Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Much of life is filled with unknowns. We don’t know if we’ll be in good health a year from now. We don’t know what our finances will look like next month. And we certainly don’t know what tomorrow will bring. In the midst of so many unknowns, we might consume ourselves with worry. What am I going to do if I run out of money? What am I going to do if I lose my job and can’t find work? And what am I going to do if Dairy Queen stops selling my favorite ice cream blizzard? We often spend so much of our lives worrying.

The alternative to worrying about what we can’t control is to trust God. Because we can know many things. We can know that God made us to know Him, love Him, and be loved by Him. We can know that God is working for the good of those who love Him. And we can know that God is able to save all who draw near to Him through Christ.

Read Hebrews 7:11-25

We talked last week about how even though Melchizedek is this mysterious priest from the Old Testament who is spoken of very highly, he is not equal with Jesus. Rather, Melchizedek points to how great Jesus is. Although this passage mentions Melchizedek often, it doesn’t really talk much about him. It repeats a certain phrase several times: “after the order of Melchizedek.” By using this phrase, Melchizedek isn’t really in view, but I think it’s just reminding us that Jesus isn’t a priest like the Levitical priests. Jesus is much greater. Jesus didn’t have to offer a sacrifice for His own sin, because He had no sin. Jesus didn’t have to offer sacrifices every year. He died once for all. And although the high priest of the Levitical priesthood had to be replaced periodically because he would die, Jesus will never die, and will be our high priest forever. And because Jesus is our high priest, we can draw near to God.

This is an interesting phrase that this passage uses twice: that we may draw near to God (v. 19, 25). Hebrews uses this phrase several times throughout the book (10:22, 11:6, 4:16). It’s clear that those who come near to God in this way have a very personal relationship with Him. We can’t go to God on our terms. We need to go God on His terms. I hear it all the time. Maybe you think you need to get sin out of your system before coming to God. That’s as silly as this e-card I saw online: “I need to start eating more healthy, but first I need to eat all the junk food in the house so it’s not there to tempt me anymore.” Have you ever said that to yourself? I have.

Or, more often, I hear people think they’re not holy enough to come to God. “I’ll start coming to church again once I get these things sorted out.” Or, “I want to join the church, but I need to get some things in order first.” Or, “I know God wants me to get more involved in ministry, but first I need to grow in my knowledge of God’s Word.”

And I know how they feel. I often feel the same way. I’m not worthy to be a pastor. I’m not worthy to speak God’s Word to you, as if I’ve got it all together. Because I don’t have it all together! But the good news is that God doesn’t require us to have it all together when we come to Him. God’s terms are that we humble ourselves, and that we embrace Christ as Savior. And when we do that, we let go of anything that we previously held onto in hopes that it would be our savior.

Many people think about their occupation or accomplishments as their savior. We think, “If I can just get that next raise, or get that next promotion, or that new job, I’ll be set.” But if you’re not content with your job now, you’re probably not going to be content with your next job. Let it go. Not that you can’t have dreams, but just that your dreams aren’t what you make your life all about. Give them over to God. Many people think about their finances or health as their savior. You’ve probably heard people say, “At least you have your health.” But we don’t know that we’ll always have these things. Don’t put your trust in these things. Trust in God.

For the Hebrews, this meant that they needed to let go of how they thought about the Law.

Despite what they thought, perfection was never attainable through the Law or sacrifices (v. 11). Perfection isn’t attainable through anything that we do, either. We can’t earn Heaven. We can’t be good enough. And we can’t achieve Heaven on earth by getting that next job or finishing that major project or by getting a perfect GPA. Me and my best friend in high school were neck and neck in our grades. When it came down to it, he had one more A than me, and he graduated Valedictorian, and I graduated Salutatorian. But that didn’t matter at all! We both gave speeches at graduation. And that doesn’t even matter! I guarantee you no one remembers either one of our speeches. I can barely remember my speech. Our hopes should never rest on what we accomplish. But in Jesus, we have a much greater hope, through which we can actually draw near to God (v. 18-19). The Law itself is perfect, but we are too weak to obey it, and so it became useless to us as a way of having a relationship with God. But Christ, who completely fulfilled the Law and all righteousness for us, is our hope. Through Christ, we are able to draw near to God.

When we draw near to God through faith in Christ, He save us (v. 25). When it says, “He is able,” it’s not merely saying that He has the ability to do so but may or may not exercise that ability. It’s saying that He will surely save us! He died to save us! And He lives to make intercession for us! The theologian Louis Berkhof wrote, “Christ is continually presenting His completed sacrifice to the Father as the sufficient basis for the bestowal of the pardoning grace of God.”

So if anyone trusts in Christ, Christ is alive and will claim them as His own. And it says He is able to save us to the uttermost. It’s saying that He’s able to save us in every way possible, for all eternity. He saves us from our worries and fears. He saves us from our failures. He saves us from our sins, and from eternal damnation because of our sins. And God does this for all who draw near to Him through Christ. It’s not merely that we believe in Jesus. We need to draw near to God. We simply need to embrace Him, and trust in Jesus.