Christ Our Intercessor

Good morning, greeting to each one of you in the name of Jesus and a special welcome to you as visitors that come out. I know that a few of you, Annie and I, are here because of the wedding yesterday and I'm just reminded again of the tremendous blessing it is to see the next generation getting married, starting homes here in our congregation. May God do that over and over again.

Okay, for our message this morning, we're going to continue our journey in the book of Hebrews and so if you're here as a visitor, I have preached two messages out of the book of Hebrews. There'll be a total of five and I'm going to write on the board the five different ones and how they're broken up for possibly your own study if you would like to do it. First, superiority of Christ and that is 1, 1, 2, 3, 6. Long argument of the superiority of Christ rather than Moses or rather than angels.

The second one could be either considered unbelief or could be considered rest of the two together and that is from 3, 7, 2, 4, 13. And for today, we're considering the priesthood and that is from 4, 14 through chapter 8. And then we have, it could be New Covenant versus the Old Covenant and that is chapters 9 and 10. And then for 11 to 12 is general faith and practical faith.

And that is 11 to 13. So just a little bit of a overview. If you want to study the book of Hebrews and make some sense out of it, sometimes you just kind of read through it.

It can be kind of a jumble of things but when you break it down like that, it makes it a little bit easier to follow and understand what the writer was getting at. So here today, we're going to consider Hebrews 4, 14 through chapter 8. We're not going to read the whole thing. But the argument here is the priesthood of Christ rather than the priesthood under the Old Covenant which would have been Aaron's line.

He makes a big deal out of this argument that Christ is our high priest and we could ask the question, why was the Hebrew writer making such a big deal out of the priesthood of Christ rather than whether it is Aaron or his lineage? I think one of the reasons is, so as we looked at Hebrews, we noticed that the primary writing of the book of Hebrews was to try to encourage these Hebrew Christians not to apostatize back to Moses and the law. And if they were going to apostatize back to Moses and the law, one of the things they would apostatize from is the priesthood of Christ. And so the Hebrew writer takes a lot of pains to show that Jesus Christ is our priesthood today and to apostatize back to Moses and the Old Covenant would be to apostatize back from Jesus Christ as our high priest.

And what an apostasy that would be. How beautiful it is today. And one of the things we would like to highlight today, are we maximizing on this idea of Jesus Christ being our high priest, the one that is between us and God, his position as he holds it today.

What a beautiful thing it is. And I wonder sometimes if we maximize on that one like we should, it is so much easier to go to other people that we can actually see and we go to them with our issues, where I just wonder sometimes if Jesus isn't begging, if only you come to me and I can offer that to the Father. What a place to stand.

So if we apostatize from the New Covenant, there goes the whole redemption plan. Because it is through his high priestly position that you and I can appropriate these things like redemption, repentance, forgiveness of sin, God's wrath against sin is satisfied, and it includes the welcome into the Holy of Holies. There would be no place for you and I to enter into the Holy of Holies if it wasn't because of Jesus Christ.

How silly and how foolish it would be to go back to Moses and the law and lose that wonderful, wonderful opportunity. So without this high priest, we would not know salvation. And for the Hebrew Christians to turn back to Moses and the law, they were apostatizing from the very important aspect of redemption.

Where would we be today without redemption? It would be like a body that would know no healing at all, and the sin-sick sores and the other diseases would never even have the possibility of going away. And though sometimes we may consider calling ourselves the sick church, you know, many of us get well. Most of us get well.

We're thankful for that. But how would it be to live and spiritually not know the healing that we can have in Christ Jesus? In Luke 4, 18, what did Jesus bring? What did the new covenant bring? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel, that gospel of salvation that has set us free from our sins and our slavery to our sin. And this gospel was preached to who? To the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Or how about this one? 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, many of us, all of us.

But you're washed, you're sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. And so we could go back in Hebrews there to chapter 2 and reckon with the fact, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Okay, for our title today, it's Christ our intercessor. And I'm going to take a little time here to look at an overview just of chapter 414 to chapter 8 about this argument.

These chapters give to us a very intense argument how Christ is a better high priest, and the purpose of the writing again was so that they wouldn't apostatize back to Moses and the law and the sacrificial system. And so I will try to present it in such a way that it makes sense, but I must say it's deep stuff and I would like to encourage you to listen carefully. I'm going to break it down into four parts.

This argument that Jesus Christ is the high priest. And we'll look at this maybe a little more in a practical sense then, but four things. Number one, it was known by all the Jewish people that every high priest had to be called by God.

So number one, called by God. Every high priest had to be called by God. You never had a high priest self-appointed.

That would have been terrible. So the Hebrew writer takes hard pains to explain how Christ was called by God. It did not make sense under the Old Covenant because the way priests were called is they were called in the lineage of Aaron.

They had to have a calling, and so it was important for the Hebrew writer to make great pains to show that Jesus was not self-appointed. If he was self-appointed, that would have been heresy to any Jew. The Hebrew writer uses quotations out of the Old Testament to show that Christ was called just the way Aaron was called.

Again, the idea of Christ being called though not through the lineage of Aaron. Jesus' father was not a high priest. His brother was not a high priest.

Under the Levitical system, you became a high priest by lineage. Aaron was called, and so that by that you in the lineage of Aaron could be a priest and high priest. And so I believe the question is, who does Jesus think he is, giving himself, assuming the title of a high priest, he had to be called? And we'll see that later.

He was called. Not only called, but number two, every high priest had to be of the Levitical tribe or Arianic tribe. So they had to come from the tribe of Levi.

Aaron was from the tribe of Levi, and then Aaron being called, his children, his sons could be priests and high priests. Again, the Hebrew writer takes great pains to explain how Christ got in the place of a high priest, though he was not of the tribe of Levi, but he was of the tribe of Judah. So under the Old Covenant, he should have never been a high priest.

This was a big deal. You didn't become a priest unless you were of the tribe of Levi. Again, that would have been a heresy for any Jew.

The Hebrew writer argues that it was shown way back before the tribe of Levi was even chosen, or even before they existed. And he uses the argument of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God, and that's the argument that the Hebrew writer uses to show that Jesus was called as a high priest prior to Levi.

Abraham paid tithes to this priest, and the argument is that the lesser always pays tithes to the greater. Melchizedek paid tithes to Abraham because Jesus was in the loins, as they say it, of Abraham. So Abraham, while Levi was just a seed in the loins, Melchizedek as priest is greater than the priest that sprang out of Levi.

So Melchizedek was a shadow of Christ, our great high priest. Melchizedek was further explained as a shadow pointing to Christ in his ministry as a high priest. And I'm going to assume that this Melchizedek, who they call King of Salem, was an actual king and was used as a likeness.

And some of the likeness that was the same as Jesus was his name, and that was King of Righteousness, and righteousness is the supreme character of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second, his name, King of Salem, so we have King of Righteousness, we have King of Salem, and King of Salem means peace, and Jesus was the Prince of Peace. And so it's quite an argument that the Hebrew writer goes in to try to convince these Hebrews that don't apostatize, this all makes sense.

We have the King of Salem or Melchizedek, he had no father and no mother or no known genealogy. And so it was not to be an issue that Christ came not from the tribe of Levi. And Melchizedek had no beginning or no end.

No one recorded his birth, no one recorded his death, it was a shadow of Christ who always was and always will be. So just a number of similarities to help the Hebrew Christians not to get confused with Christ as the high priest. The third thing that the Hebrew writer argued is every high priest had to enter the holy of holies with blood.

We know that's the way Aaron was not allowed to go into the holy of holies without blood or he would have died immediate. The Hebrew writer takes great pains to explain that Christ entered into the holy of holies with his own blood. The blood of animals could never take away sin, it had to be from a sinless person in the form of a human being.

And because he was perfect, Christ became the author of our salvation. And the fourth thing, every high priest was sworn in by an oath. Again, the Hebrew writer spends a little time to show that God was sworn in.

God himself, because he could find no one greater, he swore him in himself in the order of Melchizedek forever. Okay, again, this was all to show that the old covenant with all its types and shadows was insufficient and that all of these were just a shadow of better things to come. Don't go back to Judaism.

We have a high priest that is so much better than the Levitical priesthood. And so what I would like to do for the rest of the sermon here is to do like I did with the other messages, and that is to bounce through chapter 4 verses 14 to chapter 8 and just highlight a number of things that I believe are worth highlighting. Turning your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse, we're going to read at this point, we're going to just read verses 15 and 16 and then 1 and 2 in chapter 5. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God. Did you get that? For every high priest, and this definitely includes Jesus Christ, for every high priest taken from among men, Jesus was in the flesh here on earth.

He was ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer up 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. I'm here to remind you today, we have a high priest that can be touched. Have you used this resource? Are you using this resource? Are you applying this resource? Are you going to Jesus, going to the Father in the name of Jesus and saying, Jesus understands.

He knows what I'm going through. He can identify with me. You know, the problem with going to each other is so often people can't identify.

One time I was really disturbed, really hurting about something. And I went to this older brother and I shared with him. And I mean, just in about one sentence, he fixed the thing and he moved on.

And I walked away from there feeling like he doesn't understand me. He don't care about me. All he wanted to do is fix me.

And you know, I never forgot it. But Jesus Christ suffered in every way as we have. And he's seated at the right hand of the Father.

And he's just waiting for you to come to the Father. And he is going to intercede for you. You hear what they're praying? You hear the struggle they're going through? Do you hear this impossible situation they find themselves into? Father, give them grace.

But so often I think we kind of bypass it. And we go to, and it's fine to go to other human beings. But don't bypass this one.

Because, you know, one of the things I think I would like to do better at is as I'm praying, and I am hurting, and I am in an impossible situation, and some people have done things to me that should never be done to a human being, that I could envision myself standing in front of the throne with Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father. And as I'm communicating with the Father, Jesus is saying, Father, I can identify. They need grace right now.

Give them grace. I think it's such a tool to utilize. Tool seems so earthly.

But it's such a tool to utilize. That is our Jesus. Not only mercy, we don't, not only want someone to understand and forgive, but we also need help.

And it says he will give us help. Ask for mercy and help. And as I was sitting again yesterday morning, as many of you know, with Paul Cohen and the other men from the churches, and he had been fasting, and he wanted us to again lay hands on him because he was dealing with suicidal thoughts.

And as we pleaded the mercy of God upon the man, once again, just sensing that God did a work in his life, it's the mercy of God. Paul Cohen, of course, if you're not from around here, you don't know him, but he was known by everybody in all the towns around here. He was the crazy man who just got kicked to the curb.

God delivered him specifically three weeks ago from a demon. He found grace and mercy to help. And he told me, I have freedom.

I'm no longer a slave to that demon. One of the things that's so beautiful is he knows scripture so well, but he would have such a warped idea the way those scriptures apply to real life. But today, so much is coming.

He says, now that makes sense to me. Now that makes sense to me. Because God had mercy and grace and gave help in time of need.

He continues to confess his needs. He is praying. He's fasting for deliverance.

He is purposing to put his hands to the plow and not look back. Yesterday, he spent a bit of the morning going from one business to the other, where he either stole, or people were scared of him, or they asked him never to come back again, going and asking for forgiveness. And so the challenge is, keep praying for Paul.

The battle isn't over. Hebrews 5, verse 2 says, he who can have compassion on the ignorant, compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity, the ignorant, those that are out of the way. It says he was tempted in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 13.

It says he was tempted in all points as we, and yet without sin, there is nothing that he doesn't understand or that he hasn't experienced. By the way, you can't surprise him, and you can't stop him. Matthew 18 says, therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have compassion with me, and I will pay thee all.

Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, our High Priest, and this specific story was given so that you and I will latch on to the fact that Jesus, the High Priest, has compassion. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

How beautiful. The Bible says that if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just, and I think we sometimes forget that. He's faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So not only are we forgiven, but he looses us from our chains. Moved with compassion. Hebrews 7.25, 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.

I think we should be memorizing some of these verses. He's able to save to the uttermost, to the guttermost, those that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Are you interceding for someone? I think Jesus is interceding for them also.

Would you like to see a move of God in somebody's life? My Bible here tells me that seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. That's his job. Some of you would remember the name Johnny Erickson Tata, a quadriplegic.

Story tells us one night she was totally depressed and frustrated with life, and she asked her friend for a bunch of pills, just end it all. And it angered her when her friend would not give it. And she sat there and moped and said, I can't even kill myself.

Her friend, Cindy, who was there, said to her, by the way, Johnny, Jesus knows how you feel. You're not the only one paralyzed. He too was.

Really, he was nailed to the cross, back open with sores. He couldn't change his position on the cross either. And Johnny thought about that, and God became incredibly close to her.

And the call today I think God has for each one of us. What are you facing? What challenge do you have in your life? God, Jesus Christ can identify with you. He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

So that was our first observation deck. We're going to continue down the scenic tour. And stopping at our second observation deck, this is chapter five, verses 12 to 14.

And this is talking about growth, spiritual growth. Chapter five, verse 12 and 13, or 12 to 14. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.

For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of a full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So our second observation deck for today is growth and maturity.

And the question comes to us, are we growing? Can we say I'm not the same person today that I was yesterday? I'm not the same person this week that I was last week. I'm not the same person this month that I was last month. I'm not the same person this year that I was last year.

Can we somewhere in the scope of time say that I am not the same person? The sad thing is, there's a possibility some would have to admit that I'm in a worse place today than I was last year. The Hebrew writer is writing these things and finally gets to a place, you Hebrews, you just don't get it. You're dull of hearing, you don't get it.

You should be chewing meat and you're still drinking milk. Almost like, it's kind of a little frustrating. I think the challenge is coming to all of us.

Are we growing? 2 Timothy 2.15 says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. I went to the Christian day school and in Christian day school in the sixth grade, I finally, it came to a head.

I didn't enjoy science. I didn't like science. Science made no sense to me.

And I went home with, I don't know what it was, D, E, F, whatever it was on my report card. And my dad had to sign it and he came to me and gave it back to take back. And he said, in just a few words, science will be different next quarter.

Yes, sir. And you know, I went back and I applied myself. It was going to be different.

I didn't want to meet the consequences. And I learned to enjoy science. Just because I applied myself.

And I wonder how much that's a little bit like the Christian life. Well, I don't get anything out of the Bible. Bible's boring.

My prayer life is, have we really put ourselves into it? If we're not going to be the same next year as we are today, we need to apply ourselves. The Hebrew writer calls the Hebrews immature, backward, untaught, and dull of hearing. Immature, backward, untaught, and dull of hearing.

I thought it was interesting. Jonathan Edwards once preached a message from verse 12 entitled, The Importance and Advantage of Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth. Here in chapter 5, verse 12, for when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become as such of need of milk and not of strong meat.

Jonathan Edwards preached a whole message off of that verse. The importance and advantage of thorough knowledge of divine truth. He noted that the rebuke in the passage seems to include all the readers, all the readers addressed in this epistle, that these believers had made no progress, either doctrinally or experimentally, that they did not understand Melchizedek, and furthermore, what they should have known, they did not.

Now, some of us are able to spot when a child is not maturing properly. You've seen it already. You're like, how's that child? Child's three years old? Child don't walk yet? Something wrong with that.

We have a little harder time spotting it when it comes to the spiritual life, but I wonder sometimes if we don't take the codes that we do see. If our babies are not maturing, we'll take them to the doctor. Doctor, it just seems like there's some, there's a delayed development in our child.

One of the fears of every parent is to hear the doctor say, yes, there is something wrong with your child. There should be a fear in every one of our hearts to hear those words, there is something wrong with you spiritually. We get less excited about slow spiritual growth than we do about slow physical growth.

So we need to ask ourselves the question, am I growing? Am I growing? How is your Bible reading? Don't just continue to read if you're not getting anything out of it. Stop, pray about it and find a way to read the Bible that it's meaningful for you. It might be for some of us just to take one verse and read it 10 times and then take that with us, pull something out of that and take it with us for the day.

It might be reading through the Bible in the year, but reading through the Bible in the year and watching for something every day that you read and how many pages you read to watch for something to bring out that you can really ponder and pray about. How are we doing? We don't want to be the same people next year that we are today. We want to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't depend on others to feed you. It is way too easy today to go to commentaries and those kind of things, and there's a place for that, but way too easy. We sit and want to be fed by others.

We need to learn to feed ourselves. Do not depend on to be fed by others. Milk, milk is food that has went through another's digestive system.

Milk is food that has went through another's digestive system. If you're only coming Sunday mornings and getting fed then, you're not going to do well. You need to learn to dig.

Do not depend too heavily on others' work. Dig for gold yourself. What do you want to be in the end? Don't take shortcuts.

Before James Garfield became president of the United States, he was a principal at the Harlem College in Ohio. One day a father came to him and asked if he could simplify the course so his son could go through by a shorter route. James responded, certainly, but it depends on what you want to make of your boy.

He said it takes a hundred years to grow an oak, but it only takes two summers to grow a squash. Who do you want to be? What do you want to be? Okay, let's hurry along the route. Our third observation deck, Hebrews 6 and 1 to 9. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

This will we do if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, put him to an open shame. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth herbs meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God.

But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. There are a lot of people who have stumbled over this one.

We're at this observation deck. We're looking over the valley. And what we see here is people who have turned their back totally on God, walked away from everything they knew, and seemingly went their own way and died in their sin.

The sensitive conscience reading this can be fearful. What if I apostatize and there's no chance for me to be renewed? Questions are asked. What if I blaspheme the Holy Ghost and I can never repent? Now, these verses here and the ones on blasphemy is not talking about one who, listen to me, it's not talking about one who hates sin, but nevertheless ends up sinning and he repents.

It is not talking about those who have simply just lost faith. Their spiritual vitality. It's not even talking about those who get discouraged and they throw in the towel and they let the ship drift their life.

But all the time there's within them a conscience. I want to get right with God. I need to get right with God.

It's not talking about those. But who it is talking about is someone who tasted of these five specific things recorded. They came to the light or their hearts were illuminated by Christ.

They tasted of the heavenly gift. That is the Holy Spirit. And they knew Jesus Christ as their high priest.

And they had heavenly abilities for service in the kingdom. It's people who were filled with the Holy Ghost. It was people who knew what it meant that the word of God ministered to their souls.

It was people who saw signs and wonders and miracles. And these people have turned away and they said the whole thing of Christianity is one big farce. And I'm not going to have anything to do with it again.

And there's seemingly no conscience. And they just go their way. I think it can also be understood of someone who says, done.

I am done with it. And goes out and just lives an ungodly life. And as long as they're in that position of an ungodly life, you can't talk to them.

They don't want to hear it. As long as they're there, there's no hope for their repentance. But sometimes some of the people get to the bottom of the barrel.

They get to the end of the road. They get to the end of the rope and they do cry out. But it's not talking about people who really want to serve God, but they're struggling with sin.

That's not who it's talking about. One thing about my friend Paul is that already probably two years ago, he said, Leonard, if you think I have a bad spirit, then you get these ministers from all these churches that I have made a mess at. You get these ministers together and you sit down and you lay hands on me and you cast out this spirit.

Well, I didn't know what to do with that. But looking at this and studying this, that should have been a sign. Something's working in his heart.

There's something that no matter how small it is, that he wants to be delivered. Now to turn away and to tread the blood under your feet is a serious, serious thing. And as long as you're going to determinedly go the wrong way, there's no hope for your soul.

I believe people can do that. And one day they get to the end of the rope, to the bottom of the barrel. To the end of the road.

And they turn back. We know there are some people who have blasphemed the Holy Ghost and there's no repentance. Here's the scary thing, though.

For any one of us, we might not be at that place. But if we are carelessly, carelessly treading, carelessly treading over our salvation. We tend to get colder and harder.

And there are very few that ever come back. And I would like to draw a circle on the board. And so we have the bigger circle is our body.

And then we have our soul. And then we have our spirit. And the way this is supposed to work is we repent.

We get bored again. We get saved. And we get filled with the Holy Ghost.

And this experience here works out through our mind, will, and emotions and out into our body. And it changes the way we live. That's the way it's supposed to work.

When someone says, I'm done. I'm tired of it. I'm going to go out and live for the flesh.

That's a really dangerous place to be. Because then what happens is the things we experience here in the flesh. Here is going this direction.

It's changing the way we think. And how we view things and ultimately changes our spirit. And so people who throw everything away and go out and live for the flesh, they might say, someday I'm going to repent.

The problem is with this activity going on, you're not going to be the same person tomorrow that you are today. Here, we don't want to be the same person tomorrow that we are today. And God help us that we do have a high priest and we are living for God.

And this is changing and this is changing. But the sobering thing is, folks, the longer you live for the flesh, it changes the way you think and it will change your spirit. And to think that you will repent one day is not very sure.

Verses six and seven. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off the ponit and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God. That's what this is talking about.

The blessings of God. And this is, they're growing. But look at verse number eight.

But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. You will not be the same person tomorrow that you are today.

If you're going to live for the flesh, you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of riches. And to think that you will still want God later. That you will still think the same about the new birth and Christianity in general.

And to think you might still be emotionally moved by the sermons and teachings that you are today. There is no guarantee. No guarantee.

So the challenge for us today is make sure that you're living for Christ. You're walking with Christ. You're meditating on Christ.

And that the Holy Spirit is ministering to you. Ministering to your soul and ministering to your body. Let's move along to our fourth observation deck.

And this is in chapter six, nine to 20. And we're titling this observation deck, Patience Continuance. Verse nine in chapter six.

But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation. Though we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. Isn't that beautiful? Which you have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.

Jesus sits at the right hand of the father and he sees it as a wonderful high priest. And does he once in a while nudge God and say, do you see my child? See him minister. 11, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to a full assurance of hope onto the end.

We're not of those that turn back to perdition. We put our hands to the plow. We don't look back.

12, that you be not slothful diligence, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise. For when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself. Saying, surely blessing of a blessing, multiplying of a multiply thee.

And so after he had patiently endured, that is Abraham, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed by an oath. Where is he going to go? To make an oath.

Today, if you go to the courts, they will probably ask you to put your hand on the Bible and say, as true as this is, I will be true in what I say. We don't do that. We affirm, but what is God going to do? Let's look.

For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise, that's us, the immutability of his counsel will never change, confirmed by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge today, hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters into that within the veil, wither the forerunner, for us is entered even Jesus, made and high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Hebrew writer shares his confidence in them. I believe better things of you than I believe better things of you all.

But we do have two foundational stones here, faith and patience. Faith, hope and love are extremely important, but they must be wrapped into patience. Abraham believed God.

God said, you're going to have a child. 20 years is a long time to wait. And the longer it went, I'm sure the more he was convinced it's never going to happen or he could have been convinced it's never going to happen, but he had faith and patience.

Faith and patience are the two sisters that must greet one another. Faith and patience are the two sisters that must greet one another. These truths that we have here are enforced by the example of Abraham.

He believed God and patiently endured. Your prayers cannot be lost as ships at sea. They will make arbor at last, laden with golden fruit.

God's promise and oath are a double door behind which those who have fled for refuge are double safe, a double window beyond which all noise dies down. The illusion is either to the cities of refuge or to a ship safely riding out the storm. Hope is sure because the anchor is fastened to in a shore ground, steadfast because its cables will not snap in the strain and entering because it unties us to the unseen.

Jesus has taken our anchor into the inner arbor and has dropped it down into the clear still water there. Bible says, be not weary in well-doing for you shall reap if you faint not. Don't give up the fight.

God has done everything on his end that you can make it. And if you feel like sometimes where's God in the picture? Don't give up. Don't give up.

Such strong language here. He made an oath. God cannot lie.

And so if you're here and you're fighting a battle, maybe you're fighting purity, don't give up. Fight like a drowning man. Don't give up.

You probably remember the story of the two frogs. The first frog fell into the bucket, into the cream. And he says, starts paddling.

He says, oh me, oh my, it's over for me. I just give up. I'll never make it.

And he died and went to the bottom. The next frog dropped in and he starts paddling. And he says, well, you know what? I'm going to just paddle for a while.

I'm not going to give up. And so he paddled, he paddled, he paddled. And after a while, the cream turned into butter and gave this lump of butter.

He sat on the butter and he jumped out of the bucket. And I think it's a good encouragement to all of us. Don't give up.

Don't give up. A Chinese bamboo tree. If you plant this, the Chinese bamboo tree, you plant the seed.

The first year you water it all year long. The second year you water it all year long. The third year you water it all year long.

The fourth year you water it all year long. The fifth year you're watering and all of a sudden, all of the ground, it comes. And in one year it grows back.

It grows to 90 feet. Amazing! But sometimes I think we give up. We throw in the towel.

I ain't going to make it. It's not going to work for me. It's, I can't make it.

Actually, it says it'll grow 90 feet in six weeks. Five years. And it'll grow 90 feet in six weeks.

The Reader's Digest had an interesting story and I'm going to tell it to you because it may be something that you'll remember. But the Reader's Digest tells this story. The writer was telling about her grandmother and she said her grandmother was a fireball.

Grandpa? He was totally opposite. He was slow and decisive and he gave his own set of challenges. But she recounted this one story how during the night they were sleeping and grandma wakes up and there's commotion in the hen house.

And she wakes up grandpa and says there's something going on in the hen house. The hens are all cackling. She goes running out there with her nightgown on, barefooted, hair all over the place.

She took no time at all to straighten up. She just ran for the hen house as fast as she could go. And here she got in there.

There's a snake. And so she did the quickest thing she could think of and she stepped with her barefoot right on top of the snake's head. And there she stands waiting for slow, decisive grandpa.

And she's standing there and she's screaming and hollering for grandpa, come kill this snake. And she was getting frantic. Finally, grandpa comes out of the house.

He's got his overalls on. He's got his cuffs of his sleeves button. He's even got his pocket watch in his pocket and he comes walking in and sees his frazzled wife seeing her barefoot on the snake's head and said, well, if I would have known you had everything under control, I wouldn't have hurried so much.

And I thought, well, now how unique. Isn't that sometimes the way it goes for us? We've got a situation on our hands that we are flipping out. We are frustrated.

Where's God in the picture? And maybe God's just saying, you know, until you're ready to just slow down a little, calm down, just calm down. Okay, let's go on to chapter eight. By the way, lunch is here, so I don't have to hurry.

Chapter eight is the better covenant. The new covenant that we have through Christ is better. And of course, I would add so much better.

Under the old covenant, God wrote his laws to his people. But under the new covenant, he writes them where? In his people. How different? Who would ever want to go back when they're written in and not just two? Hebrews chapter eight, verses seven to 13.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been solved for the second. For finding fault with them, he said, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their father in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For, here it is, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.

I will put my laws into their mind. It's not written on a hard stone. It's written on our hearts.

I will put my laws into their mind. I write them in their hearts. I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.

They shall not teach every man his neighbor, every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities where I remember no more. In that he saith, a new covenant he hath made, the first old, now that which decayeth and waxes old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews, don't go back. It's so much better. So verse 11.

So how does everyone know? I think the simple fact is everyone has an equal opportunity to go to Jesus. Everyone has an equal opportunity to read the Bible. Well, I must probably qualify that.

There's some people in the world that don't have a Bible. We need to get Bibles to them. But everybody has an equal opportunity.

They got the word of God in their hands. And I think this is the difference. The whole habit and frame of our souls will be a table and transcript of his laws.

The whole habit and frame of our souls will be a table and transcript of his laws. We can have the opportunity to understand, to know his law. We understand to believe his law.

Our memories retain them. Our hearts love them. Our conscience recognizes them.

Courage to speak about them and power to keep them. It's so different than the Old Testament. But let's move on to observation deck number five.

And this is the covenant. We want to look at the covenant a little bit. And the first question I need to ask is how many of you made a covenant? If you've been born again and you've been baptized, you made a covenant.

Have you entered into the covenant with God? Are you keeping your baptism vows, your promise to him to follow him all the days of your life in faithfulness? Covenants were made with a lot of seriousness under the old covenant. To ratify a covenant between two, what they would do is they would take an animal and it was split in half and put the one half over here and the other half of the animal over here. And then both parties would walk between these two gory looking halves that were just simply the animal cut in half, laid apart, two halves on either side.

They will both walk through there. And what they were saying is that if I don't keep my end of the deal, then I will be as that dead animal. Now, you know, when Abraham was, God was promising Abraham a son and God told him to take these animals.

It was a dove. It was a number of animals and divide them. He took two doves.

He didn't divide them, put them on either side. And then he waited there, chasing off the ravens all day long. And in the night, at the night, God comes and with a burning lamp goes between those two.

The reason Abraham didn't go between them two is that he couldn't keep the promise. Only God could keep that promise. And so only God as a lamp went through between them.

But covenants were a big deal. Is your covenant a big deal to you? Hebrews two, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard less than any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? This is not child's play. God expects you to keep your end of the deal. God expects you to keep your end of the deal.

It is for our good. It is for our blessing. God has bent way over backwards to give us this opportunity.

To apostatize is a very serious thing. Don't go back. Remember, if you throw in the towel and you go out and live for the flesh, you will not be the same person tomorrow that you are today.

And just because you think you might be able to get right on your deathbed, there is no promise. You won't think the same. You won't feel the same.

You won't understand things the same. And it might not happen. Don't throw in the towel.

There is no time to relax. We need a fight to the end. In World War II, the Royal Air Force psychologist observed that pilots made the most errors as they flew their planes in for landing on returning to their base after a hazardous raid.

Why was that? There was an almost irresistible tendency to relax. I got this thing. And that's the time most errors were made.

It's no time to relax, folks, when things seem to be going good. Ah, we accomplished that one. Oh, we got through that one.

That's dangerous. That might just be the time we would make the most mistakes. No time to relax.

So, God bless you. Thank you for joining me as we took this ride through the scenic view of chapters 4, 14, through chapter 8. If you're able to kneel down with me for prayer. Heavenly Father, I cannot thank you enough for Jesus Christ, the new covenant, the high priest.

No, maybe not made after, not coming from the Levitical tribe. But he was called. He was called long before the Levitical system.

And he is our high priest today. Oh, God, I pray that we could grab a hold of the reality of Jesus Christ, who is interceding on our behalf and is there to give us help and grace in time of need. So easy to run to people.

God, help us to first run to you. Thank you, Jesus, for your place that you fill there at the right hand of the Father. Help us to be passionate about the kingdom of God.

No turning back. No apostasy. You're going to help us to keep that covenant that we have made.

We recognize we're not going to be the same people tomorrow that we are today, next week that we are this week, next month that we are this month, next year that we are this year. We're going to go one of two ways. God, help us to press in and be students of the word of God and be filled with your presence.

Your knowledge and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you for your promises.

You cannot lie. Help us hang on to the promises of God. Bless each one that is here today, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.