A Priest In Heaven, Part 2 - Hebrews 8:1-6

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The Promises of the New Covenant, Part 3 – Hebrews 8:12

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and turn now, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 8, the chapter of Hebrews.

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Before we begin, we will read together the first six verses, Hebrews chapter 8. Now the main point in what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the

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Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

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For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

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Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts, according to the law, who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things.

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Just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle for C, he says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

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But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

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Let's pray together. Our Father, we do pray that you would encourage our hearts together through your word, that you would lift us to the throne of your grace and help us to see the significance of all that Christ has done for those who are his.

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May you unite us in the truth and sanctify us by the truth and encourage us by your truth. And may your word be for us the center of all that is said and done here in the minutes which are to follow.

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And may you be honored and glorified through all of our efforts to fellowship with one another, to worship you, to praise you, and to offer to you the honor and glory that you are due.

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Glorify yourself now by helping us to understand your word, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I know that you are probably encouraged as I would be whenever somebody says to you that they have been praying for you or that they will be praying for you.

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Sometimes when you are going through a difficult time and someone says, I have been praying for you this week or I want you to know that I will be praying for you in the week that is to come, that can be very encouraging to us.

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It can lift our hearts and sort of help us to see a little bit beyond our own circumstances and to appreciate at least the fellowship that we enjoy with one another in Jesus Christ.

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And it warms our heart to know that there's somebody out there who cares about us, there's somebody out there who thinks about us, and there's somebody out there who is concerned enough about us that they would take time out of their busy schedule with everything else going on that they could be doing and to pray and intercede specifically for us.

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That's encouraging for us, isn't it? Even though you may know, you knew

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I was about to drop a hammer right here, right? Even though you may know or suspect that the person who said that they are praying for you may pray the wrong way or for the wrong thing, or at least what you might think is the wrong way or the wrong thing.

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You might be desiring to be out from under some sort of affliction or difficult circumstance and what if the person who's praying for you is praying that God will keep you in that difficulty and that circumstance until he teaches you everything that he wants you to learn through that difficulty or that circumstance.

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Or you may be encouraged that somebody is praying for you even though you may know or suspect that they do not know the mind of God concerning your circumstances any better than you do.

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They have a fallible understanding of exactly what is best concerning you and exactly what the

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Lord should be doing concerning you. They don't know that any better than you do. Or maybe they don't know infallibly what the best thing for you is or their faith may be weak or their attention may be divided or they may start to pray for you and then be thinking about something else going on later on today and the mind gets distracted and they're off on a tangent thinking about something else before they finally come back around and realize, oh yeah,

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I was praying for so -and -so before I got distracted. Or they may be somebody who even forgets to pray for you.

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They may say that they're going to pray for you in the coming week and then they forget to do so. But if somebody says that they're praying for you, that's encouraging, isn't it?

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Even though they may fail in all of those respects, right? How much more encouraging is it to know that our

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Lord sits at the Father's right hand and he prays for you and he knows infallibly what is best for you?

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He knows the mind of the Father concerning your circumstances and what the Father is attempting to do through those circumstances and he will not forget to pray for you and he will not get distracted from praying for you and he does not fail to pray for you in any way.

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How encouraging is that? Well, we're talking today about the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what that means and I think that this should be encouraging to us to know that our

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Lord prays for us. Having finished his redemptive work, he has taken his heavenly seat. We looked at that last week, chapter 8, verse 1, where he sits at the

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Father's right hand, the right hand of the majesty of the throne in the heavens. Remember, the author keeps up these superlative statements, the right hand of the majesty of the throne in the heavens and there sits our

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Lord and he is currently involved in the work of interceding for his people, for praying for those whom he has saved, praying for those who belong to him.

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This is the ministry that he currently has. Last week, we looked at how encouraging it is and what the implications are that our

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Lord sits at the Father's right hand, that he has been seated there, that that is the position of glory and honor that he has been given to sit in that place and what it is that led to him being seated there, that he has accomplished this work of redemption and so, having made one sacrifice for sins for all time, he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty of the throne in the heavens where he currently does something.

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Not twiddling his thumbs, not checking the scores of the game, not observing creation, not observing what's happening in the stars or the solar system in some distant galaxy light years away from us.

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He sits at the Father's right hand right now and he makes intercession, prays for us.

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What is he praying? Who is he praying for? And what is the end result of his prayers?

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That's the ministry of intercession. That's what's described here in Hebrews chapter 8. Verse 1 describes his position of power, having taken his seat.

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Verses 2 through 4 describe his current ministry of intercession, that he is praying for his people.

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Having taken that seat, he performs this heavenly ministry. And then in verses 5 and 6, we find out that he does this in a heavenly tabernacle.

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And we'll look at what the new covenant is in that heavenly tabernacle next week. Today, we're looking at this intercessory work of the

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Lord Jesus. He performs this heavenly ministry. So, let's pick it up in verse 2. Let's read together verses 2 and 3.

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Verse 4. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law.

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There are two clauses in the first part of chapter 8 that describe the Lord Jesus Christ. I mentioned him last week.

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He has taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty of the throne of heavens. That's the first clause. The second clause is that he is a minister.

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The first clause, he has taken his seat, has to do with the completion of his ministry, the perfection of his ministry of redemption, that he having offered one sacrifice for sins, he works no more, he labors no more, he sacrifices no more.

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He has accomplished that and taken his seat of glory because he humbled himself to the point of death. He has been exalted to that right hand, that position of prominence.

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And now verses 2 through 4 describe the current ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has sat down and now he continues a second work.

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And that is the work of intercession. Old Testament Jews and New Testament Jews, actually who would have received the book of Hebrews, they were familiar enough with the work of a priest to understand that the work of the priest primarily resolved around two things, sacrifice and intercession.

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A priest did two things. He offered sacrifices and those sacrifices would include not just animal sacrifices, but like peace offerings and grain offerings and incense offerings and other acts of sacrifices and doves, etc.

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And then he did the work of intercession, sacrifice and intercession. And so it is with the

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Lord Jesus Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins, he now does the work of intercession. So to a

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Jew, you wouldn't even have to just bring up the word high priest or priest and they would understand, okay, every high priest does two things.

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He offers sacrifices and he intercedes for the people. He stands between God and the people and he offers sacrifices on behalf of people and he prays on behalf of people to God.

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Those were two, primarily the two works of a high priest. And so it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ now sits at the

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Father's right hand where he makes intercession and prays on behalf of his people. And this is what theologians refer to as the current session of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. It's kind of like when you're seated and you're doing something on behalf of other people.

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Our Congress has a session, right? We refer to the Congress, session of Congress, except when they get together, it's a complete disaster.

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When the Lord Jesus Christ is involved in his session, which is intercession, it is glorious and it is magnificent.

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So he is involved in his current session as a work of intercession. And so verse two describes him as a minister and that word is a word that describes somebody or was used of somebody who serves or who was appointed to serve or a servant.

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It was used in a political sense of a public servant, one who offered something on behalf of the body politic or did something on behalf of citizens that were in some way associated with them.

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They would serve in some capacity, kind of as a public servant. The word sounds much like our English word liturgy because it did come to be used later on in sort of a religious sense and it's used here in a religious sense.

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The word was used to describe one who would offer a service or perform a ministry or even perform a liturgy for a religious group.

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That's the idea. It is one who offers service on behalf of others, sometimes in a political sense, but here it's used in a religious sense.

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It's used, this word is used in the Old Testament to describe Aaron in Exodus chapter 28, verse 35.

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It speaks of Aaron ministering inside the tabernacle of the Lord. And of course, Aaron was a high priest and it's used to describe his ministry inside the tabernacle.

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And this was a continual ministry and here in verse 2, it is a perpetual and continual and present ministry.

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He is a minister currently today in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the

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Lord pitched and not man. And you wonder, what is the true tabernacle and who's pitching it and why? And why the distinction?

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We're going to get into that later on because you'll see down in verse 5, the author refers to the physical earthly tabernacle as a copy and a shadow, something built after a pattern that was shown to Moses when he was on the mountaintop.

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We're going to talk about all of what that is involved next week. So just sort of set that aside. He describes the

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Lord Jesus doing his work of intercession in the true tabernacle and that's true not as opposed to false as if the tabernacle or temple on earth was a false one like a false religion or a false worship but true in the sense of true as opposed to a symbol.

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There is the real reality, the true tabernacle which is in heaven, that's the presence of God. Then on earth, there was a physical representation of that that the

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Lord showed to Moses and that Moses built for the Old Testament priesthood. So we'll talk a little bit about that next week when we get into verse 5.

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And the Lord Jesus has been appointed this priest or this ministry, verse 3, for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices and so it is necessary that this priest that is a reference to the

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Lord Jesus Christ also have something to offer. So what he currently does is serve as a minister who offers something as a priest presently in the presence of God which is the true tabernacle.

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Notice the distinction in verse 3 between gifts and sacrifices. We've already talked about the sacrifice.

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He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time and sat down at the Father's right hand.

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He no longer offers those sacrifices. But the distinction between gifts and sacrifices was something the

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Jews would have been familiar with. It's a distinction that is mentioned back in chapter 5, verses 1 to 3 and I don't ask you to turn there but you can just listen as I read it,

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Hebrews chapter 5. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God to offer both gifts and sacrifices.

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So there's a distinction here in the mind of the author between two different things that the Lord Jesus offers, gifts and sacrifices.

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Sacrifices was a reference to the blood sacrifices, the animal sacrifices, whether that was on the day of atonement like in Leviticus chapter 16 we talked about last week, the offering of that blood on the mercy seat and sprinkling it on the mercy seat or whether it was the

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Passover lamb or whether it was the weekly offerings or sacrifices that people might bring to the temple or a peace offering or a guilt offering or a cleansing offering or some other animal sacrifices.

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The word sacrifice refers to the bloody offerings that were offered inside the tabernacle and then later in the temple.

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Gifts is something different. A gift would have been considered a non -bloody sacrifice, something else offered to God because it wasn't just animals that were offered to God.

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There were also grain offerings and there were tithes and there were sometimes sacrifices in connection with vows like a

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Nazarite vow so that a Jew might come to the tabernacle or the temple and no Jew could think that he could approach

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God without, of course, a blood sacrifice but he might give to God not just a blood sacrifice but also another kind of sacrifice, a peace offering or a grain offering or something else that he might give to the

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Lord. You know who presented those offerings, those gifts? It was the priest. No Jew could just say, well, he did the bloody part of this and now

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I'm going to walk into the tabernacle, I'm going to step up next to the brazen altar, the showbread table and I'm going to offer up my thing to the

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Lord having the priest done the bloody work, I'll come in and do the grain offering. No Jew would ever do that. A Jew did not offer anything to God in connection with his devotion, his service, his consecration, his commitment or anything.

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A Jew did not offer anything to God except through the high priest. So the high priest offered the bloody sacrifices but he also offered all of the other expressions of worship on behalf of the people to God.

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So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. There are two different things that the Lord Jesus offers.

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He has offered the bloody sacrifice having offered himself as a payment for sins for all time. He sat down, that sacrifice is done and now he offers something else.

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He offers gifts. What are the gifts that you and I give to God, the Father, through the

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Lord Jesus Christ? We offer all kinds of non -bloody things, don't we?

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Our thanksgiving, our praise, our prayer, our worship, our fellowship, our consecration, our sacrifices, our service, our tithes, our commitment.

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Those things which we offer to God in prayer, we do this, listen, only in and through the

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Lord Jesus Christ. There's no person sitting here, there's no person on this planet who has the righteousness in and of themselves to approach

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God and to offer to God anything except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who makes all of our offerings and our gifts acceptable to the

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Father because we offer them in his merits. So as Paul says in Colossians 3 ,17, whatever we do, whether in word or in deed, whatever we do, we do it giving thanks to God the

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Father through Jesus Christ. We offer it through him. So the Lord Jesus Christ stands between us and the

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Father as our High Priest having offered the bloody sacrifice. He now takes all of the prayers and the worship and the fellowship, the service, the devotion, the consecration and everything that we offer to the

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Father. We offer it in the name of Christ in his merits because he has opened this way to us.

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So it all goes through him and now the Lord Jesus Christ takes all of that from his people and he presents it to the

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Father so that we approach the Father through him. That is what it means that he is our intercessor. Having offered the bloody sacrifice, he now offers to the

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Father all of the gifts of his people as our intercessor. There's a great analogy that I've heard on a podcast that I listen to that it is as if a two or three year old goes out into the field and picks up a bunch of daisies and tansy and knapweed and thistles and everything and puts together a bouquet for his mother and he brings that and he wants to give that to his mom and his dad says, well, hold on a second, before you give that to your mom, let me do something with it and he takes it and he pulls out all of the knapweed and the thistles and the tansy because none of that is good and throws in a couple of roses in with the bundle with the kid and presents that to the mother.

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That is what the Lord Jesus Christ's intercession is like for us. We come to him and we present what?

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We don't present anything that is pure or undefiled or in and of itself glorious and manifestly righteous.

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But what we do offer to the Lord, we offer to him and the Lord Jesus Christ stands between us and the Father and takes what we offer to him, makes it beautiful and turns around and offers it up to the

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Father. That's the offering of gifts. That's what a priest does. That is part of the work of intercession.

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So likewise, Jesus has something to offer. He has presented, he has presented that offering, that sacrifice of blood.

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Now listen, that doesn't mean that the Lord Jesus Christ took a vial of his own blood, entered into heaven and walked up to some heavenly mercy seat and poured out the blood on that mercy seat.

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But it does mean that the Lord Jesus Christ having offered that bloody sacrifice, he steps into heaven where he is the merit of that sacrifice, where his righteousness and his obedience and his sacrifice avail for us because he presents that to the

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Father and we are saved by the merits of that sacrifice. Not a physical blood that is poured out in heaven, but the one who poured out that blood on the earth and offered that sacrifice stands in our stead and the merits of his sacrifice avail for us.

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And then having taken his seat at the Father's right hand, now he offers to the Father all of the gifts and the sacrifices of his people.

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And he makes it beautiful. And on top of that, he is praying for us. We'll get into that intercessory ministry here in just a second.

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Look at verse 3. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. It's necessary that this high priest,

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Jesus, also have something to offer. Having offered the blood, he now offers the gifts. Now, verse 4, if he were on the earth, he would not be a priest at all.

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Stop there just for a second. All he's saying is there is the same thing he said back in chapter 7. If he were on the earth right now, he would not be a priest.

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Why? Because there was an earthly priesthood. It was Aaron's priestly line. And if Jesus were on the earth, he would not be qualified to serve as a priest because the earthly priesthood came from Aaron's line and Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, a tribe with reference to which

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Moses said nothing concerning priests, chapter 7 says. So Jesus, if he were to serve in an earthly priesthood, would not be qualified at all.

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And instead, the distinction here is our Lord doesn't serve an earthly priesthood, performing earthly acts in an earthly tabernacle.

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He sits in a heavenly place, performing a heavenly intercession in the heavenly tabernacle.

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And this is far greater, far better than what any earthly priest did on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ offers his intercession from the heavenly seat, offering heavenly ministry on our behalf, intercession on our behalf, inside the heavenly tabernacle.

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If he were on earth, he wouldn't be qualified to do that. He wasn't from the tribe of Levi. And notice the present tense language in verse 4.

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Since there are those who offer, present tense, the gifts according to the law. That's an indication that Hebrews was written while the ministry of the earthly temple in Jerusalem was still going on.

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The author speaks of the priest offering presently in his day, the gifts and sacrifices according to the law that was still going on.

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We'll see, we've seen references to this already where he describes the ministry of the temple in Jerusalem ongoing.

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And that's significant because it tells us the book of Hebrews was written sometime before 70 AD when all of that was brought to a halt, when

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Titus invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and put an end to all the temple sacrifices and all of the work of the priesthood.

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So Hebrews was written sometime before 70 AD because that ministry still, at the time of the author writes, was still going on.

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But Jesus wouldn't have been qualified to serve in that capacity if he were on earth. Something occurred to me this last week that had never occurred to me in this way before.

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And I'm not claiming divine inspiration for this, but it's just an observation that I want to share with you. Our Lord Jesus, when he was here on earth, he did a lot of things that pointed to the tabernacle, the temple and sacrifices and claimed to be the fulfillment of all of those things, right?

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It was John the Baptist who said this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, a reference to the Passover lamb, the sacrifice who would take away that sin.

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So John the Baptist did that. Jesus walked into the temple during the feast and as they're doing all the ceremonies with the water and the pouring out of the water, he says,

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I am the living water, come to me and you'll never thirst. And while they have the temple of lights and the temple all lit up with the lights, Jesus said,

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I am the light of the world. He comes to me, will not walk in darkness. He looked at all the sacrifices and the fulfillment of this.

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He said to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life and they testify of me. Walking with the disciples after his resurrection,

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Jesus took them through all the law and the prophets and showed to them all the things concerning himself. Everything in the Old Testament was written about him.

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That's what he claimed. He said, Moses wrote about me, everything Moses wrote about. What did Moses write about? Moses wrote about the

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Passover lamb and sacrifice and feast and the tabernacle and the testimony and all of those things, the law. Jesus said, all of that points to me, it all refers to me on the fulfillment of all of it.

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He made that claim. You know what Jesus never did? And I found this interesting to realize this. What Jesus never did was walk into the temple, walk into the tabernacle and walk behind the

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Holy of Holies to the Ark of the Covenant. He never did that. Even though as the God -man, he would have been fully qualified to do that.

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He could have walked into the temple and by the word of his mouth torn the veil from top to bottom and said, it's over.

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It's all fulfilled in me. There's no more of any of this nonsense going on here. Now you will look to me. He could have done that, but he didn't do that.

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Why did he never do that? I think it was, I forget which commentator said it. Somebody smarter than me said, it was because God never mixes the symbol and the substance.

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Jesus never went back there. He never had anything to do with that priesthood. He never took over the function of a priest, never performed any of that ministry so as not to confuse anyone.

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You know why? Because that ministry had nothing to do with him in terms of his participation in that priesthood. He was called as a priest of a higher order appointed on the basis of an oath and not the law.

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He is a heavenly high priest who performs a different ministry. He never was involved in any of that not just because he was not qualified by the law to do so, but because that is the symbol pointed to him and didn't participate in any of that priesthood even though he was a high priest, but he is a high priest of a different order.

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And that fact kind of demonstrates that, that he is a high priest of a different order. It all pointed to him. Now this answers one possible objection.

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The text I should say here, not my observation, but the text here answers one possible objection that would have come up in the days of the writer of Hebrews.

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And the objection would have been this, that having an earthly priest in an earthly tabernacle performing earthly ministry would be far better than a priest doing this somewhere else in heaven that you cannot see and that you cannot count on, you cannot test it.

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You say, how would that be better? There are people who think this way and here's how they think.

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They think to themselves like if you're a first century Jew, I can go to the temple and I can smell the animals and I can smell the blood and I can smell the burnt offering and I can smell the incense.

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And you put that, the animals, the blood, the burnt offering and the incense all together, that smell, it's the smell of my childhood.

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I grew up with that. And go to the temple and smell all of that and I can hear the bells ringing and I can hear the sheep bleeding and I can hear the oxen lowing.

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Is an oxen that low? Oxen lowing. Whatever the oxen do. You hear the oxen doing that and I can hear all of the hustle and the bustle and all of the animals and the clopping of the hooves and all of that.

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And those sounds, man, they bring me back to my childhood. They bring me back to a time when I knew that my relationship with God was solid and I could go there and I could bring my sacrificial lamb,

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I could feel the wool of the animal and then I could watch the priest take that and watch him perform his act on my behalf and I see the robes and I see the vestments and I see the candles and the lights and I smell the incense and I hear all of that.

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I need all of those things to tell me that somebody is doing something on my behalf to make me right with God.

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There are people today who think that way. They think I need to go to church and I need to hear the bells and I need to smell the incense and I need to feel the holy water and I need to see the priest up there doing something with this, that and the other thing, putting it all together, doing something on my behalf.

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And if I don't have all of that, if I don't have the smells and the bells and if I don't have the vestments and the vegetables and the icons and the idols and all of the other stuff associated with that, if I don't see the ceremony and the liturgy unfolding in front of me, how do

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I know that somebody has done something on my behalf to make me acceptable to God? People today think that way and that is part of the draw of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and hundreds of other types of religious systems.

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You've met these people, you've probably had conversations with people who told you that very thing. I need to see and smell and have all of that because it takes me back to my childhood when those things were going on on my behalf.

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And there's some security and safety in all of that. And what scripture says is what is going on in heaven that you cannot see, you cannot smell and you cannot hear that is better and more perfect and more effective than anything that could go on in any earthly sense that you can see, you can smell and you can hear because what he's doing is better.

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You say, well, I can't hear it. You're right, you can't hear the prayers that the Lord Jesus Christ offers on your behalf.

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But God calls you to accept it by faith and to trust that what he has done and what he is doing on your behalf is better.

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And you don't need anything else. You don't need the smells and the bells. You don't need the incense, the liturgy, the robes, the vestments, the ceremony, the pomp, the circumstance.

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You don't need any of that. What do we need? Jesus Christ. That's it.

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And what he has done is perfect and what he has done is complete and what he has done perfectly saves. And now he performs a ministry in heaven for you and you are to accept that by faith.

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And you don't need any of the other accoutrements that are attached to all of that. But just to know that what you cannot see is far better and far more effective than anything you can.

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So what is it that this intercession is? And I think answering this brings us some comfort, encouragement, a little bit of assurance. There are two key verses and we're going to talk now about what it is that he intercedes for and whom he intercedes for.

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There are two key verses. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25, which we have already looked at and this describes this intercession.

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Look up at chapter 7 verse 25. Now when we looked at that passage, the emphasis for us back then at the end of chapter 7 was on the perpetual nature of the priesthood of Jesus.

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Remember? He is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He holds his priesthood permanently.

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And that gives us assurance and security because then we can know that he always lives to make intercession for us.

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So the emphasis there was not necessarily on the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus so much as it was on the perpetual nature of his priesthood.

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There's a second verse that is key and it's in Romans chapter 8 verse 34. Who is the one who condemns?

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Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us.

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So those two verses, Hebrews 7 verse 25 and Romans 8 verse 34 describe the

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Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God making intercession for us. The word intercession, though it is not mentioned in Hebrews chapter 8 verses 2 through 4, the idea of it is and the work here is described.

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It's mentioned in chapter 7 verse 25. Remember the chapter divisions are artificial. So it is right here in the context this work of intercession but the work is described in verses 2, 3 and 4 in terms of him offering both gifts and sacrifices on behalf of his people.

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That's what an intercessor does. Now there are three key questions regarding the intercession of Christ that we want to answer.

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Some of this is going to make some of you a little bit uncomfortable but here we go. What is intercession?

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For whom does he intercede? And what is he asking on behalf of those for whom he is interceding?

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What is intercession? For whom is he interceding? And what is it that he is asking the

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Father for on behalf of those for whom he is interceding? So let's ask the first one.

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What is intercession? There are some who would say that Jesus's intercessory ministry amounts to nothing more than him standing in the

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Father's presence on our behalf. He's just seated there, there present in heaven, in the true tabernacle.

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He asks nothing. He pleads for nothing. He requests nothing from the Father. He is simply there as our intercessor and his presence there is the intercession.

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His presence there is as our representative is all that is meant by intercession. The word intercession doesn't mean that.

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The word intercession means to ask or to entreat or to plead or to request something from someone.

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So that's the language that is used and that idea of him just standing as our representative. If the author wanted to say, look, he just stands there as your representative and doesn't really ask anything.

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There was language he could have used to describe that, but he doesn't. Instead, he talks about Jesus being our intercessor or interceding for us, pleading and requesting, entreating and asking something on our behalf.

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That's the language that is used. The second question, for whom is he interceding? And to answer the first question, what is intercession?

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It means to ask, plead, to seek, to request, beseech somebody on behalf of something.

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That's what intercession means. Okay, second question, for whom is Jesus interceding? The short answer to this, for his people.

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That's the short answer. He intercedes for his people. To use the language of Jesus in the Gospel of John, I would put it this way.

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He intercedes for his sheep. Those are the ones whom he intercedes for. To describe it in the language of John chapter 17, we would say that he is interceding for those whom the

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Father has given to him. That's the language that Jesus uses in John chapter 17. Is Jesus interceding for the entire world?

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For everyone who has ever lived and everyone who lives now, even though they may not be his sheep and they may not be given to him by the

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Father? Does Jesus intercede for those? There is no passage and no indication anywhere in Scripture in anything written in the

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New Testament concerning the intercessory ministry of Jesus that indicates that he is in any way interceding that way on behalf of unbelievers.

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His intercessory ministry is for those who have been given to him by the Father, whom he calls his sheep, his own.

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Jesus said in John chapter 17, which we read at the beginning, I don't pray for the world. I pray for whom?

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Those whom you have given to me because you chose them out of the world. That's the language

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John, Jesus uses in John 15. So the world's going to hate you, but be of good cheer.

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I have overcome the world. I chose you out of the world. The world hates you because you do not belong to the world.

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You belong to me. How is it that we belong to him? Is it our faith that makes us his sheep? No, Jesus said in John chapter 10, 17 and John chapter 6.

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We are his sheep because we have been given to him by the Father. I pray for those whom you have given to me.

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They were yours, Jesus said, and you gave them to me and now they are mine and I pray for those who do not belong to the world.

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Is everybody his sheep? No, John 10, 26. He said to the Pharisees, you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

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Does the Lord Jesus Christ know who his sheep are? Do you think he's oblivious to this?

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Do you think that you were born and he says, I wonder if that's one of my sheep? You think he does that? You think he waits through your whole life to see what you're going to do with a gospel presentation, scratching his head, rubbing his chin, wondering, is this, is he one of my sheep?

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Does she belong to me? Plus it's going to be exciting to find out when they finally believe. What do you think the Lord Jesus knows who his own are?

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He knows, I know my sheep, Jesus said, and I lay down my life for them.

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To the Pharisees, you do not believe because you do not belong to me. The Pharisees, those unbelievers, had not been given to the

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Son by the Father. The Father gave a people to the Son. The Father knows who the sheep are because he gave those individual ones to the

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Son. The Son knows who the sheep are because they were a love gift from the Father. You think he's oblivious to who we are?

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He knows who his sheep are. He knows who his own are. For whom does he intercede? Not for those who belong to the world.

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Not for the Pharisees who do not believe. He intercedes for those who the Father has given to him. They are the objects of his ministry of intercession.

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He prays for his own. Hebrews chapter 7, I'm going to read it again. Remember the language.

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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 the world, for them.

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Who's the them? They who draw near to God through him. Who are the ones who draw near to God through him?

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Is anybody able to do this? John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Jesus said,

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Everybody that the Father has given to me will come to me. They are the ones who will draw near to him, those who have been given to him by the

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Father. Jesus explains all of this. John 6, John 10, John 17, three long chapters to this very subject of who belongs to him and who doesn't and the relationship between belonging and belief and which one comes first.

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He explains all of that all the way through John's Gospel. So for whom does he pray? For those who belong to him.

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How do we belong to him? We've been given to him by the Father. When did this happen? In the eternity past, before the foundation of the world.

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Jesus speaks of those people whom the Father gave to him before the world was. So those for whom he serves as a high priest have him as their intercessor, have him as their intercessor and he prays for them.

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The same thing is described in Romans chapter 8 when Paul says, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died and rose again and was raised and seated at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us.

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For whom does he intercede? For us. Romans chapter 8 says, who will bring a charge against God's elect?

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God is the one who justifies. Those whom God has chosen, who will charge them with wrongdoing or sin?

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Who can bring a charge against you and separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? If the one who intercedes for you sits at God's right hand, he's the one who died to pay the price for your sin and he rose again and he has been exalted to that place, who will bring a charge against you?

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Who can bring a charge against you? Is there anybody in heaven or on earth who is greater than the one seated at the

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Father's right hand? If the answer to that is no, then the answer to this question is nobody who can bring a charge against God's elect.

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Nobody. Nobody can. And this is why Paul says, who will keep us from being justified?

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Who is the one who condemns? Christ intercedes for us. Who's the us?

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Those who are justified, those whom he has justified, he sanctifies, and those whom he sanctifies, he glorified.

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All of that work of redemption described in Romans chapter 8 that describes God's elect being saved infallibly and perfectly, all of that summed up in this.

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Who's going to condemn you? If the one who is seated at the Father's right hand is the one who died for you and intercedes for you this day.

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For whom does he intercede? His people. They are the ones, the elect, those who cannot be condemned, those whom

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God has predestined, and justified, and sanctified, and then glorified. It's all spelled out in Romans chapter 8.

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They say, Jim, I suspect that what you're saying is that the intercessory ministry of the

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Lord Jesus Christ is limited. That be what I'm saying? If you're getting that feeling, then that is exactly what

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I am saying. Now, there is an intermural discussion, probably not so much amongst us, but amongst

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Christians in Christianity, as to the nature and extent of the atonement. For whom did

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Christ die? As their high priest. Is that limited or is it unlimited? In other words, did he die to pay the sin price for all people who have ever lived, wiping out all of the sin out of all of humanity in one fell swoop on the cross?

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Or, did Jesus specifically die to pay the price for and to atone for the specific sins of a specific people and that that atonement is limited in its scope to those whom the

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Father has given to him? That's the issue. Now, some of you may be uncomfortable with the discussion of limited and unlimited atonement.

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If you believe in unlimited atonement, don't panic. We're not going to kick you out of here. Okay, just relax. But I want you to hear me out for a second and consider this doctrine and this discussion from something of a different perspective, from the perspective of his intercessory ministry.

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For whom does he intercede? Is it for everybody? Is it for all of humanity? Do you think that there are people in hell right now who can say, who are suffering the wrath of God, who can say,

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I've been crucified with Christ, Jesus Christ is my high priest, who offered a sacrifice on my behalf one time, sat down at the

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Father's right hand, and then for all of my life, he pleaded and asked and entreated the

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Father on my behalf. Are there people in hell who can say that?

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And if they can say that, then that would mean that the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning that person were unanswered.

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Why are they unanswered? Well, is it because the Lord Jesus Christ does not know the mind of the

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Father? So he asked something in contrary to the Father's will? Or is it because the Lord Jesus Christ asked with wicked motives to spend it upon his own lusts?

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Or was it because the Lord Jesus Christ didn't know what he should act or he wasn't righteous enough that his prayers on our behalf would avail for that person?

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Why would then would that person perish if Jesus was giving intercession for them? If you're going to be faithful to Scripture and what the text says about the intercessory ministry of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, you have to say that it is limited. It's not for everyone. Okay?

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Now, here's my question. If the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as a high priest is limited only to those whom the

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Father has given to him, why would you say that the sacrifice that he offered on the cross is for everybody?

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Did Jesus die trying to save a bunch of people whom he knew infallibly he would never intercede for?

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Whom he knew infallibly he would never present their merits of his sacrifice for their sake? He would never ask the

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Father anything on their behalf? He would never bring to himself? If the ministry of the

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Lord Jesus Christ as a high priest is limited in its intercession, I would submit to you that his ministry of intercession is intimately and inseparably linked to his ministry of sacrifice and what he did on the cross in paying a price for our sin.

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He died not simply to make us savable. He died not just to offer a sacrifice whereby we can take advantage of it or not.

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In his death, I believe, and I believe Scripture teaches, that the Lord Jesus Christ infallibly, perfectly, and forever secured the salvation of every last person for whom his blood was shed.

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Those are the people for whom he died because he knew who his own would be, he knew who his own were, and he died to save them and knowing that having paid the penalty for their sins, he would intercede as their high priest.

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No unbeliever can say that he is their high priest. No unbeliever in hell can say that he is their high priest.

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He is not their high priest unless he has done the work of a high priest on their behalf. And if he is not doing the work of intercession on their behalf,

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I would submit to you, he did not offer the sacrifice for sins on their behalf. He did so on behalf of those who are his, his people.

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And if it's not for all, and I don't believe that it is, either his intercessory work or his sacrifice on the cross, if it is not for all, or sorry, if it is for all, then it is not effective for many.

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You'd have to say that, right? If Jesus Christ offered a sacrifice and then he is interceding for them and yet they still perish, then they still perish in spite of the fact that all of their sins have been paid for and that they had a high priest seated at the father's right hand pleading and begging and interceding on their behalf and they perished anyway.

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So what did Jesus do then for us that he did not do for the unbeliever who perishes in their sin in unbelief?

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What did he do for us that he did not do for them? If you believe that the sacrifice and the intercession are unlimited, that these things are for everybody as their high priest, then you would have to say that Jesus didn't do anything special for you that he hasn't done for all of humanity.

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And if he didn't do anything special for you that he hasn't done for all of humanity, then I ask you, why did you believe and they didn't?

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Why do they perish and you go to heaven? The answer to that question can only come down to this. Who makes you to differ from the unbeliever or the rank pagan who perishes?

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Me, in that scenario. The sacrifice is for everybody. The intercession is for everybody.

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And those things, though they may be necessary for salvation, they're not sufficient for salvation. They don't actually accomplish salvation because something else is necessary.

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And what else is necessary? That I believe it, accept it, do something with it.

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In which case, what causes me to differ from somebody else is me and not the grace of God.

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It's not his atonement and it's not his intercession to save me because those were done for everybody else.

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Remember? Supposedly, those were done for everybody. So those are not the things that saved me. What saved me? My what? Belief.

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I don't believe that. What saved me? The sacrifice of Christ and his intercessory work.

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And they are one in nature. They are one in intention. They are one in purpose. And they are one in accomplishment.

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He makes intercession for all those for whom he died. His intercession is not unlimited. It's not for everyone.

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He offers intercession specifically for those whom the Father has given to him. Now, what is this intercession?

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Have we laid all of that out? And here we are late on a Super Bowl Sunday. And that was not my intention at all, but here we are late having laid all of that out.

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For what then is he interceding? What is he interceding? What is he asking on our behalf? Well, we read through John chapter 17 and I'll give you the list of the things that just reading through it,

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I just wrote down a list of the things the Lord Jesus Christ asked the Father on behalf of those whom the Father had given to him. And here it is.

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He prayed that those who were given to him by the Father will have eternal life, that they would believe, that they would be kept from the world, that they would be guarded from perishing, that they would be kept from the evil one, that they would be sanctified and made holy, that they would be united, that they would be one with the

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Father and the Son, that they would eventually see his glory and share it, and that they would know the love of the

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Father and the Son. That's just a sampling from John chapter 17. So obviously that is not something that is prayed for unbelievers.

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Otherwise, the Lord Jesus Christ is praying things that the Father is not answering. So those are not prayed for unbelievers, that they would believe, that they would be one, that they would see his glory, etc.

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But for us, with John 17 as our guide, you and I who are in Christ can say that our Lord is praying that we will be saved and sanctified and protected and preserved and secured and glorified.

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That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is acting on our behalf. So as Louis Burkhoff, the famous theologian, once said this concerning the

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Lord's intercession, it is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us. Even when we are negligent in our prayer life, that he is presenting to the

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Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers.

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And he prays for our protection against the dangers of which we're not even conscious and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it.

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He is praying that our faith may not cease and that we may come out victoriously in the end.

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Close quote. Yes, that's what he's praying. That's consoling and comforting, isn't it?

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If Christ has prayed for you, can his prayer go unanswered? Can the Father say, yes,

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I know the heart behind that prayer. Jesus is good, but it's not good enough. I know what you're asking and I have to say no to that.

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Is that even possible? For the Father to deny something from the Son? This one who perfectly obeyed all of the

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Father's will, perfectly obeyed the law, perfectly fulfilled everything the

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Father gave him to do it, this infinitely righteous one who always obeyed the

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Father in every way at every turn and then offered his life in complete submission and obedience to the

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Father as a sacrifice for his people, accomplishing the work that he was sent to earth to do.

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And then he rose from the dead and he has ascended and now seated at the Father's right hand in a position of glory and power.

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This one to whom the judgment of the nations has been given, the judgment of all of humanity has been given, all judgment has been committed to the

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Son. He has the power to lay down his life, to take it up again, to raise people from the dead. He will raise all of humanity.

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He will sit on his throne. He is infinitely righteous, infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely wise. This one who sits at the

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Father's right hand, greater than all others, this one, can the Father, will the Father deny any of his requests?

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No. So let me tell you something. If he is praying that your faith will not fail, your faith will not fail, period, end of discussion.

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If he is praying that you will be kept and preserved from devils and the world and temptation, if he is praying that for you, that will come to pass.

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Every last thing he prays to the Father on your behalf is granted and fulfilled and will come to pass.

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This is the ground of your assurance if you are trusting in Jesus Christ. It's the ground of your assurance. This is your hope, your encouragement, and your consolation.

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Listen, if he is praying that you will see his glory and you will be with him where he is and you will share his

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Father's throne and you will come through and be brought safely home to his eternal kingdom.

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If he's praying for that, and he is, then there is nothing in heaven or on earth that will keep that from happening.

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Because every request that he makes to the Father must be fulfilled. He's perfect and he's perfectly righteous.

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And in that is our consolation, our encouragement, and our assurance. Let's pray together. Father, your word is so encouraging to us as we look at the majesty of your wisdom in salvation and what you have provided for us in a high priest who always makes intercession for us.

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We thank you that indeed while our faith is weak and our affections sometime cold, that our

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Lord Jesus Christ knows perfectly what to pray and how to present us before your throne and we know that one day we will stand with you in righteousness, blameless and faultless before your eternal throne, in your eternal kingdom, and give you glory just as you are due.

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We thank you that that is guaranteed to us, not because of the strength of our own faith, the ability, our own ability to persevere, but because of what

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Christ has done, that he has offered a sacrifice for our sins. He has paid the penalty and now he intercedes for us.

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We thank you that all of our assurance and our salvation rests entirely on him. Grant us the faith to believe this, to rest upon it and to trust it and to be consoled by it and encouraged by it.

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And I pray that any who are here who do not have that high priest may understand how desperately they need

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Christ and come to him and be saved and know that their sins are forgiven and they have a great intercessor in the heavens who prays for them.

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Be glorified through your word this morning, Lord, as you impress it upon our hearts and encourage us together in it.

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We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Please stand. It's fairer that we must domain and be held in such transgrace through this world of course today.