This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day four together of our look through Hebrews chapter seven, and we're
going to look at one verse today, Hebrews 7 verse 25, one of the great verses in
the book of Hebrews. Listen to this verse, Hebrews 7, 25, "Therefore he," Jesus,
"therefore he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through
him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

" This is talking about how your salvation is secured. An in-depth study of
this, you'll see that your salvation is secured by the Trinity of God, by the
sovereign decision of the Father, by the sealing power of the Spirit, but here
we see also by the high priestly work of the Son of Jesus. Now remember, let me
just go back and let's review for just a minute.

In the Old Testament sacrificial system, the high priest was the highest
spiritual leader. He alone got to enter the Holy of Holies, put blood on the
mercy seat once a year on the day of atonement. Jesus is our high priest, and
when Jesus died on the cross, he was both the ultimate sacrifice and the
ultimate sacrificer, and he lives forever, we're told here, to do the work of a
high priest, to be our intercessor, our mediator.

He lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf. If you look at this one
verse, it tells us three things that Jesus does that give us a depth of security
in our salvation that's beyond belief except for the fact that we believe in
him. What does Jesus do?

Number one, Jesus lives to make intercession for me. This word intercession, it
means to plead on behalf of another, and that's what Jesus does for you. Even
now, even today, Jesus has prayed on your behalf.

You see an example of Jesus praying for us in John 17 verses 11 and then verse
15. He prays, "I will remain in the world no longer, but they, my followers, are
still in the world, and I'm coming to you, Holy Father. Protect them by the
power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them
from the evil one. " Jesus did not stop praying these kinds of prayers when he
left this earth. He continues to pray for us today, to pray for you today.

Jesus is praying for us, each one of us individually. He knows you by name. He
knows every one of your weaknesses and every one of your strengths.

He knows what you're facing. He knows your circumstances. He knows what gets you
down.

He knows the struggles you're facing this very day before you know him yourself,
and he prays for you. As an example of this, remember what Jesus said to Simon
Peter. In Luke 22, he said, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat,
but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and when you've
turned back, strengthen your brothers.

" Here's Jesus saying, "I've been praying for you, Peter. " Knowing what would
happen in his life, he prays for Peter even before he faces the trial, the trial
that Jesus knows is coming. Knowing your heart, knowing your circumstances,
Jesus does exactly the same for you.

That sudden crisis that hits you, Jesus has already prayed that God would
strengthen you through it. That temptation that overwhelms you suddenly, Jesus
is already interceding for you even before it happened, asking God to show you
the way out. That'll give you an incredible sense of security.

If there's anybody you want praying for you, it's Jesus. Every one of his
prayers is going to be answered. God's working in your life through his prayers.

That's part of the security of our salvation, is that he's constantly
interceding for us. He never stops praying for us. A second security of our
salvation is that Jesus lives to mediate for me.

He says here, "I pray on their behalf as their mediator. " First John two, one
and two says, "My dear children, I write to you so that you will not sin, but if
anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the father in our defense. " That's
a mediator.

The verse goes on to say, "Jesus Christ, the righteous one, he's the atoning
sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also the sins of the whole
world. " Jesus lives to mediate for you. You might remember in the Old Testament
the story of Job.

Satan went before God to accuse this righteous man, and by the way, Satan is
still the accuser of the faithful today. You can almost see this picture in
heaven of Satan, our accuser, before Jesus, who's always the defender. Satan
says, in one sense, "For your life, for my life.

" Do you see what he just did? Do you see what she just did? How can they call
themselves a Christian, Satan says, and do something like that?

Jesus stands up on my behalf and says, "He trusted me. She trusted me for
salvation on January 23rd, 1985. They're mine.

They have been, and they will be for all eternity. I saw it coming before it
happened, and they're going to be with me for all eternity. " God says, based on
that mediation, not guilty, case dismissed, they've agreed together in the
Trinity.

You see, our salvation is not based on our performance. It's based on what Jesus
has done for us, and he is the mediator. He's the intercessor.

But then there's one other thing that's talked about here. Jesus lives forever,
forever. Once and forever, he did this for us.

As long as Jesus is alive, he can keep interceding. As long as Jesus is alive,
he can keep mediating, and Jesus is alive forever. As long as Jesus is alive, he
will keep his promise, and he lives forever.

He's going to keep his promise to you, because you're his. If you happen to be a
parent, when your children are unfaithful to you, when they do things that you
have told them not to do, you just automatically disown them? Of course not.

Of course not. You might discipline them. Yes.

And we're going to see that in Hebrews chapter 12, God's discipline of us. But
even when your children disappoint you and hurt you, they're still your
children. Can you imagine God being any less committed to us than we are to our
children?

This security we're talking about of God's promise to us, it's hard to grasp.
One reason is we don't always keep our promises. Well, I've got some good news
for you.

God is not like you. He's not like me. He keeps his promises.

One of the reasons that we struggle with accepting the depth of God's love for
us is that there's so many definitions of love running around in our minds. Love
is a feeling. Love is a romance.

Love is a sentiment. Love is a disappointment. Well, let me give you one of
God's definitions of love, and it might surprise you.

Love to God is a contract. It is a commitment that he has made to us. Now, it's
not the kind of contract that both of us have to have to fulfill.

It is a contract that God has committed himself to fulfill. This comes from the
meaning of the Old Testament word, Hebrew word for love, which is hesed. God's
love is a contract, not a cold business agreement, a covenant contract, a
relational commitment that's not to be broken.

If even one of the parties in this kind of a contract were to show unworthiness,
a covenant contract would remain in force, and God's made that kind of contract
with us. Even when we're not faithful to God, and we do fail him at times, even
as believers, instead of trust, we follow our own way, we follow our own pride.
It might be some overt sin that everybody can notice, or it might be just some
secret thing no one else will ever see.

Not on everybody's list of sins, but you know you're trusting you. You're not
trusting Jesus. Even in that case, he will not break his covenant of commitment
to us.

Now, I've heard some people say, "Well, that doesn't seem fair. It sounds like
we can be as faithless as we want as Christians. We can sin all we want, and
God's going to still love us just as much.

" Well, let me just say quickly three things about that. First of all, God will
love you, because he's made a commitment to you. But if you're sinning as a
follower of Jesus, you're going to be miserable.

It's a prodigal son, a prodigal daughter existence, to live a faithless life.
There may be pleasure in sin for a moment. There is pleasure in sin for a
moment.

But then come the depths of guilt and frustration and loneliness. Christians who
are caught up in sin, they almost always build lives of constant busyness and
noise. They cannot stand the silence, because the moment it becomes quiet, they
realize how terribly empty their lives are.

The second truth that you need to realize is God will love you, but you're going
to lose eternal rewards. The way you live your life does matter, both here and
all the way into eternity. And to live a faithless life as a believer means
there are rewards that you could have brought to Jesus.

You could have honored him with for all of eternity that are lost. But then a
third thing I would say to you is this. Maybe you're going through this, or you
know someone is going through this in their life.

Never presume on the grace of God. If you think you're saved, if they think
they're saved, and you're able to live any way that you want, with no sense of
remorse, I'm deeply concerned about your salvation, their salvation. We all
struggle with taking God's grace for granted at times.

But there are some people who seem to act like it's a free ride to live any way
they want. "I've got my gospel ticket punched. I'm headed for heaven no matter
what I do, no matter how I live in this life.

" Well, I'd check the ticket again, just because you can understand what
salvation is and say the right words does not mean you're saved. You start a
relationship with him, but once you have truly started a relationship with him,
you're going to struggle in that relationship from time to time. And when you
struggle, you remember he lives forever to keep his promise to me.

So look back again at Hebrews 7 25. "Therefore he is able once and forever to
save those who come to God through him. " He lives forever to intercede with God
on their behalf.

Get in your mind those words, "He is able. " And one of the questions we have to
ask ourselves every day as followers of Jesus, we ask it as we become a follower
of Jesus, and then we have to ask this question every day as a follower of
Jesus. Am I trusting in what I'm able to do?

Am I trusting in what he is able to do? When I realize, when you realize how
able God is, then you have a security that enables you to hold on to a hope that
you have in him, that enables you to live a life that can come only from him.
And so, Father, as we pray today, we thank you that you are able.

Father, Son, and Spirit, you are able. You're able to keep your promise. You're
able to keep interceding.

You live forever. You are able. You are able.

And so we rest in your ability. We rest in your power. We rest in your strength.

And in what you are able to do, Lord, we pray that you would give into our lives
the ability and the strength and power to do what you've given us to do this day
with the people you bring into our lives, with the prayers that you want us to
pray, with the ministries that you want us to do, with the ways that you want us
to love, the people you want us to serve. But Lord, let it all begin with you
are able. Instead of living in that depth of despair or weariness that can come
from us trying to be more and more able, let us live in that place of hope,
place of joy, where we realize that you are able.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to end the week by
looking at how Jesus as our high priest meets the deepest needs of our lives.