. And Jesus is interceding, just like Moses, interceding for us at the right hand of the majesty. The last verse for this evening, for such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. All right, now I'm going to rush through this and I'll pick it up again next time. But notice he says, such a high priest was fitting for us, was suitable for us, who is holy, the word harmless there, really innocent, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Those are internal qualities, those are spiritual qualities. He is internally holy, he's internally innocent, he's internally undefiled in the spirit, and he is internally separate from sinners. He is not married to sinners while he ate with the sinners. Now, why is he mentioning that? Because for the priests and the high priest in the Old Testament, there was no spiritual qualification. When we look for elders or pastors or deacons, we're looking for spiritual qualifications today more than we're looking for abilities, external things. But when it came to the priests in the Old Testament, it was all about the externals. He had to not have touched a dead animal, he had to have washed. There's a hundred and forty-two things that he had to qualify on before he could serve, and everything had to do with the outside. He had to wash, he had to have a haircut, all of these things. He had to put the right clothes on. It was all external. It didn't matter what his heart was like, as long as it was good on the outside. That was the Old Testament, and unfortunately too many Christians bring those ideas into the New Testament, and it's all about what's on the outside, there's nothing about the inside. No, the New Testament is about the inside, and so Jesus, his qualifications are not external. You see that the four things that he lists here—one, two, three, four, yes—the four things that he lists here are all spiritual qualifications. So they were physically qualified. They could not be a priest if they were blind or crippled or in any way physically defective. They could not be a priest unless his father had been a priest and his wife was an Israelite. If his wife was an Egyptian or some other tribe, he could not be a priest. It was all on the outside, but Jesus is qualified internally. You see, it's easy to get qualified on the outside. We can do the right things. We can dress the right way. We can have the haircut, but the hard part is the inside, and Jesus is qualified on the inside, and so he is holy. He is innocent. He is undefiled. He's untouched by sin, and he is separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens. Again, the priests in the Old Testament were elevated. They didn't live with the other people. They lived in their own cities, but they didn't live in heaven. Jesus does not, according to this verse, live in heaven. He is exalted above the heavens. In other words, obviously, he is just exalted above everything else. He is higher than everything else. So, we don't have priests. Our priest is not one who was taken from among the people and was just as human as we are, but we have the Lord Jesus, who was human like we are and yet without sin, who is perfect in every way, and God has exalted him and given him that position and that name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Father, we thank you for this glorious, wonderful high priest that we have. Lord, I pray that you'd forgive us for the many times that we don't make use of the wonderful privilege that is ours of coming into your presence. Lord, of coming to you in prayer, knowing that the Lord Jesus will take our prayers as feeble as they are and present them before the Father together with his prayers as he intercedes for us. And so, Lord, we thank you for the wonderful privilege that is ours, that we have a perfect high priest, perfect in every way, and that he is never too tired. He's never in a position where he is disqualified. He is never preoccupied, but he is constantly there interceding on our behalf before the Majesty on high. And so, Lord, we thank you for the privilege which is ours, and I pray, Lord, that we may make use of this privilege and come boldly into your presence. Lord, that we may not stand afar off as Israel did, but that we may draw nigh, draw near with a true heart and with full assurance of faith. Help us understand, Lord, and help us to grasp just the wonder and the glory of that which is ours because of the Lord Jesus. I pray that you'd go with us now, Lord, keep us and protect us, continue to teach us, I pray, in Jesus' name.