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Hebrews 4:14-16

Summary

Humanity, burdened by weakness, temptation, and the search for rest, often seeks solace in imperfect solutions or human approval, leading to spiritual deficiency and despair. True and eternal rest is found solely in Jesus Christ, our great high priest, who, being both divine and perfectly human, fully sympathizes with our struggles and perfectly represents us before God. Therefore, believers must tenaciously hold fast to the biblical confession of Him, drawing near with confidence to His throne of grace to receive mercy and find help in every time of need.

Transcript

0:00Well, once again, good morning. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 4. I'll be reading to you verses 4, 14 through 16, though I'll only really have time to look at verses 14 and 15 today. I'll be reading to you Hebrews 4, 14 to 16. Therefore, since we have a great 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

1:05The title of today's message is Rest in Jesus. It follows that section of Scripture that calls us to be diligent to rest, to enter God's rest. We come to the passage this morning that really gives us insight into how we do that. I'm going to get in trouble for what I'm about to say, I'm sure. But I'm going to say it anyway. Suicide. Suicide is a very selfish and unloving thing to do. Given it some thought, paid attention to it. But suicide is a very unselfish thing, I mean, very selfish and unloving thing to do. You know why? Because it does not take into account those who have to clean up the mess and process life in the aftermath.

2:15I'll never forget, many years ago, a young lady came into my office, wanted to have a conversation with Nancy and with me. She was a young lady who looked like she had everything together. Never for a moment would I matter. She was grieving to the degree that she was. She came in and she was trying to process her dad's suicide. He was a loving dad. He was her hero. He professed Christ. He was a churchgoer. He was even a deacon in his church. His Christian spiritual credentials were at the top.

3:16Or were they? Was all of it a show? Why would he commit suicide was what she was wrestling with in my office that day and has been ever since. Why? He started to withdraw, started becoming more and more depressed. Finally, he took his life. Why, Pastor, why would my dad prefer death and the grave to life with me? Help me get my mind around that. Pastor, why would a Christian do these things? Is he a Christian? Was he a Christian? I know he was a Christian. Pastor, where is he?

4:18Pastor, why? And this is what she was really dealing with. Why was the gospel not enough? It was a messy. Situation. How do you counsel a person like this? Where is the hope? Where is the rest? What kind of hope do we have? What kind of hope can we offer? Well, the answer is in our text this morning. Last week, we looked at the message: be diligent to rest. We focused on verses 11 through 13. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. Be diligent to enter that rest.

5:17The preacher of Hebrews is exhorting people, encouraging people to enter into God's rest, that Sabbath rest. And he does so by way of warning. There are many who do not enter. Certainly drawing on that whole picture of that whole Exodus generation that came out of Egypt and then died in the wilderness. Only two of the men of that generation entered the land. So many profess Christianity, profess to know God, but they really don't know him. Make sure that isn't you. That's what the writer of Hebrews is exhorting.

6:10Most people are going to fail to enter it, and no one's going to bamboozle God. He sees. That's what verses 12 and 13: no creature is hidden from his sight. He is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. He goes down deep. God knows who rests in him and who does not. You may do a good job convincing others that you're fine. But there's coming a time when it all will be revealed and all will be unraveled.

6:46And only those who are resting in Christ are going to enter into that eternal rest with him. All will be exposed. So be diligent to enter that rest. That's the encouragement. Well, the preacher continues this encouragement to enter God's rest by focusing on the object of God's rest. The object of God's rest. Let me read that again, verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, let us, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast. Our confession. The object is Jesus. And that object is Jesus in his high priestly ministry.

7:46We've come to the great ocean of Hebrews. This week's message is entitled Rest in Jesus, which launches us into what John Owen referred to as an ocean of spiritual truth and heavenly mysteries. It will take us from here all the way to the end, or basically to the end of chapter 10. And I will refer to this, I like that language, I will refer to it as the great ocean of Hebrews. And it provides for us the theological heart and soul of Sabbath rest. The very Sabbath rest that we are to enter, that is available. We need rest. God knows we need rest. We need spiritual rest. And God has provided that and exhorts us to enter into it.

8:57As we have already discovered, Look at this unique description: Sabbath rest. It's not just a 24-hour period on the clock or on the calendar. Though it does not discount for a moment that such times of spiritual rest are necessary and profitable. But it is speaking about a spiritual rest that is connected to the perfections of a person and the perfections of his completed work. There is no rest in something that's not completed. There's always something to be done. And only God in his perfect person can complete such a perfect work that our souls can actually enter in and delight in those works as God Himself does and enter into a true spiritual rest. And that's the rest that is available in the gospel.

10:03It is a rest that encompasses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's that kind of rest. It's a rest for all occasions, good and bad. It's a rest that causes a person to rejoice in the good times, but also be at peace and feel secure even in the midst of great trial. You see, the author isn't telling the Hebrews. We're facing persecution, confiscation of property. There's a strong temptation to go back to Judaism or to abandon the faith, much like that Exodus generation was thinking, going forward with God is too hard. We're going back to Egypt.

10:52And he isn't teaching them, you know what's really wrong with you guys? You just need to get a villa over there in a nice place. You need to slip away once a day or once a week and just regroup, and then you'll be able to withstand. No, he's not talking about that kind of rest, even though that is profitable and necessary. He's talking about a spiritual rest that allows a person to be at peace, even in the midst of great persecution, great trials, and even the seizure of their own properties. Maintaining a confession of Jesus Christ, a rest that can withstand even the most violent of times.

11:43That's the kind of spiritual rest that is part of this spiritual Sabbath rest. And so, how? Where does a soul learn to rest like this? Well, the answer is given in detail in chapters 5 through 10. To what can I liken this section of Hebrews? It's like a theological atom bomb that devastates and leaves desolate the Judaism of the crucifixion generation. To go back to Judaism, after what is said in chapters 5 through 10, a person would have to knowingly exchange the holy and perfect for the sinful and the weak. They would have to exchange that perfect sacrifice that put away sin once and for all for that sacrifice that is just nothing more than a daily reminder that we are sinners.

12:45They would have to set aside that perfect high priest who once and for all has entered into the holy place and now perfectly represents his people and perfectly knows how to bring them to God for this high priestly ministry that can only enter into the holy place once a year and for only a little brief time, a very limited access. When you realize what the writer is doing in this section, the writer's aim is to render the temple and its ministries obsolete.

13:22It is to empty the Judaism. Because something much better has come. So it's like a theological Adam bomb. He is not, this writer is not ecumenically. He's not an ecumenical. This is not an ecumenical theological argument that, quite the contrary, he desolates all other religions in favor of the one true high priest, the one true Son of God, perfect sacrifice, perfect priest, all others inadequate. It's a fascinating section of Scripture. There isn't any like it, really, in the New Testament.

14:23To what else can I liken this section that we're about to get into in Hebrews? Well, it's like a theological college. Not only is it like a theological Adam bomb, it's also like a theological college that schools the gospel freshmen in the deep mysteries of God's redeeming work and his preserving ministry in his people. You want to know where rest is? It's in the preserving ministry of our high priest. That's where the soul finds rest. The graduates of this theological Theological College are those who've learned how to tenaciously hold on to the biblical testimony of Jesus Christ. They are the ones who are always drawing near to the throne of grace in all seasons of life and all times to the graduates of this theological college are.

15:25I will stay with and prefer the ocean imagery that Owen mentioned in passing, and I will expand upon it. Imagine for a moment an ocean voyage that's going to cross the Atlantic. Ocean voyage on a great shipliner. What have we been doing so far? It's like we've been sailing along the eastern Atlantic coast. We've been stopping at various ports along the way. Now we have come to this last port, these last few verses of chapter four.

16:09And we're about to launch into the great deep and cross this great ocean. And this will be the longest part of our journey. We'll be crossing this great ocean in Hebrews. And our next major port will be in chapter 10. I read it just a little bit earlier. Let me go back there, chapter 10 for just a moment. I want to point out a few connections just so that you can circle a couple of words. Chapter 14. I mean, chapter 4, verse 14 says this. Let us hold fast to our confession.

16:56Look at verse 10, 23. Let us hold fast the confession. You see that? Circle it. In verse 4, 16, the writer says this, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. Look at what he says in chapter 10 and verse 22. Let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance. There's a connection. He comes back to these very same thoughts as if to double. I'm going to start, you can go back to chapter 4. He's going to start and say, therefore, since we have a great high priest, let us hold fast to his confession. He's going to come back to that thought at the end of chapter 10. He's going to say, let us draw near to the throne of grace. He is again going to come back to that thought in chapter 10. In between is this great theological ocean in Hebrews and the whole purpose for which. Which he writes the book of Hebrews. Crossing this theological ocean takes us from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I hope you'll join us. It takes us from the old covenant to the new covenant, from the shadow to the reality, from Moses to Jesus, from Aaron to Melchizedek, from fear to faith, from uncertainty to confidence, from being on the outside to being on the inside, from Judaism to Christianity, from earth to heaven, from anxiety to peace, from insecurity to security, from shrinking back to pressing forward, from restlessness to rest, and all because of one thing: because it takes us from the imperfect to the perfect. There's only rest in the perfect.

18:56It has to be something of God, something that God has done. As God rested on the seventh day because his works were completed, we too can enter into such rest because of his Son, who he is, and the work that he has accomplished already, and the work he has promised to accomplish right now in his high priestly ministry. And so we come to the main reason why the book of Hebrews was written and the very basis for Sabbath rest.

19:32Hebrews makes a very unique contribution in the New Testament. It gives us a very detailed look at what Jesus is doing now. We have the Gospels, we have Acts, we see the Ascension, we see Revelation, we see the return. What's he doing in the meantime? Hebrews, this section, this great ocean that we're about to cross in Hebrews gives us a detailed look at what Jesus is doing right now and why that is the basis of soul rest for his people and why his people can stand firm in the face of great, great difficulties, experience great trials, experience the great siftings of Satan and how they can stand there firm at peace and say, Glory be to God.

20:29That's where we're going, and I hope you'll join us. You remember what John, what Jesus told his disciples in John 16, 7? He said, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. Wow, you're kind of like, how could that possibly be? The answers we have in Hebrews chapter 5 through chapter 10. It's because of what he's doing. Now, look at the first word of verse 14. Therefore, therefore, therefore, since we have a great high priest, therefore, therefore looks backward to what has just said, but it's also looking forward, doesn't want to lose sight of all that's been said about Sabbath rest.

21:31And I want to be careful to make sure you see this and understand this. Because what happens with a lot of studies, it jumps right into this great high priestly ministry and it loses sight what and why and the significant impact that this high priestly ministry has for us today, and that is rest. Therefore, in light of the preceding exhortations to enter God's rest, it looks backward. But as any kind of transmission verse, it looks forward specifically to the basis of that rest, which is found only in Jesus' high priestly ministry, which is going to be the subject of the next six chapters.

22:25The question after last week's sermon: be diligent to enter that. Rest is how? How? Yeah, I get it. It's available. I want to be diligent to rest. How do I do that? Well, these verses give us in a thumbnail sketch how we spiritually rest in Jesus. That's what I want to look at, begin looking at today and conclude next time. First of all, you need to rest in Jesus by maintaining the biblical confession of him, by maintaining the biblical confession of him. This is what verses 14 and 15 are about. Let me reread them. Therefore, since we have a great 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. So the main exhortation of these verses happens at the end of verse 14. Let us hold fast to our confession. Let us be holding fast. Let us be grasping firmly. Let us be holding tightly, as if we've taken someone into something into custody and we won't let go of it. Something that we hold on so tight that it cannot be taken away from us. Let us be holding on tightly. Tightly. What do we be holding on tightly to? Our confession. The Greek is a little more specific. The confession. It doesn't say our confession. It says, let us hold fast to the confession. Yes, it's the apostles' confession. It's our confession.

24:21But it is the apostolic confession. The biblical testimony of Jesus as revealed in the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures. It's the Christ of Scripture revealed in Scripture. Listen, there's only one Christ of Scripture. There's a lot of impostors in the world today. There's only one Christ of Scripture. As you read the Scriptures, there's only one individual that rises out of the Scriptures, and his name is Jesus. He is the Christ of Scripture. And there are many schools of thought that have tried to redefine him and come up. No, those are imposter Jesus. There's one Jesus. He is the Christ revealed in Scripture. Hold fast to the confession, the biblical confession of him. What does it mean to confess? Well, a confession is a public position. Maintain that public position, that declaration, that public profession.

25:27You see, when we get to chapter 10, he's going to tell us. us practically how you do that. How do we maintain a biblical confession of him? And he's going to boil it down really to one thought. There's many that come out of it, but in chapter 10 and verse 25 he says do not forsake the assembling together. How do we maintain a public confession of Jesus? We assemble, we proclaim him. This is a public declaration of who Jesus is, and this is why church attendance is so important.

26:07We gather. This is how we maintain the biblical confession of Jesus. Communities like this, gathering together, maintaining the confession of the original apostles. And he's saying, do not trade, do not give away, do not forfeit, do not let go of the biblical confession of Christ. That's the main exhortation. And then in verse 14 and 15, he goes on to give two truths or two elements that will encourage us or that is at the heart of what maintaining a biblical confession. Confession looks like. Two theological truths. He's going to get in chapter 10 to some of the practical outworkings of it. Here, he's pure theology. Two theological elements that are necessary for maintaining a biblical confession. We're going to look at these two elements.

27:23Maybe not. I don't know what happened. Do you want to try to? Oh, we'll let them. It's okay. Let's just go old school. The first confession. Let me see. There you go. There you go. There you go. Jesus is our high priest. First theological truth. Jesus is our high priest. Look back at verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. We have, what are you saying? We are the ones having. Interesting. We have. Not just there is a high priest out there, but we are in the ownership, the possessing, the ones having in our corner as our advocate. We're the ones with the high priest.

28:30A great high priest. Really, the high priest, the great one. And throughout the book of Hebrews, this expression, great high priest, it's not attributed to any other priest in the book of Hebrews except for Jesus Christ. It is not attributed to the high priests in the temple, the Judaistic temple of the day. It is not used to describe Aaron and his office. He was not the great high priest. It doesn't even describe Melchizedek as the great high priest. This expression is for Christ, Jesus alone.

29:18That's no surprise because the writer has already exposed us and given us insight to Jesus' high priest ministry, high priestly ministry. Look back at chapter 3 and verse 1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. At the heart of the biblical confession of Jesus is that he is our high priest. He is the sent one from heaven, the apostle of heaven. He is the high priest. Priest of our confession. He is the one who came from heaven. He is the one who is now representing us in heaven.

30:09And notice now what he verse 14: since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, notice where he has passed through. He is not one, like in Judaistic fashion, who has passed through the outer courts of the temple and then once a year comes into the Holy of Holies. No, this one has ascended into heaven itself, through the heavens, into the actual presence of God. Speaks of Jesus's ascension. You remember in Acts 1:9, Jesus, after he said some things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky, while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

31:24We have a high priest who has passed through the heavens. Into the reality. And his name is Jesus. The great high priest is Jesus. Physical human flesh is now in the very presence of God. That couldn't happen before the incarnation. That couldn't happen before the crucifixion. That is the result of the death, burial, and resurrection. Now, human flesh, glorified human flesh, is in the presence of God in heaven. He is the great high priest. And you can see his greatness in where he ministers, but you can also see his greatness of his ministry in his name. Look it back. Jesus, the Son of God. He is the Son of God. And if you remember, the very beginning of this book of Hebrews opened up the Son of God. He is the creator and heir of all things. Remember, Hebrews 1, verse 1, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. And upholds all things by the word of his power. And when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. Jesus, Son of God, greater than the angels, greater than all peoples, the creator and heir of all things. That's our high priest. Don't forfeit that confession. There isn't anyone like it. So, what the preacher of Hebrews is saying here, we do have a high priest.

33:42Contrary to what others may be telling you, they may be telling you, well, if you get, if you don't renounce Christ, you're not going to have an advocate there, you're not going to have a high priest. You remember in John chapter 12, many believed in Jesus, but they were afraid to be put out of the synagogue because they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. Verse 43 of John 12. You see, think about what's going on with many of the Jews at that time. This circular letter is written to.

34:22Many Jews were wrestling with the notion that if they got kicked out of the synagogue, they would not only be social outcasts, but they would lose. Lose representation before God, that they would somehow be spiritually deficient. Does that sound familiar? Many religions, many churches leverage the same threat today. You need to be good standing with us if you want a good standing with God. Well, they're facing that very same theological dilemma. If we're cut off from Judaism, we don't have, we're cut off from the temple ministry, we're cut off from the whole process, we're cut off from being represented before God.

35:09And the preacher is saying something more than just, well, you know, kind of theologically, he's not, we do actually have a high priest. In some whiny little voice, that's not what he is saying at all. He's saying, we're the ones with the high priest. They do not have the high priest. We're the ones with the perfect high priest. We're the ones where we have a vastly superior representation before God than that whole system. That's what he's saying.

35:40And so the writer is going to spend six chapters defending and explaining this assertion because it is a huge assertion and it is the bomb that devastates and desolates temple worship under the Jews of the crucifixion generation. Can't go back. There any more than you can go back to Egypt. We must go on to what God is revealing and to whom He has revealed. But the point here is to hold fast Jesus as the believer's high priest. We do have one. In fact, He is the most magnificent one in the universe, far surpassing all people and all angelic beings. There is no higher individual, there is no more lofty person, there is no more glorious figure or high and exalted individual than Jesus Christ, and He is our high priest. There is no peace if you let go of that confession, there is no rest.

36:45But then, He goes on: Not only is He high, lofty, and powerful, He's also sympathetic. He's sympathetic to the plight of His people. And that, too, is part of the biblical confession. Look back at verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Now, that's interesting. Power, might, glory, and an ability to sympathize. To sympathize. It's a rare word used only in Hebrews, only two times. The other time it's used to speak about those who were identifying with those whose property was being taken to prisoners. You had sympathy. You became one with the prisoners. That's the idea of sympathy. To have empathy for someone, to be in union with somebody else, a uniting of souls. Where we do not have a high priest who cannot unite with us or sympathize with our weaknesses. And what are the weaknesses? Our inabilities, our disabilities, our diseases, our deficiencies, feelings of inadequacy, infirmities, all of this stemming from the human condition. He gets the human condition. Jesus is sympathetic with our weaknesses.

38:23Because he is one who has been tempted in all things. Tempted. He has been tempted. See, Satan loves to tempt people to sin. For some reason, he delights to see us offend God. And he is at work tempting all of us to sin against God. And no one knows that better than Jesus. This is why we need to have sympathy for our fellow brothers and sisters. People are being tempted. Not only are they going through trials, but these trials become.

39:01A means of tempting. Where is God in all this? That's evil. To delight to see us offend God. Just as Satan tempted Adam and Eve and Job, as he tempted the wilderness generation and he's tempted everyone else, he also tempted Jesus, and Jesus He tempted in all things to a much more extreme degree in everything pertaining to mankind. Strong parallels that I won't get into between the 40 years of temptation in the wilderness and Jesus' 40 days of temptation, and then the temptations throughout all the way to the cross. Yet he's without sin. Look back. One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Jesus made it through every temptation without sinning. You see, he knows the trail through every trial and through every temptation without sinning.

40:14You see, it's not like a human sympathy that's like, you know, sometimes we can, misery loves company. And sometimes we like to get those people who are sympathetic to our situation. Because they failed in the same way that we have failed. Misery can love, oh, you struggle with that. I do too. Let me tell you about it. Yeah, I feel sorry for you because I. That's the kind of oftentimes that's the kind of misery or sympathetic companions that we like to surround ourselves with, someone who can identify. But you've got to understand, this is not the kind of identification. Jesus never sinned. He gets what Satan is trying to do. Satan is trying to get you to get mad at God, to sin against God. That's what he is trying to get you to do.

41:09And so Jesus gets it. Jesus is the sympathy of one whose sympathy has never sinned and wants to show you the way and to give you everything that is necessary to live a God-glorifying life. He feels sorry for those whom Satan is trying to lure into sin and ruin their lives. And that's some of you this morning. You're being lured. You've bit the lure. You've taken it. And now you feel like there is no way to a relationship with God.

41:49There is. But here's the great paradox: the perfections of Christ's. Priestly ministry. How can one so high and mighty sympathize with somebody so low and weak as us? How can the creator and heir of all things be sympathetic to what you and I are going through on a day-to-day basis, no matter how large or no matter how small? Many of us think we can't bother God with certain little details of our life. Are my concerns, big and small, meaningful to him? And the answer is an emphatic yes. Jesus has an unequaled status in heaven, but he also has an unequaled capacity to identify with his people and be moved to help. You see, a perfect high priest has to have the ability to sympathize with people if he's going to represent them before God.

43:00Hebrews 2:10, if you look back, says this, for it was fitting for him for whom all things are and through whom all things are, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. Christ was perfected in his high priestly capacity by going through the trials and suffering. In his flesh, Hebrews 2:17 says this: Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

44:01Jesus is going to spend, I mean, the writer of the preacher of Hebrews is going to spend a lot of time in the next several chapters describing the inadequacies of the Levitical priesthood and the far surpassing greatness of Jesus' priesthood. But for now, the exhortation before we launch off and cross that great ocean is to hold fast to the biblical confession of him. Jesus is our high priest, and Jesus is sympathetic to our situation. And you rest in Jesus by maintaining these two elements. You've got to come to grips with who is really representing man before, representing you and your advocate before the Father and His ability to sympathize with you.

44:56Though Jesus is our high priest, second, he is sympathetic. Sympathetic to our situation, maintain this confession. If you do not hold on to these two truths, you will never know Sabbath rest. He is a perfect high priest, he is in perfect sympathy with our struggles. I'd like to say more, but enough for an introduction that I hope you will continue. We'll come back to verse 16, but I want you to see how we rest in Jesus. We rest in Jesus first by maintaining the biblical confession of Him. We looked at that today. Next time, we rest in Jesus by drawing near to the throne of grace and confidence.

45:52Rest in Jesus. I remember that moment well when that young lady was sitting in my office trying to process her dad's taking his own life. Loving dad, or was he? Is the gospel sufficient or is it? All of these talk about knocking a person off balance. This event did it. How do you comfort a person like this? Where is rest? Well, the answer is in our text. We have to turn our eyes away from the imperfect to the perfect.

46:46See, there's no rest in the imperfect. Her dad's testimony was imperfect. Not quite sure exactly where it all was. Her knowledge of him was imperfect. She's looking to me to answer, where is my dad? Is he in heaven? My understanding of the situation is imperfect. Oh, we might rush to want to say some words of comfort to her just to make her feel good about the situation. But it's just an imperfect individual with imperfect knowledge trying to make an assessment. There's got to be something more substantial than that.

47:29The answer to her and to anyone in any situation is, we have a perfect Savior. We have a perfect high priest. We have a perfect sacrifice who understands perfectly every detail of what took place. Is perfectly sympathetic, who will perfectly honor every word he ever spoke to your father and to you. This side of heaven, you may have a lot of questions, but you can rest. We have a perfect Savior. And the message of the gospel is: yes, the gospel is enough.

48:36Because only in the gospel do we meet the perfect savior, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect high priest who is going to perfectly honor everything he said he would do. There is rest. And that's the spiritual rest you are invited to in the gospel. If you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you can do so this morning. Many of you need to come out from the outside and come to the inside. You need to cross out of death and into life. And those of you who need to enter more fully into his rest and trusting in this high priest who is simply Pathetic, who calls us to come boldly to his throne that we may receive grace and help in time of need.

49:40Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you. What a gift. What a gift to us today. What a gift to, even as we reflect on motherhood. No one is more in sympathy with their children than a mother. And Father, we see even beyond that, far above that, we see the sympathy of our great high priest for every one of us. Father, help us embrace this in faith. And we confess we lack faith. Ah, but you tell us to draw near and we will find help in time of need. So we come, Father, as a people, lacking in faith when we should have a lot more faith.

50:31But then we rejoice because you help our unbelief. And so we come before you, thanking you, confessing you. In Jesus' name.