He Continues Forever – Hebrews 7:23-25

Kootenai Church

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Hebrews chapter seven, and we're gonna read together, beginning at verse 18 through the end of verse 25.

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For on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect.

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And on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath, for they indeed became priests without an oath, but he with an oath through the one who said to him, the

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Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, so much the more also, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

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The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently.

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Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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Let's pray together. Our Father, we ask before we begin a study of your word that you would grant to us the illuminating grace of the

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Holy Spirit to open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to your truth. Without the work of your spirit in helping us to understand your word, we would be lost and unable to apprehend any kind of spiritual truth and any kind of depth to your word.

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And so we would just pray that you would help us today as we study to focus our hearts and our minds and our attention upon the truth and to think rightly of Christ and what he has done in his work for us.

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Help us to appreciate it. We pray that we may see him in his glory and his work in all of its glory and splendor, that we may not shy away from any difficult things concerning what your son has done, but that we may learn and love to appreciate it.

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And may you be glorified through our time here. Sanctify us in the truth and edify us and equip us, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

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We are continuing to look at the priesthood of Jesus and the contrast that is in Hebrews chapter seven between his priesthood and the old covenant priesthood.

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And we have seen that the author wants us to understand that with the coming of the priesthood of Jesus, that old priesthood has been set aside and that old covenant has been set aside.

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It was useless and weak and unable to save the sinner or to perfect the sinner. And so God has done something by elevating and exalting

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Jesus Christ to his priesthood where he sits enthroned at the right hand of the father making intercession for us. He has done what that Old Testament priesthood could never do, and that is to bring salvation and to actually save all of those who trust in that high priest.

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And so that is what the contrast is here in Hebrews chapter seven. And we've noticed as we've gone through the chapter that there is a number of points at which the author is showing the supreme glory of the priesthood of Jesus.

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And he is showing how superior it is to all that was part of the old covenant.

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And so in the bringing in of that new priesthood, there has been the change of law and the setting aside of the old priesthood. There has been the complete replacement of that priesthood and no longer functions.

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It's no longer part of God's economy. And so he has brought in something new to which we are to hope and to hold and to hold fast to that.

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And so it is the glories of Christ that is on display in Hebrews chapter seven. And we come now to verses 23 through 25 and we see yet another contrast between those old priests and Jesus and his priesthood, namely that the priesthood of Jesus is not interrupted by death.

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And that is significant. You see it stated in verses 23 and 24. The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

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But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.

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Now the implications of that truth that the priesthood of Jesus is not interrupted by death, the implications of that is given in verse 25.

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Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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So it is the saving efficacy, the saving work and power of Christ, verse 25, that results from the fact that he holds his priesthood permanently and that he continues forever.

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His priesthood is not interrupted by death. So we're gonna look today at verses 23 through 25. In 23 and 24, we see that Christ's priesthood is permanent.

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He continues and he holds his priesthood permanently, that in contrast to the Old Testament priests. And second, his priesthood is powerful.

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He is able to save, not just that he has the power to, and so he might, but it is an effectual power.

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He not only is able to save, but in fact he puts all of the power of his saving ability to work on behalf of those whom

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God has given to him and to his priesthood. So first the permanence of his priesthood and then the power of it.

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Looking at verses 23 and 24 again, you'll notice the contrast just in the structure of those verses. On the one hand and on the other hand.

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On the one hand, those priests existed in greater numbers and on the other hand, you have Jesus. So there's a contrast in the number of priests.

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On the one hand, there were this multitude of priests in the Old Testament and on the other hand, just one, just Jesus.

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Different priesthood, one priest, not many. On the one hand, you had all of those priests, the number of them contrasted with that of Jesus.

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Not only that, but also the fact that they were replaced by death and because the priest would die, they would be replaced and move on and every time a priest was appointed, he too would die.

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But on the other hand, we have Jesus who never dies. Death has no dominion over him. Having died once for sins, he dies no more.

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Death is no longer, he's no longer subject to death. He no longer can be racked by death. He has risen from the grave.

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In fact, he rose from the grave to possess his priesthood and since he has the power of an indestructible life, his priesthood continues forever.

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So a contrast in the number of priests, a contrast in whether death reigns over each of these priests and also a contrast over the priest's ability to save and you see that just in the structure of verses 23 through 24.

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Notice the language of verse 23, the former priests on the one hand, the former priests.

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That I think is significant that he refers to them as the former priests. Now it is significant for this reason.

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At the time that he wrote this and at the time that the first century Christians were reading this, if you had gone into the city of Jerusalem, the temple was still standing, the priesthood was still functioning and they were still offering sacrifices on the altar and yet he refers to them as the former priests and yet any

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Jew in Jerusalem would have looked at the temple and said, what do you mean former priests? They are currently the priests. There was still a functioning priesthood but in God's economy and in the language of this author, those are the former priests.

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Wait a second, but they're still offering sacrifices. Yeah, but they're performing the priestly duties.

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They're offering the animal sacrifices. They're preparing for the succession of more priests to follow them. They're putting on their priestly vestments.

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They're praying, they're offering up the animals, they're doing the singing, they're doing all of the Levitical things that the law demands and yet in the economy of God, at the time that this was written, that's the former priesthood which tells us something, that all of the activity of that priesthood was doing nothing in terms of God and his people, nothing.

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It was functioning but it was nothing but a hollow shell because God was no longer doing any work and nothing in his economy was functioning on behalf or in that priesthood.

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That's the former priesthood. There is a current priesthood and that current priesthood is possessed by Jesus and he is the one who holds his priesthood permanently and they existed in greater numbers.

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Now, somebody might think that that is a better thing, that that was an advantage. So if you're having a conversation with somebody, how many priests do you have, what would you say?

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You'd say, well, I only have one high priest, it's Jesus. And a Jew might say, well, I've had in my lifetime three high priests.

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No, maybe four high priests. Well, there was one high priest who was a high priest when I was a kid and I just vaguely remember him.

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But in my lifetime, I've had three different high priests and you've only had one and I've had four? That seems like more is better, right?

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We often think that more is better, right? If you get to go to, if you have one day at Disneyland, wouldn't more be better? Two would be better, three would be even better than that.

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But what about the priesthood? Is it true that more is better with priests? Is it true that it's better to have four high priests or three high priests than to just have had and enjoyed one high priest over the course of your whole life?

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Well, not necessarily and there was a number of priests that were attached to that old priesthood, by the way. Just a number of high priests,

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Josephus, who was a first century Jewish historian, he says that between the time of Aaron, when the priesthood was established,

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Aaron and his sons, between the time of Aaron and 70 AD when the temple was destroyed, Josephus records 83 separate men who held the position of high priest.

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83 men, sorry, 83 high priests associated with that old covenant. That's over a course of, I'm rounding up here by close to a century, maybe a little less than a century, but that's over the course of about 1600 years, which means that each of those priests would have served for about 19 years.

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So it is perfectly conceivable that a Jew who lived to a ripe old age of, well,

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I don't want to put a number on it, but a Jew who was up in years enjoying the gray hair, that a Jew of that age could have enjoyed in his lifetime two, three, or four different men who all served as a high priest.

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And in the terms of the number of men that served as priests under those high priests, there would have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of men who served as part of the temple and the tabernacle and the structure of the sacrifices.

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It was not just the one high priest who did all of the work. He was the one man who went behind the veil on the day of atonement to offer the sacrifice and to put the blood on the altar on the covenant, the

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Ark of the Covenant. But associated with that ministry of the old covenant and all of the animal sacrifices, there were thousands of priests associated with that.

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So we're talking about a priesthood who saw thousands of priests and at least 83 different high priests, and yet we have a priesthood with one priest, just one.

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Is more better? The answer to that question is no, it's not. And here's why. Those Old Testament priests were prohibited from continuing because of death.

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Every time they put the ephod upon a new high priest and installed him and sprinkled the holy water on him and offered the sacrifice and made him high priest, there was always the understanding, just like everybody who came before him since Aaron, he's a dead man walking, because this is a dying priesthood.

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The number of those priests was always a reminder of the children of Israel, this priesthood is a dying priesthood.

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Death ruled over the Levitical priesthood. It ruled over it, so that every man who possessed that office, every priest of the

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Levitical order was destined to die. And he would be replaced just like everybody before him had been replaced, just like everybody all the way back to Aaron.

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Every last one of them was ruled by death, but we have one high priest. Now I ask you this, but death is a permanent disqualification.

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If your ministry is intended to go on forever, then death disqualifies you from that, right? And the idea that Jesus would be a priest, that he would hold his priesthood continually, that was sort of implicit in Psalm 110.

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You'll be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The fact that he has been appointed and that God swore with an oath to make

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Christ a priest, the Messiah, a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. That was implied in that statement was the fact that this priest would never die.

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Otherwise, he couldn't serve forever. But if the intention is to serve forever, then death would, well, it would disqualify you from that, wouldn't it?

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So those Old Testament priests, they would pass on and they would die and death would disqualify them from continuing, but our priest never dies.

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Having been appointed after his resurrection, having been appointed after his resurrection, our high priest never dies.

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His reign, his rule, his work for us is never interrupted. And the implications of that are clear.

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He is never to retire. He will never step down. He will never be replaced. He will never be disqualified.

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He will never cease to serve. Nothing can ever change this. God has sworn with an oath that he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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So he can never be conquered by death and kingdoms will rise and kingdoms will fall and nations will be established and nations will crumble and guess who sits on his throne as a king priest forever?

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Jesus Christ does. Never to be replaced and never to be retired, never to cease doing what the

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Father has appointed him to do and that is to intercede for us. For 2 ,000 years nearly and counting, he has possessed that priesthood and that will never ever change.

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Will God ever move on from Christ and establish another priesthood and appoint another priest?

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That would only be necessary if there were some inadequacy or insufficiency in the work that Christ is doing as a high priest.

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Whereas the Jews and you and I would have every reason to look at that Old Testament priesthood and to say, that has to be temporary.

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That has to be temporary. Those men drop like flies. I've seen in my lifetime three high priests hold that office and thousands of others die in the meantime.

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Their bodies are dropping like flies in the wilderness. You would have every reason to under look at that priesthood and say that cannot be permanent.

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That cannot perfect the worshiper. I need somebody who is not subject to death. I need somebody who can do what those priests can never do, that is to save me.

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We have no reason to believe that the priesthood of Jesus will ever be replaced. Why? Because he is doing perfectly and fully every last thing that the

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Father appointed him to do. There is no insufficiency in his ability to mediate between us and God. There's no insufficiency in his ability to apply the merits of his sacrifice to all whom the

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Father has given to him. There is no inability or insufficiency in his ability to secure forever every last one for whom he has died.

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He lacks no power and no ability and it will never cease and it can never come to an end and he will never be replaced because God has sworn with an oath, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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So it can never come to an end. Jesus Christ is the final, the fullest, the most sufficient and the most exalted priest that is possible and there is no way that anyone or anything or any system can ever replace him.

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Because he does everything that is necessary for our salvation, our sanctification and ultimately our security everlastingly.

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He is the highest and the best culmination of God's redemptive work. His priesthood is permanent.

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It will never come to an end. The word that is used there, permanent, in verse 23 or verse 24 actually, he continues forever, the word continues there means to reside, to stay, to last or to be lasting.

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It means to stay in that place. And he does this for the ages, it says, forever. He holds his priesthood permanently or unchangingly and it's a word that is used there that describes not just something that does not change but can change but it describes something that is permanent because it cannot change.

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It lacks the ability to change. In other words, Christ can never be replaced because he and his priesthood are unchanging and unchangeable.

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They do not change and he will not fade away. That's the permanence of it. Now look at the power of it. Verse 25, the power of it.

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Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for him.

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But therefore, at the beginning of verse 25 indicates to you that this is the conclusion of an argument. Because verses 23 and 24 are true, because he is permanent, because death no longer has dominion over him, because he cannot die and he holds that position permanently and unchangingly since that is true, then he is able to save forever those who come near to God.

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He has that power. It's a power, the word is dunatai and it's a word that describes an unlimited ability, an infinite and everlasting power.

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He possesses this power to save all who draw near to God through him. And it's not just that he can save and so he might save, but this describes an effective power, a power that most certainly does everything he intends to do.

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So it's not just that he has the ability to do it and in your case, if you draw near to God, he might do it, but then if you decide to wander off, he won't do it.

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It is that he possesses this power and by virtue of his everlasting and continual and eternal priesthood, he has the power to save absolutely to the uttermost all who come to God through him and this is his promise to save.

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In John chapter six, Jesus said, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

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For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given to me,

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I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the

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Son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day. That is his promise to save every last one whom the

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Father has given to him. He has promised this and he is able to do it.

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He who has promised to do this is able by his power to do this and this is something that no Levitical priest could ever do.

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No Levitical priest could ever save any worshiper who came to them with a sacrifice.

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No Levitical priest could do that. You know why? Because they had to offer a sacrifice first for their own sins, then for the sins of the people.

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They had to come to God as a sinner and offer a sacrifice first to atone for all of their transgressions and iniquities and then having done that, then they could offer a sacrifice on behalf of the sinner and they could not perfect anyone or bring anyone near.

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All they could offer was a sacrifice that covered over temporarily for those sins and for the sins of the worshiper but they could never bring the worshiper near to God on any kind of a permanent basis because the next week when the worshiper came back, guess what they would need to bring?

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Yet another sacrifice. And guess what that high priest would have to do? Offer a sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

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He could never perfect the worshiper, never bring them near, never forgive or atone for their sins and all of those priests would die and you know what we need?

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We need somebody who can deliver us from death. So you might bring your sacrifice to the temple and present it to the priest and he'd have to remember that he has to first atone for his own sins then he can offer one on behalf of me.

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He's a dead man walking. I need somebody who can rescue me from death. I need somebody who can promise to raise me from the dead at the end of time.

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I need somebody who can give me life and life eternal that can take away my sin and remove it and pay a price permanently and somebody who can offer a sacrifice that would make all the other sacrifices that I could offer null and void.

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I need somebody to offer a sacrifice which would finally forgive sin and the words of Hebrews chapter 10, have forgiveness so that no more sacrifice is necessary.

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That's what I need. You could never come to an Old Testament priest and do that. You could never come to an Old Testament priest and offer your animal and have any confidence whatsoever that that animal was going to completely atone for your sin and remove all of your iniquity and completely forgive you and bring you near to God because he was a dead man walking.

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He knew that he was gonna die and he knew that he would be replaced and the whole time he knew, I need somebody to deliver me from death.

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I need somebody who can promise me to raise me from the dead. That's what our priest offers, Jesus Christ, but no priest of the old order could ever save anyone.

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We needed somebody who was able to present us faultless before his throne with exceeding joy, blameless on the last day.

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That's the kind of priest we needed. And a million, not just 83, but a million

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Old Testament high priests could never do that. It was unable to do it.

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Weak and useless and unable to perfect the worshiper, but our

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Savior has done this. In fact, verse 25 says, he is able to save forever, or in the words of the old

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King James, what? To the uttermost. Does that sound familiar? If you memorized that in a while when you were a kid, he is able to save to the uttermost.

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Why does the King James translate it to the uttermost and the NASB forever? Because that word describes two kinds of perfection, two kinds of completion.

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The word can be used to describe a completion of time, meaning to the end, it's the completeness of time, meaning forever, so it could be translated forever.

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It can also be used to describe the completeness of the fulfillment of an individual or a person or something. So it can be used to describe a salvation which is itself complete and lacks nothing.

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It can also be used to describe a salvation which goes on forever and ever and lasts forever. So which of the two does the author mean here?

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Does he mean something that is a salvation that's complete and lacks nothing, or a salvation that goes on forever?

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And the answer to that is both. He means both, and I think that there's no reason why we shouldn't understand the meaning of that word to apply in both ways.

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Christ provides for us a salvation that lacks nothing. We lack nothing in him, nothing. His word is sufficient, his intercession is sufficient, his sacrifice is sufficient, his righteousness is sufficient, his forgiveness is sufficient.

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We have everything we need in Jesus Christ. There is nothing else to be gained. If you're in Christ, you have everything. You've been given everything, complete forgiveness, complete righteousness, complete salvation, and a salvation that goes on forever and ever and ever.

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So he saves to the uttermost, meaning whether you're talking about time or whether you're talking about the content of your salvation and the reality of it, he saves completely and perfectly in both ways.

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And in both ways, that is a contrast to what the Old Testament priesthood could provide. Remember what verse 11 says?

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If the priesthood, the Old Levitical priesthood, could perfect the worshiper, no other priesthood would be necessary.

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Could the Old Testament priesthood save to the uttermost? It could not. Could it save forever?

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It could not. Verse 11 says the Old Testament priesthood could not perfect the worshiper. Verse 19 says the law couldn't perfect anything.

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None of this completeness and none of this perfect salvation could ever be achieved by anything in the Old Covenant. It was weak and useless to do that.

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And why are we belaboring this and why is the author belaboring this? Because he wants us to understand that because of what we have in Jesus Christ, everything of the

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Old Covenant, all the aspects and elements of it, have been set aside. It's weak and it's useless and we are not to return to any of that.

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We're not to long for earthly mediators. We're not to long for earthly priests and earthly people to stand between us and God.

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We have everything that we need provided for us sufficiently and perfectly in Jesus Christ.

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And he draws us near. That's verse 25. He's able to save forever those who draw near to God through him. Who are they?

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They're the believers. We are the ones who draw near to God through Jesus Christ. So it is believers that are being described here.

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This is the goal and the end of our salvation. So Hebrews chapter seven verse 19 says the law could not perfect or make perfect anything.

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But what the law could not do, Christ has done. What the Old Testament priesthood could not do,

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Christ has done. What the sacrifices of the Old Covenant could not do, Christ has done. He has perfected us.

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And in the context of Hebrews chapter seven, this idea of perfection doesn't mean moral perfection.

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It doesn't mean perfection in our conduct. It doesn't mean that we never sin anymore. The idea of perfection here is that we have been brought to the point of completion.

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We as believers in Jesus Christ have been brought to the greatest point of completion and sufficiency and fullness in Jesus Christ.

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Now we are near to God. We have been, in the words of Ephesians chapter two, we have been brought near. We were far off. Christ has done this.

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No Old Testament priest could do this. No sacrifice could do this. But Christ has brought his people near. And he does this by being our intercessor.

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Since he always lives to make intercession for them, we draw near to God through Christ because he is always living to make intercession.

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This is his ministry and this was the ministry of an Old Testament priest. The idea of a priest was not somebody who simply stood over top of the people and ruled them in some sort of a religious sense.

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The idea of a priest in the Old Testament sense and with the Lord Jesus Christ is one who serves as a mediator.

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He is a intercessor or a mediator between God and men. Appointed on behalf of men from among men,

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Hebrews chapter five says, God appointed men in order to serve as that priest so that they could act as a mediator, a go -between between sinful men and a holy and righteous

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God. That was the role of a priest. The role of a priest was when the worshiper came and he offered his sacrifice, the priest would, after offering a sacrifice for himself, he would offer the sacrifice on behalf of the worshiper and then he would intercede.

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He would apply that blood to the altar. Having offered the sacrifice, he would apply that blood to the altar or to the mercy seat on behalf of that individual and he would pray or intercede or plead on behalf of the worshiper who had brought the sacrifice.

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In other words, the work of the priest was to intercede on behalf of the one who was covered by the sacrifice. That's the job of an

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Old Testament priest. And that is indeed what Jesus Christ has done. Verse 25, and does currently, verse 25 says he pleads or he intercedes for us, for them.

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And the idea of pleading and interceding for people is connected repeatedly in Scripture with the death of Christ.

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In other words, his death and his intercession are connected. I'm gonna explain to you how this is.

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This is significant. His death and his intercession are connected. I want to read you a couple passages.

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These will be familiar ones. Isaiah 53, verse 12. Therefore I will, back up and give a little bit of context.

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Isaiah 53 is that graphic portrayal of crucifixion in the Old Testament by Isaiah where he says he was numbered with the transgressors.

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He bore our sin and our iniquity. By his stripes we are healed. By his scourging we are cleansed, et cetera.

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Talks about the sin and the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of God's servant who would die in their stead,

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Isaiah 53. Well, verse 12 says this. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death, sacrifice, and was numbered with the transgressors.

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That's substitutionary sacrifice. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

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You hear that? He bore their sin and he interceded for them. He bore the sin of many and he interceded for the transgressors.

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The death of Christ, the sacrifice, and the offering connected with the idea of intercession and being a mediator.

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We also see it in Romans chapter eight, verse 34. Who is the one who condemns, Paul says. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, he who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

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He is the one who dies and he intercedes. Death, sacrifice, and intercession. His death as sacrifice is connected with his work as intercessor.

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We see it and this is what is meant in 1 John chapter two. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins, we have an advocate, a pleader, one who pleads our case, one who stands between us and the

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Father and pleads our case as our advocate. It's a legal word. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation, sacrifice, for our sins, the satisfaction, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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Describing they're not just Jewish sin, but Jew and Gentile sins. For Jews and Gentiles, he is the propitiation and the sacrifice for Jews and Gentiles.

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So there his sacrifice, his propitiation, his satisfaction is connected with his work of intercession.

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Sacrifice, offering, and intercession. It was always connected in the Old Testament with the old covenant priesthood and it is connected in the work of Christ and we cannot divide between those two things.

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As if to suggest that his work of offering a sacrifice is somehow has one intention and one extent and his work as mediator has a different intention and a different extent.

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These two things are coextensive. In other words, they apply to the same group of people. The people for whom he has offered a sacrifice are the ones for whom he intercedes and the ones for whom he intercedes are the ones who are saved by that intercession.

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It is the same group of people. So we don't not have a high priest who came and offered a sacrifice for millions of people who will then perish, but then he only intercedes for a few people and he only saves a few of those for whom he intercedes.

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Rather, we have a high priest who has offered a sacrifice and then he intercedes on behalf of all those for whom he has offered the sacrifice and he ends up saving all those on behalf of whom he intercedes.

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So that the number of people saved is coextensive with the number of people for whom he has made the sacrifice.

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For whom does he intercede? What does the text say? For those who draw near. That's the extent of his intercession.

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Jesus said in John 17, his high priestly prayer, what's called his high priestly prayer, he said, I don't pray for the world, I pray for what, for whom?

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For those whom you have given to me. That is the extent of his intercession.

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For whom does he intercede? For whom does he plead at the right hand of the Father? Does he plead for millions of people whom he knows he will later cast into eternal perdition?

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Does he plead for them? Does he plead and intercede for millions of people whom he knows will die in unbelief, for people whom he knows the

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Father has not given to him, for people he knows are not his sheep? Is he pleading and begging with the Father on their behalf?

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For whom does he intercede? He intercedes for whom? Verse 25, he makes intercession for them.

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Who's the them? Everyone in the whole world? Those who draw near to God through him. Only if you are in Jesus Christ does he intercede for you.

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And by the way, you did not get into Jesus Christ by your belief. You did not become one for whom he prays by your belief.

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You believed because he intercedes for you. Because he offered a sacrifice on your behalf, and then he applied the merits of that sacrifice to you in the throne room of God, and because he pleads at the

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Father's right hand, and begs and pleads and intercedes for your case, for that reason you are saved.

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For that reason you believe. If Jesus Christ makes intercession for millions of people whom he knows do not belong to him because they've not been given to him by the

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Father, and whom he knows he will later judge and throw into eternal perdition, then answer me this, riddle me this,

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Batman. Is his intercession largely a success or a failure?

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It would have to be a failure. Because he ends up pleading for a whole bunch of people whom he later judges.

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See, I believe that the intercession of Jesus Christ is perfectly successful. Every last person for whom he intercedes is saved.

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Every single last one. There is not one person for whom he has died whose case has been covered, whose sin has been forgiven, who has been made righteous by his blood, there's not one single one of them that perishes.

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He fully succeeds to save every last one for whom he intercedes. And if you try and make the case that he is interceding and pleading and trying to apply the merits of his sacrifice to a whole bunch of people who will then perish, and then turn around and tell me, but because he intercedes for you, you're secure.

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What? How is it that he can intercede for millions who are not secure and intercede for me and I'm secure?

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What's the difference between that? See, our security rests not upon our ability to continue in the faith, or our ability to merit his righteousness, or our ability to continue in a place where he can intercede for us.

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Our security and our sanctification and our steadfastness in the faith relies solely and only upon Jesus Christ and the fact that he, even right now, at the right hand of the

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Father, is pleading for every last one who is his. Every last one for whom the Father has sent Christ to die, every last one for whom he offered a sacrifice, every last one to whom that sacrifice is applied, he intercedes for them.

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And every last one for whom he intercedes is fully and finally saved by him, and he loses not one.

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And if he loses one, he's a failure. And if he is interceding for millions whom he will later judge, then the

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Father is not hearing from him and he's rather pathetic. I say that advisedly.

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Every last person for whom Jesus Christ stands and serves as a high priest, your salvation is utterly and totally and fully secure because he applies that sacrifice that he made to your account.

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And he stands at the Father's right hand and begs your case as your intercessor. You cannot perish.

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You cannot. That is the same yesterday, today, and forever. All those who draw near are saved.

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Every last one who is saved is saved because he always lives to make intercession for us.

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That is what the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ means. You're secure. Because he lives, you have nothing to fear.

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Because he lives, you are secure. Our intercessor is Jesus Christ. And to put, by the way, any other intercessor in there, whether it's popes or priests or men or Mary or saints or angels or anybody else is an affront to the word of God.

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It's an insult to the sufficiency of Christ and it betrays a belief that what you think about Jesus Christ is not nearly high enough.

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I need no other intercessor. He's fully able to save all those who come to the

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Father through him. Why? Because he intercedes for them. And for whom does he intercede? For all those whom he is saving.

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All those whom the Father has given to them. Those are the ones for whom he died. He died for his sheep. And because he died for his sheep, he intercedes for his sheep.

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And because he intercedes for his sheep, he saves his sheep. And because he saves his sheep, he secures his sheep everlastingly.

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It's a wonderful, golden, perfect chain of redemption. All secured by the work of our high priest who continues forever and he holds his priesthood permanently and so he always lives to make intercession for those who are his.

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And for that reason, we are safe and secure. So what does this mean? Let me give you a couple things.

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First of all, it means that his priesthood is permanent and if his priesthood is permanent, then all the benefits of his priesthood are permanent as well.

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Paul says in Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

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How could Paul say that? How could Paul say that he was confident that the one who begins the work of salvation in someone's life will complete that work of salvation all the way to the end?

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Do you know why Paul could say that? Because we have a high priest who ever lives to make intercession for us and he holds his priesthood permanently.

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And if he holds his priesthood permanently and he is never pushed off of that throne and he is never replaced and he never dies and somebody else takes his place, if that's true, then

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I have absolute confidence that the one who is high priest today will be high priest tomorrow and the one who is high priest tomorrow will be high priest 1 ,000 years from now and the one who is high priest 1 ,000 years from now will be high priest forever and if he is high priest forever, then

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I can be confident that he who began a good work and you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus because he's not gonna begin a work that he cannot finish and he's not gonna begin, there's no such work that can be done that he can start and not finish and having started it,

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I can have absolute confidence that he will finish it. Second, today, tomorrow and forever, your salvation rests on him and this is good news.

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Today when you woke up, if you are saved and you're in Jesus Christ, you are saved solely and only because of what Christ has done and so your salvation does not rest upon you, it does not rest upon your ability to be righteous today, for your ability to improve yourself today better than you were tomorrow, your salvation rests solely and only upon the work of one who offered a sacrifice in your stead and right now sits at the

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Father's right hand and makes intercession for you. This morning when you woke up, he was sitting at the Father's right hand doing the work of a high priest and that is making intercession for you.

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This morning when you woke up, that was true and no matter what transpires today, tonight when you lay your head on your pillow, that will still be true.

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He always lives to make intercession for you and tomorrow when you wake up, it will still be true and when the

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Lord calls you home, be that hours from now, days from now, months from now or decades from now and you leave off this mortal coil and the golden chain is broken and the cistern is crushed in the words of Ecclesiastes and you finally step out of time and into eternity, guess who will be pleading your case as you step from time into eternity?

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He will be interceding for you. He's always done so. When he was appointed a high priest, he began to pray for those whom the

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Father had given to them and you are saved today because he intercedes for you. You came to Christ because he intercedes for you.

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You believed and you repented and you heard the gospel because he intercedes for you. You're saved, you're sanctified and you're secured all because Christ intercedes for you and your salvation is secure as long as he holds that office of high priest and how long will he hold that?

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Forever, forever. That's why you're safe and secure. That's why you're in Christ today and that's why you'll be in Christ a million years from now.

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That's why you're in Christ today and that's why you'll be in Christ forever because he cannot fail. He cannot fail to save or to secure any for whom he has died and for whom he intercedes, not a single one.

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So we rest in him. As we come to the Lord's table, the elements that we partake of to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, those elements point to a sacrifice which was made on behalf of all who believe.

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If you're in Christ, that sacrifice was yours. He died in your stead, his body was broken, his blood was shed to pay the price of sin that you deserve to remove the wrath of God and the guilt of your conscience and your condemnation.

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It was offered to remove all of that and to make you righteous in God's sight, to forgive you.

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If you're not in Jesus Christ, your number one need is not to partake of these elements. Your number one need is to repent and to believe upon Jesus Christ and I would beg you and command you based upon scripture to do that.

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And if you have any questions about that and you wanna talk to somebody about that, you can meet with some gentleman at the door at the back there after the service.

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But for those of us who are believers, we're gonna have a moment of quiet prayer as we partake of the Lord's table and remember the sacrifice of Christ and that this sacrifice which he made, which this is not the sacrifice, it was 2 ,000 years ago, but that sacrifice which he made, which we are remembering through our

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Lord's table in the communion, that sacrifice was effective and it did everything it was intended to do. It saved every last one for whom it was intended and he intercedes forever for you if you are in Jesus Christ.

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And we can partake of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner if you do so as an unbeliever or as a Christian who is living in habitual and unrepentant sin.

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If that is the case for you, then I would ask you, I would encourage you to not partake of the communion service because you're just eating and drinking judgment to yourself.

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So before we have a time of quiet prayer, I'll ask the ushers to come forward and line up here up front and we'll serve communion.