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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/eric-mccullough/we-haves-in-hebrews/
Now we'll go back to the Hebrew epistle, please. Chapter 4, this is where our brother left off this morning. Chapter 4 of the Hebrews, and verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now over, please, to chapter 6, verse 17, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation or encouragement to have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Now chapter 7, chapter 7 of the Hebrews, and verse 26. For such an high priest became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's.
For this he did once, that is, once for all, when he offered up himself. Now verse 1 of chapter 8. Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest, who was set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.
Now over again, finally, to chapter 13. Chapter 13 and verse 10. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
By him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
And we know God will add his blessing to the reading of his Word. Likely most will know that the epistle to the Hebrews is a series of contrasts with what's good and associated with Judaism, and over against that we have the better things of Christ.
In fact, in the Gospels, twice in Matthew's Gospel, we see the heavens opened and we hear that annunciation from God, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But when we come to the Hebrew epistle, it's not God speaking from heaven, but the heavens are opened again and we are enabled to look right into heaven and see the glories of this blessed person.
Someone has said about the Hebrew epistle that it's the loaded altar and the empty sepulcher. The man, Christ Jesus, who was down here, he has gone back into heaven, and the writer, whoever he was, is taking us into the heavenlies.
You see, brethren, God wants us to live as if that's the norm for us as his people, in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. And you know that in chapter 1, as we reminded this morning, he's seen to be better than those Old Testament prophets.
God, who in time past spake in Son, now he says he spoke in time past by the prophets, but now he speaks to us in Son. The revelation is from the Son to us. In chapter 2, the writer tells us he's better than the angels, and right on through.
Chapter 3, he's better and greater than Moses, and in chapter 4, than Joshua. And you go right through the whole epistle to the Hebrews, and it's the person of the Lord Jesus who is seen as above and beyond everyone and everything else.
And so I would like to direct our thoughts again this morning to the heavenlies. Somebody said to Lady Huntington, one of England's nobility many years ago, a very devoted Christian, someone asked her where she lived.
She said, I really live in heaven, and I come down to earth for a little visit every day, and then I go back again to heaven. Wouldn't that be a good way for us to live? You see, we get so earthy. We get our stakes down so deeply.
And again, I would echo what my brother asked this morning, what am I living for? What are you living for? Those words often come to mind, only one life will soon be passed, and only what's done for Christ will last.
Now, I want you to notice a number of things that the writer tells us that we have. We have. There's no hoping for this. This is something that's absolutely tangible. It's for us to enjoy as we journey heavenward.
The first is at the end of chapter 4, we have a great high priest. He has passed through the heavens, through the cloudy heavens, through the atmosphere, right into the immediate presence of God, where he lives for us.
He's bearing your name and my name. This epistle teaches me upon his shoulders and upon his breast. Just as the high priest so long ago, as he went into the holiest, not without blood to atone for his own sin and for the sins of the people, he bore the names of those twelve tribes on his shoulders, on those onyx stones, and on that ephod that had all of the stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
So, this is what we have. A great high priest. Jesus, that's his humanity. The Son of God, that's his deity. We're reminded by our brother this morning that chapter 1 of this epistle reminds us of the deity of the Lord Jesus, the gold, and then when we come into chapter 2, it's his humanity, the glory of the Son of Man, and we have a perfect blending in him of deity and humanity.
The theologians talk about a hypostatic union. That is, acacia wood and gold perfectly blended together. It can't be separated. It's distinguishable, but it can't be divided. And so the person of our Lord Jesus, he is both God and man, but he's more than a man.
He had to become a man in order to die, but he became more than a man to put away your sin and my sin. God manifest in flesh. Jesus, the Son of God. I want you to think about that glorious person, who he is, living for us today in the power of an endless life.
We are reminded of the trials of the way. We've been thinking this weekend much of our dear brother Duncan. I visited with him at Pugwash on the 4th of July weekend. He was telling me about the new assembly that Chad has mentioned, and I have known Bethany and her parents since she was a little girl.
And who has the answer as to why, at such an early age, after four years, four months of marriage, God said her work is finished and she's enjoying the presence of the one that she loved. A glorious person.
What must it be like to see him before the rapture, before the kingdom and all of its glories, to be with him and then to be like him forever? And so the writer tells us this is the one that we have. A glorious person.
But I want you to think not only of the person and the position that he has, seated in the heavenlies. When that work was accomplished at Calvary, he sat down. Now that doesn't mean that he's always seated.
It's like the monarchs of England or any other country. We say they're seated on the throne, but it doesn't mean they're always on that throne of inauguration. It's linked with their title as king or queen of that land.
And so God says this one sat down in perpetuity. That is, the work was finished. But what's he doing? A touchable, tangible man. It says he has made provision for us. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
Now the scholars tell us the structure of that verse implies a double negative. We have not one which cannot is saying we have one which can. When you get two negatives, one nullifies the other one and you get a positive.
And so God is saying we have a great high priest, touchable, tangible. We can come to him under every circumstance in our lives. And he says he's touched in all points, tempted like as we are, yet apart from sin.
And so he says we're to draw near with a true heart. Here's the promise. We can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I would suggest that's a constant thing in our lives. Is there ever a time in your life, dear brother, dear sister, when you don't have some need?
Here's one who is capable, whose heart can be touched. He can enter into the deepest longings of your experience. Our great high priest, we have him. The Lord help us to appreciate this one who lives for us.
But then in chapter 6, we read of something else. After he tells us that it's impossible for God to lie, and he tells us that he has given us a promise, and he has confirmed it by an oath. That's his own word.
Then he says we have a hope as an anchor of the soul. Whether the forerunner for us, Jesus, is entered in, our great high priest. The figure of speech that the writer is using, whoever he was, is like a military scout in a combat zone.
Some here who have had a military experience will remember, if there are enemies in the area, scouts are sent out to investigate before the rest of the troops move forward. Now that's what God's saying here.
Or like a pilot boat in the days of sailing vessels, when ships were looking for a safe anchor, a safe harbor, they would send a little dory, a little boat with a rope tied to it, into that harbor around a headland.
They would check the depth of the water, and then when they were sure it was deep enough for that large ship to enter in, that ship would enter in. And so the writer is telling us, we have a hope. And our anchor, the person of the Lord Jesus, he has gone in before us, and it's safe enough for that larger vessel to come in and put the anchor down.
I remember some years ago when I was preaching in Newfoundland with Mr. Ramsey, visiting an old sailor who had been saved for years, and I said something to him just to see what he would say. I said, how long have you been saved?
And as only a Newf could say, he said, boy, I got the anchor down. I was anchored, sure, and steadfast. Now that's what the writer says. We have a hope because our Lord Jesus has entered in before us.
We have absolute assurance that one day, very, very soon, we'll be safe in his presence. You remember in the old economy, on the Day of Atonement, Aaron was allowed only once a year to enter into the holiest of all, where he would atone, as I have said, for his own sins and for the sins of the people.
And apart from Moses, who was allowed entrance to learn the mind of God, the Israelites were prohibited from entering into that place that was the holiest of all, where the ark and the mercy seat was.
But you know, you and I have access. The writer to the Ephesians tells us, the Apostle Paul, that we can enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. There's no hindrances, there's no delay, because our high priest has gone before.
Now very quickly, over now to chapter 8 and the end of chapter 7, he tells us about this high priest that we have. Verse 1 of chapter 8, he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens.
That's the place of supreme authority, at the right hand of the Father. That's where he is today. And this is one who is suitable. We read at the end of chapter 7 that he is holy, he became us, that is suitable to meet all our needs.
He is holy, harmless, undefiled. The only one that could move in the presence of sin and be uncontaminated. He could touch the leper and not be defiled. He could eat with publicans and sinners. This one, separate, no contamination from the sin around him.
How different with you and I. We're contaminated from the media. Whether it's visual, whether it's what we hear, whether it's what we read, we're constantly defiled. That's why dear young brother, dear young sister, you need to read your Bible.
You need to be constantly cleansed from the defilement of sin. You say I don't get much out of the Scriptures. Many years ago there was a missionary, sent a native boy with a basket down to the water, to the lake, and he said bring it back to me filled with water.
And the boy tried again and again, but as soon as he filled that vessel, the water ran right through. And he came to the missionary and he said it won't hold any water. But the missionary said you take a look at it and see how clean it is.
You see that's what the Word of God does. It cleanses us. And we need the application of the Word of God daily, constantly. We can't survive on conferences. We can't survive on meetings. We need individually to get something from the Word of God to cleanse us from the defilement that's all around us.
Even in connection with the consecration of the Levites back in the book of Numbers for their service in association with Aaron. Every day for that whole week there was a sin offering required. There had to be provision made for the defilement of sin.
And so you and I must recognize that the Word of God is what cleanseth us. And it was only one who could move through this scene, be uncontaminated, our blessed Lord Jesus. But then we read again in chapter 13.
We read that we have an altar. This is something different than Israel's altar. They had an altar, their place of worship. But the person of the Lord Jesus as the altar was to the Israelite, so Christ is to the believer.
And we must feed on him. Listen to the language of John chapter 6. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink his blood, ye cannot be my disciple. That's salvation. But further down the chapter John says, he that eateth, that's continuance, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, the life of God dwelleth in him.
So there must be the continual feeding upon the Word of God to cleanse us. We come to him as needy saints, conscious of sin and failure. But how good to know that that precious blood that flowed from the veins of Emmanuel, it cleanseth from all sin, past, present, and future.
And God wants us to so live in view of that day when we must give account. Finally in chapter 13 where we read, he said, we have here no continuing city. But like Abraham, he looked for a city which had foundation, whose builder and maker is God.
And so you and I should be looking for that city. I read about a man recently and at a very young age, 25 years of age, he laid down his life for God. As a young man he came to know the Savior. He was raised in a very, very wealthy family.
His name was Borden. He was known as Borden of Yale. He went to the Yale University. And when God first saved him, he wrote in his Bible, no reserve. I'm going to hold back nothing. Later in his life, he became exercised about the Muslim world.
And he went over to a university in the east to study the Muslim language. And he was exercised about going to that part of the world to preach the gospel. And again he wrote in his Bible, no retreat.
A young man in his 20s. But you know, he didn't get to the mission field. He died at 25, getting ready to lay his life on the altar for God. And shortly before he died, he wrote again in his Bible, no regrets.
No regrets. I wonder what I write in the flyleaf of my Bible. What about you? When you come to the end of the road and you look back over life's history and all that could have been accomplished for God, would you be like a young man that Mr. Crawford and I visited one day when we were having meetings down in Matoaka, Virginia?
He was the son of the late Sam McEwan, a well-known gospel preacher to some of my older brethren. He was a tennis professional. And he wasn't saved. His father prayed for him all of his days. And he took us into his study, and there was a wall covered with silver plates and silver trophies.
And here's what he said. This is the result of a wasted life. But his father died, and he told us that when I saw my father in the casket, I thought he'll never pray for me again. And in about two weeks, God saved him.
But he reminded us that all of his life had been wasted seeking the empty trophies of this world. The Lord help us, each one of us, to go in for that heavenly commendation. Well done, thou good and faithful servant, so that when the end comes, we'll be able to say, like Borden of Yale, there were no regrets.
The Lord bless His Word, and what will follow.