Saved to the Uttermost

The following message is brought to you by the people of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. For more information, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. And now, here's Pastor Jason Booth with the message. Hebrews, chapter 7. Hebrews, chapter 7. We're going to begin reading in verse 11, and we're going to read through to at least the end of the chapter. Yeah, verse 28. Saved to the uttermost. Saved to the uttermost. The word of the Lord, found in Hebrews, chapter 7, beginning in verse 11 and carrying on through verse 28. Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath, for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, that this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. The word of the living God, and may his name be praised forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. I am thankful this morning. Thankful indeed for an all-sufficient Savior. I am thankful that Jesus Christ is the Lord Almighty. He brought salvation to his people by and through his work alone. And this is why the Scriptures so plainly teach us about being saved to the uttermost. Beloved, if any aspect of our salvation was left in our sin-prone hands, Christ would be powerless to utterly save anyone. But thankfully, our salvation in Christ is entire, full-ended, complete. Hallelujah forevermore. This is the gospel promise. Not that Christ made salvation possible to those of us who could somehow exercise some undefiled portion of our so-called free will, as though such a thing even exists. But the gospel promise is that he shall save his people from their sin. And I'm thankful to remind you yet again, this Lord's Day, that if you know Jesus Christ, and He is your only claim to righteousness before God, this has been revealed to you not by flesh and blood, but by the Holy Spirit of God, and you are saved to the uttermost. Because it is He who has called you through the Spirit to draw near to God. And the Scripture says, if you draw near to Me, I will draw nigh unto you. Why? Because it's His call that brought you near. We've been brought near, the Bible says, by the blood. The blood of a superior sacrifice. And the sacrifice administered by the superior High Priest. Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Now, in our passage today, we looked at certain arguments that may be made against Jesus as being a High Priest. For one, Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. He was not a Levite. And yet, the author of Hebrews is quick to point out that there was another priest of ancient times who was not a Levite, and yet, the great patriarch laid down 10% of everything he had at his feet. Melchizedek. The Bible says that he was the King of Salem. Salem there being the word for peace. He was the King of Peace. Now, don't you see the foreshadowing? Jesus Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, some of this might be lost on some of your ears. I understand that we're a little bit into the weeds, as it were. You don't hear the word Melchizedek every day of your life, and so I can appreciate that. But it's important to understand this. Jesus wasn't made a priest by the law. He was made a priest by a superior way. The Bible says by the oath of one. What oath? It was the oath of God. The Bible says this. The law appoints men in their weakness. But if we look here at... I want to find it here. In my notes. There it is. Verse 21. But the one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, The Lord hath sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. So, Jesus is the superior high priest. Put in office on a superior foundation. And what is the superior foundation? He is God the Son. Perfectly holy. Sinless. Above the law because He fulfilled all righteousness. And so the law, the Bible says, is weak. The Bible even declares the law to be useless for righteousness. Now, men would say to me, What are you talking about? How could you dare say something like that? Let me show you. Verse 18. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness. Verse 19. For the law made nothing perfect. And so if Christ isn't our Savior, If He isn't the superior sacrifice, The ultimate sacrifice, If He isn't the ultimate high priest, Then some part or portion of our salvation still rests in our ability to keep some bit, Some scrap, Some portion of the old law. And yet here the Scripture teaches us that the law made nothing perfect. Beloved, Howard Reed says, Preach grace. And to preach Christ and Him crucified. And then out of the other end of our mouths, Talk about law keeping for righteousness. Or law keeping for sanctification. Or law keeping for growing in holiness. What a blasphemous idea. That one can somehow grow in holiness. You are either set apart, Made holy, By the sacrifice that is accepted by God. Or you are as yet undone. Unrighteous. And if you think for a moment that the works of your hands, Somehow credit you or commend you to God, In some salvific way, And that your neighbor isn't as good as you are, Guess what? You are sinful and prideful and an idolater. And you have yet grasped by His Spirit, The great mercies of His grace in Christ. Oh that God would cause us all to realize that this is not, This is not a hard message. But it is a spiritual message that must be spiritually discerned. Oh it's an easy thing to say. Watch. Salvation is entirely by the grace of God in Christ. Alone. Easy to say. It's the implications that drive sinful man crazy. For we want to have our stake in this matter. We want to be able to say that we lift a hand, A finger, A pinky, An eyebrow. We want to say we've done something to commend ourselves in a special way to God. And you have not. But thankfully, Even though the law is useless for righteousness, And it is, The Bible says the law made nothing perfect. So all of the rituals contained in the Old Testament. All of the sacrifices made. All of the music in the temple. All of the pomp and circumstance. All of those things. Do you know how many people those bulls and goats saved? Not a one. Not a one. They were types and shadows of the great and perfect sacrifice that was to come. But I'm thankful that God is a God who reaches down into the pits of sin. And saves people in spite of themselves. Do you know, I think about Abraham. The Bible says Abraham believed God. And it was accounted unto him. Credited unto him. Imputed unto him. As righteousness. Now why would Abraham believe God? Because God showed up. God revealed Himself to Abraham. And Abraham had nothing more to do than to be willing in the day of God's power. You and I have had similar visitations in the preaching of the Gospel. But when we preach this message to one another, The message reverberates with our souls if we know the Lord. It comforts us to hear that old, old story. That Jesus is still King. That Jesus is still Savior. And that His blood still avails for His own. But if you don't know Jesus today in the full pardon of your sin, Your day of visitation from Him could very well be today. I don't know. But this much I do know. When He comes in on the scene and gives you a heart of flesh to believe this message, You're going to believe it. Remember I said earlier, it's an easy thing to hear. You've got ears. You can hear the preacher talk. But for it to settle down in your soul, you've got to have a container capable of holding it. And that's where the Lord does His work. And those whom He saves, He rips out that old stony heart and gives them a heart of flesh. And it's then that you run to Him because He has bid you come. The law made nothing perfect. But a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. I'm thankful today that the law is there. The law is our schoolmaster. We can see the moral clarity of our God in His holy law. We can see justice in the law of God. We learn from the law the unchangeable character of our God. We also learn from the law the necessity for the Christ's work of God. The law is not to be diminished for what it has been given and for the purpose it has been given to us. We thank God. The law is good. The law is holy. The Bible declares as much. And so while this grace preacher will always, always preach grace, I'm not trying to diminish the law of God. I'm simply trying to teach you about the One who came to fulfill the law. And I'm thankful that Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them that believe. And let me tell you something, fellow sinners. If Jesus isn't the end of the law, then we are as yet under the law and we have no hope of atoning for our own sins. How can an imperfect person offer themselves as a sacrifice for sin? Would the Lord even accept a spotted lamb? No. Don't you see? That's why the Scripture says very plainly, If you break the law, you shall die. What was the curse given to Adam back in the garden? You eat of this tree and dying you shall surely die. The only promise given in the law was keep these commandments and maybe God won't kill you. That was the promise. Do this and live. Don't do this and die. But there's something greater that came along. Thank God. There's a salvation finally. A way that we can draw near to God. All the bulls, all the goats, all the doves, all of the grain offerings, all of the drink offerings. None of these things can make a soul worthy of commendation to God. Who is worthy? Who is worthy to open the scrolls? Who is worthy to go our way? Is there any priest on earth worthy to go our way and in our stead? No. And as a matter of fact, the weakness of the priesthood is illustrated in our text. The earthly priesthood had to have multiple priests. Why? Because we're all sinners. Kissed with death's curse from the worm. And so all of the earthly priests would come and go, would they not? God says as much. And yet, our high priest Jesus Christ who came after the ordiner of Melchizedek, not from the Levites, not from the Levitical priesthood, but from Melchizedek. This idea of an ancient priesthood that goes back all the way to the very mind of God. From ancient of days. Don't you see Melchizedek is a type of Christ? And so, our Lord Christ is a priest, not according to the Levitical law, but by the power of an indestructible life. Jesus declared to His own mouth, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me. My friends, He is the high priest of high priests. The King of kings, the Lord of lords. And His claim to priesthood does not rest on the fact that He was born in a particular family. But His claim to priesthood is predicated on His indestructible life. Death could not hold Him. And He lives this very day. And because He lives, He makes intercession for us. And we know that where He is, one day we're going to be also. And that should excite the Christian soul. Be encouraged by this gospel truth. That our high priests sit forever at the right hand of God. That His sacrifice wasn't some poultry animal. Some first fruits of some grain or fruit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Bible is very clear. Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant. And He offered His own life as sacrifice. All those other priests die. And yet, the Bible says He, Jesus, holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever. I don't have an earthly priest. I do not have a man to which I have to go and pray or to talk to in order to have my prayers ushered into the presence of God. I don't have the partition set up between me and God like the saints of old did before Christ died on Calvary's hill. Some religious groups today would rather rebuild that partition between the average Christian and God. They don't want to put you through all these steps. You've got to go to a priest to make your confession. You've got to go to the priest and then pray your prayers to the saints so that they may intercede for you because God is way too mean and powerful for a simple Christian to approach. And yet, the Scripture tells me that through Jesus Christ, I can approach the throne of God with boldness. And how is that? Because, beloved, He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever. Verse 24 and verse 25, hear me now. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them. Who is my intercessor? Jesus Christ the righteous. And who can I go to in prayer? I can call on the very name of God the Son when I go in prayer. I can say, oh God, be merciful to me a sinner through Christ my Lord. And do you think that the halls of heaven aren't filled with that prayer? Obviously they are. Why? Because this old sinner prayed it? No! I am nothing. But my, my. Our spiritual works are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Why? Because Christ is our intercessor. Don't you see? If you've ever worked with amplification, you know that a man can speak into a microphone just like this at a relatively normal rate and tone and the diaphragm in the microphone will vibrate and that vibration is then coded electronically or electrically through the cabling and it's reproduced through loudspeakers that reproduce that vibration. And basically they let loose the dogs of war and amplify the sound many multitudes, right? How much more then when this sinner opens his mouth to God through Christ? It's not my words that echo in the halls of heaven. Who am I? What right do I have to approach the great mercy seat? You know who I have a right, why I have a right to approach the mercy seat? Because of Christ my high priest has been merciful to me and he carries all of my burdens. He says very plainly that he will never leave us or forsake us, that he will be there. And the Bible says he constantly lives, always lives to make intercession. Now, does this mean that he's constantly praying in heaven for us? I don't know the mechanics of it all. But I know this much, when he was finished with his great salvific work, the Bible says he sat down. His intercessory work is the continuation of his eternal satisfying sacrifice. So I don't think the Lord is constantly in a state of prayer for his people. I think the intercession here speaks to the eternality of the finished work of Christ. And so I want you to understand that when you speak to God, to Christ, you need no other man. You need no other woman. You need no one. You don't need a priest. You don't need anyone to sort of courier your words off to God for you. You don't need to talk to saints. You don't need to do that. Oh, you can appreciate the work of various Christians throughout the ages. There's nothing wrong with that. I think sometimes we go too far in diminishing the role of Mary, for instance. Mary, the Bible says, is highly favored among women. And she is blessed among women. And we can say that. Why? Because the Bible says that. But if I catch any of you praying to Mary, we're going to have a problem. Why? Because there isn't a shred of biblical evidence that we should ever take our prayer to anyone but to God through Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is our high priest. He is our great intercessor. So love Mary. Love the apostles. Love the prophets. Study them. Learn from their mistakes. Learn from their victories. But you ought not ever pray to another sinner. Mary, the Bible says, she said, I rejoice in God my Savior. Why would she need say anything like that if she wasn't a sinner? Let me tell you something. Anybody in flesh and blood suits these bodies. They see the presence of God in His fullness like that. They're visited like that. They're immediately going to say, woe is me. I'm undone. Because next to holiness, we are unholy. We are lost and undone. Isaiah, remember him? He looked up at God and said, man, I am no good. I'm filthy dirty. I'm from a people of unclean lips. I have unclean lips. I can't do this job. And it took the fire of the Holy Spirit of God to cleanse Isaiah so that he could go forth and do the work. Well, beloved, don't be praying to saints. Don't be praying to people. The Bible tells us we have a great high priest who is there forever after the order of Melchizedek who will live forever. And the Bible says he's able to save us to the uttermost. The uttermost. And that's what I want to focus on just for a second as we close. The word uttermost there. The word is a Greek word, panteles. Panteles. It means to be perfect, to be complete, to be throughout all time, forever. Are you hearing me? The Bible tells us he is able to save panteles. He is able to save us forever, completely, all the way. Our Lord didn't do a half-time job. He didn't do a partial cleaning of this old corrupt heart. No, he gave us a new heart. And if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away and all things become new. Our high priest has fixed the matter forever in the counsel of God. And he is satisfied in the perfect work of Jesus Christ. And he bids his people come. He bids his people come. Saved to the uttermost. I know that I am saved. And I need not worry about the trials of this life. Oh, they'll be taxing. They'll be wearisome. I won't feel the best every day. I won't have the best happiness level every day of my life. We all know life can be difficult. But I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. He is the Lord of glory. The great high priest. And he will lose none of his own because he constantly lives to make intercessions for them. His work is perfect. Oh, my, my, my. For it is indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest. Holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Hallelujah. Lord God, your Son is exalted above the heavens as are you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Hallelujah forevermore. He has no need, says verse 27, like those other high priests, to offer sacrifices daily. Oh, so people think the only reason you need to offer a new sacrifice is because there was a sin that was yet unaccounted for. A sin that was yet unatoned. That poor, poor, poor humanistic blood cult that meets for Mass every Sunday and then many times throughout the week will say that they're sacrificing Christ anew each and every time that priest goes into his rituals and ringing his bells and lifting up his goblets and lifting up the so-called host as they believe that these elements become the actual blood and flesh of Jesus Christ as though he were yanked down from heaven to be fed anew to these people and they think that their salvation rests in that cracker and sip of wine. Beloved, the Christ I serve died once for all of his people and there is no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily. To even call your church service the sacrifice of the Mass is a blasphemous heresy. What a terrible, thick, twisted thought. I do not offer you a freshly sacrificed Christ. I offer you a sacrifice that happened on Calvary's Hill that is still sufficient to save each and every person for whom Christ died. I'm not here to kill Jesus again. I'm here to tell you rather that he lives! Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Our great high priest is not dead. This is why you never see him hanging on some cross in this church. These crucifixes where they've got some sort of figure representing Jesus dead on a cross. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm not here to tell you that Jesus Christ is still dead. I'm here to tell you that through his death, burial and resurrection, we have life eternal and he is alive! We have no faith that Jesus stayed dead. There'd be no disciples going around losing their own lives for this gospel message. They didn't go preaching about Jesus because he died. But rather they were justified that his death was efficacious by the fact that he rose again. Beloved, we are justified. Our faith is justified by his resurrection. Because he rose, guess what? We're going to rise too. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will one day quicken our mortal bodies. And why is this? Because he has no need like those other high priests to offer sacrifices daily. He did it once for all his people. Once for all time. The Bible says he did this once for all when he offered up himself. This is another thing that makes him different than the other priests. The other priests were happy to slaughter animals all day long. But this high priest offered himself. The Holy One of Israel without spot or blemish died for his own. The law appoints men in their weakness. Oh, does it not? Oh, of course it does. The law points out our weakness. The law is our schoolmaster that drives us to the feet of grace. But the Word of the Oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. And this Son, Jesus Christ, saves his people to the uttermost. Are you saved to the uttermost? Well, if you're saved at all, you're saved to the uttermost. Am I giving you false assurance? No! I'm calling you not to place your false assurance in your works. Trust Christ alone and know that His righteousness avails. Do you know that He is your righteousness? I want to be found one day clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. And when I stand before God, my only boast, my only boast will be Jesus Christ. He died for me, God. He died for me. Hallelujah! He died for me. And I have been saved to the uttermost because my High Priest is superior. He lives forever and He makes intercession for me. And the Bible says He's exalted above the heavens. Hallelujah! Saved to the uttermost! Hallelujah forevermore! Lord, we pray that you would bless this time. Bless the Word spoken, Lord. Let it minister to your people in this room and around the world. We ask for these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You have just heard a message from Pastor Jason Booth of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. To learn more about the good news of Jesus, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. For more information, visit www.redeemer.org. 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