We Have

I'd like to read with you in the book of Hebrews and chapter 7, Hebrews chapter 7, the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus has been referenced on multiple occasions in this conference and we're just going to briefly look at a few verses in Hebrews chapter 7 and a verse in chapter 8. While you're turning to the passage, I would just like to say that in this message I would like to primarily look at two little words and the words would be we have, we have. Perhaps at some point you have read about or heard about an individual or individuals that have been in possession of something that is of great value, perhaps a piece of artwork or a painting or an antique and they really have no idea of what they have and one day they discover the great value of that particular piece and they come to understand and appreciate a little more what they have. They had had it in their possession for some time and really had never appreciated what they had.

Or perhaps you have heard of others that have had possession of something but they have forgotten what they have until one day they discover again that they have it and they realize the value of it. They had forgotten about what they had. Well I would say that we are often perhaps like that first illustration that we really don't appreciate what we have in Christ, what we have.

And so this is not going to be an exhaustive study obviously but in two passages in the Word of God we're going to try to examine what we have in Christ, what we have, what we currently possess in Him. And hopefully that will help us to appreciate Him more and what we have. So with that said, Hebrews chapter 7 and verse number 22 just to read some of the context.

Hebrews chapter 7 and verse number 22. By so much more, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. In other words the priests, specifically the high priests of the Old Testament, their priesthood was limited in the manner of time because death would remove them from their office or from serving as a priest.

Verse 24, but this man, the Lord Jesus, because he continueth ever or forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us who is wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.

Who needeth not daily as those high priests, those of the Old Testament, to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity but the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore.

Now of those things which we have spoken this is the sum. We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. Notice verse number one of chapter 8 again.

We have such a high priest. We have the high priest that we need. I remember some time ago when these words seem to literally jump off the page and I would confess that this is probably one of my favorite verses in this beautiful book written to the Hebrews.

He really comes to this conclusion here in chapter 8 and verse number one that the sum or the conclusion of everything he is writing he says I'm going to just boil it down to one point for you and that is that we have this great high priest. The very priest that we need. And so we're going to look at this priest that we have and hopefully encourage our hearts as we realize that we have that God has given to us the very high priest that we needed.

That is why we read in chapter 7 and again these themes are developed all throughout the book of Hebrews. You know that this book of Hebrews is a book that presents Christ as being supreme. We see his deity, his humanity, that he is greater than angels, greater than all of mankind, that he is superior to Moses, superior to the priests of the Old Testament, superior to Melchizedek.

He is Christ supreme above all. And throughout much of the book he is referring to the priesthood of the Old Testament and specifically the high priest and the day of the atonement and a sacrifice for sins and presenting Christ as far superior. So just notice the verses that we read in chapter 7 quickly.

First I would like to notice in verse number 24 that his priesthood itself is superior. He mentions his priesthood in that verse and again these themes are expounded upon in the epistle, the book itself, but the priesthood there. Then in verses 25 and 26, perhaps more in 26, it is the actual priest himself, the supremacy of the priest that is the Lord Jesus.

And then in verse number 27 we have the supremacy of his sacrifice that he offered. And again that theme is developed later on in chapters 9 and 10, that his sacrifice is so far superior to the sacrifices that were offered in the Old Testament. But notice in verse number 26, before we take a just a little closer look at those verses, that he says in verse number 26, for such a high priest became us.

Now again in the context he is writing to Hebrew believers, those that had come out of Judaism, that had converted to the Lord Jesus and were following him. And there was perhaps the temptation to return to Judaism, that they didn't have the priesthood or a high priest that you would find in the system of Israel. And perhaps some were wavering as you would read this book.

And he is encouraging them to go on, to continue. And that's why you'll read again that he uses the words, let us, let us go on, let us continue. And he is encouraging them.

But he is explaining to them here in verse number 26, that this high priest that is described is the high priest that they needed and that we needed. The words become us really indicate that. This high priest is the exact high priest that we needed.

And that is a great encouragement that God has provided exactly what we need. So then very quickly, verse number 24, his priesthood. But this man, the Lord Jesus, because he continueth ever, has an unchangeable or immutable priesthood.

In the previous verse he mentions the deficiency of the priesthood of the Old Testament. That a priest would be elevated to the position, if you will, of high priest, being chosen to that position. No man would take that honor unto himself, but being appointed by God.

And likewise, the Lord Jesus, that is what was taught in previous chapters, being chosen of God. But he would come into that priesthood and begin to function as a priest and to perform those duties and the activities of the priest or the priesthood. But then there would come a day when the high priest would die.

That he would pass from this scene and he would cease to function, obviously, as the high priest. And so there would be a change and a new high priest would begin to perform those duties. And this would repeat itself throughout the history of the Old Testament.

And his first point here is that the priesthood of the Lord Jesus is far superior because he continueth forever. He lives forever. Yes, he died, but he rose again and he lives in an endless life, in the power of an endless life.

He lives to make intercession. That is what verse number 25 says. He is able to save them to the uttermost.

That means perpetually or eternally. Those that come unto God by him because he liveth forever to make intercession for them. So his priesthood will continue forever.

It is eternal. And so his priesthood itself is far superior. Then the priest himself, verse number 26, for such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.

Just very briefly, look at the description of this high priest himself. First, he is described as holy. But in previous chapters, when he describes the requirements of a high priest, the end of chapter 4, the beginning of chapter 5, he speaks of a high priest in this manner.

I'll just read quickly for you chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. The priests of the Old Testament were sinners themselves. And this actually should have been some sort of an advantage to them in that they were able to have compassion on those that they were representing before God.

The Lord Jesus, however, is holy. And if I understand that word correctly, using Strong's Concordance, it has more to do with the idea of being intrinsically holy. Obviously, he is externally holy as well, completely undefiled and separate from sinners as we'll see in a moment.

But the idea perhaps has more to do with his intrinsic character, that he in himself is holy. Sometimes we speak of righteousness and imputed righteousness. One brother this morning quoted 2 Corinthians chapter 5, being made, he that knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

That is righteousness imputed to us, that is not our own. But Christ was righteous, is righteous, is holy, and perhaps this has to do more with intrinsically what he is. So that would be the first characteristic that would set him apart from the other priests, that make him far superior.

Then we have harmless, and the idea is to be pure, to be innocent. And then followed by undefiled. And when you think of defiling, in the Old Testament, at least you would think of those that were defiled when they would come into contact with different things, that they would be defiled or contaminated, touching perhaps a dead body, and the defilement that would occur.

You would remember also, though, the Lord Jesus himself spoke of those things. A man is not defiled by the meats, by the food that he ingests, but rather by those things that come from the heart. And so we would think of the Lord Jesus as pure in heart and completely undefiled.

He could move in this world and have contact with sinners and eat with them, as we're going to see in a minute, without being defiled by them. And that brings us to separate from sinners. See, separate from sinners, the Lord Jesus, He ate with sinners.

He sat down at the table. And you can remember on an occasion when one was pretty indignant that a woman burst into that scene. And Simon said, if this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching her and what class of woman this is, that she is a sinner, that she is a sinful woman.

And you know the story that the Lord Jesus told in the parable in Luke chapter 7 to Simon regarding forgiveness of sins. But the point is that the Lord would have contact with sinners, would eat with them, would move amongst sinners, and yet be completely and utterly separate from them, never defiled by them. Their vocabulary would never contaminate his vocabulary.

Their thoughts would never interrupt the purity of his thoughts or anything of that nature. Completely and utterly separate from them. And he says here, that is the type of high priest that we need.

That is one that will live forever, that is perfect, that is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. And also that leads us to verse number 27, because every high priest, as we just read briefly in chapter 5, was ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. So he says in verse number 27, the supremacy of his sacrifice.

This high priest that you need shouldn't have to offer a sacrifice first for his own sins. You would recall on the day of atonement in Leviticus chapter 16, that the high priest first had to offer a sacrifice for his own sin. And then he would offer the sacrifice for the sin of the people.

He was a sinful man. And he couldn't offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people until he had offered a sacrifice for his own sin first. And so here, he says, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the people's? He said, for this he did once.

You see, the day of atonement was celebrated each year. Year after year, there was remembrance made of sin. You read that further on in this book, that the sacrifice had to continually be made.

And he says, what you really need is a high priest that has an immutable, unchangeable priesthood that is holy, holy, holy, that can offer one sacrifice forever for sin. And that's what you would read in chapters 9 and 10. Those words over and over again.

One sacrifice forever, forever, forever. And he says he did that when he offered up himself. That is developed further on in the chapters as well, that the priests from the Old Testament offered animal sacrifices.

They entered with the blood of others. But the Lord Jesus, on the basis of his own blood, one sacrifice. He was the sacrifice.

He was not only high priest, he was the sacrifice. And so he outlines this very briefly here. And he says, this is the priest that becometh us.

This is the priest that we need. And then what words of encouragement and comfort when we come to chapter 8 and verse number 1. You can see these people, maybe their wheels are turning a bit and they're just listening to all that we need. And then he says, now here's the conclusion.

Here's the sum of what I'm trying to tell you. We have, we have that high priest. We have him.

We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens. Isn't that wonderful? As we meditate upon that, the very priest that we needed, we have. And he's made the sacrifice once forever.

And he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. So that's the first thing that we have that I wanted to talk about. Now turn over to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John and chapter 2. Now just by way of perhaps encouragement, a very simple start to examining what we have would be to get your Bible software out and search the words we have.

That's not going to take you really far, but it'll get us a start. We just found one thing that we have. We have such a high priest.

You would read in other books in Colossians, Ephesians, we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. But you'd have to go a little further than that. For example, in Ephesians, he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.

So you're not going to find that by Googling, not Googling, but searching the words we have. But it would be a good start, a good study to encourage our souls. Let's read in 1 John chapter 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The short verses, I'll just read those again.

And again, we have the little expression that we're looking for, we have. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Very quickly, we're just going to divide these verses up in the following manner. We're going to see one of John's purposes in writing.

We'll see the possibility of committing sin as a believer. We'll see the provision for the believer that does sin when we do sin. And we'll spend perhaps the majority of the time there.

And then we'll see the person of the Lord Jesus, who is the advocate. So just quickly, those things. As you read through the first letter of John, you would realize that he is writing for a variety of reasons.

He's writing believers. And he is encouraging them in their Christian walk. In this particular chapter, in this verse, he very clearly states that he is writing that they would not sin.

John does not deny that believers do sin. We see in chapter 1 that he says in verse number 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. He says in verse number 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John does not deny the fact that as believers we do sin. But with that said, the Bible never condones or endorses sin in a way. Romans chapter 6 would say that we have died to sin, that we should walk in newness of life.

But yet we do not believe in sinless perfection. We believe firmly that we as believers do sin. But John is writing to encourage us not to sin, to strive, to to live lives that are pleasing to God.

But he recognizes the possibility to sin. And he says in the verse that we read, verse number 1, if any man sin, it can be quite disheartening and discouraging as believers when we do sin. Is that not correct? It can paralyze us, it can discourage us, dishearten us, and all sorts of other things.

And so John is in writing to encourage these believers, recognizing the possibility of sin in the believer's life without condoning or encouraging sin. So what does he say? Notice the provision that God again has made. And again, these words to me leap right off the page.

If any man sin, we have. We have. Notice that he doesn't say when you sin or if you sin, you're going to desperately need to search.

You're going to have to seek. You're going to have to try to find some way. He says we have.

We already have something that God has provided for us. We have an advocate with the Father. And just before I forget, notice that it is with the Father.

When we were noticing the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus, it is with God. The high priest was ordained to make sacrifices for sin unto God. But here it is the relationship with the Father that is in view.

And in chapter one, he speaks of the fellowship, that our fellowship, verse number three, is truly with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And so he's speaking of fellowship with the Father. And if a believer sins, we have an advocate.

Now, the office, if you will, of the Lord as the advocate is quite interesting. If you take the time to study this verse and to look into it, I think you'll find it very fascinating, the Lord as our advocate. First of all, the meaning of the word, as Mr. Vine would define it, means literally called to the side of another for the purpose of helping.

So even though this perhaps is not a courtroom scene as it is before the Father, it is that the believer has sinned and fellowship has been broken with the Father, but yet there is one that is standing right at the side of the believer to advocate on his behalf. I hesitate to use the word helper just because in our way of thinking, we would think of perhaps a father someday taking his young child to work with him and somebody might say, oh, you brought your son along today. Yes, he's my helper, as if the individual is really the one doing the work and he's just my little helper.

Obviously, the Lord is not just our little helper. He is our advocate. He is standing side by side.

That would indicate a number of things, but one of those being that when a believer sins, he is not abandoned, that there is the Lord by his side or her side. He is their advocate. Something perhaps even more interesting, at least to me, is the word advocate here in the original in Greek is... Now, those of you who listened to ministry before on the Holy Spirit, at least when I was younger, it would probably be impossible to listen to ministry on the Holy Spirit without somebody speaking of the paraclete or paracletus, which is the Greek word for comforter in the book of John.

So you come to John 14, his gospel, and verse 16, verse 26, chapter 15, verse 26, chapter 16, verse 7, and there John speaks of the comforter. Actually, it's the words of the Lord Jesus speaking of the comforter. He's saying that he is going to go to his father, but he will not leave the believers alone, that he will send unto them another, that is another of the same kind, a comforter that will be with them, and that is the Holy Spirit that will not only be with them, but that will be in them.

It's the same word. Now, let us be very clear that there is a distinction between the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They are not the same.

We believe in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but this word that is used to describe them is the same. Thus giving the idea that the believer has a helper, if you will, that is the Holy Spirit that indwells a helper here on earth, but that in heaven before the Father, there is the advocate or the paraclete that is at the believer's side, that is there to represent the believer before the Father, and that is the idea. Brother, we were in Marion on Wednesday evening, and Brother Brody was speaking on the enemies of the believer, and that particular night he was speaking on the enemy that is the devil, and mentioned in his message that he is the accuser of the brethren, that accuses the brethren night and day before the throne of God.

Well, here you have the advocate that is there before the Father advocating on behalf of the believer that has sinned. We've already mentioned that it is before... Notice very quickly the description of the Lord Jesus. He is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the righteous.

Again, thinking of his intrinsic righteousness, and I'll just read A.M.S. Gooding's comment in his What the Bible Teaches commentary on this, because the question might arise, what does this look like? How is the Lord Jesus advocating on behalf of the believer? I enjoyed his comment. He says, the advocate does not excuse sin, so the Lord Jesus is not before the Father making excuses for us. Well, you know the situation, the circumstance, you know that the flesh is weak.

That would be what we would do, and chapter one would teach that we should simply confess our sin. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So he says he does not excuse sin, explain it away, try to justify our actions, or argue extenuating circumstances.

He simply says the Lord Jesus has a sacrifice as a righteous basis for our advocacy. He is righteous, and based on his own righteousness and his sacrifice, what he has done, he can justly advocate on behalf of the believer. I don't know about you brethren, but with that I finish, but just consider those two little words.

We have. We have. Sin will unfortunately plague our lives until the coming of the Lord or our home call.

We will continue to wrestle with it. We can have the victory through the Lord Jesus, but if and when we do sin, how good is it to know that we already have an advocate that is before the Father. Tremendous to think about that, that there he is advocating on our behalf.

Oh how he loves us. We have the great high priest that we needed. We have the advocate for when we sin, and we have so much more that the Lord would help us to get into the word of God and discover what we have.

Sometimes we get so consumed and obsessed with what we don't have, or what we think we don't have, but let us focus on what we do have in him. God bless his word.