Able to Save to the Uttermost — Bob Jennings

When we leave Beaumont this afternoon in about two hours, I think I'm going to feel a little bit lonely. You have given me such an honor inviting me to come and speak to you, to open the Word of God to you.

You've treated me so kindly, put me up so comfortably over there in that motel. We have so much here in the USA, don't we? So much, so nice. And I feel like I've meant a little more of Christ when I've meant more of His body.

It's been 25 years since I've seen Lou Faire. I meant rather being there at the camp at Bentley. And I just am thankful for the opportunity to get to know you more, and your family, and Pete and your family.

The Exalted High Priest and the Grace of God

The Lord bless you. I can say I'll be praying for the church here in Beaumont, richest of the glory of His inheritance and the saints. Turn to Hebrews chapter 8. Could we pray again? We thank You. We do thank You, Lord, for Your wonderful, matchless, infinite grace.

Grace that is greater than all our sins. We thank You for the length, the breadth, the depth, the height. We thank You for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that You graciously, when You were rich, You became poor, that we, through Your poverty, might be made rich.

We thank You for Your grace teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust that is soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. We thank You, Lord, for Your grace greater than all our sins.

We thank You for breaking up the power of sin. We thank You, Lord, for dealing so bountifully with our souls. We thank You, Lord, for the fellowship in Christ. We thank You for the dear saints of God.

And we pray, Lord, today that You might be magnified, that You might be exalted, that You might show us more of Your wonderful salvation. We pray, Lord, everywhere around the globe today, Your kingdom come and Your will be done.

We pray, Lord, arise and scatter Your enemies. We pray, Lord, that You'd come and rule and reign over us. And so we bow before You and ask, Lord, that You would bless as we look into the Word of God. Amen.

Hebrews 8, verse 1. Now this is the main point, the sum of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. He says that's the main point, that we have a Savior who has been exalted way to another realm.

The Farm Cable as a Picture of Christ's Saving Power

I grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa, and sometimes we'd get the tractor or the truck stuck real bad. And Dad would say, boys, I don't believe this is a job for the log chains. You better go get the cable.

And to my memory, he had a cable that was probably a hundred feet long. And we'd hook the cable onto the truck, and the cable was long enough, you see, to get us way up on high ground, way up on dry ground.

And so we'd hook all three tractors on, and that truck would come out of there, even pushing dirt over the axle. And this is what we have here in Hebrews 8, verse 1. We have a Savior, a Redeemer, a Rescuer, who is way up on high ground, on different ground, and is able to save us thereby.

And so I'd like to speak on a verse before this, right in the same context, verse 25 of chapter 7. 725, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always or ever lives to make intercession for them.

We just have these words in the song we sang, Save to the Uttermost. Every now and then, you, like me, probably get an advertisement in the mail for credit cards. They advertise their features, their advantages, and that we might take them up on it.

And the New Testament and the whole Bible, especially the New Testament, is telling us what a great Savior we have, what a great Redeemer we have, that we might walk worthy of this calling, that we might possess our possessions, that we might put our full trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, a superior person and a superior work than any other religious leader.

The book of Hebrews advertises a great salvation administered by a great Savior, and especially His priesthood. He is called the Great High Priest and really is the only true priest there is. He is typified in the Old Testament like in Exodus 28, and prophesied in places like Isaiah 53.

He interceded for the transgressors, but magnified over and over in the New Testament like Romans 8. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather, who is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, interceding for us?

The Need for Christ's Continuing Intercession

While much emphasis is placed on the propitiatory work of Christ, relatively, it seems to me, little emphasis is placed on the intercessory work of Christ. While much emphasis is placed on redemption accomplished, not so much on redemption applied.

While it seems like more emphasis is placed on the blood of Christ, not so much emphasis is placed on the prayers of Christ. And so we must not forget that our Lord not only made sacrifice for us, but He also, as a priest, burned incense for us.

And we must not forget that our Lord Jesus Christ, He not only finished the work, but in a sense is still working, ever living to make intercession for us. And what an abundance of gospel there is in this intercessory work of Christ.

As they say, a divine cordial to the depressed and the despairing, a golden vein in the mine of redemption, a support in the battle of the ages, just as Israel conquered at Rephidim through Moses' intercession, his hands lifted up, so we conquer through Christ's intercession for us.

I'd like to try to bring out five things in this one verse. Number one, the need of an intercessor. Number two, the qualifications of our intercessor. And number three, the subjects of His intercession.

And number four, the results of His intercession. And number five, the objects of His intercession. The intercessory work of Christ. He ever lived to make intercession for us. Well, number one, the need of an intercessor.

As brought out by this one word, save. He is able to save to the uttermost. Save. It does say save, and that word tells us there's something, someone, there's a need of salvation. It was a foreign concept to me back in the Methodist church.

I never had any idea that I needed to be saved. Like I mentioned, I saw painted on the roof of this big building, Jesus saves. And I remember thinking in my lost years, saves from what? What's the problem?

Salvation implies a need to be saved. It doesn't say educate. It does not say instruct. It does not say refine. It does not say improve. After I was saved, I went back to the Methodist pastor, and I wanted to tell him how I'd been saved.

And my mother, she says, well, I'm going to go with you. And so I told this pastor that had been saved, that had been born again, and he said, well, that's why we have Sunday school to educate people into this.

But it's not talking about that, is it? It's talking about salvation. About a new birth. About something supernatural, an invasion of the living God into the heart of a man. And if you go to a salvage yard, there you find wrecked cars, ruined cars, worthless cars.

Cars that have been damaged and hurt and rusted out. And so, we're talking here about the souls of men that need to be saved from wrecked, worthless lives. That's the way it is with the souls of men. And it takes us this one word, save.

It takes us back to the fall. It takes us back to the fall when the human race was cut off from God, when God pulled the plug on the human race. And when we fell into sin, everybody that's ever been born since has been a sinner at heart.

Not half good, but all bad. Not as bad as he could be maybe, but nevertheless, bad at heart and in need of salvation. We came under the condemnation of God and under the dominion of the devil. Every one of us has gone astray like sheep.

We wandered off, wandered into the mud hole worse and worse and worse. It was so bad right back there in the beginning that God said He was sorry that He made man. If you're in your sins this morning, God's sorry that He made you.

You're a sorry creature until you're saved by the grace of God. Man has two problems. Number one, he's got a bad heart. Number two, he's got a bad record. And that's why Christ came. He came to shed His blood to take care of our bad record.

He came to live in our heart to take care of our bad heart. And so, man is needing to be saved. We need an intercessor because there's a hostility between man and God. God's mad at us. We're mad at Him.

We need an intercessor. We need a go-between. We need an intercessor. And everybody knows that. You go to the Aborigines, the American Indians, the Roman Catholics and the Muslims and the Hindus and all of them.

They've got their holy men. They've got their medicine men. They've got their intercessors. They've got somebody. They realize they need somebody to go between them and whoever they think the God that is there.

The Qualifications of the Ever-Living Intercessor

Who is it that can go between? Who is it that can intercede for fallen man with holy God? That brings us to the second point. The qualifications of our intercessor as brought out by these two phrases.

This one phrase, he ever lives to make intercession. It says, since he ever lives, always lives to make intercession for us. And the other word, he is able. We're talking secondly about the qualifications of our intercessor.

It says he ever lives in contrast to those former priests. It says in verse 23, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, because he continues forever or lives forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

He ever lives in contrast to those former priests. Aaron was a high priest, but he died on Mount Hor. Eleazar was a faithful priest, but he died. And Phineas was a good priest. He made intercession and executed judgment for God, but he died.

Eli trembled for the ark. He fell over backwards and he died. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, he walked in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. He was a good priest, but he died.

They all died. Don't you feel that when a man of God who really prays for you, when he dies, do you not feel that you've suffered some loss? That you miss his intercession, his prayers for you? How much more the Lord Jesus?

How much more a high priest? They died. How would you like it if you had a lawyer? He was a real good lawyer, but he kept having heart attacks. You didn't know if he'd be around when the court date came.

He really knew your case. He knew how to represent you. But he knew he wasn't going to ever live to make intercession for you. You know what a shake of it is when we have a new president coming in. My father's estate, there was trouble that occurred because the banker died.

It's even a little shake-up when your barber dies. But here it says our Lord Jesus ever lives. A perpetual priesthood. Verse 24, he continues forever, has an untangible, perpetual priesthood. I've heard about a mayor that was a mayor for 30 years.

Seems like an awful long time. I heard about one ruler that reigned for 91 years. His name was Pharaoh Pepe. He had a lot of pep, I guess. But nevertheless, they died. It was not perpetual. But Christ exceeds them all.

He has an endless, indestructible life and therefore an unchangeable priesthood. We all look for things that will not be destroyed, that will not destruct. You know, they've got CCA lumber and now they're bringing in something I guess better than that.

I remember some years ago when James and Jesse Norris came to visit us up at Sedalia and James was talking about this additive you could put in your motor and it would run forever. Well, you know it wouldn't be.

But he sure made you think that. But Christ has an indestructible life. The same yesterday, today, and forever. Able to save. And now look at these words. Able to save. Able to save. We're talking about yet the qualifications of our intercessor.

Able to save. Ross Perot boasted that he was the man who was able to get the job done, but he never got the job. There is a certain disgustingness and even a fear when dealing with incompetency. Don't you feel that?

A disgustingness, even a fear. And you're dealing with incompetency. One time Terry and I, we had a carpenter come in to do some remodeling on the house. We got home that next night and here, lo and behold, he put the stairway in backwards.

And he got the shower hooked up crooked, you know, hot and cold, and it's that way to this very day. And then he took the floor out. We were going to turn the garage into a bedroom, and he took the floor out and he never told anybody that he did it and never locked the door.

And Terry opened the door and fell through. Yeah? We looked for somebody who was more able. So the next time, we got some remodeling to do. I know of a brother up there in Arkansas. He went in to the doctor to have some lenses put in his eye.

And they got the formula turned around and they got the right and the left and the left and the right. I say, incompetency, it's disgusting, even fearful. One time we had a horse go down there. She was laying out in the pasture.

We called the vet in, the one who was nearby. And the horse got no better, but rather the worse. And so we decided we'd better go for better help. We called in a vet from more of a distance. He came in and he treated the horse and he said she'll be alright if she can overcome what the first vet did.

Incompetency. Unable. We appreciate and we look for competence. And in this, we boast regarding our God and our Savior, our Intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lance Havner says, King Darius leaned over the lion's den and asked, is your God able to deliver you?

And an uneasy world wonders whether the Christian's God conceive Him in the hour of trial. And blessed is the man who, though sore beset, can answer, He is able. Have you ever noticed and done a Bible study on all the ables in the New Testament?

Don't you love it? He is able to keep that which I have committed better than any banker. It says in Ephesians 3, He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. That will surely be true in the end.

It says in 2 Corinthians 9, He is able to make all grace abound even in spite of me. He is able to do that. It says in Hebrews 2 .18, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. A doctor might not be able to get through, but the Lord can.

He is able to come to the aid. It says in Jude 24, He is able to keep you from falling. Not like Mephibosheth's nurse who dropped Him. The Lord is able to keep us from falling. It says in Philippians 3, He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.

We went over to Vietnam. We could not. We were unable to subdue the Vietcong. But the Lord is able to subdue all things unto Himself. There is a great day coming. And here it says He is able to save to the uttermost.

In the Old Testament, that high priest, he wore the names of the sons of Israel on his heart to show that he cared. And he wore their names on his shoulder to show that he was able. Able to intercede for them.

Able to bear them up. He's on higher ground. And he's able to save to the uttermost. I was reading again the story of C .T. Studd. And they tell him there they met over in China an opium addict. And that man heard him preach.

And he came up afterward and he said, Your Christ is not able to save me. I'm an opium addict. I'm a murderer. I'm a doctor. I've done everything that could be done. And I've done it many times. They shared with him more about the wonders and the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that man was saved. And he was saved so powerfully. He was born again so well that he went back to the town where he'd been done all this dirty. And he began to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. And they couldn't take it.

And they beat him with rods 2 ,000 times till he was a bloody mess. Well, the saints nursed him back to health and he was determined he was going to go back there again and preach again. Now, they didn't beat him this time.

They were too embarrassed to do that. And so they threw him in prison. And there that man preached Christ in prison to so many people and saw so much result. They didn't know what to do with him. They finally let him go.

That man was saved. God, Christ, was able to save to the uttermost even such a one as him. We've talked about the need of an intercessor. We've talked about the qualifications of our intercessor. Now, thirdly, let's look at what are the subjects of his intercessory work.

What Christ Prays for His People

What does he pray for? I've tried to gather out a few things from the Bible that would indicate, that show us how our Lord intercedes for us. Number one, he prays for our conversion. It says in Luke 23, Father, forgive them.

I don't know how many of those were saved that he prayed for right there, but it may be that after Pentecost, several we know of the high priests were converted and became obedient to the faith. In answer to our Lord's prayer, Father, forgive them.

He says in John 17, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, who shall believe on me through their word. The Lord Jesus prays for our preservation. In Luke 22, Peter, now the devil's going to shake you real good, but I prayed for you that your faith fail not.

I like that. He prays for our preservation. Keep them through thy word. Keep them. About 12 years ago, there was a man up there in Sedalia. Sam. Hargrave is his name. There were three brothers. And the first two, they had been converted and they were coming to the church, the church that I pastor.

But here was his third brother. He was holding out tough. He was a very proud fellow. He was the chief deputy sheriff in the county. And we'd been going into the jail for some years, talking with anybody that would talk, sharing the gospel with them.

And to my knowledge, we never did see any of those inmates converted. But alas, we saw the chief deputy sheriff converted. And it wasn't through anything of my efforts at all. But that man, he came home from somewhere one night, a meeting or whatever, and he flipped on the TV and only the day will declare who he heard preaching.

But somebody was preaching, had some truth, preaching on eternal condemnation and eternal life. He heard the gospel and God came on him and just shut him right down there in the living room. He came under such awful conviction of sin, but his mind went blank for a while.

When he came back, he saw, when he came back to, he saw that the Lord Jesus Christ had indeed died for his sins. He rose up the next morning and went out telling everybody. He looked up his two brothers, one at the fire department, the other cutting trees, and he told them he'd found the Lord.

He went to the sheriff's department. He told them he'd found the Lord. He started carrying his Bible. He quit joining in to the filthy jokes. And he quit going to the tavern after work with fellow workers, you know.

And eventually, the sheriff came and said, either you're going to have to take a psychological exam or we will fire you. They thought he'd lost his mind. And he said, I'm not going to submit to that. Come what may.

Well, they didn't fire him, but they demoted him to the lowest man in the totem pole from chief deputy sheriff down to the bottom. Not only that, but he lost his wife. I mean, he went to her and said, will you forgive me for this and that and the other treating you so cruelly?

Well, she told him, I like you better the way you were before. Isn't that it? So he lost his wife, lost half of his house, lost his boy. She got him. And he lost his physique. He quit lifting weights.

He was Mr. Sedalia. And suffered maybe more persecution over that than about anything. And he began to fasting and lost about 30 pounds. And not only that, but he lost his inheritance. When the third son was converted, the father said that's the last straw.

We're taking it all out of the family will. He lost this, lost that, lost everything, but he gained Christ. Now that would be quite a temptation to throw in the towel, losing this and that and everything.

But it says the Lord, I prayed for you that your faith fail not. You know that's why we stand. That's why we go on in so many discouragements, so many afflictions, adversities, but it's the Lord praying that our faith fail not.

It's like you tie a ribbon on the front of a fan, and the ribbon stands right out straight because of the wind. And so we stand because of the greetings of our Lord's intercession. Thirdly, the Lord prays for our sanctification.

In John 17, I pray, Father, keep them, sanctify them to the truth. Thy word is truth. He prays for our sanctification, not every mud hole of sin, every chain of bondage, every bed of depression, every lounge of laziness.

He prays also for our unification. About three or four times in that high priestly prayer, John 17, Father, that they may be one. That they may be one. That they may be one. You ought to be real careful.

Any division that you cause in the body of Christ better be real careful. You might be working right against our Lord's intercession. He prays for our provisions of the Holy Spirit. In John 14, I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever.

The Holy Spirit was sent as a result of the intercessory work of Christ. It's like Terri, she comes to me and says, Bob, would it be alright if we got some shoes for Evangeline? He intercedes for provisions, you see, for the children of the Lord, so He intercedes for provisions for us.

The Lord intercedes for pardon for all of our blunders and our sins. Just as Moses interceded for the children of Israel, our Lord intercedes for us. Samuel interceded for the sons of Israel, so our Lord intercedes for us.

Job interceded for his airing friends, so our Lord intercedes for us. In all our errors and all our blunders, there is the Lord Jesus asking for us, asking, asking, and asking. The Lord does not come with gimmicks to the Father, the gimmicks of a salesman.

He does not come with the rhetoric of an order. He does not come with the law like a lawyer. But He pleads the virtues of His life and of His death. He died to cover our failures. He lived to earn our success.

He prays for our acceptance, the acceptance of all of our labors, even our good things. Back there in the Old Testament, it says the priest, he made intercession for the iniquity of the holy things. Think of that.

Our prayers, you see, are holy things, but even our prayers are accepted to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Even they must somehow be filtered through our intercessor. Like Al Martin says, whenever man is involved in the work of God, there's a little black smoke that goes up in the incense.

And so, our Lord makes intercession for us in every way. Now, number four, what are the results of our Lord's intercession? What are the results? It says here, He is able to save to the uttermost. That's the result.

Salvation to the Uttermost and an Indestructible Life

Save forever, save completely, save to the uttermost. The Greek word there is panteles. Pan, meaning all, teles means the end. You know, like telescope, it means you can see to the end. See all the way to that thing.

And so, panteles means all ends. Able to save to all ends. And, you know, we use this word glorification, whom He called, He justified, whom He justified, He glorified. I mean, we get used to that word and forget what it's talking about, that we are going to be glorified, glorified, beautified, perfected.

Able to save to the uttermost. Yes, we have seen, haven't you? We've seen lesbian queens saved. We've seen beer-drinking heroes saved. We've seen rotten religious folks saved. Able to save to the uttermost, to fix them up real good.

He's praying us, taking us all the way to heaven, and that's no end. That's all ends. No bounds. Cured from all the effects of the fall. Able to save to the uttermost. Last, let's consider the objects of our Savior's intercession.

Coming to God Through Christ

I mean, for whom does this apply? Our text gives us the answer. It says, all who come unto God through Him. All who draw near to God. And we ought to ask ourselves this morning, have I come to God through Christ?

Have I ever done that? Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That word, come, it's kind of simple, but it's pretty powerful. When my dad used to say it to me as a little kid, come here, boy.

He expected me to change locations. And that is what it is in the spiritual realm too. It means getting up and making a definite, deliberate step. Move. Forsaking everything else, leaving where I'm at, and going to God through Christ.

It's so simple, but yet so powerful. Have you come or are you still wondering? Are you still waiting? Are you still wondering? Or have you come to Christ? I've heard some say, I just can't believe. What they mean is I'm just, I won't believe.

That's exactly what their problem is. They won't believe. You are unwilling to come to Me that you might have life. What a thing that we're so proud that we judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life. Come.

Turning ourselves in like a criminal, we come to Christ. Coming. Ah, coming honestly. Draw near to God. It says, come to Him with a true heart. We must come honestly. He will not despise a humble and honest heart.

Coming sacrificially. Just last Sunday, I guess I mentioned this to you before about this 19-year-old girl. She stood last Sunday and confessed, Christ, I can't take it anymore. I want to be a Christian.

I want to follow the Lord. And when she confessed Christ, it was sacrificial. I mean, she had just been engaged to a man about two or three months before who does not profess like she did not profess at the time.

Now she is making a profession, realizing that if he does not profess, she's putting her marriage on the altar. If he doesn't profess, it's the end of that. Coming sacrificially, leaving everything else behind, presenting our lives, our bodies, a living sacrifice unto Him.

Coming continually. If you're a Christian, you know it's not a one-time thing. Peter says, coming unto Him. Coming, present tense, continuous, every day in every situation. Coming unto Him. A life of coming to God through Christ.

And coming to who? It says, come to God, to Him. Not to your parents, not to the church, not to the altar, but coming to God, the living God, through Him. And it does say through Him. Not another. You've got to come through Him.

One time I talked to a Methodist pastor up there in Sedalia. He says, but there's others, many others that make the same kind of claims as Christ, Buddha and so on. What foolishness! What error! What destructive error!

Coming to God through Him. You've got to have the right lawyer. One time Terry and I were inadvertently involved in a class action lawsuit. And I thought we'd better call the lawyer and figure out what's going on here.

We called the lawyer. Well, we thought he was the one. They said, no, he's not the appointed lawyer. You've got to talk to this other fellow. He's not the appointed lawyer. You can't talk to him. It won't do any good to talk to him.

You've got to talk to the appointed lawyer. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that has been ordained by God the Most High to intercede for transgressors. Come to God through Him. Move to those who have the wrong lawyer.

You know, the wrong intercessor. It was through Esther's intercession that Haman was destroyed. You've got to have the right one. If you put your trust in Christ that He opened His side to plead for you, says the Puritan, surely you'll find that He'll open His mouth to plead for you as well.

And how does He plead? He pleads personally. He is so big, so great. The Lord Jesus is so great that He's able to make personal intercession for everybody, all of His people, all around the globe, personally by name.

The names of the sons of Israel are on the heart of the High Priest. He is able to plead for us caringly. The names are on the heart, not on the bottom of His feet. Able to plead sympathetically. Sympathetically.

I mean, Brother Bean, you're a dentist. And who would you want to intercede for you? You in Washington, D .C. Someone like George Pounds, a mechanic, or someone like John Green, a fellow dentist. And so, our Lord, He is a man.

A 100 man. A 100 God, but a 100 man. And able to identify with us in every way. He's able to plead effectually. You know, the Lord said that it got so bad. Come on. Come on in. It got so bad for Israel one time that God said although Moses and Samuel were to intercede, I wouldn't hear them.

It never said that about the Lord Jesus. Father, You always hear Me. What confidence we ought to find and what boldness we ought to find in having such a great High Priest, such an intercessor. One time I talked to a fellow behind bars.

And he was in a mess up to here. But he said, I'm not worried. I've got a good lawyer. Infamously more. We can say the same thing. A great Savior and a great salvation. The Lord bless you, dear saints.

It's been a joy to be with you.