Our All Seeing High Priest — Anton Bosch

Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 4, and we'll read 11 through 16. Hebrews chapter 4 reading from verse 11 through verse 16. Hebrews 4 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, 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 was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.

So just very quickly, we were in verse 12 last week, where he speaks about the power of the Word of God. Now remember, it's against the background that we need to hear today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

And then he says that the Word of God is living, and it is powerful, and it is sharper than a two-edged sword. It is a very precise instrument, and it is able to deal with issues in our hearts. It is able to divide between soul and spirit, which is a very, very difficult thing to do, between joints and marrow, which is not literal, but it's simply speaking of the preciseness and the acuity of the Word of God, its ability to divide things that are very difficult to divide from a human point of view.

And then it divides between, or discerns between the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So even before our thoughts become intentions, or at that very fine point where we go over from just thinking about something to intending to do it, and it's a split second, but the Word of God is able to discern that difference.

Now, he then says, and there is no creature. So he's reminding us that there is a rest that we need to enter in. We do not enter in, or Israel did not, and we potentially do not enter that rest because of disobedience and unbelief, or unbelief and disobedience.

The Word of God, he then says, is powerful. And so against our disobedience and inability to hear and to believe is the power of the Word of God. And then he says that there is another thing we need to bear in mind.

Remember, he's writing to a group of Christians who are clearly considering returning to, or moving away from the faith, some of them back to Judaism, and some of them just to forsake the faith, because it has become too hard to serve the Lord.

And so against that background, then, he says there is nothing that is hidden from his sight. And I was blessed by the scripture that Clay quoted this morning, a little earlier, that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro over the earth.

God is watching. God is seeing. And one of the attributes of God is that big fancy word, he is omniscient. He knows everything. Omniscient from the word sight, knowing. God knows everything. There is nothing that is hidden from his sight.

Now, he says there is no creature hidden from his sight. In other words, there is nothing that is created. And he's specifically referring to us. The fact is that God knows, according to the Lord Jesus even, that no sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge.

So he even sees the sparrows that die. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows all of these details. But now he is particularly focusing in on the Christian. And he is saying there is nothing that is hidden from his sight.

Now, I know that I don't need to prove that to you. I know that you know that. And yet the reality is, and I'm sure that the people that he was writing to, they understood that. They knew that. One of the first things that we understand about God is that God knows everything, that God sees everything, that there is nothing that is hidden from him.

And remember against the background that his word, if his word is able to discern between thoughts and intentions, in other words, then God is able to see that split-second difference from when a thought becomes an intention.

There's nothing that he doesn't see. He sees our thoughts. And I think that the problem is that we, I think, know that, but we don't believe it. There is nothing that we do that God doesn't see. There is nothing that we don't think that God does not see.

There is no motive that God does not know. And you know, the problem, of course, is we say, well, you know, I'm doing the right stuff. You know, everybody around me says, well, look at this wonderful Christian.

They're doing all the right things, but God sees even beyond that. And of course, the problem is that we fool ourselves, and I'm speaking about men or people in general, because we know that crime is committed at night.

Well, partly because hopefully the police won't see you, but there's also an underlying thing in man's mind that when it's dark, somehow God doesn't see. And so things get done in the dark that would not be done in the light.

And in our culture, even, certain things are acceptable when it's dark, like getting drunk. In certain areas, certain communities, when you're unsaved, it's fine to get drunk after dark, but it's not fine to get drunk in the morning.

Now, what's the difference? The only difference I can think of is that, well, maybe God doesn't see me when I get drunk at night. In our area, we have problems with parties all the time. Every Saturday night, there's a party, and because of where the house is, we get the noise from all around.

But gratefully, most of those people go to a certain kind of church, and at 12 o 'clock, the noise stops, because it's Sunday now. And I'm very grateful, while I don't think that that church can save, I'm very grateful that at least they have some kind of respect, well, this is the Lord's Day.

And I've told you before, when we renovated the building, the workmen were very careful not to curse inside here, because, well, why? It's God's house, God will hear. But He doesn't hear when you're outside and you're cursing.

No, there is nothing that is hidden from Him. He sees, and He knows everything. Now, folk, here's the problem, that if we really believed that, as Christians, we would live very different lives. I'm constantly, absolutely shocked by the stuff that Christians do.

And the first question that comes up to me, and I'm sure you've heard me say this before, they live as though God doesn't see, as though God doesn't know what they're doing. God knows, God sees. And, of course, this is the scary thing, is that God sees even our thoughts.

And, of course, that's where a lot of sin goes on. Remember, He's just spoken about the thoughts and the intentions. That's where there's a lot of problems, where it all begins. Remember, Jesus said, if you're angry with your brother without a cause, you've committed murder.

Why? Because that thought becomes an intention, and the intention becomes an action. If you looked upon a woman to lust after her, you've done it, because the thought becomes an intention, the intention becomes an action.

And the only thing that prevents you from killing your brother, or from taking your friend's wife, is opportunity, or the potential of being caught. That's really the only... But just think about that.

So, you would do it if you weren't going to get caught. But what about God? It doesn't matter if your spouse, or her spouse, his spouse, or the community don't catch you. God's caught you. So, this must impact on the way we live our lives.

Look, it must impact on what we think about. It must impact where our minds go sometimes. And don't tell me you don't have a problem, because I have a problem. All of our minds go in places where they should not go, in all sorts of different directions.

Well, nobody knows what's going on in my mind. Well, God knows. Now, these guys are seriously thinking about going back to their former faith, which cannot save. And obviously, for them particularly, in order to go back to Judaism, they have to turn their back on Christ.

That's the problem. And obviously, for us as Gentiles, our temptation is not necessarily to go back to Judaism, but to go back to the world. And it comes to the same thing. You can't go back to the world without forsaking and without denying the Lord Jesus Christ, without turning your back upon him.

And I believe what the writer is saying is, don't you understand that God is understanding? God knows. God knows what you're thinking about. God knows, he says to these Hebrews, that you're considering turning your back on Christ.

He knows it. And so he's appealing to them and saying, don't go there. And so all things are naked. And that is a good translation. That's literally what the Greek says. There is no place to hide. None of us like to be naked outside of our own bathrooms.

Because if you are, everything is exposed. And everything is exposed before God. God sees us exactly the way we are. And they are open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So not only are they naked, but they are open.

Now, this is a difficult word. And I suppose open is maybe the best word we can get in English. The scholars struggle with this word, because it seems that the word is a specific word which was used for a man who was sentenced to death.

And on his death walk, they would stick a sword or a dagger under his chin to keep his head up, so that he could not hide his face from the shame. Now, that's a terrible picture, but that's the literal word he's using.

You can't hide your shame from God. In fact, we have a—and I think if I tell you the story, you may remember this, but it's something that really stuck in my mind. If you remember, a few years ago, they captured El Chapo, the big Mexican kingpin.

And I don't remember exactly where it was. I think it was when they were walking him from the plane to the armored car or whatever they were going to transport him on. The officers—and I don't remember if they were Mexican federales or whether they were—they had him at the back of his neck, and they forced him to look at the cameras.

Anyone remember that? We know what a man in that situation does. He's going to hide. We've seen people put their coats over their heads. We've seen people put their heads down. But they grabbed his neck, and they forced him to look into the cameras and exposed his shame.

That's the exact word that is used here. And I think that it tells us a little bit about what the writer is saying, what the Spirit is saying. And he's saying, we think we can hide our shame, but God makes us look into the camera of his Spirit, who looks right down into our souls and sees the stuff.

And of course, that in its own is bad news, but there is good news, which we'll come to in a moment. But we are naked, and we are open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Now, God obviously does not have eyes.

I just need to deal with that, because there is a wrong teaching in some areas that God has eyes, ears, hands, and things like that, because the Bible says he has eyes. God does not have a body. God is a Spirit.

He is not like us. But the Scripture uses what we call anthropomorphisms, things that relate to human beings, anthro-man, and applies it to God so that we can understand. So God doesn't have eyes. God just knows.

And of course, that's why we can't see him, because he is Spirit. God is in a different level. God is in a different dimension to what we are. But he knows, he sees. Everything is open before him. And it's not just that they are open before him.

Now, the Scripture that Clay quoted is a positive one, that the Lord's eyes are on those who seek him. And that's a good thing. God is watching us that he might succor us, that he might help us, that he might strengthen us, that he might protect us.

So there's an aspect of God watching us that is positive. But there's an aspect of God watching us that is negative, and this is it here, because they are open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

So this is not him watching to help us, but this is him watching to judge us. And obviously, we understand that we are forgiven by the blood, that those things that are confessed to him, he is righteous and just to forgive us, to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

And yet, the problem is that because we think no one saw, we hide our sin. You remember the very first problem with Cain and Abel. Cain kills his brother, looks around, doesn't see anyone, and he buries him.

But God saw. And God says, but his blood is crying out to heaven for vengeance. Remember, Moses did the same thing. He killed an Egyptian, thought nobody saw it. But in fact, not only had God seen it, but the other Jewish people had seen it.

And so we must give an account. We can't bury our mistakes. We can't hide our failure. We must face up to it. That's the only way we can deal with it. And as we face up to it, as we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us.

That's it. I received an email from someone this last week that had done me much harm a few years ago, had maligned me on the internet, made false accusations. His email was not the first one. His email to me was, you must forgive.

And he quoted various scriptures. And my response was the same response as before. I have forgiven you, but you need to repent. But he will not repent. He will not say, I'm sorry. So I've forgiven him.

I really have. But there's no basis for a relationship because he won't face up to his sin. And that's the problem that happens with every one of us. As long as we think we can hide our issues, those issues remain there.

Abel's body was in the ground, but it was there, and God could see it, and God could hear. And obviously this is not literal, but God could hear the blood of Abel crying out for justice, for vengeance.

And so as long as we hide our sin, we think nobody knows. We think God doesn't know. It's going to remain a problem. Better dig those bodies up and say, here, Lord, I did it. Please forgive me. And he forgives.

Folks, it's that easy. It's not difficult, but our pride and the deception of our own hearts to say nobody knows. The example I quoted earlier, all he has to say is, brother, I'm sorry. I lied about you.

That's all. I'm not asking for blood. And I know that's a weak example because I'm talking about me as a man. But how much more with God? God's not looking to rub our noses in it. I trust you know the way we train dogs.

I don't know if it works, but God doesn't rub our noses in it. He's just waiting for us to come clean. Say, Lord, yeah, I messed up. And there's forgiveness, instant. God doesn't say, well, yeah, I'll let you stew for a while, you know, a couple of years, and I'll beat you up.

And then, you know, I'll think about it. No, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and he forgives instantly, immediately. If we don't, what happens is that we will give an account. Now, again, maybe just to clarify how the process works, it doesn't mean that you're going to lose your salvation.

It could lead to that, but that's not necessary because all of us have skeletons in our closets. But as long as we don't bring those skeletons to the light, as long as we don't dig those bodies up, they're going to be there.

And on the day of judgment, we're going to give an account for that. Now, as I said, that does not necessarily mean we'll lose our salvation as a result of that, but there would be rebuke. There would be a loss of reward, but just the disappointment in the eyes of him who sees everything.

I was saying, you never came clean with me. So we must give an account, and we must keep a short account. Again, maybe that's part of my language, but in the old days in South Africa, long before computers, they had a book, a ledger in which they would write down the debt.

So you would go to the general store and you would buy bread and milk and whatever, and they would write it in the book. And it was part of our language. We would say, just put it on the book, please, and they would write it down.

And at the end of the month, you would go back and they would add it up and you pay the money, and they would draw a line through it or whatever, and you start all over again. But if you don't go every month to pay the account, the account gets longer and longer and longer and longer.

Now, let's not let that account get longer, because the problem is that we begin to forget the stuff that was way back there that is undealt with. It's still there. The fact that we've forgotten conveniently doesn't mean it's not there.

It's still there, and God knows it's still on the book. So keep a short account. Come to God regularly and say, Lord, help me examine my heart. What are the issues that I'm not dealing with? Help me to deal with them.

I bring them to you. I bring them to the light so that they can be dealt with, so they can be forgiven, so I can be cleansed, so I can move on. And of course, the same applies to relationships. Husbands and wives don't deal with stuff, either because it's too embarrassing or it's too inconvenient or it's too whatever.

And what happens? It adds up and adds up and adds up until eventually something breaks the camel's back. Don't do it. Deal with it. That's why the book of Ephesians says, don't let the sun set on your wrath.

Deal with it. Get it clean. Start with a fresh slate every day, if possible. I know sometimes things are hard. Sometimes it takes a few days to sort things out. But unfortunately, sometimes in our relationships, we go months and years without dealing with stuff between us and our brother and between us and our spouse.

And we think it'll go away. It doesn't go away. And so let's deal with these things, because God sees and he keeps an account. That's why he uses the word, and we need to give an account. The books will be opened.

And remember, this is not the book of life. There's two judgments, the judgment of the unbelievers. If their names are not in the book of life, they're cast into the lake of fire. But then there's also the book of the deeds of the saints, the good stuff and the bad stuff that we do.

Those books will be opened on that day. And folk, there's no reason why there should be anything on the debit side, if I remember my bookkeeping. There's no reason there should be anything on the negative side of our page when we stand before the Lord, because he's made provision that that record may be expunged and that it may be claimed.

And I pray that for each one of us, there would be a lot on the positive side, on the credit side of the things that we have done that he will reward us for, the good stuff we have done. It's no good saying, well, I'm hoping that somehow it'll balance out.

I mean, that's the way the world thinks. We shouldn't be thinking that way. There's no need for us to think that way. We have the privilege of being able to keep nothing on the negative side and everything on the positive side.

All right, let me deal with one more verse. We're running late this evening. So verse 14, seeing then, so here's the good news. Now, remember what he's just said. He says, there's nothing hidden. We're going to have to give an account, seeing then that we have a great high priest.

So we have a solution and an answer to the hidden things of our hearts. We have an answer, and the answer is in the high priest, in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is not the way the world works. The world says, well, you've done all these bad things.

It's going to be on your record, and that's the way it is. No, he gives us a high priest that is able to deal with the things that ought not to be in our lives. And so he's now going to introduce the idea—this is the third time already that he's used the word high priest.

And in chapter 4, the next verse, and then in chapter 5, he's going to get into detail about the work of the high priest. And then in chapter 7 and 8, he's going to come back to that. So this is a very big part of the book of Hebrews.

So we have a great high priest, not just a high priest, because he's going to contrast human high priests, the sons of Aaron, with Jesus, the great high priest. And so we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession. So our high priest, he says, has passed through the heavens. So what does he mean? Well, first of all, we need to go back to the Old Testament picture that he is—or analogy that he is drawing from.

Remember that the high priest in the Old Testament, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, would go, Yom Kippur, he would go into the holiest of all and make atonement for the sins of the people. And this is what he is referencing.

So he's making reference obliquely to the atonement that Jesus has made for us. But in order for the high priest to go into the holiest of all, he would have to go through three gates, three doors, three veils, literally.

He'd need to go into the outer court from outside, and there was a gate made of fabric that he would have to go through with the blood, the animal having been killed outside. Remember we saw, was it on Sunday, Jesus killed outside of the gate, outside of the city.

So the animal is killed, he brings the blood, he goes through the first gate into the outer court, he goes through the second veil into the holy place, and then he finally goes through the third veil into the holiest of all.

Only the high priest could go in there, and only once a year. He could not just go in there whenever he chose to go. When the high priest did that, there was to be no one else in the holy place where the priest would normally be, or in the outer court where the priest would also function.

And so they would all be outside, and he alone would go through the outer court, the holy place, into the holiest of all. So this is the reference, this is what he's referring to. So the high priest passes through these areas to get into the place where the atonement is made.

Now he says he's passed through the heavens. And if you analyze, and we don't have the time, and I didn't bring all the references, but you can do an entire study, use your app or your Bible concordance or Bible program, and look up how the word heaven or heavens is used, particularly in the New Testament.

And what you'll find is that there are three heavens, not the seventh heaven like we have in our language. There's three heavens. The first heaven is the sky where the birds and the airplanes and things fly, the atmosphere if you will.

The second heaven is space, where the sun and the moon and the planets are, and even beyond that, everything that we can see through our telescopes is part of the second heaven. And then beyond that is the third heaven, where God is.

And of course, that boggles the mind, because how big is this universe? How big are the galaxies? Now how can there be something beyond that? Well, there is something beyond that, because we're no longer in time and space.

We're in the spirit, if you will, where God dwells. So God does not dwell in a physical place the way we do. He does not even inhabit the universe. While he's present in the universe, he does not inhabit the universe.

He is outside of time. He is outside of three dimensions, in a different place, a different idea totally. So that's where God is. Remember, Paul speaks about the fact that he was caught up into the third heaven, and he saw things that could not be uttered.

And so what he is saying, then, is the same way as the high priest goes from the outer court through the holy place into the holiest of all, Jesus has gone through the heavens into the very presence of God.

Now, obviously, it's not that important, you know, what route did he go? Did he go via the sun and then via, you know? No, that's not the point. The point is simply that he, like the high priest, would go from the people into the presence of God, a place where no one else could go.

Jesus goes right into the presence of God, where no one else can go, in order to make atonement for us. And remember, he does two important things there, and we're going to see this as we go along. He makes atonement, and he intercedes.

And so we'll see this as we go along. So he has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. So they did not enter because of unbelief and disobedience. His word is sharp and powerful, and is able to deal with the issues in our lives.

We need to understand that everything is open before him, and so let him cut. You know, I've come across some people who've had serious medical problems that an operation would have fixed, but they're afraid of the knife, rightly or wrongly.

And they suffer because they don't want the pain of an operation. For God needs to operate on our hearts with the sword of the Spirit, with his word. Because the purpose is not to hurt us. The purpose is to cut out the malignancy, the cancer, the stuff that is polluting our whole body and soul and spirit.

And he's not a blind operator. I think we would all have a problem if you had an appointment with a surgeon who's going to do some delicate operation, and he comes in with a white stick. God can see exactly what he is doing.

And when he cuts, it's precise. It deals with the issue. I'm amazed by doctors who work on the brain to cut out tumors and have the most incredibly fine work, because just a fraction this way and some function of the man is destroyed.

But God's able to do that. He doesn't destroy us. He doesn't maim us. We don't come out of the operation more broken than we went in. We come out healed because he is a faithful high priest. And so because of this, he says, let us hold fast our confession.

Now, this is the third time that he uses this word, hold fast, in chapter 3 and verse 6. And it appears a number of times further on in the book as well. But Christ is a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence firm unto the end.

And then verse 14 of chapter 3, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. So you can see this is a theme, and the theme is going to continue right through the book, the need to hold fast.

And we need to hold fast, he says, our confession. What is our confession? What we believe. What does our confession consist of? Well, when we use the word confession, we say, well, that has to do with a vocal testimony, as we heard earlier, testifying to our salvation, testifying to the gospel verbally.

But remember that we don't just confess with our mouth. Remember, the book of Romans says, with our mouth, man makes confession unto salvation. But we confess with our actions, with our deeds. The way we live is a confession of who we are.

And he says, we need to hold fast unto the right confession. Don't let it go. Remember, this is the theme. This is the message. Well, not the theme, but this is the background to the book. The theme is Jesus.

The background to the book is these guys are ready to let go. And they say, no, we don't believe anymore. No, he says, you need to hold on to that, because we have a faithful high priest, a great high priest who is actually in the very presence of God.

Now, I know I've told you the story before, but let me close with the story, because it really does illustrate this point. When I was in the Air Force, I served with a man who eventually became the chief of the South African Air Force.

He was captured in Korea. There were South Africans along with Brits and Americans fighting in South Korea against North Korea. He was captured, and he told me the story that on what we call Armistice Day, which is Veterans Day, 11th of November.

And I'm sure you know that in British states, British countries, they wear a little poppy. And I'm not going to get into that, but that's reminding them of Flanders, reminding them of the war and those that fell.

The 11th of November is the day that peace was signed between or Germany surrendered and peace was signed. So on the 11th of November, they came, the prisoners of war, so they were prisoners of war, sorry, and in a camp run by the Chinese.

And the Allied prisoners of war were brought up on parade as they were every morning to be counted and to be given orders. And when they came on, they had all made, they'd spent weeks using all sorts of things to make little paper poppies and dyed them red with some of them literally with blood and with whatever they could.

And every man had a red poppy. And with it, he was, that was his confession of faith, not in a spiritual sense, but that was showing his allegiance and his unity with those that had fallen in previous wars.

And the Chinese selected one man and pulled him out and said, you must take that off, throw it on the ground. And he refused to do that because that was just symbolic, but it was an important symbol. And when they moved towards him, he grabbed the poppy in his hand and he clung to that poppy until they beat him to death.

He wasn't going to let it go because that was who he was. He was one with those that had fallen in the previous wars. Folks, we have a greater confession than identity with a military force. And I'm not saying that that was, I'm not judging that.

And yet how easily don't we just let it go? I don't know the man. Oh, but you speak like him. You're from his area. No, I'll give you a few swear words to prove I don't know him just like that. And we judge Peter.

And yet how easily do we let our testimony slip? We have a great high priest. He's entered into heaven. Let's hold fast our confession. Father, we pray that you'd help us, help us, Lord, understand that everything is naked and open before you to whom we must give an account.

Help us, Lord, to keep a short account. Help us, Lord, to make this practical. And as we go home this evening, Lord, to examine our hearts and our lives. Lord, deal with the issues that we need to deal with in our relationship with you and our relationships with others.

Lord, that the debit side, the negative side might be cleared, that there may be nothing between us and you, that there may be nothing that we can be held to account except for that which we've done on the good side.

Lord, I pray that you'd help us to just cling to our confession. Lord, we're living in a time in which there's tremendous pressure to compromise on our faith, to compromise on our morals, to compromise on what we believe.

Help us, Lord, to cling to the confession of our faith because we do have a high priest, and he's praying for us. And he's not here on earth and such, but he is in your very presence at the right hand of the majesty on high.

So, Lord, we pray that you'd help us understand. Help us, Lord, to be doers of your word and not just hearers only. I pray that you'd go with us now, Lord. Keep us and protect us. Bring us together again safely on Sunday, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.