and they were not able to enter into the rest that will of God for them. They were not able to enter into it because of unbelief. And I tell you what, when you come to Christ, there is rest. And not only is there salvation rest, but there's also another rest that's available, and it's that rest that's found living in the will of God. And what a rest that is. And how many remember the days of unrest that you had before you came to Christ? How many remember those days? Right, you can remember the days that, maybe, do you remember the days, now Micah got saved that first day he came, and you're weird, that's not always the case, but, hey, Zach, good to see you. And, but some people, some of us wrestled after we heard the gospel. Boy, we wrestled with it, and we had run from it, and we tried to do everything else but come to. to confession and repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, right? We went home and we did all sorts of good things, but there was this uneasiness, there was this heaviness, there was this, sometimes some people talked about a sleeplessness, and there was something that was pulling you and drawing you, and there was, it would not, listen, those days of your life would not be defined as days of rest, were they? They were uneasy days, because the living God was drawing you to himself, in drawing you to come to a place of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was a day when you confessed before God and you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and all that unrest went away and it was replaced with rest. It was a wonderful thing. Peace came into your life. Joy came into your life. Rest came into your life. How many remember that day? Amen? You remember that? Don't be too excited about it. I know. Your eternal existence has been changed forever and you will forever be with the Lord Jesus Christ. He took away your sin, past, present, and future. You are right with God. You are judiciously in Christ Jesus. And I know it's not much to get excited about, but I'm glad that some of you are happy about that. And I'm telling you what, I'm thankful for the day that Jesus saved my wretched soul and the peace and the joy and the rest that came into life. And you know, after salvation though, I just talked about it, there's another process that comes that we've been looking at here in our text that happens when sin comes into our life, right? Hey, you're a child of God now, you're saved, you're born again, you have been redeemed, but your flesh has not. You have this thing that's attached to you that still has its old desires, it still has its own way, it still wants to, it's old vices and it wants everything that it used to have, and now you've got this battle going on, right? The inner man, the spirit that has been made alive doesn't want that, but the flesh does. And sometimes it's amazing how alive that flesh can be. But watch what was the process that happened, right? You're saved, you're born again. And you know what? Your flesh responded and you sinned. And you know what happened? Conviction of sin came. Uneasiness came. Heaviness came. Irritability came. Maybe we could use one word to define what came. Or two words. No rest. rest went away. Before you know it, you're back into this place feeling, well, boy, I feel kind of uneasy. Well, what is going on here when sin comes into the life of a child of God? Well, just like the drawing of the Spirit of God to salvation, it is the same Holy Spirit that deals with us when something has crept into our life that is sin. I remember asking a pastor one day, it was a long time ago, and I asked him, I said, how do you know when you're called to preach? He said, how did you know when you were called to be saved? I said, well, it was the Holy Spirit. He said, yes. Same thing. Same thing. You know it's the same thing when we have sin in our life and rest goes away, what happens? The active working of the Holy Spirit begins to draw us to put a finger on the thing that has disturbed our rest so we can get it out of our life so we can go back to the place of rest again, right? Our relationship with God is about two people, right? It's our will meshing into His will, not His will into our will. It's us and the Lord Jesus Christ. And watch, remember now, it is God's will that our life must mesh with Him, not the other way around. So many people live this Christian life, and they've just tacked God on like He's a lucky charm, right? He's just this lucky rabbit's foot that they put in His pocket, and they've got their own will for their life, and hey, someday when they die, I'm gonna go to heaven. I hope, but I've just added Jesus. No, this is not the relationship that is offered to us. Listen, when our life is in sync with God's will, our life will be marked by a sense of rest. But when something tries to get into the workings of that meshing of our life with God's life, when something gets into the workings, what happens is progress stops and rest is replaced with frustration. Rest is replaced with uneasiness. And there's a lack of rest that comes into our life. I brought this. I had to tell my wife, because if she saw it up here without me telling her this, it wouldn't have been good. There would have been no rest. It would have been unrestful. Now, see these gears? These are gears, right? I could not find it. I had an old drill that, remember these, Brother Neil? And they had the little gears, and they're, and I couldn't find it. I was looking everywhere for it. And so what I did, the second best thing was I dug through the drawers of the kitchen, and I found this thing, KitchenAid. How old is this? This is, what, 30? No. Really? I thought we've had it, but anyway. Okay, 20, all right. So we have here a gear that is just sitting here static, see that? It's not attached to a handle. That's just, here, see that? That's kind of our life, that's us, right? Here's the one that has all the say in it, right here. Here's a, let's say that's God. And when our life comes together and His will is clicking along, watch, we're moving just fine. See that? Looks pretty good, doesn't it? Put that on a can, and you open that can. And when you get the can open, you realize, oh, what's that little tab for? That was cool. Anyway, you could have pulled the tab. But you see everything is. Anybody, hey, you got a penny? Anybody got a coin on them? Anybody got a coin? Anybody? Oh, here's bunny bags. No coin? Come on, anybody? Coin, coin? No? Nobody has? Let me see. Do I? I got a key. I got a key. Oh, no. This is fading fast. I need a coin, quick. Oh, look at this. Nope, that'll work. I don't care. So watch this. So here's something comes along. This is clicking along just fine. Look at that. That's kind of like REST. See, it's just working like it ought to. But if I put this in there. Oh, look at that. Let's put it in there. Well, I had a penny before. That'll kind of go through. But if I put something in the middle of there that's not supposed to be in there, what happens? It doesn't work right. And I'm just destroying. I've got to stop. She's going to be mad. And you just start destroying this whole thing. What goes away? Number one, it's got something clogged up inside of it. And what is happening? Well, it's not working. And what's going on now? Rest. I'm getting frustrated. Rest is gone. Right? Can I tell you something? See, this is sin in our life. Listen, we are clicking along with God just fine. And what happens when sin comes in and gets jammed up in the gears, all of a sudden it's not going anymore. We're trying to force it. That's what I do. I'm just like, argh, trying to force it. And rest is gone and it's just kind of a mess. It's kind of a mess. Listen, rest is when my life is in sync with God and there is nothing in my life jamming up the gears. That's rest. That's how it ought to be. Well, you notice last week we saw this. We have some help in this. Can I tell you we're finite beings? You know, I heard a pastor say, and he was right, this was years ago. He said, listen, I don't have to be the Holy Spirit. People know what's right and wrong. And can I tell you, as time has gone on, you know what I've realized? Some people don't know right and wrong. I'm surprised at what people don't understand what is right and wrong anymore. And though that premise is right, and the Holy Spirit does a work in our life, but you know what? We don't know everything. And listen, we're finite beings, and we don't know all of God's will, but you know what? We have help to know how we ought to live. We have the Word of God. It's right here. And this is what it says here in our text in verse 12. Right? Go back to verse 12. We know this. You could quote this. For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Here we have a helper, right? We have a help in the Word of God to guide us into all truth. This thing, this book is alive, and it's powerful, and it's sharp, and it divides, and it gets down into the quick of things, and it reveals, look, it says it's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. We looked at this last week, that that word discerner of the thoughts, that word means a critic. The Word of God criticizes our life. You're like, well, I don't like that. You know, I don't want him to criticize me. Well, listen, I'll let God criticize me all he wants. I think he knows how to do it just right, amen? I don't, and you don't know how to. We ought not to criticize, but there's a critique that happens when we read the word of God and we bring it into our life, it begins to critique, watch, the actions and the aspects of our life. So here it is, this is what we find out. If you want rest in your life, you've gotta know God's will. If you want to know God's will in your life, you've got to know God's Word. Right? And the only way to know God's Word is to consume it. Is to consume it. Is to read it. Is to memorize it. Is to meditate on it. Hold on a minute. Is to live it. To live it. You want to know God? We looked at this. Jesus manifests Himself when we keep His commandments. Right? The closeness with Jesus Christ and the rest that we're looking for in Christ is found not necessarily in all that we know of the Word of God, but it is found in all that we obey of the Word of God. That's where that closeness and that relationship and that rest in the Lord Jesus comes from. Let me give you some familiar verses this morning. Psalm 119, 105, that word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Verse 133, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. He wanted to be ordered in the word. Why? Why do you want to be ordered in the word? Well, so you can know what is wrong. So you can know what is sin. So you know what to get out of your life. Jeremiah 16, 15, thy words were found, Jeremiah said, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. I don't know about you. I'm sure most everybody is the same way. You have your routine in the morning. My routine is I get up, I find the coffee pot, I pour the water in, because it's already set to go, because I don't want to fumble around making coffee in the morning, and I go over and I get it ready, and I let the dog out, or whatever, and I come back and the coffee's ready and I pour it, and there's something about it. When you go to sit down in the chair, and you get your Bible, and maybe it's there, maybe it's on, maybe you've got it, and there's something about when you sit down, this inner joy that just begins to come out. because you're getting ready to open the Word of God. And I don't know what it is. It's just the joy. It's the joy of the Word of God. This is what Jeremiah said. He said, I did eat them, the words. I found them, I ate them, and thy words were unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. heart. Look what He said, He said, For I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Why is this book so precious? Because it is the one with whom we have to do it. It's because it is the word of the lover of our soul. Oh, it's a precious book. Psalm 119 verse 9, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Psalm 119 verse 11, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Let me point you to the New Testament in Luke chapter 5. If you remember Simon Peter and all of his fishing crew were fishing all night and they couldn't catch anything and Jesus had hollered out and said, throw your nets on the other side. And Peter said, hey, we have toiled all night. Listen, these were professional fishermen. They knew what they were doing, right? This wasn't, you know, it wasn't me out in a boat trying to fish. These guys knew what they were doing. And then he said, nevertheless, at thy word. And we know what happened. They didn't cast their nets. They cast their one net, singular, didn't fully obey. And they had all of the fish came up and they couldn't believe all the fish they had and dragged them in. Peter said this, nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. I'm going to show you something. These are professional fishermen. You know, when I don't catch fish, that's normal, so I don't have a lot of unrest. My livelihood's not dependent on it, my mortgage isn't dependent upon it, right? It's no big deal. But these guys, watch, when they were fishing and nothing was coming up, rest was going away, right? This was now frustration, this was anxiety, this was irritation going on. But watch, Jesus offered them rest. What was the rest He offered? Well, His Word. What was His Word? Cast your net on the other side. You know what happened once they obeyed the Word? What happened? Fish. What happens after fish? Rest. Rest. Listen, if we're going to live a life of rest, you've got to live a life resting in the Word of God. This is what we have here in Chapter 4, amen? This is where rest is found. Now, I want to show you something else here in the text. In Hebrews chapter 1. Jesus is presented as fully God. We see the deity of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter two, we see the humanity of Jesus Christ, that hypostatic union, fully God and fully man. And now in chapter three, he's presented as the apostle and high priest. He is now, Jesus is not just the God man, he's not just all divinity and all humanity, He is also active and has an active role to play in the life of his creation. So we see this now. So because Jesus is active, he has an active role in his creation, and he has an active role in our life, there are three roles that he plays. There are three roles. These are gonna be familiar to you. You're gonna remember these when I say them, right? Now notice this, these roles are always for believers, not unbelievers. These three roles that he plays. Number one, the first role that he plays is the role of mediator. He is a mediator. The mediator reconciles God to man and man to God. He sits in between the two and brings them to the point to where they can agree. 1 Timothy 2.5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ, Jesus. Can I remind you? The Pope is not a mediator. A priest is not a mediator. A preacher is not a mediator. The Mormon Church is not a mediator. Joe Smith, I mean, just go right down the line. Nobody and nothing is a mediator between us and God. The only one is the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. He's not only a mediator, but He's our advocate. He's our advocate. Which means what? He restores man after sin. comes. Restoration. Listen to 1 John 2.1, John said, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, amen. Jesus Christ, the righteous. So here he is, he plays these first two roles of mediator, and he plays the role of an advocate. He restores us after sin, when confession comes, he restores that fellowship. But this third role that he plays, that we're gonna find in our text here in chapter four, is the role of a priest. And what a priest does is a priest sustains man and provides against committing sin. He sustains him and he provides, right, a way so he doesn't have to sin. A path of not sinning. And so, watch this, while we're trying to live our life in obedience to the Word of God, we still have an enemy that's fighting against us. We still have the flesh, right? We have these three avenues of attack, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And what does the world, the flesh, and the devil attack with? Well, it attacks with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And everybody in this room, we have the same things in our life that attack us. We all have to deal with the world. We all have to deal with our flesh. We all have to deal with the devil. We all have to deal with the lust of our flesh, with the lust of our eyes, and the pride of life. What is that? The pride of life. Well, it's just life's pride. It is that aspect of our life of self-preservation that wants to make us number one. We all deal with this. We all do. And so we are tempted on a daily basis to obey the world, to obey the flesh and to obey the devil. We are tempted every day to disobey God. So watch this. So the role of the priest is to help us and to sustain us and to provide for us for when we sin. Now watch this. The high priest we have here in the Lord Jesus Christ is like no other high priest. Notice this here. Look at verse 14. Seeing then, Because we know we want rest in our life and we know that rest is found in knowing and obeying the will of God. Seeing then, right, we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. So we know that priests and high priests in the Old Testament, we understood what they did, right? They made the sacrifices, they killed the lamb. The high priest would kill the Passover lamb, we understand that. But this high priest is different. Don't forget his audience here, folks. He was talking to Jews who were Christians who were drifting back into the law and drifting back into Judaism. And so he brings up now this office of a priest that they were well acquainted with. And he says that there is a high priest and the priest of the Old Testament, but this priest, Jesus Christ, who is not just the high priest, notice this, the great high priest, no doubt in inference to his divinity, right? The great high priest, OK, that who would not only offer a Passover lamb, but he himself was going to be the Passover lamb. Jesus just didn't come as a high priest. He didn't go across the world and find the most perfect. Perfect, spotless lamb. Could you imagine? I think God could have found the best lamb on the planet. I mean, Jesus could have gone over to India for a minute, found a great lamb, come back to Israel and just offer the best lamb that was ever found. No, He didn't do that. He didn't do that. He didn't bring a lamb. He brought Himself. Why? Because there's not a better Lamb anywhere than the spotless Lamb of God. Even John the Baptist, remember? Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He said, look, there He is, there He is. This is the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. So Jesus, the great High Priest, who is all man and yet all God, didn't just bring a sacrifice, but He brought Himself as the sacrifice. This is like no other High Priest who has ever been. Okay, I don't know why you're going back to the Old Testament system. I don't know why you're going back to the old priesthood when you have this very Son of God who is the High Priest and who offered Himself as the Lamb spotless, right? A great High Priest. Notice His name here. He names Him Jesus. Jesus, His humanity. The Son of God, His divinity. He was the sacrifice. Yeah, go back to that old system all you want. But I don't know why you'd give up the Lamb of God for another lamb over here offered by another priest who is a sinner just like you. This is our high priest. Notice where he is. He's in the heavens. He is in the heavens. He is passed into heavens. The Old Testament priest only sacrificed on earth. But Jesus' sacrifice was on earth, but for one thing, the atoning blood went on to heaven, I believe that. We'll see that later in Hebrews. But the Old Testament lamb died and was burned up, but our great high priest came out of the grave alive, and he ascended back to the Father, and he's at the right hand of the Father today, making intercession for us in heaven, amen. He was an eternal sacrifice with eternal blood and an eternal atonement, and it is a constant unending thing of our High Priest. So watch this, our High Priest is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us this very moment right now. If you are in Christ this morning, if you've been born again this morning, your great High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ is at the right hand of His Father and He's making intercession for you. Some of you came this morning, for you came this morning, you spent some time with the Lord in confession. Some of you may have spent some time during our prayer time, and the Holy Spirit may have put His finger on a little something, and you say, yes, Lord, I confess that, I agree, that's sin, would you take care of that? And you know what He's doing at the right hand of the Father? He's making intercession, and He's covering. Listen, it's under the blood, it's under the blood, it's under the blood. Listen, this is a great high priest. He's not going out looking for a lamb every time we show up in prayer. Could you imagine that? Lord, I sinned again. Let me go find a lamb. Hold on a minute, I'll go find one. No, I'm glad he doesn't have to do that, amen? That blood is ever there and available and ready every time that we call. Oh, I'm so thankful for that. He is a great high priest. He is like no other. Oh no, no, these priests that call themselves priests and fathers, they are no priests. They are just men. They are just men. Why would you go to an earthly priest when you go to the great high priest? Makes no sense whatsoever. But I want to show you this about our great high priest. This is incredible. Look at verse 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. You know, we can pass over this when we dwell on the deity of Jesus Christ. Right? I personally believe in the impeccability of Christ. I personally believe that He could not have sinned, and He would not have sinned. He said, well, I don't have time, we could take a whole message on that, right? But I know this, if you want to focus on His humanity, fine, but you also have to focus on His deity. And there's no way that humanity, even if you want to go down the road and say that that flesh could have sinned, there's no way that humanity was going to be more powerful than the deity. It's not, it wasn't going to happen. And Jesus was sinless. He was sinless. So sometimes if we're not careful, we look at the temptations of Jesus Christ and we minimize them. Well, big deal. He was tempted. He was God, right? That was probably easy. Yeah. Can I tell you, Jesus knew what it was to experience in His flesh, the experience of temptation, which is a good thing to say right here, right? Temptation isn't sin. Don't forget that. Temptation isn't sin. The acting on temptation becomes sin. Because sometimes, listen, the temptations can be so strong and so real, they almost feel like you've sinned anyway, and then you carry right along, and no, no, you didn't have to do that. Amen? Yeah. But the temptation's real and Jesus knew the weight and the drawing and the pressure of temptation that came upon his human body. When he was fasting, he knew what it was for his body to scream for food. But if he had eaten at that time, he would have been out of the will of his father and he would have sinned. So he said no, he wasn't gonna. But he knew what that temptation was like. How do you know that? Well, the Bible said he hungered. in a time of fasting, he was hungering. He knew what it was for the devil to tempt him to forego the will of his father and to live a life for his own glory. Well, hey, have a kingdom now. Prove that you're God now. Let the world know that, you know, in your time and on your schedule. And he said that was a temptation. And at every point he said, no, no, no, I come to do the will of my father. I only say what he tells me to say. Oh, he was completely in the will of his father. So it says here that in all points he was tempted, and all points like as we, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, Satan went after him. Yet without sin. So the question is then how can he really know what temptation is if he didn't have the ability to sin? I gotta drink water here before I tell you this. Sinning cuts short temptation. How many of you dealt with temptation and it lasted four minutes because you gave in, or two seconds because you gave in? How many have suffered through temptation for days? Watch, and you notice as you say no long enough, it gets excruciating sometimes. it gets harder, it gets worse, right? See, sin cuts temptation short. So we don't experience the full weight sometimes of temptation when you give in. Can I tell you in that Jesus never sinned? Is that he experienced the full brunt of temptation that probably you and I will never experience? He always said no. And we know this in the temptation in the wilderness. The Bible says that Satan left for a season. We know he came back. He only left for a season. So if you have the mindset of, well, Jesus couldn't possibly know what I have been through because he never sinned. Can I tell you? Temptation is pretty strong when you've said no your whole life. Listen, he knows temptation better than you or I will ever know temptation. He knows the weight of it. and the draw of it, and the heaviness of it, and the droning on and the lingering on of temptation that we will never know. It gets worse as you say no, and it doesn't get better as you say no. And Jesus has experienced this. So watch this, when our great high priest, who not only just offered the perfect land, but he offered himself up, when he says, I know what temptation is like, I know in a way that I know what you've gone through, listen to me, he knows the way of temptation in a way that you or I have never known. Listen to me, Saints. Our great high priest who sustains us is a high priest who sustains us, sustains us in temptation and provides for us against our sin. Yeah. No, he knows. He absolutely he is acquainted a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. Oh, no. Listen, he knows he's experienced temptation like you or I have never experienced. Notice what he says in verse 16? This great high priest of ours, who is in heaven, the Son of God, who is forever, he is our mediator, he is our high priest, he's always available. Man! Listen, in this life that we live, what is the enemy of rest but temptation and sin? And when we are in the throes of sin, when we are in the throes of temptation, when there are things in our life that are destroying our rest, We can be reminded at every time that we have a great high priest who knows exactly what we're going through, has experienced temptation greater than we will ever experience temptation, who has told us that I am available at any time to help you during this time of your life. I am here at any time when rest has eluded you and sin has is jamming up the rest that you've known in your life I am available to you look at it says here in verse 16 that he is on a throne of grace let us therefore come boldly boldly unto the throne of grace of grace look at this that we may obtain mercy and find grace divine enablement that supernatural enablement I've had such short nights before, long nights and early mornings. You ever have those? At times I've asked the Lord, I've asked the Lord in prayer, Lord, I need some supernatural rest. I'm telling you, you wake up and you're like, I don't even remember going to sleep. Just out. Wake up rested. Oh, He's able. He's able. I love this. You know, you see this here? This is grace. This is that divine enablement, a supernatural enablement. to live a life in the will of God so he can maintain a life of rest in his will. Yeah. We go to him to obtain mercy. Aren't you glad that he delights in mercy? Yeah. Aren't you glad that they're new every morning? You don't get left over mercy? Yeah. Oh, old Joe, he didn't use this back in 73. I'll just give you that. There's a little bit left over. Here you go. Oh, it's new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Amen. We go to him to obtain mercy and it's when we approach our high priest that we find that grace. Hey, we can approach him. We can approach him at any time. It says here, let us therefore come boldly with all assurance with all assurance, come boldly into the throne of grace, which is the help that we need. Can I tell you, it is the only help that we need? If rest has eluded your life and your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're living in a life, you know what the will of God is for your life, and even in the most basic way, you know what the will of God is in your life, you know that you're living outside of the will of God for your life, you know that you're living in sin, you know that you're living in disobedience to God, you remember years ago, maybe, or even weeks ago, what it was to live in rest, and you know tonight, or this morning, that you are not living in rest, Can I tell you the only place that you need to go, the only place that you can go is to approach your great high priest again and let him know, I need, I need this enablement, I need your mercy, I need this out of my life, I need victory here, I have a time of need, I've got sin that needs to be dealt with, that needs to be covered, that needs to be washed away by the blood of the Lamb. I need help, I need help. I'm going through temptation, I need help, I need help. Hey, this is our great high priest. Watch this, he's told us to come to him. We know that in the ancient times, even when you looked at the book of Esther, when Mordecai asked Esther, she had been to the king, it had been months since she had seen the king. And even as the queen, she goes, you know, you just don't go in. If he doesn't put the scepter out to you when you just show up out of nowhere unannounced, and if he doesn't put that scepter out, queen or not, you're dead. You know, oh, this had some powerful meaning to the people in these days, that we just have access to the king of kings at any time. I love that. He sustains us. in temptation and He provides for us grace, divine enablement, divine enablement to live, to live a life, to live a life that is a life at rest. You see, to these Jews that were going back to the law, the Holy Spirit is reminding them who Jesus is. He's greater because of his deity. He is greater because of his sacrifice. He is greater because of the temptations that he went through. He's greater because of his provision. Nobody else can give you what Jesus can give you. And in the hardest time of our life, the child of God, will always have access to the Great High Priest. In a time of depression, in a time of discouragement, in a time of frustration, in a time when it seems like sin has been running rampant over your life and you just don't even know how you got there, in a time where it seems like the temptation are just merciless and they never stop, I'm telling you, you have a Great High Priest who says, well, just get in here, come here. Get up here. What do you need? What do you need? Oh, you need grace? Here it is. Here it is. Yeah. If we want to live in the rest that He's provided for us, He's given us the help of His Word to critique our life. And when the Word critiques and we say, I want to walk in that, I want to live in that, He's given us the help of His grace to do it. Yeah, that's a great high priest. Can I tell you over in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 17, you remember over here he was talking to the church, I just lost it, I think it was Pergamos. And he says here, let me read this first. And he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. And many have put all sorts of... Many have put out all sorts of their ideas of what that white stone was and that hidden manna in the white stone. And this was a church here that was living in a tough time. They were rejecting the doctrines of Balaam. They were rejecting the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. They were living faithfully. And Jesus said, if you overcome, if you continue to live in rest and in the will and the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, I've got a white stone for you. And one of the applications of that, some people have thought, is that that white stone in the ancient times was given to those that were tried in the court of law. They were tried, they were found innocent, not guilty, and what they would be given, they said, was a white stone that they would carry with them. They may have the marks, the tattooed marks of their prison name or identification that they were in prison. In prison of what sort or that and they could be stopped probably at any time and questioned about why they're out and about. And all they'd have to do, some say, they'd have to pull out that white stone and they'd just show it. And they go, okay, great. You've been acquitted. You're fine. That's one application of white stone. It's very interesting. I don't think that's it in here because he's talking to believers, not unbelievers. We're not going to court anymore. We're done, right? We have been acquitted, right? But the second idea of this white stone is found with what we're looking at even right now in the Olympic Games. And in the Olympic Games, if you were a winner, some say that when you would go home to your hometown, that for all of those that won in the Olympic Games would get a white stone with their name on it And that white stone gave them access to the treasury of the town that they were taken care of for the rest of their life. That's one of the inferences. Is that what you think applies here? I don't know. How do you like that? I don't know. Here's what I do know. There is an aspect here I love of that white stone, which we do know in history, which is this. It's an aspect of access. Access to have all of our needs provided. And can I tell you what we do know that we have in Jesus Christ? We have access for all of our needs to be supplied. And oh, yes, we think of our physical needs and our financial needs and our health needs and all of these things like that. But I'm so thankful. The other thing that Jesus can supply that nobody else can supply is that divine enablement, that supernatural divine ability and power. We have access to that to live according to the word of God. So that we can live in the rest that God has for us, so that we can live a life in sync with God. Right. Oh, where did it go? You're in sync with God without anything jamming it up, getting in the way. You know what the wonderful thing is if something does get in the way? We have the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we confess our sin before Him, we acknowledge it and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and it just kind of pulls it out of there and what? The wheels just start going again. You know what happens when the sin gets out of the life? Rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Just rest, rest. You begin to accomplish what God wants for you. Your purpose becomes fulfilled again. We have access, listen, this is incredible. We have access to the great high priest. We have access. It's 1202. I want to show you one thing. Verse 14. Go back to verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, look at this last phrase, let us hold fast our profession. Let us hold fast. That word hold fast means to not discard, not to let go, to keep carefully and faithfully And what are we keeping faithfully? What are we protecting? What are we guarding? What are we making sure that we do not discard? Our profession. Hold on, not our salvation. Aren't you thankful? We are kept by His power, amen. He's gonna present us faultless before the throne one of these days. Oh no, we don't have to keep our salvation, but what we are protecting, what we are holding fast to is our profession, our confession, what we profess is what? Our relationship, our fellowship on a daily basis in the will of God, in that communion that we have Him. That's what we're protecting. He said, let us hold fast our profession. Watch this, because of who Jesus is, our great high priest, and what He has done for us, and what He continues to do on a daily basis, and the access that He has given to us at any time, watch, watch, there is no reason for us to drift. We've been told here, let us hold fast our profession, which means what? We can, and we ought to, and we should. Amen. Why can we be so certain that we can stay on course? Well, we have a great high priest. How can you be certain that you're not going to just drift off into some other wind of doctrine? Well, you can be sure because we have the Word of God. We have the Word of God, we have help, and we have a high priest. Let me ask you this morning, are you at rest? Maybe you're here this morning and you know that you're born again and child of God, you know you're saved. You remember the day, you remember the day that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You called upon the name of the Lord and he said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You remember the day that you said yes to Jesus and you gave your heart to him. You remember that day, right? But are you at rest? Are you in his will? Are you meshed in with His will and just turning along as He wants you to? Or is there something in there jamming up the fellowship and the relationship between you and the Lord Jesus? Got any temptations hounding you today? Can I remind you this morning you have a great high priest? who knows and understands. And if you would come to Him today, whatever the need that is in your life, whatever it is, maybe you've drifted away, maybe you've gone away from Him, maybe you're living in a lifestyle, you're living in a place you know that is against the will of God for your life, and you know your life is not marked by rest, can I tell you this very moment, you can come this morning to your great high priest, who is still your great high priest if you're in Christ Jesus, and you can come to Him for mercy and for grace, and in confession, and listen, he'll wipe it all clean again and you can go out here and rest again in the will of God. That's a great high priest. Absolutely is. Can I tell you when he comes he'll never say, nah, too late. How do you know that? Well, because he wants you to come. Well, wouldn't that be kind of twisted? If he says come, then you come. You go, nah, teasing. I don't want you. Are you in rest? Are you in rest? Are you being hounded? Are there things in your life that have robbed you of your rest? Come to your great high priest today. There's mercy there. There's grace available. There's cleansing. There's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all available. It's all available. You can be in rest today. Father, thank you. for the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you're a great high priest, that you ever lived to make intercession for us, and that we can hold fast our profession. We can hold fast that which we confess and that we know and we believe. We can hold fast. We don't have to drift from it. We don't have to. We thank you for the mercy that is there. Father, it may be that there's somebody here this morning that just needs to fall upon thy mercy. They're away from you. Maybe, you know, so often it's nothing huge, it's just little things, little driftings here and there. But they know it, though. Your Holy Spirit has put His finger upon it, and they know what it is. I pray they come today and find that mercy and grace that they need in you. There could be somebody here today that has never known the salvation rest that's in Jesus Christ. Their life is marked by unrest because they've never met Jesus, they've never surrendered, they've never confessed their sin and given their life to Lord Jesus Christ. I pray whether they're here or whether they're watching online that today they would come to Jesus and be saved and find that rest. Whatever the need is today, we're confident your Holy Spirit will point it out. and that your people will respond to you. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Stand with me, if you would, please. The instrument's gonna play. I don't know how the Lord has spoken to you today, but if you have a need this morning, you come. You know that there's no rest in your life right now. You know there's some little areas in your life where rest has eluded you. You're living outside of the will of God. You can go back. Friend, He wants you back. How could Calvary tell you anything else but that He wants you back? You can come today and fall upon His mercy. Are you sure that you're born again? Do you know 100% sure that if you die today that you'd go to heaven? Are you positive? that you've been made right with God by the blood of Jesus Christ. Do you know that? If you don't know for certain that you're born again, you need to stick around and we'll take the Bible and we'll show you how you can know for certain that you can be saved. Whatever the need is today.