Perfect (Hebrews 7:23-28- Jeff Kliewer)

We are going to get started this morning just with a couple of things to mention. First of all, good morning.

Thank you for joining us. If you want to stay in the loop at Cornerstone Church, the best thing to do is to text the number that's on the screen, the word loop, and that'll allow you to see notices, announcements, any news that's coming out.

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We just want to say thank you.

You can see Cindy Randall, and I have contact information. Cindy, could you just give a little wave right here?

Women, Monday nights, Bible study. Keep praying for the Rock Church. They're doing great.

Let's just pray for God to continue to bless them as they carry out his work. We have an

Isaiah study on Wednesdays. This Thursday, I am going to be going before the

EFCA council to be examined on theology, so if you are a theology buff, you are welcome to tune in on Zoom and watch some of that.

It might be a real snoozer, I don't know, because it's going to be some deep stuff, but if it'll be interesting to you, you're welcome to do that.

I can give you the link. A few other announcements. Some of you know Bill and Eleanor Webster, who were really almost founding members of this church.

They've been here since the 80s. They used to run the young adult ministry for the church.

They are moving. They're going to head down to Delaware to be close to their son

Matthew and his wife and children, so be praying for Bill and Eleanor in their move.

If you have a chance to let them know how much you love them and care for them, if you happen to know them, that would be great, but let's just be praying for them.

Also, Vodie Bauckham. He's a guy that we've been praying for. He's just a wonderful preacher of God's word, has been faithful to the scriptures for many years.

He made it to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, but it was a very harrowing journey.

He ended up in the emergency room, but eventually got there, and then they just lost his bags in transit too, so it's one thing after another for Vodie Bauckham, so be praying that his heart would be restored because he's experiencing heart failure.

And then lastly, we're going to pray. Well, actually two more things. We're going to pray for James and Erin Coates. James Coates is a pastor in Canada.

He lives life, one sovereign in power, who speaks with thunder and fire.

There is no other that can compare to you. You are the one alone in greatness, the one who never changes.

Jesus, you are the one who robs.

Jesus, the one true God. There is no other that can compare to you.

You are the one alone in greatness, the one who never changes.

Jesus, the one true God. Has seen the glory of never changes.

Jesus, you are Jesus, the one true

God. Jesus, we welcome you here this morning.

We are so grateful that you are a holy God. You are a just God, and even though that we are sinners, you allow us at the feet, bow our hearts to you this morning.

Sing your praises for you are holy. You are merciful. You are holy,

Lord. You are mighty. You are worthy of our praise. Let's sing together.

Amen. We had to handicap the ladies just for the guys to keep up.

They were louder than us, and we didn't have a female on a microphone. That was amazing. Great job, ladies.

Not such a great job, guys. Except for Michael, you did a great job.

All right, let's pray. So, Father, thank you so much for this chance to come here and celebrate salvation.

That we have an opportunity to be here and look at Christ. To turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face.

So the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace.

God, it is our privilege to open your word, and we ask that you would help us to see. Give us eyes to see.

Warm our hearts with the truth of your word. Help us to love Christ more as we leave this place today than we did as we came in.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The kings of Judah are presented in the books of 1

Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles as kind of the main characters. You'll notice that.

The kings are kind of the center of attention. But it's very often the priests, the

Levites, who step into the story as the rescuers.

These are kind of like the savior figures in the historical narratives of Israel and Judah.

However, when the priests step in, they often rescue but are unable to make things perfect.

They can't see things through to completion. So you see this image of Christ in the priests of the

Old Testament, but they're never able to complete their work. There's always this sense of unfinishedness, something lacking, even though they're there for a good purpose.

They can't make things perfect. Let's take a minute before we dive into Hebrews.

Well, actually, let's take about 15 minutes just to set your expectation the right way and do a review of some of the

Levites. Because, okay, so when you come to the New Testament, you see the fulfillment of so many things.

And we delight that Christ has come. But have you ever wondered, why is it that God waited so long before sending

Jesus into the world? I mean, we're talking about thousands of years of Jewish history before Christ comes as a fulfillment.

Why so long? Why so much context? Well, I think one of the big reasons for that is so that when

Christ comes, we would have kind of some bones to put the flesh on, some structure that makes sense of his incarnation.

And that is the Old Testament. By setting up the story, when Christ comes, we can make sense of what it means that Jesus is a priest.

When you see a priesthood all through the Old Testament, and it's doing what it's doing, all of that sets us up to understand the greatness of Christ.

Otherwise, we wouldn't understand what is so amazing about Christ as priest, or as king, or as prophet, or the different roles that he fulfills.

So let's take a minute and look back at the story of the Levites. What did they do?

Who were some of them? Most of us don't know the name of a Levite after that first generation.

But let's pick up the story at the time of Solomon. Solomon was that great and wise king who built the temple.

And on consecrating the temple, a cloud of glory filled the temple, such that the priests weren't even able to officiate at the altar.

They couldn't do what they were called to do because the glory cloud filled the temple. After that high point, things began to disintegrate because the next generation split the kingdom.

And to the north, you had Jeroboam who led the rebellion. And to the south, in Judah, you had the faithful ones who were doing what

Levites were called to do in the temple. Now notice, this is something many of us miss. When Rehoboam was officiating and was king in the south, and Jeroboam was in the north, the

Levites made a decision. The priests made a decision. They all left the north.

They came south and they joined Judah. They were on Rehoboam's side. Even if they had grown up in the north, they, the

Levites, rallied to the south. That's very important because what you will see in the north is about 20 kings, all of them evil.

Not one of them turned for the good. They're all wicked through and through. But to the south, you have

Levites in the mix, and it makes a huge difference. So in that first big war, when

Abijah, the descendant after Rehoboam, is facing off against Jeroboam, it's the

Levites who come to the center stage. And Rehoboam makes a point of this.

He says, we have the priests that officiate at the altar. The thing you're doing up there in Dan with your golden calves and your made -up priests,

God's not gonna bless that. And so the Levites step up, and when they blow the trumpet and a shout for war is given,

Judah triumphs over Israel. The Levites are in the middle of that. Sometimes we miss that in the story.

The Levites are very prominent, blowing the trumpets. And then you have Asa after Abijah, and then you have one whose name you'll recognize,

Jehoshaphat. Jumping Jehoshaphat. Remember Jehoshaphat? I can't say it.

He started off bad. He tried to go north and create an alliance, but things didn't go well.

Ahab died in that war. Jehoshaphat almost died. And he comes back to Judah.

And he learned his lesson. So what does he do? He gets the Levites, and he tells the priest to go all through the tribes of Judah.

Teach the people, teach the Word of God. And there is a revival in Judah. So this is very good.

And when the Edomites and the Moabites, they come to attack, he calls on the

Levites. And the Levites begin to pray, and they begin to prophesy.

And then they begin to sing. And by singing praise, as the

Levites are leading the people in praise and worship, the Moabites and the Ammonites turn on each other and kill one another.

It was the singing that conquered the enemy. They didn't even have to lift a sword because the

Levites led in worship, and they praised their way to victory. An amazing story. That priest who led that charge into battle was named

Jehaziel. But Jehoshaphat didn't stay with Jehaziel forever.

Eventually, he went back to his old ways. It wasn't complete. And by the end of the story,

Jehoshaphat is back up north, trying to build ships to go to Tarshish. That all fails, and nothing seems complete.

Jehoram is the next in line, and he's wicked, kills all his brothers. That's pretty bad. Ahaziah, he also falls in league with Israel.

And then there is a wicked woman who kills the entire royal family. Her name is

Athaliah. And for six years, she is running this shadow government because she killed all the royal sons, except one.

You know his name? Kimberly does. Joash. If Rich was here, he would know.

Joash, this baby boy, when he turns seven years old, the

Levite who's in the south, not in the north, Jehoiada, takes this baby who's now grown up to be a seven -year -old, and he gathers all the

Levites into the temple, and he proclaims, Behold your king, a seven -year -old king.

And what's so fascinating about the story of Joash is that as long as Jehoiada was alive,

Joash did right in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoiada, he clung for dear life.

It's almost like he knew he was holding Joash up because this dude lived till 130 years old.

He was hanging on. But as soon as Jehoiada died, Joash turned evil.

It wasn't complete. The priest was helping him, but he couldn't change his heart. He was offering sacrifices, but it was never enough.

And so Joash became an evil king. He even killed Jehoiada's son, Zechariah, another priest who called him out for his wickedness, stoned him to death.

And so Joash ends terribly. And his son is like him.

Amaziah was kind of a warmonger who got himself killed. And then Uzziah was so prideful that he said,

Well, let me go into the temple and offer the sacrifices. But it was the Levites, this time a

Levite named Azariah. You don't have to remember all these names, but it's just fun to realize these were people in the

Old Testament who were priests who came in to save the day. And they confronted

Uzziah, who was a king offering a sacrifice. Remember, it's the priests that offer sacrifices.

So when they confronted him, Uzziah's head turned leprous.

And he had to quarantine himself because that's what you do with the sick. You quarantine the sick. Another story for another day.

I didn't even mean to say that, but it came out, so I said it, okay. So Uzziah is quarantined, and he kind of dies off.

His son is like him. And he's pretty good, actually, Jotham. And then wicked Ahaz.

We're almost done. We get to Hezekiah. He brings some reforms. You have the singing Levites there. The greatest joy since Solomon in the temple, the

Bible says. The Levites are doing their thing. Manasseh is so wicked, he burns his sons, as does

Ammon. And then you have Josiah, the last reformer. Well, how do the reforms come about under Josiah, that last good king of Judah?

Hilkiah, the Levite, the priest, rebuilding and restoring the temple, cleaning the temple.

He finds the book, the law of Moses, especially, I think, Deuteronomy is what they found.

And they see the penalties for disobedience and the rewards for obedience. And they begin to teach the word of God.

And there's a revival throughout Judah. But even so, as great as that was, it's never complete.

It's never perfect. Because Hilkiah dies and Josiah dies. And along come

Jehoahaz, Eliakim, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, the last four kings of Judah, descending greater and greater into wickedness.

You see, the story of, especially 2 Chronicles is the story I just told you. The story of 2

Chronicles is very much about Levites. It's about Levites as savior figures.

They come in, whether it's Jehoiada or Azariah or Hilkiah, they come in and they rescue

Judah from waywardness. These are good priests.

They're doing what God called them to do. But they're never complete. They can't make things perfect.

The problem is, the fundamental issue is that they die. They hang on to 130 years, but still they die.

And they can't change the heart. They can help the king along, but they can't make him perfect.

They can't change his heart. And they themselves are sinners. And their sacrifices are never done.

They have to be repeated again and again. And they're never proven to be perfect because they are sinners like anyone else.

And so that brings us to Hebrews 7, with the proper context, the structure, the bones to understand how glorious this passage is.

So in Hebrews 7, 23 to 28, we have a celebration of our priest.

And the good news is we've already done the heavy lifting. For the last three weeks, we've gone into the complicated stuff.

Now we have the easy stuff. We've looked at how it is that Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek.

Melchizedek, we remember from Genesis 14, was a priest that met

Abraham after the slaughter of the kings. And Abraham gave him a tithe and Melchizedek blessed

Abraham. And we learned from that, that Melchizedek is a priest who's greater than Abraham.

And that picture's Jesus because Jesus comes from a greater priesthood than the priesthood that came from Abraham, which is these

Levites that we've been talking about. So it's a greater priesthood. We learned that from the typology, the symbols.

It all connects. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine. Jesus brings the bread and wine of his body and blood.

But there was a promise in the middle of Hebrews 7, which was Psalm 110, verse 4, that the coming

Messiah would be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. In other words, it's not just random typology, like you're trying to make things fit.

No, God said there will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And so it all fits together according to that promise, right? So that brings us to today.

I say that's the heavy lifting because that's where you have to make all the connections between Genesis 14,

Psalm 110, and Hebrews 7, the three places where this is talked about. You have to kind of bring that all together. Today is the reward of our suffering.

Today, we just get to delight in Jesus as our priest over against the

Levites to see how glorious this really is. So I'm going to read it first of all. And here's what we're looking to see.

Christ as a priest who can never be destroyed, who will never fail, who has never sinned, who has already finished his work, and who has been proven perfect.

The goal today is to celebrate Jesus, to look at Jesus and delight in what he's done as a priest.

So Hebrews 7, 23 to 28. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need like those priests, those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily.

First for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, that's referring to Psalm 110, verse 4, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

And we could just say amen right there, but what we'll do is look at it verse by verse to really appreciate what's in each of these five sentences.

The first one, verses 23 and 24, says the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

So the fundamental weakness of a Levitical priest is that he dies.

It always reminds me of the story of three priests who died on the same day, and that is

Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas. Hophni and Phinehas were the sons of a priest.

This is before the temple, before the section we just talked about during the days of the tabernacle. You have

Eli serving as the priest, and you might remember the story because Samuel comes as a little boy and he's raised there, but Eli has two natural sons whose names are

Hophni and Phinehas. They're supposed to serve as Levites that stand between sinners and a holy

God, but when the Israelites would bring their sacrifices, these two would selfishly take for themselves what belonged in the boiling pot because they wanted the better cut of meat.

So rather than doing what they were prescribed to do, they stole selfishly to feed their own flesh, and they were also fleshly in the sense of sexual immorality.

The Bible tells us that they were committing adultery and fornicating with the women who attended at the temple.

So here were priests, these religious leaders, who were actually hypocritical, and so they went to war with the ark of God ahead of them, and when the enemy confronted them,

God gave them over to the enemy because of their wickedness. You don't have to turn there, but in 1

Samuel 4, 17 and 18, it's in your notes, we read about the death of these priests.

When news comes back to Eli, the reporter says, your two sons also,

Hophni and Phinehas are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.

As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died.

For the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel 40 years.

So Eli was guilty of not disciplining his sons, but I think he was genuinely a priest of God, and we'll probably see him one day in heaven.

For 40 years, he presided there, but he died, and his sons were wicked, and they died with him.

Do you see the issue? Levites are sinners too. Levites have to go and die eventually because of their own sin.

The former priests, many in number, were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he, referring to Jesus, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

When Jesus died the death, not that he deserved, but that we deserve, he took our punishment in his flesh, was killed on the tree, and they buried him in a tomb, but on the third day he rose, conquering death, conquering the grave, and he lives.

He will forever live as our high priest because death itself could not destroy him.

He had victory over the grave. He is a risen priest, and that's the first piece of good news today, the first thing to celebrate.

He holds a priesthood permanently. Death itself can't stop him. He walked right through the veil of death and entered into the holy of holies.

He is a living priest, a forever priest that will never be destroyed.

Amen. Secondly, he is able, therefore, consequently, to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Unlike Jehoiada who died, and after that, Joash returned to the wicked man that he was on the inside.

Our priest can go deeper than the skin, deeper than performance and outward observance of rituals and religion.

Our priest can change the heart of a man. He can grant faith and hold on to that faith and encourage that faith.

He can change us from one degree of glory to another. He can conform us into his own image.

He can change our nature. He can cause us to die to the old man and live a new life in Christ.

He can actually make a new creation. The old priest can't do that.

He can save to the uttermost, thoroughly, and for all time.

A change that doesn't wear off. When you become a Christian and you begin excitedly to tell all of your friends,

I'm just excited doing this 20 years after I entered the ministry as I was the day

I first began. And I don't know about you, but the new creation, the new birth gives that.

It's not a temporary fix. It's a salvation to the uttermost. Look at verse 25.

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

You ever wonder what Jesus prays for you at the right hand of the Father? Intercession here means prayer.

He's communicating to the Father. What is he asking on your behalf? I think he's asking that our faith would not fail, that he would keep us to the end.

Simon was very confident in himself. Simon Peter, remember? Lord, even if all the other disciples desert you,

I will not. I'm with you to death, Jesus. And Jesus said,

Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail.

And after you have repented, strengthen your brothers. It was the intercession, the prayer of Christ that kept

Peter. It was not Peter's own strength. Salvation is entirely the work of God.

When we see here in the text, those who come or draw near to God through Christ.

The emphasis here is not on the will of the individual. Rather, it's descriptive of those who come.

The emphasis, the glory, the lifting up in this passage is of Christ as a perfect savior.

This verse presents Christ as one who can save to the uttermost. The ones the

Father elected, the son intercedes for with his precious blood on the cross, atoning for that sin.

The spirit then applies that in your life and my life when we believe, and he is able to see that through to completion.

Jesus never lost one of his own. He never lost a sheep. Now, a sheep can wander into a prodigal walk, but he's able to bring the sheep back and nothing can snatch that sheep out of his hands.

He saves to the uttermost. The idea in this verse, verse 25, is that Jesus is a perfect savior.

Jesus never fails. He saves to the uttermost because he always lives to plead for us at the right hand of the

Father. It is a beautiful picture of the perfection of salvation.

He doesn't fail. He's able to save us to the uttermost. Thirdly, verse 26, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

The idea here is the holiness of this priest. Unlike every Levite, indeed, unlike any other man who ever lived,

Jesus is sinless. He was tempted.

And that's why this is so important that he was tempted. If you read Matthew chapter four, Luke chapter four, he's led into the wilderness.

And for 40 days, he fasts. Now, I don't know if you can imagine what that's like.

I can't imagine not eating any food or drinking any juice for 40 days.

I have a friend who did that. You guys know David Wood. Remember the apologist? He's been here a few times.

He went to jail because of some horrible things he did. But his cellmate had been born again.

And this man was empowered by the Holy Spirit. For 40 days and 40 nights, he fasted.

And David Wood in the flesh said, I can do that. If this Christian can do it, by my willpower, I can do it.

He ended up in the hospital of the prison and ultimately then became a

Christian, converted by the power of God to what his cellmate had been preaching. The point here, though, is that when you deny your flesh food for 40 days, your body is starved.

It is craving food. Some of you look a little hungry right now. Anybody thinking about lunch? You know what

I'm saying. For 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus was tempted.

Well, for 40 days, he ate no food. But Satan came to him and tempted him.

And what did he say? If you are the son of God, turn that stone into bread.

Now, that would have been sin for Jesus to do, because he was sent from heaven to live the full human experience, not to use his supernatural ability to turn that stone into bread for his own flesh.

But it was a natural desire for food. Jesus had no disordered desires. He had nothing broken in his psyche.

It was right and good for his body to desire food. So he was tempted toward that food, and yet he did not sin.

And he rejected that temptation again a second time, another temptation a third time. So three different temptations.

And then throughout his life, Satan would come back to him to bring temptations. And he never sinned.

He never broke the law at even the level of the heart. No breaking of the 10 commandments.

Thou shalt not commit adultery or murder or lie. Even in his thought life, perfect in every way.

And then in the garden of Gethsemane, where he saw the cross looming ahead of him.

And the temptation of the flesh would be to preserve itself. Yet he said, not my will, but yours be done.

And he went obediently, perfectly to the cross. Unstained.

There has never been a priest like Jesus. There has never been a sinless man. This is what we're learning about in verse 26.

He's innocent, unstained. This is what makes him so much greater. This is what the

Levitical priests couldn't match. This is why they died. And he lives separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

He is sinless. Fourth, verse 27, it says, he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily.

First for his own sins and then for those of the people. Since he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

Our priest has a better sacrifice. Day after day, the

Levites brought these animals and sacrificed them in the temple.

And it never made anything complete. It never perfected anybody. But we have a priest who once and for all came to do his priestly work and he did not grab a lamb by the scruff of its neck and lay it on the altar and lay his hand upon it to sacrifice that lamb.

Our priest laid himself down, his own body.

The priest who brings the sacrifice of himself. He laid his perfect holy life down on the cross and he took the nails into his hands and through his feet, the crown of thorns on his head.

His own body, the sacrifice. His own blood given to make atonement on the altar.

Like Leviticus 17, 11 foretold. Our priest brought a better sacrifice.

And this sacrifice is infinitely valuable. The value of the blood of these animals was enough to cover over sin for a time because it was prescribed that way, but it couldn't do anything.

What made Jesus's blood so different? Here you have a perfect son of God.

God himself in flesh. And so his blood is divine. It's infinitely valuable.

More than enough to cover all the sins of every person who's ever lived. That's the value of his blood.

It's unique blood. Fully human and yet fully divine in one person.

That's why he could be a perfect sacrifice. And so he offers himself. Greater love has no one than this, the one who lays down his life for his friends.

That's how he loved us. He gave himself. This is our priest.

A priest who dies in our stead. Our minds should be blown by that.

The priest laid down on the cross. The altar was the cross. Finally, verse 28.

He is perfect, proven to be perfect. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

That picks up on language that's been repeated earlier in Hebrews, especially chapter five, verses eight to 10.

Made perfect through the obedience of suffering. It's not that Jesus needed to do anything to be made perfect.

It's that his obedience demonstrated so that he'd have an active righteousness to give to us.

Meaning he obeyed the law perfectly and now as our representative, he can give that righteousness to us.

He suffered rather than caving in to sin the way we do. He was proven perfect by every temptation that he overcame and ultimately by the cross itself where he endured that suffering, scorning it's shame and sat down at the right hand of the father.

A perfect substitute. He was proven perfect. So he's a perfect priest.

So in closing, we're finishing chapter seven now and it's been a tough journey, right?

Going through Melchizedek and how that all connects to the priesthood. Look, what all of it is doing can be summed up in Jesus dying on the cross, making a perfect sacrifice as our priest.

And if you picture the thief who hung next to him on the cross, that should help us recognize how desperately we need him.

Consider it. Here was a man who had done evil his whole life, stealing, some commentators say he was also a murderer.

The thief on the cross by the power of God, the intercessory work of Jesus, his heart was changed and instead of mocking anymore, all of a sudden he began to rebuke the other man on the cross and said, he hasn't sinned like us.

We're here for what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong. Then he turned to Jesus and he said, remember me when you go into your paradise.

And Jesus said he would. He promised him eternal life. But think of this, that man hanging on the cross was helpless, completely unable to rescue himself.

He was pinned to a cross. He couldn't get down from there.

And he had very few hours left to live. He couldn't go back to his mother and father and say, sorry for the way

I treated you and how I dishonored this family. He couldn't go make restitution for the things he stole.

He could do nothing to rescue himself. Hanging on that cross, the thief needed a priest, someone external to himself, someone who could rescue him.

Change his heart, pay for his sin, save him completely and forever.

He brought nothing to the table on his own, but the priest would have to do it all. And that is exactly what he saw hanging next to him on that middle cross.

Jesus is a perfect priest who never sinned. And he was making that once and for all sacrifice that could save all who come to him.

That's what he did. That's the priest we have. We have the perfect priest.

The thief knew and he rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

Just like that thief on the cross, you can come right now. Maybe you've never come to Jesus.

Maybe you've never said, I'm done trying to do this on my own. I can't, my nature's not right.

And even if I could change my own nature, what am I gonna do with the sins I've already committed? How can

I get rid of the stain of my sin? How can I get rid of the punishment that's hanging over me?

I can't help myself. I need Jesus. If that's you right now, I would encourage you to begin to pray.

Here's permission to tune me out. You go and talk to him, your priest. In the quietness of your heart, you start saying,

Jesus, save me. I need you, my priest. Begin to call on his name. Ask him to take your sin away and to intercede on your behalf.

Look to him. He will be a perfect savior when you come. And to the rest of us who have already called and we have come through faith, be secure in this love.

Your priest is not like Jehoiada. 130 years and then he dies.

Your priest lives forever and he will ever make intercession for you. He will never lose you. He keeps you.

Those of you who have genuinely come, he keeps you. Never loses his sheep. Such a wonderful promise.

Let's close in prayer and worship team, if you could come up. If you've never accepted

Christ, you've never come to him in faith, right now, do that. Close your eyes and just pray a prayer like this from your heart to God.

In the quietness of your heart, say, I am a sinner. I deserve death, but I see

Jesus, a perfect priest, sinless, offering the sacrifice of his own body.

So I come to draw near. Save me,

God, the sinner. I can't do this on my own.

I can't rescue myself. I come to Jesus.

He alone can save me. Jesus, I call on your name. Rescue me from my sin.

Give me the new birth. Make me a new creation.

Change me from the inside out, day after day. Bring me into your kingdom to dwell with you forever.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, please see one of the elders.

You can talk to myself. I'm going to get you a Bible and encourage you in your walk with Christ. If you're listening online and you've got that, shoot us an email.

Let us know. Let us encourage you in your walk with Christ. Let's stand and worship our perfect priest.

Pour into my heart the need to trust you.

I've never been so faithful as you.

Jesus, all of you.

You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.

I'll follow you and need a million rescues.

Oh, Jesus, you came to my rescue. Face upon that cross.

You're the center of a treasure.

It's you. It's you.

One is you. Jesus, all. All.

Jesus, all. You are the familiar.

Amen. April, are you able to pull up that boule? So I always preach extemporaneously, which has the advantage

I can get into what I'm saying. But the disadvantage is I often blow through things in my notes and never get to it.

When I was talking about Hilkiah today, the priest who discovered the law in the temple and helped

Josiah with the reforms. They recently discovered his boule, his little signet ring thing.

And this has engraved on it belonging to Azariah, son of Hilkiah, which so it's amazing that these people that we are learning about, these are people who lived and they're archaeologists discover these very things.

So this is something I wanted to show you. So it wasn't too late after all. I totally blew by at first service.

So let's close with a benediction here from James 1, 24 and 25.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.