When we leave Beaumont this afternoon, in about
two hours, I think I'm going to feel
a little bit lonely.
You have treated, you have given me such
an honor, inviting me to come and speak
to you, to open the Word of God
to you.
You've treated me so kindly, put me up
so comfortably over there in that motel.
We have so much here in the USA,
don't we?
So much, so nice.
I feel like I've meant a little more
of Christ when I've meant more of His
body.
It's been 25 years since I've seen Lou
Ferrer.
I meant Brother Bean there at the camp
at Bentley.
And I just am thankful for the opportunity
to get to know you more, and your
family, and Pete, and your family.
The Lord bless you.
I can say I'll be praying for the
church here in Beaumont, the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Shall we turn to Hebrews 8.
Could we pray again?
We thank You.
We do thank You, Lord, for Your wonderful,
matchless, infinite grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sins.
We thank You for the length, the breadth,
the depth, the height.
We thank You for the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank You, Lord, that You graciously, when
You were rich, You became poor, that we,
through Your poverty, might be made rich.
We thank You for Your grace, teaching us
to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present
world.
We thank You, Lord, for Your grace, greater
than all our sins.
We thank You for breaking up the power
of sin.
We thank You, Lord, for dealing so bountifully
with our souls.
We thank You, Lord, for the fellowship in
Christ.
We thank You for the dear saints of
God.
And we pray, Lord, today that You might
be magnified, that You might be exalted, that
You might show us more of Your wonderful
salvation.
We pray, Lord, everywhere around the globe today,
Your kingdom come and Your will be done.
We pray, Lord, arise and scatter Your enemies.
We pray, Lord, that You'd come and rule
and reign over us.
And so, we bow before You and ask,
Lord, that You would bless as we look
into the Word of God.
Amen.
Hebrews 8, verse 1.
Now, this is the main point, the sum,
of the things we are saying.
We have such a high priest who is
seated at the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in the heavens.
He says that's the main point.
But we have a Savior who has been
exalted way to another realm.
I grew up on a farm in northeast
Iowa.
And sometimes we'd get the tractor or the
truck stuck real bad.
And Dad would say, boys, I don't believe
this is a job for the log chains.
You better go get the cable.
And to my memory, he had a cable
that was probably 100 feet long.
And we'd hook the cable onto the truck.
And the cable was long enough, you see,
to get us way up on high ground,
way up on dry ground.
And so, we'd hook all three tractors on.
And that truck would come out of there
even pushing dirt over the axle.
And this is what we have here in
Hebrews 8.1. We have a Savior, a
Redeemer, a Rescuer who is way up on
high ground, on different ground, and is able
to save us thereby.
And so, I'd like to speak on a
verse before this right in the same context.
Verse 25 of chapter 7.
7.25, Therefore He is also able to
save to the uttermost those who come to
God through Him, since He always or ever
lives to make intercession for them.
We just have these words in the song
we sang.
Save to the uttermost.
Every now and then, you, like me, probably
get an advertisement in the mail for credit
cards.
They advertise their features, their advantages, and that
we might take them up on it.
And the New Testament and the whole Bible,
especially the New Testament, is telling us what
a great Savior we have, what a great
Redeemer we have, that we might walk worthy
of this calling, that we might possess our
possessions, that we might put our full trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ, a superior person
and a superior work than any other religious
leader.
The book of Hebrews advertises a great salvation
administered by a great Savior and especially His
priesthood.
He is called the Great High Priest and
really is the only true priest there is.
He is typified in the Old Testament like
in Exodus 28 and prophesied in places like
Isaiah 53.
He interceded for the transgressors but magnified over
and over in the New Testament like Romans
8.
Who is he who condemns?
It is Christ that died.
Yea, rather He was risen again and was
at the right hand of God interceding for
us.
While much emphasis is placed on the propitiatory
work of Christ, relatively, it seems to me,
little emphasis is placed on the intercessory work
of Christ.
While much emphasis is placed on redemption accomplished,
not so much on redemption applied.
While it seems like more emphasis is placed
on the blood of Christ, not so much
emphasis is placed on the prayers of Christ.
And so we must not forget that our
Lord not only made sacrifice for us, but
He also as a priest burned incense for
us.
And we must not forget that our Lord
Jesus Christ, He not only finished the work,
but in a sense is still working, ever
living to make intercession for us.
And what an abundance of gospel there is
in this intercessory work of Christ.
As they say, a divine cordial to the
depressed and the despairing, a golden vein in
the mind of redemption, a support in the
battle of the ages.
Just as Israel conquered at Rephidim through Moses'
intercession, His hands lifted up so we conquer
through Christ's intercession for us.
I'd like to try to bring out five
things in this one verse.
Number one, the need of an intercessor.
Number two, the qualifications of our intercessor.
And number three, the subjects of His intercession.
And number four, the results of His intercession.
And number five, the objects of His intercession.
The intercessory work of Christ.
He ever lives to make intercession for us.
Well, number one, the need of an intercessor
as brought out by this one word, save.
He is able to save to the uttermost.
Save.
It does say save.
And that word tells us there's something, someone,
there's a need of salvation.
It was a foreign concept to me back
in the Methodist church.
I never had any idea that I needed
to be saved.
Like I mentioned, I saw painted on the
roof of this big building, Jesus saves.
And I remember thinking in my lost years,
saves from what?
What's the problem?
Salvation implies a need to be saved.
It doesn't say educate.
It does not say instruct.
It does not say refine.
It does not say improve.
After I was saved, I went back to
the Methodist pastor and I wanted to tell
him how I'd been saved.
And my mother, she says, well, I'm going
to go with you.
And so I told this pastor that had
been saved, that had been born again, and
he said, well, that's why we have Sunday
school to educate people into this.
But it's not talking about that, is it?
It's talking about salvation, about a new birth,
about something supernatural, an invasion of the living
God into the heart of a man.
And if you go to a salvage yard,
there you find wrecked cars, ruined cars, worthless
cars, cars that have been damaged and hurt
and rusted out.
And so, we're talking here about the souls
of men that need to be saved from
wrecked, worthless lives.
That's the way it is with the souls
of men.
And it takes us this one word, save,
it takes us back to the fall.
It takes us back to the fall when
the human race was cut off from God,
when God pulled the plug on the human
race and when we fell into sin.
Everybody that's ever been born since has been
a sinner at heart, not half good, but
all bad.
Not as bad as he could be maybe,
but nevertheless, bad at heart and in need
of salvation.
We came under the condemnation of God and
under the dominion of the devil.
Every one of us has gone astray like
sheep.
We've wandered off, wandered into the mud hole
worse and worse and worse.
It was so bad right back there in
the beginning that God said He was sorry
that He made man.
If you're in your sins this morning, God's
sorry that He made you.
You're a sorry creature until you're saved by
the grace of God.
Man has two problems.
Number one, he's got a bad heart.
Number two, he's got a bad record.
And that's why Christ came.
He came to shed His blood to take
care of our bad record.
He came to live in our heart to
take care of our bad heart.
And so, man is needing to be saved.
We need an intercessor because there's a hostility
between man and God.
God's mad at us.
We're mad at Him.
We need an intercessor.
We need a go-between.
We need an intercessor.
And everybody knows that.
You go to the Aborigines, the American Indians,
the Roman Catholics and the Muslims and the
Hindus and all of them.
They've got their holy men.
They've got their medicine men.
They've got their intercessors.
They've got somebody.
They realize they need somebody to go between
them and whoever they think the God that
is there.
Who is it that can go between?
Who is it that can intercede for fallen
man with Holy God?
That brings us to the second point, the
qualifications of our intercessor as brought out by
these two phrases.
This one phrase, he ever lives to make
intercession.
It says since he ever lives, always lives
to make intercession for us.
And the other word, he is able.
We're talking secondly about the qualifications of our
intercessor.
It says he ever lives in contrast to
those former priests.
It says in verse 23, there were many
priests because they were prevented by death from
continuing.
But he, because he continues forever or lives
forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
He ever lives in contrast to those former
priests.
Aaron was a high priest, but he died
on Mount Hor.
Eleazar was a faithful priest, but he died.
And Phineas was a good priest.
He made intercession and executed judgment for God,
but he died.
Eli trembled for the ark.
He fell over backwards and he died.
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, he
walked in all the commandments and requirements of
the Lord.
He was a good priest, but he died.
They all died.
Don't you feel that when a man of
God who really prays for you, when he
dies, do you not feel that you've suffered
some loss?
You miss his intercession, his prayers for you.
How much more the Lord Jesus?
How much more a high priest?
They died.
How would you like it if you had
a lawyer?
He was a real good lawyer, but he
kept having heart attacks.
You didn't know if he'd be around when
the court date came.
He really knew your case.
He knew how to represent you, but he
knew he wasn't going to ever live to
make intercession for you.
You know what a shakeup it is when
we have a new president coming in.
My father's estate, there was trouble that occurred
because the banker died.
It's even a little shakeup when your barber
dies.
But here it says, our Lord Jesus ever
lives.
A perpetual priesthood.
Verse 24, he continues forever, has an unchangeable,
perpetual priesthood.
I've heard about a mayor that was a
mayor for 30 years.
Seems like an awful long time.
I heard about one ruler that reigned for
91 years.
His name was Pharaoh Pepe.
He had a lot of pep, I guess.
But nevertheless, they died.
It was not perpetual.
But Christ exceeds them all.
He has an endless, indestructible life and therefore
an unchangeable priesthood.
We all look for things that will not
be destroyed, that will not destruct.
They've got CCA lumber and now they're bringing
in something, I guess, better than that.
I remember some years ago when James and
Jesse Norris came to visit us up at
Sedalia and James was talking about this additive
you could put in your motor and it
would run forever.
Well, you know it wouldn't be.
Well, he sure made you think that.
But Christ has an indestructible life.
The same yesterday, today and forever.
Able to save.
And now look at these words.
Able to save.
We're talking about yet the qualifications of our
intercessor.
Able to save.
Ross Perot boasted that he was the man
who was able to get the job done,
but he never got the job.
There is a certain disgustingness and even a
fear when dealing with incompetency.
Don't you feel that?
A disgustingness, even a fear when you're dealing
with incompetency.
One time Terry and I, we had a
carpenter come in to do some remodeling on
the house.
We got home that next night and here,
lo and behold, he put the stairway in
backwards.
And he got the shower hooked up crooked,
you know, hot and cold and it's that
way to this very day.
And then he took the floor out.
We were going to, you know, turn the
garage into a bedroom and he took the
floor out and he never told anybody that
he did it and never locked the door
and Terry opened the door and fell through.
Yeah?
We looked for somebody who was more able
the next time we got some remodeling to
do.
I know of a brother up there in
Arkansas.
He went in to the doctor to have
some lenses put in his eye and they
got the formula turned around and they got
the right and the left and left and
the right.
I say incompetency.
It's disgusting, even fearful.
One time we had a horse go down
there.
She was laying out in the pasture.
We called the vet in, the one who
was nearby, and the horse got no better
but rather the worse.
And so we decided we'd better go for
better help.
We called in a vet from more of
a distance.
He came in and he treated the horse
and he said she'll be alright if she
can overcome what the first vet did.
Incompetency.
Unable.
We appreciate and we look for competence and
in this we boastly guarding our God and
our Savior, our Intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lance Havner says, King Darius leaned over the
lion's den and asked, Is your God able
to deliver you?
And an uneasy world wonders whether the Christian's
God can save him in the hour of
trial.
And blessed is the man who, though sore
beset, can answer, He is able.
Have you ever noticed and done a Bible
study on all the ables in the New
Testament?
Don't you love it?
He is able to keep that which I
have committed better than any banker.
It says in Ephesians 3, He is able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think.
That will surely be true in the end.
It says in 2 Corinthians 9, He is
able to make all grace abound even in
spite of me.
He's able to do that.
It says in Hebrews 2.18, He's able
to come to the aid of those who
are attempted.
A doctor might not be able to get
through, but the Lord can.
He's able to come to the aid.
It says in Jude 24, He's able to
keep you from falling.
Not like Mephibosheth's nurse who dropped him.
The Lord is able to keep us from
falling.
It says in Philippians 3, He is able
to subdue all things unto Himself.
We went over to Vietnam.
We could not.
We were unable to subdue the Viet Cong,
but the Lord is able to subdue all
things unto Himself.
There is a great day coming.
And here it says He is able to
save to the uttermost.
In the Old Testament, that high priest, he
wore the names of the sons of Israel
on his heart to show that he cared.
And he wore their names on his shoulder
to show that he was able to intercede
for them, able to bear them up.
He's on higher ground and he's able to
save to the uttermost.
I read again the story of C.T.
Studd.
They tell him there they met over in
China an opium addict.
And that man heard him preach and he
came up afterward and he said, Your Christ
is not able to save me.
I'm an opium addict.
I'm a murderer.
I'm a adulterer.
I've done everything that could be done and
I've done it many times.
They shared with him more about the wonders
and the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ
and that man was saved.
And he was saved so powerfully, he was
born again so well that he went back
to the town where he'd done all this
dirty and he began to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And they couldn't take it and they beat
him with rods 2,000 times until he
was a bloody mess.
Well, the saints nursed him back to health
and he was determined he was going to
go back there again and preach again.
Now, they didn't beat him this time.
They were too embarrassed to do that and
so they threw him in prison.
And there that man preached Christ in prison
to so many people and saw so much
result.
They didn't know what to do with him.
They finally let him go.
That man was saved.
God, Christ was able, able to save to
the uttermost even such a one as him.
We've talked about the need of an intercessor.
We've talked about the qualifications of our intercessor.
Now thirdly, let's look at what are the
subjects of his intercessory work.
What does he pray for?
I've tried to gather out a few things
from the Bible that would indicate, that show
us how our Lord intercedes for us.
Number one, he prays for our conversion.
It says in Luke 23, Father, forgive them.
I don't know how many of those were
saved that he prayed for right there, but
it may be that after Pentecost, several we
know of the high priests were converted and
became obedient to the faith in answer to
our Lord's prayer, Father, forgive them.
And he says in John 17, neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also,
who shall believe on Me through their word.
The Lord Jesus prays for our preservation.
In Luke 22, Peter, now the devil's going
to shake you real good, but I prayed
for you that your faith fail not.
I like that.
He prays for our preservation.
Keep them through Thy Word.
Keep them.
About 12 years ago, there was a man
up there in Sedalia.
Sam.
Hargrave is his name.
There were three brothers.
And the first two, they had been converted
and they were coming to the church, the
church that I pastor.
But here was his third brother.
He was holding out tough.
He was a very proud fellow.
He was the chief deputy sheriff in the
county.
And we had been going into the jail
for some years, talking with anybody that would
talk, sharing the Gospel with them.
And to my knowledge, we never did see
any of those inmates converted.
But alas, we saw the chief deputy sheriff
converted.
And it wasn't through anything of my efforts
at all.
But that man, he came home from somewhere
one night, a meeting or whatever, and he
flipped on the TV and only the day
will declare who he heard preaching.
But somebody was preaching and had some truth.
Preaching on eternal condemnation and eternal life, he
heard the Gospel and God came on him
and just shut him right down there in
the living room.
He came under such awful conviction of sin
that his mind went blank for a while.
When he came back, he saw, when he
came back to, he saw that the Lord
Jesus Christ had indeed died for his sins.
He rose up the next morning and went
out telling everybody.
He looked up his two brothers, one at
the fire department, the other cutting trees, and
he told them he'd found the Lord.
He went to the sheriff's department.
He told them he'd found the Lord.
He started carrying his Bible.
He quit joining in to the filthy jokes.
And he quit going to the tavern after
work with fellow workers, you know.
And eventually, the sheriff came and said, either
you're going to have to take a psychological
exam or we will fire you.
They thought he'd lost his mind.
And he said, I'm not going to submit
to that.
Come what may.
Well, they didn't fire him, but they demoted
him to the lowest man in the totem
pole from chief deputy sheriff down to the
bottom.
Not only that, but he lost his wife.
He went to her and said, will you
forgive me for this and that and the
other treating you so cruelly?
Well, she told him, I like you better
the way you were before.
Isn't that it?
So he lost his wife, lost half of
his house, lost his boy.
She got him.
And he lost his physique.
He quit lifting weights.
He was Mr. Sedalia.
And suffered maybe more persecution over that than
about anything.
And began to fasting and lost about 30
pounds.
And not only that, but he lost his
inheritance.
When the third son was converted, the father
said, that's the last straw.
We're taking you all out of the family
will.
He lost this, lost that, lost everything, but
he gained Christ.
Now that would be quite a temptation to
throw in the towel.
Loosen this and that and everything.
But it says the Lord, I prayed for
you that your faith fail not.
You know that's why we stand, that's why
we go on in so many discouragements, so
many afflictions, adversities, but it's the Lord praying
that our faith fail not.
It's like you tie a ribbon on the
front of a fan.
And the ribbon stands right out straight because
of the wind.
And so we stand because of the greetings
of our Lord's intercession.
Thirdly, the Lord prays for our sanctification.
In John 17, I pray, Father, keep them,
sanctify them to the truth.
Thy word is truth.
He prays for our sanctification, not every mud
hole of sin, every chain of bondage, every
bed of depression, every lounge of laziness.
He prays also for our unification about three
or four times in that high priestly prayer,
John 17.
Father, that they may be one.
That they may be one.
You ought to be real careful.
Any division that you cause in the body
of Christ better be real careful.
You might be working right against our Lord's
intercession.
He prays for our provisions of the Holy
Spirit.
In John 14, I will pray the Father
and He will give you another Comforter that
He may abide with you forever.
The Holy Spirit was sent as a result
of the intercessory work of Christ.
It's like Terri.
She comes to me and says, Bob, would
it be alright if we got some shoes
for Evangeline?
She intercedes for provisions, you see, for the
children of the Lord, so He intercedes for
provisions for us.
The Lord intercedes for pardon for all of
our blunders and our sins.
Just as Moses interceded for the children of
Israel, our Lord intercedes for us.
Samuel interceded for the sons of Israel, so
our Lord intercedes for us.
Job interceded for his airing friends, so our
Lord intercedes for us.
In all our errors and all our blunders,
there is the Lord Jesus asking for us,
asking, asking, and asking.
The Lord does not come with gimmicks to
the father, the gimmicks of a salesman.
He does not come with a rhetoric of
an order.
He does not come with a law like
a lawyer, but He pleads the virtues of
His life and of His death.
He died to cover our failures.
He lives to earn our success.
He prays for our acceptance, the acceptance of
all of our labors, even our good things.
Back there in the Old Testament, it says
the priest, he made intercession for the iniquity
of the holy things.
Think of that.
Our prayers, you see, are holy things, but
even our prayers must go, are accepted to
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Even they must somehow be filtered through our
intercessor.
Like Al Martin says, whenever man is involved
in the work of God, there's a little
black smoke that goes up in the incense.
And so, our Lord makes intercession for us
in every way.
Now, number four, what are the results of
our Lord's intercession?
What are the results?
It says here, He is able to save
to the uttermost.
That's the results.
Save forever.
Save completely.
Save to the uttermost.
The Greek word there is panteles.
Pan, meaning all, teles means the end.
You know, like telescope, it means you can
see to the end.
See all the way to that thing.
And so, panteles means all ends.
Able to save to all ends.
And, you know, we use this word glorification,
whom He called, He justified, whom He justified,
He glorified.
I mean, we get used to that word
and forget what it's talking about, that we
are going to be glorified, glorified, beautified, perfected.
Able to save to the uttermost.
Yes, we have seen, haven't you?
We've seen lesbian queens saved.
We've seen beer-drinking heroes saved.
We've seen rotten religious folks saved.
Able to save to the uttermost.
To fix them up.
Real good.
He's praying us, taking us all the way
to heaven and that's no end.
That's all ends.
No bounds.
Cured from all the effects of the fall.
Able to save to the uttermost.
Last, let's consider the objects of our Savior's
intercession.
I mean, for whom does this apply?
Our text gives us the answer.
It says, all who come unto God through
Him.
All who draw near to God.
And we ought to ask ourselves this morning,
have I come to God through Christ?
Have I ever done that?
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden.
That word, come, it's kind of simple, but
it's pretty powerful.
When my dad used to say it to
me as a little kid, come here boy,
he expected me to change locations.
And that is what it is in the
spiritual realm too.
It means getting up and making a definite,
deliberate step.
Move.
Forsaking everything else, leaving where I'm at and
going to God through Christ.
It's so simple, but yet so powerful.
Have you come or are you still wondering?
Are you still waiting?
Are you still wondering?
Or have you come to Christ?
I've heard some say, I just can't believe.
What they mean is, I won't believe.
That's exactly what their problem is.
They won't believe.
You are unwilling to come to Me that
you might have life.
What a thing that we're so proud that
we judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life.
Come.
Turning ourselves in like a criminal, we come
to Christ.
Coming.
Ah, coming honestly.
Draw near to God.
It says, come to Him with a true
heart.
We must come honestly.
He will not despise a humble and honest
heart.
Coming sacrificially.
Just last Sunday, I guess I mentioned this
to you before about this 19-year-old
girl.
She stood last Sunday and confessed Christ.
I can't take it anymore.
I want to be a Christian.
I want to follow the Lord.
And when she confessed Christ, it was sacrificial.
I mean, she had just been engaged to
a man about two or three months before
who does not profess like she did not
profess at the time.
Now she is making a profession, realizing that
if he does not profess, she's putting her
marriage on the altar.
If he doesn't profess, it's the end of
that.
Coming sacrificially, leaving everything else behind, presenting our
lives, our bodies, a living sacrifice unto Him.
Coming continually.
If you're a Christian, you know it's not
a one-time thing.
Peter says, coming unto Him.
Coming.
Present tense.
Continuous.
Every day and every situation.
Coming unto Him.
A life of coming to Christ, to God
through Christ.
And coming to who?
It says come to God through Him.
Not to your parents, not to the church,
not to the altar, but coming to God,
the living God, through Him.
And it does say through Him.
Not another.
You've got to come through Him.
One time I talked to a Methodist pastor
up there in Sedalia.
He said, but there's many others that make
the same kind of claims of Christ, Buddha
and so on.
What foolishness!
What error!
What destructive error!
Coming to God through Him.
You've got to have the right lawyer.
One time Terry and I were inadvertently involved
in a class action lawsuit, and I thought
we'd better call the lawyer and figure out
what's going on here.
We called the lawyer.
Well, we thought he was the one.
They said, no, he's not the appointed lawyer.
You've got to talk to this other fellow.
He's not the appointed lawyer.
You can't talk to him.
It won't do any good to talk to
him.
You've got to talk to the appointed lawyer.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that has been ordained by God, the
Most High, to intercede for transgressors.
Come to God through Him.
Woe to those who have the wrong lawyer.
You know, the wrong intercessor.
It was through Esther's intercession that Haman was
destroyed.
You've got to have the right one.
If you put your trust in Christ that
He opened His side to bleed for you,
says the Puritan, surely you'll find that He'll
open His mouth to plead for you as
well.
And how does He plead?
He pleads personally.
He is so big, so great.
The Lord Jesus is so great that He
is able to make personal intercession for everybody,
all of His people, all around the globe,
personally by name.
The names of the sons of Israel are
on the heart of the high priest.
He is able to plead for us caringly.
The names are on the heart, not on
the bottom of His feet.
Able to plead sympathetically.
Sympathetically.
I mean, Brother Bean, you're a dentist, and
who would you want to intercede for you
in Washington, D.C.? Someone like George Pounds,
a mechanic, or someone like John Green, a
fellow dentist?
And so, our Lord, He is a man,
a 100% man, a 100% God,
but a 100% man, and able to
identify with us in every way.
He is able to plead effectually.
You know, the Lord said that it got
so bad for
Israel one time that God said although Moses
and Samuel were to intercede, I wouldn't hear
them.
It never said that about the Lord Jesus.
Father, You always hear Me.
What confidence we ought to find and what
boldness we ought to find in having such
a great High Priest, such an intercessor.
One time I talked to a fellow behind
bars and he was in a mess up
to here.
But he said, Ah, I'm not worried.
I've got a good lawyer.
Infamously more.
We can say the same thing.
A great Savior and a great salvation.
The Lord bless you, dear saints.
It's been a joy to be with you.