Why Jesus is a Savior to Trust

Well, good morning. Let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. And as you're turning there, let me just. Say how delighted I am to be back here with you, I've told many of you before how much your church means to me and to my family and increasingly to my church, and so just grateful for every opportunity to be here and please know that. You're in our prayers and you're in our church's prayers. You continue to seek the man who's going to be your lead pastor. And we are trusting that that will be sooner rather than later. And the Lord knows what he's going to do and how he's going to do it. And before too long, you're all going to be looking back and saying, praise God for 2010 and for the way that he's brought us to this place and the way that he's blessed us through it. If you turn to Hebrews chapter four, verses 14 through 16, let me invite you, if you are physically able to let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's word. Since then, we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Father, we are so very grateful for all that you have done on our behalf through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is because of that that we are gathered here together today to worship you through prayer and through singing, through the giving of tithes and offerings and now through hearing your word and acting upon your word. And Father, we pray that today your Holy Spirit would speak through your word softening our hearts, opening our minds, convicting us where we need to be convicted, encouraging us where we need to be encouraged, Lord, challenging us where we need to be challenged. And Father, we pray that as we study this passage today, that you would be working in us in such a way that we would love you more whenever we leave this place than when we first gathered together. So we commit this time to you. We pray that your will would be done and our lives individually and in our families and in this church, according to your purposes, for your glory. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Many of you are no doubt familiar with the Academy Award winning movie Forest Gump. based upon the award-winning novel of the same name. For those of you who may not know or may need to be reminded, Forrest Gump is the story of a developmentally challenged man who had the good fortune of being present during and sometimes contributing to some of the key events of American history during the 20th century. Because of his disability, Forrest was an unnaturally innocent character who selflessly served others and demonstrated a remarkable love and loyalty to his family and friends. He was not at all like most of us. But you may remember that the movie actually had two main characters. The other main character was Jenny, Forrest's childhood best friend and the only woman that he ever loved. If you've seen the movie or if you've read the book, you may remember that Jenny's story runs parallel to Forrest's story and sometimes their lives intersect at different points within the story, but their lives are very different. Unlike Forrest, Jenny becomes a hippie who in the 1960s and 70s is looking for hope and peace in all the wrong places. She is at various times in her life abused by her father. She is sexually exploited because of her good looks. She experiments with drugs. She enters into abusive relationships with men. And ultimately, she dies of an unnamed virus that in the book and the movie are clearly intended to be HIV and AIDS. Jenny is truly loved by no one in this world except Forrest Gump, and it's only at the end of her life that she finally reciprocates his love. But by then, of course, we know that it's too late. She's a tragic character. And though she finally comes around to the right position, we know that her days are numbered. Jenny's story is a tragic story, but the themes are common themes. Our world is filled with genies. And even though every person's story is unique, there are countless people who are looking for something very close to salvation in relationships, and in material possessions, in sex, in power, in success, and yes, even in religion. But these would-be saviors are all phonies. The truth is none of them provide real hope or lasting peace, though some of them do a pretty good job of convincing people that they can make everything right. Religion in particular does a pretty good job of convincing people that it can make everything right, doesn't it? But we know that true hope and true peace cannot be found in any of these things, even religion. True hope and peace is found in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in a world of untrustworthy Savior impostors, Jesus is the only Savior who we can really trust. And so I've titled this sermon this morning, Why Jesus is a Savior You Can Trust. And as we look at Hebrews 4, verses 14 through 16, we're going to see that the author of Hebrews explains Jesus's high priestly ministry on behalf of his people. In fact, it's the beginning of a lengthy multi-chapter explanation of Jesus's high priestly ministry. And as we look at this passage together, we're going to see Three reasons why Jesus is a savior that you can trust in a world of untrustworthy would-be saviors. So the first reason that we see when we look at this text together is found in verse 14. Only Jesus is our great high priest. Only Jesus is our great high priest. Read with me again, if you will. Verse 14. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. So in verse 14, Hebrews provides us with several details about Jesus's high priestly ministry. And all of them are teased out in greater detail as we go through the book of Hebrews. But of course, we're not going to have time to do that this morning. So we'll just allude to some of these different ideas and other passages. Notice first in verse 14 that Jesus is clearly identified as our great high priest. It says it very clearly there that we have a great high priest, Jesus. The author is building on an idea that he's introduced earlier in the book of Hebrews Hebrews 217. You don't have to turn there, but this is what the author says. Therefore, he that is Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation or atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. He also mentions this in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. So Jesus is identified as our high priest. And beginning with this passage, we're going to get about a six chapter in a row explanation of what it means that Jesus is our high priest. Notice second in verse 14 that it says, Jesus as high priest has passed through the heavens. It's a very interesting language. And this isn't the only place that the author uses this language. If we were to turn to Hebrews chapter 9 verses 23 and 24, we would see the argument that what this means is that Jesus' high priestly ministry took place in what the author calls the heavenly temple. A place that had been foreshadowed in the earthly temple, in the earthly sacrifices that had happened under the old covenant. It was pointing to the high priestly ministry that Jesus would have in the heavenly temple. Notice thirdly in verse 14 that Jesus is not only identified as our great high priest, he's clearly and unambiguously identified as the Son of God. This idea was also introduced in the first chapter of Hebrews. The author tells us in Hebrews one, two, that Jesus is the son of God. And in chapter one, verses five through eight, the author tells us that not only is he the son of God, but this means that he is heir to God's kingdom. He is, if we might use this analogy, the prince who receives the king's kingdom. That's who Jesus is. And it is because Jesus is the eternal son of God that he's able to offer the type of final heavenly sacrifice that abolishes the old covenant sacrifices and forever reconciles God to his covenant people. And that's the main theme of Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 9. Jesus is our great high priest precisely because he is the eternal son of God. And he alone can make this sacrifice that we could never make for ourselves. Notice that the author also exhorts us in verse 14 to hold fast to our confession. This also echoes Hebrews 3.1. I read it a moment ago. The author tells us that Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession. Now, this raises an interesting question, doesn't it? What is our confession or the confession that the author is talking about? Well, in the New Testament and in the early church, our confession, your confession was your verbal expression of your internal faith. It's what you said publicly that reflected who you had become through the grace of God on the inside. And your confession in this sense took place at your baptism. whenever you publicly acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and then you were immersed under the waters. This is still very much the way that we do things in Baptist churches, isn't it? Someone stands before the congregation, normally up in a baptistry, sometimes if they do it the right way down at the riverside. And they say, yes, I believe that Jesus is who he said he is. Different churches say different things, but they say some things about Jesus. They say Jesus is Lord. And what does the pastor say? I baptize you upon this profession of faith in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That's the type of confession that the author is talking about here. So in the context of Hebrews four, holding fast to our confession, means preserving in our belief that we've expressed that Jesus Christ is Lord and continuing to trust in his high priestly ministry on our behalf. That's holding fast to the confession. Perseverance is one of the key things in the book of Hebrews, and I bet in a church this size, some of you before have been reading along through Hebrews, and you get to some of those warning passages, especially in Hebrews chapter 6, and you get a little bit nervous, don't you? It makes us tremble just a little bit when it talks about these people falling away from the faith. We need to understand that in Hebrews, and for that matter in the rest of the New Testament, our perseverance isn't tied to our good works. Our perseverance isn't tied to our walking an aisle. Our perseverance isn't tied to praying a sinner's prayer or baptism or church membership. Our perseverance is rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. That's where our perseverance comes from. As our high priest, Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, and he offered himself as a final sacrifice for our sins. and he was raised victoriously on the third day from the dead, and he now intercedes at the Father's right hand for his people. We can say Jesus is Lord because if we are in Christ, His blood has covered our sins and he has purchased us back from the dead. That's what our perseverance is based on. Not on what we do, but what he has done, what he is continuing to do, and what he will do in the future on our behalf when he makes all things new. Jesus is the root of our perseverance in the faith. Not who we are, not what we do. And so my question for you this morning is, are you persevering in your confession of the Lordship of Christ? Are you persevering in the faith? Are you walking closely with Christ, resting in the sacrifice that he's made for your sins? Or have you taken your eyes off Jesus and are you looking at one of the pseudo saviors in our culture? I think even sincere Christians sometimes begin to slowly, maybe even unbeknownst to themselves, replace Jesus Christ with competing saviors. It's so very easy to do. It is, in fact, our human nature to replace the real Lord with phony lords. Perhaps this morning, right now, some of you are waffling in your faith. Some of you might even be in danger of denying the Christ that you claim to worship. I wouldn't be surprised. I think this happens. We all need to regularly take Paul's advice in 2 Corinthians 13 5 to examine ourselves to see whether or not we're in the faith and self-examination, to be clear, doesn't mean nailing down the exact day and time of your conversion, though. Some of you know exactly when it happened. But it doesn't mean having to know exactly the moment you were saved. It doesn't mean trusting in your baptism or your church membership or when you walk the aisle or something like that. Persevering self-examination means repenting anew and resting in the finished work of Christ. Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Charles Wesley says in that song, Come thou fount of every blessing. And we need to know that we are all prone to wonder. And when we sense that we're beginning to wonder, the solution is not to say, but I know I prayed the prayer and really meant it on that day, though that's very likely true of most of you in here. What we say is we have a mighty savior whose blood has covered my sin. And today I repent anew and I rest in his finished work on my behalf. That's the source of our perseverance. That's the source of our assurance. And that's what he means when he says that Jesus Christ is the high priest of our confession. Friends, Jesus is a savior you can trust. So hold fast to your confession that Jesus is Lord and allow him to lead you in every part of your life. The one who offered himself up in our place as a high priestly sacrifice will not abandon us. He will not cast us aside. He will not turn you away. Rest in these precious gospel truths. Only Jesus Christ is our great high priest. But we see a second thing in this passage and we see it in verse 15. Not only is Jesus our great high priest, we see number two, only Jesus sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. Let's read verse 15 again. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Aren't those three words wonderful? yet without sin. The author says that Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses because he has been tempted in every way that we have. But the difference between Jesus and you and me is that Jesus has never sinned. Now, the word weakness that he uses here isn't so much related to some defect in us, like we're weak and so we fall into these things, though that certainly is true. What he means here instead when he talks about weakness is the crippling effects of sin on our lives. We're frail. We are weak because of the power that sin has. hold of us, Adam's sin has made all of Adam's children frail. But Jesus identifies with this frailty. He identifies with this weakness because he becomes one of us. This is a theme that the author addresses in Hebrews 2.17. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a faithful and merciful high priest and make propitiation for the sins of the people. Jesus was made like us in every respect for the very purpose of becoming the high priest that we needed to pay the penalty for our sins and to turn God's just wrath away from us. We deserve God's wrath. Jesus has taken it on our behalf. Because Jesus identifies with us and our frail humanity, Hebrews tells us that Jesus knows what it means to be tempted. In fact, Jesus has been tempted in every way that we've been tempted. But unlike every one of us, Jesus has never once for even one nanosecond succumbed to that temptation. Jesus has never sinned. Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted. And unlike us, he knows what it's like to always overcome temptation. Jesus can sympathize with us precisely because he knows the power of temptation and he alone has defeated temptation and has conquered sin. And friends, he's done that on our behalf. He's defeated sin and conquered temptation for you and for me. This is also a theme the authors addressed before. In Hebrews 2.18, this is what he says, for because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus is a help to us when we face temptation because he has faced temptation and he has triumphed over temptation. He's had victory over temptation. And so this is the question for us this morning. Do you look to Jesus when you face temptation? Are you looking to Jesus or are you trying to pull some reserve from within yourself or looking to something else in our culture? Do you rest in Jesus when you face temptation? Do you rest in the one who has faced temptation just like you have, but who has defeated temptation? Who has dealt the death blow to temptation on the cross? However great your temptations may be, you are not without hope. Paul tells us in First Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will always provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Christians, do you believe this? I mean, do you take Paul at his word here? Do you believe that God will not tempt you beyond your ability? Do you believe that God provides an escape hatch in every situation that you may be faced with temptation? Do you believe that Jesus sympathizes with you and your temptation because he's been tempted just like you have? These are also precious gospel truths. We're in this room, this room is filled with people who are battling their sins. At least I hope it's filled with people who are battling their sins. We're all in a fight to the death against our besetting sins. And I'm convinced that owning these truths and taking them seriously is one key to overcoming temptation in our lives and mortifying, putting to death our besetting sins. Knowing that Jesus has been tempted like us and he's conquered sin. Knowing that God will not tempt us beyond our ability. Knowing that there's an escape hatch that is provided for every temptation we may face. Knowing that Jesus sympathizes with you and me and our temptation. Friends, these are arrows in our quiver in our battle against sin. These are tools of the trade as we go about this fight. I like the way that the study notes of the ESV study Bible talk about this verse 15. This is what it says. In their temptations, Christians can be comforted with the truth that nothing that entices them is foreign to their Lord. He too has felt the tug of sin, and yet he never gave in to such temptations. What a glorious truth. Jesus is a savior you can trust because unlike you, And unlike me and unlike all the wannabe fake saviors that are out there, Jesus alone sympathizes with our weaknesses. And Jesus alone has ultimately conquered those weaknesses on our behalf. But we see a third truth in this passage as well. Not only is Jesus alone our great high priest, and not only does Jesus alone sympathize with us and our weaknesses, but note number three that Jesus alone provides the path to mercy and grace in verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The author builds upon what he's already taught us about Jesus's sympathetic high priestly ministry, and he urges us on the basis of these things to draw near to God. Note first the way he tells us to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. I love that. With confidence, draw near. Under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be offered for the high priest so that the high priest would be ritually clean. And then that ritually clean high priest would be able to go into the temple before God and offer further sacrifices for the sins of the people. This is what happened on the Day of the Atonement. You can read about it in Leviticus chapter 16. But that's not the way it is under the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, Jesus is our only High Priest. And he has always been clean because he has never sinned. And at the cross, he offered what Hebrews 10.10 calls a once and for all sacrifice. for the sins of the people, thus fulfilling all the sacrifices that were used in the Old Testament. All of those old covenant sacrifices pointed to this one final sacrifice that our great high priest would make at a specific moment in time on behalf of his people. Because of this, Christians have been forever reconciled with God. We are holy because Christ's perfect sinlessness has been credited to us. And we can draw near to the throne of grace. We can draw near to God himself, not because of who we are, but because of who Christ is and because of what he's done and because of what that means for sinners, just like you and just like me, when we turn from our sins and cast ourselves upon the mercies of Christ. And unlike those old covenant priests, we don't have to cower before God as we approach the temple. We approach God with confidence, not in ourselves, but in the one who died for us. We come before him with confidence because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you scared of approaching God? Are you afraid that if you come to God just as you are, that he's going to turn a deaf ear? Or are you afraid that he's waiting around with the lightning bolts ready to strike you dead because of that thing you did that nobody knows about it but you and God, but he might get you for it? Or are you afraid that he's going to say to you, no, there's really not a place here for someone like you? Are you one of those people who lives in fear of these things? I think there are many people who live in fear of these things. I think it's even tempting as Christians sometimes to think that God doesn't want to hear what we have to say because of the things that we do, because of the things that we think, because we are so very prone to wonder. But this is not the way it's supposed to be. We should approach God with confidence, not in our own righteousness. but in the righteousness of the one who has rescued us from our sin and reconciled us to our Heavenly Father. We come before the throne of grace confidently because of what the Lord has done. Notice also in verse 16 that we draw near to the throne of grace where we receive mercy and grace in our time of need. My friend, Bernard Maurer, who is also a Bible scholar. It's always good when you have friends who are Bible scholars. I like what he says about this. The throne of grace is not occupied by a cruel dictator king, but rather by a merciful king. And because he's a merciful king, we can approach the throne and receive mercy before him. Friends, we do not find judgment whenever we come before God. Though we are most surely guilty, our sin has already been judged in Christ on the cross. We do not find wrath whenever we come before God. Instead, we find grace, undeserved blessings that Christ has earned by right, but that we receive by faith when we're united with him. We don't find judgment when we come to the cross. We find mercy. A loving pardon that we don't deserve, but that God lovingly bestows upon us because of the saving work of Jesus Christ. And this mercy and this grace provides help in our time of need. But that raises another interesting question, doesn't it? What is the time of need that the author is speaking of? The time of need is the moment of our temptation. Isn't this what he's talking about, how Jesus has been tempted in every way just as we are? Our help and time of need, the time of need is the moment of temptation. Those times when we're on the verge of giving up and surrendering to the sin. Each of you knows what it's like. Every one of us knows what it's like to grow weary in our battle against particular sins and sometimes just give up and give ourselves over to them for a period. You know what this is like. Every one of us knows the. feeling of guilt and almost helplessness against the power that some sins hold over our lives. We call these our besetting sins, the sins that we battle almost every moment of almost every day or at least every time we find ourselves in particular circumstances. We know what it's like to fight the battle and lose and feel worthless because of the loss. This is part of what it means to be human and part of what it means to not yet be wholly perfected. But Hebrews tells us that this cycle of up and down, this cycle of being defeated by our sin and growing weary and feeling guilty, it doesn't have to be this way. Because of Christ's high priestly ministry on our behalf, we receive grace and mercy at the moment of our temptation. It's there for the taking. All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is have our eyes open and be looking with spiritual eyes through the lens of the gospel to see that mercy and grace that's being offered to us in the moment when we're about to cave. When we are tempted, whatever the temptation may be, When we are tempted, we should think of the cross, for it is at the cross that our sins and God's grace intersected and came together in the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus is a savior you can trust because unlike the false saviors all around us, Jesus alone has reconciled us with God and he alone provides us the path to mercy and grace that we so desperately need just to get through every day, just to be able to lay our heads down at night and say, by God's grace, I walked in a manner that was worthy of the gospel. And the good news is when we don't walk in the manner that's worthy of the gospel, God's grace is still there and we rest in the finished work of Christ on our behalf. So as I move to closing. We've learned in Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, that Jesus is a savior we can trust. But I think I would be derelict in my duty as a preacher if I closed without explaining why we need a savior in the first place. It's great to know that Jesus is a savior we can trust. But why do we need a savior? Well, it goes back to the very beginning. God created the entire world by the power of his spoken word and declared that this world was good. He created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, in His own image and declared that now creation was very good. But the first humans sinned when they disobeyed God and they failed to trust his word, thus introducing judgment and ultimately death into the world, causing this world to fall from its original state of perfection. And since that time, all of Adam's children, including every person in this room, has deserved judgment and death because of our sins. But at just the right time, Paul calls it the fullness of time in Galatians 4. At just the right time, God sent His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to become a human man, to become a second Adam. And His divine mission was to fix everything that had been broken by the first Adam in the garden. Jesus Christ perfectly kept God's law, never sinning, not even one time. And He took the place of sinners on the cross. And He was raised on the third day, really dying and really coming back to life. And all of these things were done on behalf of sinners just like you and just like me. And then Jesus returned to heaven and now He sits at the Father's right hand And he intercedes on behalf of all of his followers, saying, Lord, this one belongs to me. Father, this one belongs to me. Father, this one belongs to me. And one day he will return to this world and he will complete his rescue mission that he started on the cross. If you are here today and if you are not a Christian, you are in need of a Savior. You're in need of a Savior because you're a child of Adam and you stand in continuity with his sin. You're in need of a Savior because of your own sins, because of the things that you do every moment of every day. You need someone who can rescue you from the punishment that your sin deserves. And friend, Jesus Christ is that Savior. He is the merciful Great High Priest. And if you turn from your sins and if you trust in His saving works as the basis of your salvation, what He has done for sinners, if you trust in His perfect life and His atoning death and His victorious resurrection, then God will forgive you of your sins. God will wipe your slate clean. He will adopt you into His family, and you will become who you were created to be, and you will be that person for all of eternity. This is the good news. This is the salvation that Jesus offers to every man, woman, and child. And I promise you that if today you turn from your sins and you cast yourself upon the mercies of Christ, He will receive you. You will receive new life. You will become who you were created to be. And I would love to talk to you after the service about what it means if you're unclear as to what it means to turn from your sins and to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior. My message to those of you who are here who are already Christians, is brothers and sisters, you need a Savior too. You didn't just need a Savior the day you came to faith in Christ, you need a Savior today. And so today, remind yourself of what Christ has done on your behalf. Today, turn from your sins anew. Rest in his finished work anew. Revel, delight in, celebrate what he has accomplished. on your behalf and remember that He's the only Savior that you can trust. Praise God that Jesus is the Savior that we can trust. Praise God that He's our merciful High Priest. Praise God that for those of us who are in Christ, we will become what we were created to be. We will be with our God for eternity and we will see this world become what it's intended to be in the new heavens and the new earth. all because of His high priestly ministry on our behalf. Will you pray with me this morning? Father, we thank you this morning for Jesus. And Lord, we are grateful for all that he has done on behalf of sinners. We thank you, Lord, that he never sinned. We thank you, Father, that he fulfilled the old covenant in his sacrificial death. Father, we thank you that he secured our salvation and his victory over the grave when he rose from the dead. Father, we thank you that he pleads on our behalf now before the throne of God above. And Father, we are grateful that one day he will return to this world. He will finish the work that has been begun. All things will be made new and he shall reign forever and ever. And Father, I pray that if there's anyone here this morning who doesn't understand this or who maybe understands this intellectually, but they've never experienced this personally, they've never turned from their sins and trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Father, I pray that right now your Holy Spirit is convicting them of their sin and that they would not leave the building today before they talk to me or someone else about what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ. And Lord, for the majority of people who are here, who are members of this church, who love you and are seeking your face, Father, I pray that you would today renew in them a vision of the gospel and especially of Jesus' high priestly ministry on their behalf. I pray, Lord, you would remind them that they're a church that has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, that they are saints who are being pleaded for even now. And I pray, Father, that in the confidence of the cross, that they would come to you as a church, and as families, and as individual Christians, and that they would lay themselves before you and allow you to work in their lives in every way that you want to. Father, we pray that as we move towards concluding this service, that if there is anyone here today who needs to talk to someone, they need to talk to me, they need to talk to someone else about what you're doing in their life, that they would take occasion to do this. And we will give you all the praise and the honor and the glory for your high priestly ministry through Jesus Christ and through what you have done and will do here today. And we pray all these things in his name. Amen.