Assurance for Holding Fast (Hebrews 4:14)

Kootenai Church

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All right, let's bow together before we begin. Our Father, we believe and know that it is in your word that you speak to your people, you edify us and comfort us and encourage us and exhort us that we may be equipped for every good work, that we may offer to you hearts of obedient praise and sacrifice.

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And it is our desire that through your word and by your word, you would accomplish all that you intend in the hearts of your people this morning.

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Be honored through this time and help me to speak clearly, help us to listen intently. And we pray that you would open your word to us, that we may behold in it wonderful things, and that we may see in it the face and the glory of Christ and be changed and transformed from one degree of glory into another by that vision of our

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Savior, who is our God and our high priest. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

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Hebrews chapter 4, if you have your Bibles, you'll need to open it to Hebrews chapter 4. We're going to be looking at verse 14 today and kind of examining that in light of its context and doing a little bit of catch -up of where we're at in Hebrews because you can probably tell from the

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Scripture reading beginning at verse 14 that we are starting into another section of the book of Hebrews.

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And we have just finished the second warning passage, and that warning passage went from Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 all the way through to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13, and now we're starting this next section of Hebrews beginning after that second warning passage.

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And the verses that are here, verses 14, 15, and 16, they accomplish three things. This is not the outline.

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This is just all part of the introduction, but these three verses really are intended to do three things. First, it is a conclusion to the warning passage, which we sort of finished in verse 13.

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It resumes the previous section that the author had started before he got into that second warning passage.

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And then third, it introduces us to the very next major section of the book of Hebrews. So, verses 14 through 16 are a transition in a number of ways.

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They conclude the warning passage. It resumes the theme that he started back in chapter 3, and then it introduces us to this next major section of the book of Hebrews.

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I want to show you how these verses do each of those three things, and this is, again, not our outline.

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The outline will come later. This is just to refresh the context for us because it's been a few weeks since we've been in the book of Hebrews.

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Let's read together verses 14 through 16. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

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Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

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Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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And then the chapter division that's there that starts chapter 5 is somewhat unfortunate. I kind of wish the chapter division had been moved back a few verses to sort of mark this change from the warning passage into this next major theme, which is the high priesthood of the

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Lord Jesus. But I want you to see how these verses serve as a conclusion to the warning passage. The warning passage ends with a warning of judgment that is to come, right?

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That living and piercing and searching Word of God who is the Lord Jesus Christ and, of course, the written Word of God performs this function of examining our every thought, our every motive, and our every deed.

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And so the author wants us to take heed to that and to not fall away and slip into the pattern of disobedience and hardheartedness that characterized the wilderness generation, but instead to lay hold of and hold fast our confession of faith.

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And having done so, we as believers know that we will not stand before this one who will punish us for our unbelief.

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Rather, we will stand before one who is our great advocate and high priest, our Savior. And so there is a warning in verse 11 to those who might follow the same example of disobedience, and I'm talking about chapter 4 verse 11, those who might follow the same example of disobedience as the wilderness generation.

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And the warning is that if you neglect and if you drift past and if you deny or fall away from this one who is the living

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Word, you will stand before Him and you will give an account, a word, for every thought, word, and deed.

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You will be examined by this one because He is the one with whom we have to do. That's the stern warning.

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And so now there is this encouragement for us as believers that we don't stand before Him as one who searches us to judge us for our sin and our rebellion and our unbelief.

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Rather, we stand before Him as one who has borne our sin and our rebellion and our unbelief as our great high priest.

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We have this one, Jesus, our high priest, who has passed through the heavens and who is

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Himself the Son of God. And therefore, we hold fast. Unlike the wilderness generation who did the opposite of holding fast, they let go, they walked away, they abandoned that confession, and they were punished as a is

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Jesus, our great high priest, the Son of God who has passed through the heavens. And so we will not do what the wilderness generation did.

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Instead, we are encouraged to hold fast to our confession. The second thing that these verses do is resume the argument that was begun back in chapter 3.

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And for this, you'll have to turn back to chapter 3. This idea of Jesus being our high priest is not the first time in the book of Hebrews that the author has mentioned this.

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He alludes to it back at the very beginning in the introduction to the book of Hebrews when he says that Jesus is the one who has made purification for our sins and sat down at the

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Father's right hand. And that statement, He has made purification of our sins, that's priestly and sacrificial language.

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And there in verse 3, the third verse into this book, He is alluding to something that He's going to develop at greater length later on, which is the high priestly work of Jesus.

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And then He says in chapter 2 verse 17, so that He, that is Christ, might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.

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And then He says in chapter 3 verse 1, therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.

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So, He has alluded to it in chapter 1. He calls Christ our high priest in chapter 2. He calls Him again, that title, high priest and apostle, the sent one for our faith in chapter 3 verse 1.

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So, He began this discussion of the priesthood of Jesus in chapter 3 verse 1 or chapter 2 verse 17, actually.

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And if you just read through chapter 3 and you take out the warning passage and you read on into chapter 4, you can see how it flows.

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You can see how after the warning passage, He's hearkening back to something He started in chapter 3 verse 1.

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I said something at the beginning of Hebrews in connection with all of these warning passages that all five of them have something in common.

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They have a number of things in common. But one thing that they have in common is that all five warning passages kind of appear or kind of stand as almost a parenthetical statement on themselves.

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In other words, in the case of all five of these warning passages, and again, to remind you, the warning passages are the passages that people look to to suggest that we can lose our salvation.

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Each of those five warning passages is kind of a parenthetical statement. So, it is as if the author is discussing a topic or a subject, and then he stops, and he offers this warning to his readers in the context and in light of what he is saying.

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And after the warning passage, he picks up again with what he had begun at the beginning. They're all five warning passages are kind of little mini rabbit trails.

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Now, I'm not a big fan of rabbit trails in preaching, but I can't argue against the Holy Spirit inspiring five rabbit trails in the book of Hebrews.

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So, if the Holy Spirit can put five rabbit trails in there, we can allow ourselves to give an exposition of the rabbit trails.

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Now, all of that was a rabbit trail on how I don't like rabbit trails. So, each of the warning passages is a parenthetical statement.

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So, he begins in chapter 3, actually chapter 2, and starts discussing the high priestly ministry of Jesus and its implications.

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He pauses for that very severe warning passage, hearkening back to the wilderness generation, encouraging us to stand fast and hold fast.

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And then he picks it up again in chapter 3 verse 14, almost just where he left off. In order to show you this, we'll read through it.

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But before we do that, I want to remind you of what chapter 2 contained. Chapter 2 was a about how this one who is greater than the angels, who is the

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Messiah and the Son of God, the divine Son who holds all things together by the word of His power, that one described in chapter 1.

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In chapter 2, this one was made for a little while lower than the angels. That's the incarnation.

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He came and He dwelt and He lived among us as a man. He took upon Himself our nature, not our sinful nature, but our human nature.

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He united the divine nature with the human nature so that He might live among us. And this one was where we're at in chapter 2.

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He suffered death for all men, in verse 9. He is the one who brought us salvation and sanctification through His sufferings.

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He partook, in verse 14 of chapter 2, of flesh and blood, just as we have. So it is a description of His incarnation and what that means.

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And because He is incarnated, because He was made flesh and blood, because He partakes of that like we do,

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He is able to sympathize with us. And so we read in verse 17 of chapter 2, therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of His people.

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For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. So it is the incarnation that the divine

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Son became man. It is the incarnation which itself has all the ramifications of His priestly work.

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Because He dwelt among us, because He knows our weaknesses and our limitations, not our sin, but He knows our temptation and our weaknesses.

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And for that reason, He is able to sympathize with us and to come to our aid. That's the end of chapter 2.

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And then in chapter 3, verse 1, read it with me. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider

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Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to Him who appointed Him as Moses was in all

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His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

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For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.

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But Christ was faithful as a son over His house. He's still talking about the sonship of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, comparing

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Him to Moses. Whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

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And notice what he is talking about there. The priesthood of Jesus, and in light of that, we do what at the end of verse 6?

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We hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Now pretend like the warning passage is not there and skip over to verse 14 of chapter 4.

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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

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For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

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Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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You see that? The end of chapter 2, His incarnation, His suffering, His likeness with us in all of those things, so that He might become a faithful high priest.

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And in light of that, chapter 3 verse 6, hold fast to your confidence assurance firm until the end.

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You skip over to chapter 4 verse 14. Remember, he's saying we have this high priest who is like us, and that he was tempted, yet he was without sin.

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Therefore, hold fast to your confession, your confidence firm until the end. He's picking up right where he left off.

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So, these verses serve as a conclusion to the warning passage. They serve to resume exactly what he was discussing back in chapter 3 before he started the warning passage.

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And the third thing that these verses do is they introduce us to the next major section in the book of Hebrews. And it is not just the next major section, it is the next major section.

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In fact, one could argue that this next section of the book of Hebrews is the central idea, the central contrast of the entire book.

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I've mentioned that as we've gone through, we've looked at the number of contrasts that are made between Jesus and other things.

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Remember, we've said that Hebrews is a book where Jesus is pictured as greater than. In chapter 1, He is greater than the angels.

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In chapter 2, He is greater than the angels. That's the first contrast. Jesus is greater than the angels. Then we get to chapter 3, and what do we find out?

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Jesus is greater than Moses, because He's done something that Moses didn't do. He has brought His people into the promised land.

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And He has done something that Joshua couldn't do, and that is to give His people rest. So, Jesus is greater than the angels. Jesus is greater than Moses and Joshua because He has done something that they did not do.

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He's greater than the angels in terms of His person and His being. And now the next major contrast is that Jesus is greater than the entire

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Old Testament, Old Covenant, Levitical priestly system, all of it. And that is the focus of the book of Hebrews for the next six chapters all the way through to the end of chapter 10.

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It is all about the priestly work of Jesus that is the central idea of the book of Hebrews.

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So, today we're just kind of introducing what that means and looking at some of those implications with chapter 4, verse 14.

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So, it wraps up the warning passage. It resumes what He was discussing before as He launches into this next major contrast.

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And under this major contrast, by the way, this contrast between Jesus and the Levitical priests, that's kind of a big banner under which all kinds of other contrasts would fall.

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For instance, we would say that Jesus and His work is greater than the

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Old Testament, Old Covenant, Levitical priesthood. That is not just one contrast. That is dozens upon dozens upon dozens of contrasts because we're saying that Jesus as a priest is greater than all of the

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Old Testament priests. We're saying that the sacrifice that He made is greater than all the sacrifices that all the

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Old Testament priests made. The security that He gives to His people is greater than the security provided in those sacrifices.

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The work that He has done in interceding for His people is greater than the work that was done in interceding by all of the

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Old Testament high priests. Everything about Him, His work, His sacrifice, His intercession, His person,

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His being, the perpetuity with which His work continues on today, He continues even now to make intercession for those who are

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His. That's something that Aaron is not doing even now. In every way, He is greater. Whether you're talking about His person,

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His being, His work, the sacrifices, His blood, its security, what it has done for His people, what it did for the sin, in every way, it is better, better than all the

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Old Testament sacrifices and feasts. And so, in light of that, in light of the fact that He is greater in every way than that entire

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Old Testament system, we are to hold fast our confession firm into the end. Now, each one of those comparisons, angels,

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Moses, and the priesthood, all three of those things have one thing in common. There's something that all three of them have in common, and that is that all of them are related to the

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Old Covenant. That's the point of the book of Hebrews. All of them are related to the Old Covenant. Remember, the angels were the mediators of the

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Old Covenant in some way. The New Testament and the Old Testament alludes to the fact that the angels had some function in, and Scripture is not explicit about it.

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It mentions it, but it doesn't give any details. The angels had some function in relaying the terms and conditions of the

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Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, to the nation of Israel and to Moses. They had something to do in that.

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We don't know exactly what it was. So, the angels are involved in mediating that Old Covenant and bringing it.

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Moses was involved in instituting the Old Covenant, and the Old Testament priests, Aaron and the high priestly and all the functions of the priesthood, that was the continuing rituals and rites of the

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Old Covenant. All of this is about the Old Covenant. So, whether we're talking about the giving of the covenant, the initiating of the covenant, or the maintaining of the covenant,

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Jesus is greater than all of that. That's the point of Hebrews. Now, having introduced that, let's look at our outline for this morning.

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That was enough for a whole day, and it was, but we're not done yet. We didn't have communion or special music, so I've got all kinds of time to keep you.

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So, notice that the exhortation in verse 14 comes at the end of the passage, and this is going to give us an indication as to how we're going to break these verses down.

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In verse 14, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, here's the exhortation of the command, let us hold fast our confession.

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That's the command to us. Now, before the command, there are three things said about the Lord Jesus, and this is your outline for this morning.

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There are three things said about the Lord Jesus that are motivations for us to hold fast. Number one, that He is a great high priest.

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Number two, that He has passed through the heavens. And number three, that He is the Son of God. Those three things all serve to motivate and ground our perseverance in holding fast our confession.

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He's a great high priest. He has passed through the heavens, and He is Jesus, the Son of God. That would be necessarily

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His priestly work, His preeminence, the fact that He's passed through the heavens and seated at the right hand of God, and His person.

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Who is it that we're talking about? We're talking about the Son of God. All of that serves to motivate us to hold fast firm until the very end.

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So, first, let's look at the priesthood of Jesus and how this motivates us to hold fast. There's a lot about the Old Testament priesthood that I could sort of dump on you right now, and I'm not going to do it.

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And one of the things that I've struggled with over the last several weeks is, how do I work in all that the

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Old Testament says about the Old Testament priesthood and the high priest into our study of Hebrews?

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Because we're not familiar with the functions of the high priest. To a

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Jew who read this in the first century, they had gone to Jerusalem, they had seen the high priest offer a sacrifice for himself and then cleanse himself with water and offer a sacrifice for his people on the day of atonement, and then go into the temple and behind the veil, they had witnessed all this.

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They were familiar with what it meant to have a high priest and all that he meant for the people of God and how they would look to the high priest for certain things and intercession with God.

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They were familiar with that. We're not familiar with that. And so, we kind of walk into this and we say, okay, so what is a high priest? Is this a

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Roman Catholic thing that we're supposed to understand? What kind of priesthood is being spoken of here?

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We're far more ignorant of that function and of that office than the first century Jews would have been.

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So, instead of dumping everything about a high priest on us this morning, here's what we're going to do over the course of the next six chapters.

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We're just going to introduce elements of the Old Testament priesthood as they are introduced in contrast with Christ over the course of the next six chapters.

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That sound like a good way of handling it? That way, instead of sort of dumping it all on us in one shot, we can just look at it as each contrast is brought up.

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We'll just pause and take a look at that. So, here are the ways in which the high priesthood of Jesus is contrasted with the high priesthood of the

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Old Testament, even right here in this passage. First, he is called a great high priest. Notice that designation.

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This is not something that Aaron, Moses' brother, the first high priest, this is not something that Aaron was ever called a great high priest.

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In fact, no priest of the Old Testament in terms of his office was ever called a great high priest.

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And this is the author's way of right out of the gate introducing us to the fact that Jesus, in terms of his high priesthood, is greater than all the

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Old Testament high priests. None of them were ever called great. But Jesus is not just a high priest. He's not just another high priest.

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He is the great high priest. This describes the greatness, the preeminence of his office, of his work, of his function, of his sacrifice.

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He's greater in every way. He's the great high priest. All the priestly work of the

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Old Testament priests, all of that was intended to be a reminder of sin. Day by day, year by year, moment by moment, a reminder of sin.

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The work of Christ is a remedy for sin. He has done something that all those

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Old Testament priests could never do in all of the sacrifices. And this is a contrast that's made later on the book of Hebrews.

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That high priest in the Old Testament, they had to go in, they had to do that work every year on the Day of Atonement.

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And it never ended year after year after year. And that was just Yom Kippur. That was just the

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Day of Atonement. And apart from that sacrifices, there were hundreds and thousands of other sacrifices that were made every day and every week in the temple.

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It was a butcher's nightmare what went on in the temple. And all of it was intended to remind everybody of the gravity and the cost of sin.

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But Jesus, in one sacrifice, did what none of those Old Testament priests could do in a million sacrifices.

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And even if they were able to offer a million sacrifices for a million years, they could never do what

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Jesus did with His one sacrifice. That's why He's the great high priest. And this is intended to draw our attention and the attention of His readers and the listeners away from the

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Old Testament sacrificial system, the Old Testament priests, and to one who has done something they could never do, something that they never were, and that is a great high priest, the

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Lord Jesus. And here's the comparison between Jesus and the Old Testament priests in His work.

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Now, to introduce you to the work of an Old Testament high priest, I mentioned Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement.

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Here was what the Old Testament priest had to do on the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, which was the highest and holiest day of all of the religious ceremonies for the nation of Israel, the high priest's job was to get dressed up in all of his priestly garments, and he was to go and offer first a sacrifice for his own sin, one sacrifice that he would make to atone or pay for to cover his own sin.

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Having done that, then he would wash himself with water, then he would offer a second sacrifice for the sins of the people, and he would take the blood of that sacrifice, which was offered in the outer court of the temple, outside the tabernacle, and he would bring it through the outer court into the tabernacle, or later the temple,

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Solomon's temple in Jerusalem, bring it into there, and then he would go behind the veil that separated the front part of the tabernacle from the

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Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant stood, and he would walk behind the veil. Only once on one day of the year, he was allowed to go back into the presence of God, where the

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Shekinah glory was, and the Ark of the Covenant, and he would apply the blood of that sacrifice that he had made for all the people on top of the mercy seat, which was above the

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Ark, between the cherubim there. He would apply that blood, and having done that, he would leave immediately. He was not allowed to stay, he was not allowed to dawdle, he was not allowed to sort of clean up while he was back there, to touch the

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Ark, to dust the equipment, to adjust the curtains, none of that. Having finished his work, he was to leave immediately, and he would come back out.

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And one year later, he had to do all of that all over again. It was a reminder of sin.

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He'd never pay for it. And that blood, which was applied to the mercy seat, above the broken tablets of Moses's law, was intended to be a blood covering over the reality that we have broken that law.

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And so all of that was a picture of the gravity of sin, and the necessity for a blood sacrifice to make atonement for sin.

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But they could never make atonement for sin. They could never pay that price. Why? Because the blood of bulls and goats could never do that.

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The blood of a bull or goat could never represent me. The blood of a bull or goat could never pay for my sin. I need one who is infinitely righteous, who could stand in my stead, and work on my behalf, and shed his blood, and make a sacrifice that could do what no

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Old Testament priest in the Old Testament sacrifice could ever do. Christ has done that, which is why he is the great high priest.

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And what the high priest did for faithful Jews and Israelites in the Old Testament, this is what Christ has done for all those who find their rest in him.

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But it is not the blood of bulls and goats that he has applied to the mercy seat. It is his own blood that he has entered into heaven itself with that sacrifice and said,

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Father, this on behalf of all those whom you have given to me, this is the payment for their sin.

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And that payment for our sin is sufficient, and it satisfies the

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Father, and the Father raised him from the dead. He has gone behind that veil into the

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Holy of Holies itself, into the very throne room in the presence of God. Having presented that sacrifice to the

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Father, he has sat down at the Father's right hand. That's the difference. That's the contrast. We believers have this great high priest.

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Now, I want you to think in terms of a first century Jew for a moment, and I want you to realize what this type of a statement, what concern it would alleviate for a first century

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Jew. A first century Jew who had grown up watching the work of the high priest through this year after year, and not just on the

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Day of Atonement, but you had the Passover sacrifices, and you had the daily sacrifices, and the weekly sacrifices, and the burning of the incense, and all of those things that were intended to remind them of their sin.

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You would observe this, and you would watch this, and you'd grown up with it. And then once a year, or twice a year, you had gone up for Passover and for Yom Kippur, and you'd watch those sacrifices, and watch the work of the high priest, and you were trusting that his work would be accepted by God on your behalf, that that high priest would offer a sacrifice to atone for your sins.

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And then you watch him take that blood and walk into the temple to present it on the mercy seat, and in your mind you're thinking that is sufficient to cover, pay the price for my sin.

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It's taking care of his work. He's doing this on my behalf. I can't go back there. Only one man on one day every year can go back there.

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I can't, but he has done this on my behalf, and you observe that, and he comes back out. Got it.

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It's done. The law has been fulfilled on my behalf. He's done that work, and God sees that work which he has done on my behalf for me.

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It's fine for me. And then along comes a Christian who says, Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again to forgive you of your sins.

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And if you come to him and embrace him, you can dispatch with the entire Old Testament system. You don't have to worry about the sacrifices.

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You don't have to worry about the feasts, the festivals, the high priesthood, the priests, the animals, none of it.

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All of that stuff taken care of and done away by one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

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Now as a Jew, what concern would you have? If I turn my back on the work of the high priest,

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Caiaphas, Annas, whoever it was that year, if I turn my back on the work of that high priest and what he has done on my behalf,

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I'm turning to what? What do I have over here that might replace this? You've grown up trusting this.

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You've grown up investing your whole life, all of your faith, all of your being and your energies into this.

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And now you're being told, walk away from all of that. It all means nothing because Christ has come and fulfilled it all.

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So then you come to the Christian community, you have embraced Jesus Christ, and without the understanding that we have in the book of Hebrews, what would be your concern?

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Is he sufficient? Does he replace that? Or do

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I need to trust in him and still go back and ask the high priest, look, you need to do this on behalf of me.

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I've got to have trust in both of these things or is Jesus Christ sufficient to take care of all of that?

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And the argument of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is sufficient to take care of all of that. Draw the line.

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All of that goes away because now you have the fulfillment. That's the symbolism. This is the substance.

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That was the shadow. This is the fulfillment. Having embraced Christ, you do not have to worry that you do not have a high priest.

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You have a great high priest. That's it. You don't have to worry about turning your back on that.

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This is no disadvantage. You're not losing a high priest. You have gained a great high priest who has done what none of them could ever do.

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That would be their great concern. So you can see how this is a motivation for holding fast. The fact that his priesthood, the fact that he is the great high priest, this motivates us to hold fast that confession.

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In other words, the author would be saying, don't let go of him to go back to this. Instead, hold fast to this.

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You have a great high priest. Don't think you've turned your back on God's high priest. Those are not God's high priest.

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Christ is his high priest. And so having embraced him and confessed him and laid hold of him, do not turn back.

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Hold fast that confession of faith in him. So that's first the priesthood of Christ, and second, the preeminence of Christ, the fact that he has passed through the heavens.

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This describes his ascension and his glorification. It's a repeated theme all the way through the book of Hebrews, though.

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In connection with the priesthood of Jesus, the author of Hebrews mentions this four other times here in the next six chapters.

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And I want you to listen to the different language that he uses each and every time. Hebrews chapter six, he says, this hope we have as an anchor for the soul, a hope both secure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil.

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Notice the imagery there. So an Old Testament Jew would be thinking in terms of a hope and anchor that he had by the blood being applied on the mercy seat behind the veil.

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And in chapter six, you have Christ, who is your high priest. That is your hope and your anchor within, beyond the veil, behind there, where the blood was applied.

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You're trusting in that. You have what Christ has done. Trust in that. Where he says,

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Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In chapter eight, verses one and two, the main point of what has been said is this.

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We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty and heavens.

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In Hebrews chapter nine, verse 11, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.

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Hebrews chapter nine, verse 24, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

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So all the way through this section on the high priesthood of Jesus, the author is reminding us, this one who has offered his sacrifice has entered within the veil.

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He has gone, and now he is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. I mentioned earlier that when the priest went back into the veil, there was something that he could not do, and that was to dawdle.

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You didn't take your time back there. You didn't, you applied the blood, the mercy seat. You didn't look down and say, oh, I need to tie my shoe and stoop down and tie your shoe.

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You went back, and you did your work, and you walked out of there immediately, and you were not allowed to return for an entire year.

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High priests would die for violating any of those commandments. They were killed by God. So their job was to walk back into that veil and then to immediately to come back out.

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So as a Jew growing up, watching the operation of the high priest in the temple of tabernacle, there was something you always observed.

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He went back behind the veil, and then immediately he came right back out again, and you saw him again. But in the case of Christ who has entered within the veil, do we see him come out again?

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See, this is another contrast between the Old Testament priest and Christ. There's no limit to the amount of time that he can stand in the presence of the

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Father. Having gone into the Holy of Holies with his sacrifice, which is atoned for the sins of all who will trust in him, that sacrifice has been presented and accepted, and he didn't usher a hurry out of the presence of God.

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What did he do? He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. See, that's the difference.

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And so if you were wondering, if you were a first century Jew, and you were wondering, I've trusted in the

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Old Testament high priest. He goes into the tabernacle and comes back out, and now Christ has gone away, and we never see him again.

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Is that a disadvantage to me? It's not a disadvantage to me at all. This shows his preeminence, how great he is.

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He can step into the presence of the Father, and he doesn't have to leave. In fact, he has stepped into the presence of the

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Father, and he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And there, Hebrews says, he always lives to make intercession for us.

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See, that high priest didn't step behind the curtain and then start praying and stay back there for hours praying for the people.

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He presented his blood, which was an intercession for the people, and then he stepped out. And Hebrews argues,

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Christ has stepped into the presence of the Father. He has sat down, and there he always intercedes for those who are his, continually praying for us.

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Even right now, while you are seated here, and I am standing here, Christ is interceding on our behalf in the presence of the

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Father. So do not think that because that high priest has stepped beyond the veil and he has not returned, that is any kind of a detriment.

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It doesn't minimize his work at all. He has done something which no priest could ever do. That is, he has sat down in the holy of holies, in the very presence of God.

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This shows his preeminence. His superiority is seen in the fact that he didn't enter into an earthly tabernacle.

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He entered into a heavenly place. He didn't enter into the holy of holies, but into the throne room of heaven itself.

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He didn't enter into a place that is made with hands, but one made by God himself, never to leave, but to be seated, and never to stop praying, but always to intercede for those who are his.

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This is his greatness and his preeminence. So now I want you to see how this is motivation for holding fast to your confidence, that he who has gone into the heavens, who intercedes for us now, and is seated at the right hand of the

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Father, his preeminence, his glory, his position that he has in the heavens right now. Why would you turn from that back to an earthly high priest who will die and pass his office off to another who has to do the same thing that he has done year after year, year after year, until he hands it off to the next guy because he dies.

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He hands it off to somebody else who has to do the same thing over and over again. Why would you turn away from, why would you abandon your confession in Christ to trust in some other sacrificial system which is not nearly as glorious?

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We trust a high priest, not one who has entered into the veil behind the veil and then had to come out again.

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We've trusted in a high priest who has entered in one time, done his work, sat down at the right hand of the

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Father. There he is on our behalf. And all of the grace and the help of the divine persons is at his behest to give to those who are his when we come to him in faith.

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What a glory that is. Third, I want you to notice the person of Christ and how this motivates us to hold fast.

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He's not only a great high priest and he's passed through the heavens, but he is Jesus, the Son of God. There's two things about that name.

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That name, Jesus, the Son of God, indicates two things. First, his humanity, and then second, his deity.

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The name Jesus is the name of his humanity. It was what Moses, not Moses, Joseph and Mary were told to name him by the angel.

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You call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He's Jesus, the Son of Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the

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Christ, Jesus, Son of Joseph. That is the name of his humanity. The fact that he is designated here as the

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Son of God is an indication of his deity. And both of these are necessary. He is not just the man who is the man

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Christ Jesus, he is the man who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being and sharing and having both the divine nature and the human nature in all of its perfections and glories, not in a mixture of the two in some amalgamation, but two separate and distinct natures, a divine nature and a human nature, a full human nature, a full divine nature, united together in one person, that is the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So in chapter 2, he is the Son who is worshiped by the angels. He is the Son to whom the

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Father has given all things. He is the Son who will come again and judge the world in righteousness. He is the

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Son to whom the Father has given all of the kingdom, all of that in chapter 1. In chapter 2, he is the Son who is greater than the angels, but for a period of time was made lower than the angels, but now has been crowned with glory and honor again.

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That's chapter 2. He is the Son, in chapter 3, who is the Son over the Father's house. He is the Son who is faithful over Moses, the house that Moses built.

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He is the builder of all things. That's his sonship. And now here in chapter 4, we are called that he is the Son of God because he is the one who gives rest to his people.

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Now, both the humanity of the Savior and the deity of the Savior are both necessary for him to be a faithful and merciful high priest.

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He had to be a man so that he might know what it is to live among men, not to know what it is to sin or to even be prone to sin or even to resist sin the way that you and I do, but he had to be a man and fully man so that he might know all of the weaknesses that are inherent with humanity.

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And so experiencing fully all of the human nature and all of what it means to be human without any sin at all, he is able to come to our aid because he knows what it is to be tempted.

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He has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He has experienced the full brunt of temptation and of those weaknesses doing so perfectly sinlessly.

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So in order for him to sympathize with me, he had to be a man. But in order to represent me to atone for my sin, he had to be

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God. So he is Jesus the man, Jesus the Son of God, both human and divine.

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And so you can see how this is a motivation to hold fast. If your high priest is both man and God, and your high priest is sinless, why would you turn away from that?

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Why would you leave that? Why would you not hold fast to such a Savior? Look at the

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Old Testament priest, the high priest who goes into the temple. Before he can even offer a sacrifice on behalf of you, he has to offer a sacrifice to pay for his own sins.

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So he offers one sacrifice first for himself, then he washes himself in ceremonial cleansing, and then he can offer a sacrifice for you.

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Christ didn't need to offer two sacrifices, one for himself and then for the sins of the people. Because he is the sinless one, he offers a sacrifice for his people.

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And he does so on their behalf, representing them, paying their price. How much greater is he than all the Old Testament priests?

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So why would you abandon that? Hold fast to him. Hold fast to that confession firm until the end.

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He is greater than all the Old Testament priests. He is the great high priest. So those are the three reasons.

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Because of his priesthood, because of his preeminence, he's passed through the heavens, seated at the Father's right hand, and because of his person, because he is the

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Son of God and he is divine, therefore he is greater than all the Old Testament priests. Now look at this exhortation to hold fast.

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This is actually the third time in this context that it's mentioned. It's mentioned, as we noticed, back in chapter 3, verse 6, at the end of that section where he introduces this theme before the warning passage, where he says, if we hold fast our confidence and our boast of our hope firm until the end, then it's mentioned in chapter 3, verse 14, in the middle of the warning passage, we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

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And now it is mentioned here in chapter 4, verse 14. Those three things sort of bracket the warning passage with that mention of the warning passage in the middle of it.

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All of that intended to remind us you are to hold fast, you're to hold fast, and in case you get this wrong, you are to hold fast.

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So three times he has mentioned it using different language each time. We're to hold fast our confidence, our assurance, the beginning of our assurance, and our confession.

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And all three of those are just three different ways of saying the exact same thing, that we are to hold fast that which we have confessed.

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Now, the word hold fast is a word that means to grab onto or to take hold of something, to lay hold of it, and to grip it.

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And the word has inherent in its meaning an indication of a strength and a force that is used to grab hold of it.

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And it said, not that, but I just did it in case you weren't looking, not that, that's not laying hold, that's not laying hold of something.

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To hold fast means to grab something and to seize upon it with your strength. What is it that we are to hold fast to?

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Our confession. What is that? It's the word homologia, homo meaning same, logia meaning from logos meaning word, to speak.

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It means to speak the same. There's something that all Christians speak the same. We all confess certain same things regarding Christ and salvation and truth and revelation and the nature of God and the nature of humanity.

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There is a common confession that all Christians have in common. And if you are outside of that confession, outside the bounds of that confession, and you don't confess what

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Christians believe about these essential issues, then you're not a Christian. There's a common confession that we all have, and we are to lay hold of that.

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And in this context, it is likely a reference to the confession that we have regarding Christ, that we believe that God sent him, the divine son, into the world, take upon himself human flesh, that he might die on a cross, pay the price for sin, rise again from the dead to atone for the sins of all who will trust in him, and that we have laid hold of that confession, and that is our trust.

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And in the first -century Jewish context, that's exactly what these believers would have understood. We have walked away from all the

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Old Testament, Old Covenant trappings and system, and we have instead embraced or laid hold of Jesus Christ.

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And the author is saying, you hold fast to him. There's certain things that you have confessed regarding him and regarding salvation that has caused you to turn your back on that.

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Maintain that. Hold fast to that. Now, this is the human side of the doctrine of perseverance. We are to guard against this.

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We guard against drifting and letting go of our hold on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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This is the human side of the doctrine of perseverance, which Dave mentioned last week and talked about last week.

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Notice that this command is to us, let us hold fast. We are commanded to not let go of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, to not turn away, to not turn our back on him, to not apostatize, to not leave the truth that we have confessed regarding him.

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We are commanded because it is our responsibility as his people to hold on to, with violent and strong fashion, our confession regarding the

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Lord Jesus Christ and to not ever to turn away from that. That's our responsibility.

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How do we do this? By not apathetically drifting by the harbor of safety from the wrath of God, as per the warning passage in chapter 2.

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How do we do this? By not letting our hearts become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and being like the wilderness generation who wandered away from it, from the warning passage in Hebrews chapter 4.

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How do we do this? By maintaining our sanctification and pursuing sanctification without which no one can see the

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Lord, by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, by endeavoring each and every day to lay hold of Christ, to walk with Christ, to stay firmly planted and firmly rooted in the gospel.

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And I am secure in that. Now, having done all of that, am

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I secure because I have held fast? No, you're not.

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This is what Dave talked about last week in 1 Peter chapter 1. This is how he rules. He steals my thunder. I asked him to preach.

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He gets up here and he steals my thunder. What I'm going to preach on the very next week. What did Dave cover in 1 Peter chapter 1 last week?

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Our inheritance is reserved for us in heaven for us who are what?

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Kept by the power of God. You're kept by the power of God. Do you have to hold fast all the way to the very end in perseverance?

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You do. Is that what secures you? No. You're kept by the power of God for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

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This is the beauty of divine sovereignty, divine power, and human responsibility.

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We are secured by God's doing. We are secured by His will. We are saved and secured by the sacrifice of Christ, by the promises of God, by the will of God, by the power of God, by the doing of God.

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We give credit all to God. He is the one who keeps us and there is nobody whom

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Christ has saved that will be lost on the final day. But there is also nobody who will depart from the faith who will be saved on the final day.

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These two things go together. They must and always do. We are kept by the power of God through faith which for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

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It is not my holding fast that keeps me secure. He keeps me secure so that I may hold fast.

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My holding fast is the means by which I am secured by the power of God. So we can say that nobody is secure because they hold fast and neither are any secured without holding fast.

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Catch that. We are...nobody is secured because they hold fast but neither are any secured without holding fast.

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Show me one who walks away from Christ and I will show you not just somebody who will be lost but somebody who was never saved.

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Show me the one who perseveres all the way to the end and holds fast to Christ and I will show you one whom

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God has saved, whom God has secured, and whom God has kept by his power all the way to the very end. We can also say that Christ will not fail to save any of his sheep but neither will any of his sheep fail to hold fast.

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I'll say that again. Christ will not fail to save any of his sheep but neither will any of his sheep fail to hold fast.

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That's why we are commanded to hold fast. These are two sides of the same coin. None of those who have believed on Christ will be lost and all who have believed upon him will hold fast.

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Therefore, brethren, hold fast. Not because it depends on you, it doesn't.

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You hold fast to him because he holds fast to you. You hold fast to him because he keeps you by the power of God.

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Walk away from that and you are not only not saved, you are not kept, and you will perish everlastingly if you turn your back on him.

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We hold fast to him because he has held fast to us. Our salvation and our security in our salvation is not due to us holding fast.

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We are commanded to hold fast and we do hold fast because our salvation is secure because of what Christ has done in saving and securing a people for himself and for his own glory everlastingly.

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The shepherd holds us and therefore we can hold fast. And because the shepherd holds us, we must hold fast, we will hold fast, we are commanded to hold fast, and all those whom he holds will hold fast all the way to the very end.

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Therefore, let us hold fast to our confession, firm until the very end.

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That is the mark of a true believer. Without it, you will not be saved.

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With it, you are saved, but not because you hold fast, but because Christ is a successful Savior who saves fully and always those who are his.

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Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank you for this gracious and good reminder of our responsibility to hold fast to our confession in Christ.

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We pray that even this reminder of all that you have done for our salvation to secure us for your glory might serve to strengthen us in that very task, that we may never be tempted to fall away, that we may never fall away.

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All of it is your work because Christ has saved us and he has provided a salvation for us through his blood.

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We are forever kept because you hold us firmly in your hand, and we thank you for that, Father.

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We thank you that our salvation does not depend upon us, or if it did, we would surely lose it within an instant, but it depends upon the work of Christ.

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And for that, we are grateful, and we praise you and your great name and your glory, and we will for all of eternity.

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and keep all those who are yours today, we pray, both now and forever, in Christ's name. Amen.