An Interceding Savior

I believe that this passage and what it teaches is one of the most beautiful passages in all

of scripture.

It's a very assuring passage, at least to me it is, and perhaps it will be assuring

and bring some comfort and encouragement to all of us today.

Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25, Hebrews kind of toward the end of your Bible, toward the end

Hebrews 7:25

of the New Testament.

Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25.

Hebrews 7:25

We'll read through the text then we'll pray.

Therefore, he is always able to save those who come to God through him, since he always

lives to intercede for them.

For this is the kind of high priest we need, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from

sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day as high priests do, first for their own

sins, then for those of the people.

He did this once for all when he offered himself.

For the law appoints as high priest men who are weak, but the promise of the oath which

came after the law appoints a son who has been perfected forever.

Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you for, we thank you dear Lord for these good words.

We thank you for this day.

We thank you for letting us have the freedom to come here.

And I pray dear Lord that you would just be with us this morning as we study these words,

as we think about what they say, I pray God that your Holy Spirit would help us to be

free from the worries of the world and the thoughts of the world and the stresses of

the world.

And I pray today that we would just listen to you for just a few minutes.

I pray God that you would hide me behind the cross, that you would help me to preach and

teach in a way that brings glory and honor to you.

That you take away any pride or fear I have this morning dear Lord.

We are totally dependent on you dear Lord.

Me to preach and all of us to hear God.

We want to understand your word.

We want to know your word.

And I pray that we would listen to you today and that you would move among us.

And I ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

We have seen over the last few weeks that the author of Hebrews has really focused on

this character of Melchizedek.

And he focuses on the character of Melchizedek to make a comparison, to make a point about

who Jesus is.

And the point that he is making is that Jesus has established a better priesthood.

That Jesus is a better high priest than all who came before him.

In the Old Testament there was a priesthood and there was a law and there were sacrifices

to sin.

But the author of Hebrews says that God has provided a better way.

That the Old Testament way was good for a time.

But it was only good until Jesus came onto the scene.

And so what he's told us in chapter 7 is that Jesus has established a new priesthood.

With a change of the priesthood, there is a change of the law.

And the author of Hebrews wants us to know that, look, there is a better high priest

that we serve and he is a priest who serves forever.

And that priest who is being spoken about in these passages that we read today is none

other than Jesus Christ.

He has established a priesthood that is forever.

And here as we've seen in these verses, Jesus is unique as our high priest.

He's uniquely qualified to be a high priest unlike any who has come before him.

Why?

Because Hebrews tells us that those priests who have come before were men.

And as men they were weak.

As you and I are weak today.

They had flaws.

They were sinful men, even the best of them were sinful men.

And even though they offered sacrifices for the people, they had to continually offer

those sacrifices.

And the sacrifices also covered the priest because the priest had sinned.

But God wanted to establish a new covenant and a new priesthood.

And that's what the author of Hebrews has been trying to tell us and will continue to

tell us on into chapter 8.

God is trying to establish this new priesthood and establish this new covenant that comes

through Jesus Christ who is uniquely qualified.

Why?

Because Jesus is without sin.

And that's what we see in the passage that we look at today.

That Jesus was unlike those other priests.

That he was separated from sinners.

So you and I, we have this problem and that is that we sin.

And sometimes we just don't want to and we struggle with it every day.

There's this fight and these struggles and these temptations.

And sometimes we overcome them by the power of God and other times we simply, we just

cave.

We just fail.

We sin.

But praise the Lord for Jesus Christ who is unlike us in every way.

Where we are unfaithful, Jesus is faithful.

Where we are sinners, Jesus is perfect.

Where we are unholy, Jesus is holy.

And the author of Hebrews reminds us of this significant point.

That Jesus is great.

That Jesus is the Son of God.

That Jesus is perfect in every way.

And Jesus did not come to offer sacrifices of animals, but Jesus came himself to be our

sacrifice.

And so the high priesthood of Jesus is unique in so many ways.

One he is sinless.

Two, he is the Son of God.

Three, he doesn't offer sacrifices of animals.

He offers sacrifice and offered a sacrifice of himself.

Again, he's not a priest that is going to be overtaken by another priest one day.

No, when Jesus came, he established the one and only priesthood that will be forever.

So the author of Hebrews has spent a lot of chapter seven making this point for us and

showing us the greatness of Jesus and his priesthood and that it lasts forever.

But what we're going to focus on is just one little part of this passage today.

In verse 25, it says, therefore, he is always able to save those who come to God through

him.

He's always able to save those.

He continually is able to save those.

He's constantly interceding for us as we see in the rest of this passage here.

It says he always lives to intercede for them.

Now Jesus came to be our Savior to save us from what?

To save us from our sin and the consequences of those sins.

And so that's why we needed someone like Jesus who was unlike us in every way, who was perfect

in every way that we are not and sinless in every way that we are not.

So that when he made his sacrifice, it would atone for our sins so that we could receive

salvation so that we can rest in that salvation today and that we can know that Jesus always

lives to intercede for us.

He continually intercedes for us.

Now Jesus interceded for us when he came and he gave his life on a cross so that we could

be forgiven.

Our sins were atoned for in that moment.

And we can be rest assured today that when we come to Jesus Christ and we ask for forgiveness

and we put our faith in him, he is faithful to forgive us of our sins.

We can hold on to that today with everything that is within us and know that that is the

power and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our sins have been forgiven.

They have been atoned for through Jesus Christ.

But what else does it say in this passage that he always lives to intercede for us?

What does it mean to intercede for someone?

Well, we see some good examples of that in the Old Testament.

One really good example of that is found in Exodus chapter 32.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Now you can read it this week.

It's a good chapter.

Well, maybe it's a bad chapter, but it's good in some sense.

It's a bad chapter and here's what's going on.

God's people had just pretty much abandoned God.

Now, they had been in slavery.

Moses had come in.

God had sent Moses and delivered them out of slavery.

And you would think that they would say, praise God.

He has brought us out of slavery.

He has delivered us and we are on the way to a land that God is going to give us, a

blessed land.

But instead, they get out of slavery.

Things are kind of tough.

It's difficult.

They're making their journey on the way to the promised land and they begin to complain

and they begin to kind of doubt God and give up on God and they take their gold jewelry

and they melt it down and they form it into a gold cap and they say, this is our God who

brought us out of Egypt.

Wait a minute.

They just made that God with their hands.

Well, that's a problem there.

We don't want a God that we can make with their hands.

So they begin to worship this God that they made instead of worshiping the God who had

brought the plagues on the Egyptians, who had done these great works, who had delivered

them and helped them to cross through the Red Sea.

And yet, just so quickly, things got difficult that they were ready to give up on God.

Now, there's a good sermon in there too for us today.

Do we ever fall into that trap that God has been so good to us and so quickly we're ready

to give up on God and abandon him and say, oh, woe is me and try to find strength and

comfort and deliverance in some other form?

Well, when the Israelites did this, you can imagine that God was angry.

So what God said to Moses was he said, look, I'm about to destroy him.

I'm angry with him.

I'm about to destroy him for what they have done.

But listen to what the scripture says.

Exodus chapter 32 verse 11, but Moses interceded with the Lord, his God.

Exodus 32:11

Moses interceded.

What did he do?

He came and he made an argument for them.

Now, they were horrible, sinful people who had just rebelled against God.

And Moses knew they weren't worth much.

But nonetheless, God says they deserve punishment and I'm going to destroy them.

But Moses interceded or some of your translations may say he pleaded with God.

God have mercy on them.

God do not destroy them.

God spare them.

God let it be known that you are a good God, that you have delivered these people and you

didn't deliver them out just to destroy them, but you delivered them out to bring them into

the promised land to be your people.

And Moses spoke up for the people who were sinful and horrible and rebellious.

And what does the scripture say in verse 14, Exodus 32, 14?

So the Lord relented concerning the disaster he said he would bring on his people.

So God was ready to destroy the people, but yet Moses came onto the scene and interceded

for them.

We see another good example of this in Numbers chapter 21, similar story, same song, different

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

verse.

God's people are complaining.

Things ain't going the way they want them to be.

They're not happy with the food that they're eating.

And so they begin to complain and grumble.

What does God do?

God brings punishment on them.

All right, you don't want me.

All right, well, so be it.

Have it your way.

So God brings punishment on them and sends serpents and serpents begin to bite the people

and they begin to die.

Well, all of a sudden they realize, oh, we made a mistake.

And so they go to Moses and they say, Moses, we have messed up.

You need to go to God on our behalf.

We see that in Numbers 21, verse 7.

Numbers 21:7

Then the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and

against you.

Intercede with the Lord so that he will take the snakes away from us.

And Moses interceded for the people.

We're kind of getting an idea here of what intercession looks like.

That is, in both of these examples, we see people who are sinful in every way and deserving

of God's destruction, deserving of God's wrath.

But yet there is one who comes before God and he pleads on their behalf and says, God,

would you have mercy on them?

God, would you not bring destruction on them?

God, would you deliver them in the midst of their sinfulness?

So Moses goes before the Lord and he intercedes for the people.

And here's what God does.

He says, I want you to take a pole and I want you to take a bronze snake and I want you

to stand it up there and all the people who will look to the bronze snake on the pole

will be healed.

God offered the people in that instance a way to be healed, a way to be delivered.

And even in that story, way back in the Old Testament, there's a hint there of what is

to come in Jesus Christ.

There's a hint there that for you and I who are sinners, who have rebelled against God,

and we might not want to admit it, but we are just as rotten as the Israelites and we

complain, and we grumble, and we rebel against God, and we turn against God, and we need

to be delivered.

And where will our deliverance come from if not from God?

We are doomed to die as those who were bit by the serpents.

But God provided a way of escape.

God provided a way out.

And He said, look to the snake on the pole and you will be saved.

And here we see something even better than that when we come to Jesus Christ in the New

Testament.

That there was one who was nailed to the cross, that there was one whose blood was shed for

us, and that one who hung on the cross who gave his life for us, he is the one that we

look to today.

We don't look to a snake on a pole, we look to the Son of God who was nailed to a cross

for our sins, and that's where our deliverance comes from.

But look, the people in the story, they recognized that they had sinned.

They went to Moses and they said, we have sinned.

They went to the one who could intercede, and they acknowledged their sin, and they

called out to God for help, and God offered them a way of deliverance.

And here in our passage today, we see that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our intercessor,

the one that we have access to God through Jesus Christ, that we come to the one who

gave his life on our behalf so that our sins could be forgiven, so that we put our faith

in Jesus Christ, and that he pleads for us, that he intercedes for us, that he says, Father,

this one is mine.

Father, this one is deserving of death.

This one is deserving of wrath.

But God, I have given my life so that their sins could be covered.

And what a beautiful truth today that we see that Jesus has interceded for us, and he lives

to intercede for us if we would come to him.

See another beautiful Old Testament example, 2 Chronicles chapter 30.

2 Chronicles 30 · chapter mention

You can read these this week.

These are good stories.

There was a king of Judah.

His name was Hezekiah.

He was a good king, one of the few good kings.

Now, Israel never had a good king, the northern ten tribes.

The southern tribes that were known as Judah, they had a handful of good kings, and Hezekiah

was one of those good kings.

Now, the northern tribes of Israel were a mess.

They had just quit all of God's laws.

There were not many people that were serving him.

Things were very difficult, and God sent the Assyrians in and destroyed them.

But about the same time that God sent the Assyrians in to destroy the northern ten tribes

is about when Hezekiah became the king in Judah.

And Hezekiah did something that was good and godly and right.

Hezekiah recognized that God's people had abandoned the ways of God.

The temple was in bad shape.

The people weren't doing what God told them to do.

The priests and the Levites, they weren't serving God.

They weren't offering the sacrifices and doing the things that they should have done.

And Hezekiah became king, and he said, we got to change this up, which is why we see

Judah last a little bit longer than the northern ten tribes.

They did have a couple of good kings, and God was patient with them for a little while.

And one of those good kings was Hezekiah.

So what he does is, he says, we're going to get the temple back in order.

So he gets the people together and he says, look, we got to get things straight.

We got to get things cleaned up.

You priests, you Levites, you got to start doing what you need to do.

You need to get yourself clean.

You need to make sure you're ritually clean so you can start offering the sacrifices and

doing the things that need to be done.

And he sent word all around the whole area.

And he said, all right, all of God's people, listen up.

We're getting back on track.

We're getting the temple back in shape.

We're getting the Levites and the priests back together.

Everybody come.

We are going to celebrate the Passover.

Now, God's people had been neglecting all these things that he had told them to do.

But Hezekiah came in and he said, we're going to get back on track and do what God calls

us to do.

And so all the people came in and began to come and they began to gather around.

They began to come to the temple and they began to partake of the Passover, except there

was a problem.

Well, they were ritually unclean.

And there were a lot of things in the scripture that would make the people unclean.

Even the priests and the Levites, a lot of them were unclean.

But nonetheless, these people were coming with the right heart to come back to try to

do what God told them to do.

And in 2 Chronicles chapter 30 verse 18, it says this, a large number of the people,

2 Chronicles 30:18

many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were ritually unclean.

Yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written.

But Hezekiah had interceded for them saying, may the good Lord provide atonement on behalf

of whoever sets his whole heart on seeking God, Yahweh, the God of his ancestors, even

though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.

So the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Now Hezekiah knew that there were certain commands and certain things that people were

supposed to do before they could partake of the Passover meal.

But he also knew that the people, they were coming and they were coming to seek God, but

they had been so long without doing these things.

Maybe some of them didn't even know about it or maybe they had forgotten or maybe the

priest just weren't doing a good job of teaching the people and they didn't know the word of

God and they came and they partook of the Passover and they were unclean.

But Hezekiah stepped up and said, look, even though this ain't right, God, even though

this isn't the way that things are supposed to be, it says that Hezekiah interceded for

them and he went to the Lord and he says, God, we're unclean, we're rebellious, we're

not who we should be, but God, would you make atonement for the people?

Even though we're not doing what the law says, even though we're wrong in that way, God,

would you make atonement for the people?

And what does it say?

It says that God heard Hezekiah's request and he healed them.

This is a good glimpse, a good example that there's something better than the law.

What is that?

And that is that atonement doesn't come by the law, that atonement comes through God.

It is God alone who provides atonement for us today.

And that atonement came, in the case of Hezekiah, through an intercessor.

And so it comes for us today.

God atones for our sins today through what Jesus Christ has come.

And Jesus is not only our atonement, but Jesus is the one who intercedes for us on our behalf.

We are just like the Israelites that we see in all these examples.

We are sinful men and women who rebel against God and we needed one who would come, who

was perfect in every way.

And the book of Hebrews says that one is Jesus Christ.

He's established a better priest to it.

And as our high priest, He is atoned for our sins and He intercedes for us.

Because even as followers of Jesus Christ, sometimes we still sin.

And the Old Testament gives us all these examples, but even in the Old Testament it's pointing

us forward to Jesus Christ.

At the end of Isaiah chapter 52, we are introduced to a section that's often referred to as the

Isaiah 52 · chapter mention

suffering servant.

And it's a prophecy that's pointing us forward to one who's going to come, a servant of God.

And guess who that servant of God is?

It's Jesus Christ.

And we get into Isaiah chapter 53 and it's pointing us to Jesus Christ who's the suffering

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

servant who's going to come and be obedient to the Father and give His life on the cross

for sinful people, for you and I.

And in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 12 it says this, Yet He bore the sin of many and interceded

Isaiah 53:12

for the rebels, even in the Old Testament we see this idea of one who would come and

intercede for us.

We see these beautiful examples of Moses and of Hezekiah, of what it means for one to step

up for somebody, to argue on behalf of somebody, to plead on behalf of somebody, to make a

case on behalf of somebody.

And Jesus Christ is our intercessor.

Now we need to realize when we talk about Jesus Christ being our intercessor, when we

looked at those first two examples we saw some commonality there and that was the people

sin and God was ready to destroy them.

Now I won't pretend that there are not days perhaps that we don't sin greatly that God

is not angry with us.

There probably are some days in which we sin and continue in sin that perhaps God is angry

with us.

But I think we need to be careful not to kind of paint this picture that, okay, God is always

angry with us and so therefore Jesus is having to sit there beside Him saying, okay God give

him a break, don't destroy him today.

I don't think that that's an accurate depiction necessarily of what this intercession means.

Now certainly God does get angry with us perhaps from time to time and certainly Jesus does

intercede for us.

But we do see in Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 that there is an accuser that accuses the

Revelation 12:10

brothers night and day the scripture says and that accuser is none other than the serpent,

the devil, Satan, Revelation 12 tells us.

And it says that that one who wants to accuse his brothers night and day, night and day

is thrown into the lake of fire.

He's thrown out of heaven and eventually thrown into the lake of fire and those who he wants

to accuse are those who follow Jesus Christ.

And in that passage it says this, it says the accuser is thrown out and it says he is

overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of the testimony of the believers.

So if Satan is constantly ever before the throne trying to accuse us in whatever way

that may take place, I don't know how that looks like, I don't know how Satan and God

may interact but in whatever way that Satan is accusing us we need to remember today that

we have an intercessor in Jesus Christ.

While Satan is saying God they are guilty, they are evil, they deserve death, Jesus says

I have died for them Father, let my blood cover their sins so that they may be forgiven.

And that is where we find comfort and strength today.

That we overcome the accuser today.

The accuser doesn't only accuse us before God but he accuses us before us.

There may be sins in your life today and the devil is just hounding you about those things

and he's accusing you about those things, things maybe that you did 10, 15, 20 years

ago and he's saying you remember that thing you did, you remember how evil you are.

Well Satan wants to get us down, he wants to accuse us, he wants to discourage us.

So we overcome his accusations by knowing that we are not defined by our sins of the

past if we have put our faith in Jesus Christ because those sins have been forgiven.

And so Jesus didn't just atone and intercede for us that day on the cross but Hebrews tells

us that he lives to intercede for us.

Romans chapter 33 tells us something very similar, Romans chapter 8 verse 33 says,

Romans 8:33

Who can bring an accusation against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies.

Who is the one who condemns?

Christ Jesus is the one who died but even more has been raised.

He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

So even if we are condemned by the devil, even if there are sins in our past, even if

there are sins before us today, Jesus Christ died to cover those sins and Jesus Christ

has been raised and Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God to do what Paul says,

to intercede for us.

Jesus hadn't forgotten about you today.

Life may be difficult for you today.

It may be hard, there may be temptations before you and sins before you, sins of your past

that come to your mind but we need to know today that Jesus Christ has covered those

sins, that Jesus is in our corner today, that Jesus intercedes for us.

What does that look like?

How does Jesus intercede for us today?

Well I don't really know the answer to that.

I don't know what that intercession looks like for us today as Jesus is seated at the

right hand of God.

But maybe scripture gives us a little idea.

We see a couple of passages that may point to what this intercession looks like.

One is Luke chapter 22 verse 32.

Luke 22:32

Luke chapter 22 verse 32, Jesus speaking here, excuse me we'll start in verse 31.

Luke 22:32

Simon, Simon, look out, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for

you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back strengthen your brothers.

Now think about this for a second.

Jesus said Peter, Satan wants to sift you.

You're fixing to go through a really hard time but what did Jesus tell him?

Jesus says but I have prayed for you.

What Jesus is saying there is I have interceded.

I'm interceding for you Peter.

Look you're going to fail Peter.

He didn't acknowledge that.

But when you turn back, when you've been restored, Peter you're going to deny me.

But when you come back, when you realize the error of your ways and you repent and you

seek me and you come back to me, restore your brothers, Peter I have prayed for you.

Now what a powerful and beautiful passage that Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior

of the world prayed for Peter.

That's kind of a crazy thing to think about.

We pray to God and we think okay we're praying to God.

We're grateful for who Jesus is.

But Jesus prays to the Father.

We see it time and again in the scripture and on some occasions we see examples like

this where Jesus prays for his followers.

John chapter 17, another good example of this.

John 17 · chapter mention

John chapter 17 verse 11.

John 17:11

Jesus speaking here.

I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you.

Holy Father protect them by your name that you have given me so that they may be one

as we are one.

Now here Jesus is approaching the end of his life and in John chapter 17 Jesus is praying

John 17 · chapter mention

to the Father.

And in this particular verse he's praying for his apostles.

He's praying for them.

And what does he say?

He says Father protect them.

Again we see this beautiful example of Jesus praying for his followers.

That he's interceding for his followers.

That he's lifting them up before the Father.

That God would be with them and protect them and help them because he knew that it's difficult

in this world.

He knew that they were going to have to stay in this world.

And he says I don't pray God that you would take them out of this world, but that you

would be with them while they are in this world.

Now there are probably some of us today and we're ready to be out of this world, but yet

we are in this world.

We're here right now because God has placed us here right now.

And so we don't want to pray that God would take us out of the world, but that God would

give us the strength, the very strength that Jesus prayed for.

And in this passage Jesus prayed for his 12 apostles.

But in the next passage as we read a little further down in John chapter 17 verse 20,

John 17:20

listen to what he says.

He says I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their

message.

That's you and I.

What a beautiful verse that Jesus Christ before he gave his life on a cross, that Jesus prayed

for you and I.

Those of us who would hear the gospel message that would start with his apostles and that

would spread throughout and eventually make it all the way to Liberty, Mississippi in

2024 so that we can hear this gospel truth and live by it, that Jesus says I not only

pray for my apostles that I've trained that I'm sending out, but I pray for those who

will hear the word and trust in me.

What a beautiful passage today to know that Jesus has prayed for us.

And so when we see in Hebrews that Jesus intercedes for us, perhaps this is part of what that

intercession looks like.

Perhaps Jesus is still praying for us and lifting us up before the Father today.

I don't know what that intercession looks like, but I know that Jesus is interceding

for us.

And I know that Jesus while he was on earth prayed for those who were his.

I know that the accuser constantly accuses us, but I know that we have victory over the

accuser by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

And what is our testimony?

Our testimony is that we have put faith and trust in Jesus Christ and that he is the Savior

of our life and our sins have been forgiven.

But today if you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have no testimony.

Your testimony is only what you've done in this world which isn't much.

We need a better testimony.

We need to know that we can be delivered by someone greater than us and that someone is

Jesus Christ and Christ alone.

First John chapter 2 verse 1 says that Jesus is an advocate for us, that Jesus speaks up

1 John 2:1

for us.

The scripture says that Jesus is the mediator between God and man.

There's a separation for you and I today between us and God if we've not come to Jesus Christ.

It's our sin that separates us.

Here's God who is perfect, who is holy in every way and then here you and I that are

sinful and rebellious and rotten in every way.

And so there has to be a way for us to be able to gain a relationship with God and the

only way that we can obtain a relationship with God, the only way that we go to heaven,

the only way that we can find favor with God and be made righteous is through the righteousness

of Jesus Christ.

The righteousness of Jesus Christ is our mediator.

He is the one who bridges the gap.

He is the one who suffers the wrath of God and who suffers death for you and I so that

our sins can be forgiven today.

He is the one who has atoned for us and he is the one who intercedes for us today if

we have put our faith and trust in him.

Whatever you may be going through today, if you're a child of God, if you put your faith

in Jesus Christ then may we find encouragement in knowing that Jesus Christ intercedes for

us today, that we have not been forgotten, that we have not been abandoned.

But Jesus did the work on the cross and even today seated at the right hand of God, Jesus

lives to intercede for you and I.

Now one day we won't need that intercession anymore.

One day those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ will all be in eternity

with Jesus Christ.

There will be no more sins to intercede for but today, but today we need the intercession.

We need the intercession of Jesus Christ and we need to intercede for one another.

We need to pray for one another.

When we say to somebody, I'm going to be praying for you, what we're saying is I'm going to

intercede for you.

I'm going to speak up for you.

I'm going to go to God on your behalf.

We need to be faithful to pray for people.

When people are struggling we need to intercede sometimes for those people we know who perhaps

they're rebelling against God and denying who Jesus Christ is.

We need to intercede.

God have mercy on them.

In the same way that Moses interceded and God had mercy on the people so we need to

intercede for those around us today.

Maybe today you're here and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Maybe your sins have not been atoned for and I can assure you they have not if you've

not put your faith in Jesus.

But Jesus Christ has come to be the perfect and sinless lamb to be shed for us today so

that our sins could be forgiven, that our sins would be atoned for and that he would

intercede for those who are his.

I pray today that if you don't know Jesus Christ you would.

I pray today that if you do know Jesus Christ you'd be encouraged to know that he intercedes

for you today.

Let's pray.

Father God we come to you, we thank you for these good words.

We thank you for your mercy and for your grace dear Lord.

We see it in these Old Testament passages we look at with Moses and with Hezekiah but

dear Lord we see it in our own life.

We see that same type of rebelliousness that we have dear Lord.

We see that your mercy is great and your grace is greater.

Dear Lord maybe there are some today that see that and know that.

But God maybe there are others today that need to be reminded of that.

Maybe we've just failed to see your mercy dear Lord.

I pray that we wouldn't fail to see it dear Lord.

You're good to us God.

You don't give us what we deserve and so often you give us what we don't deserve.

And so God I pray that you would help us today to seek you with all of our heart.

God sometimes we may say I'll get my life cleaned up and then I'll come to you.

But dear Lord we cannot clean up our life.

We're like the people that came before Hezekiah at the temple.

They were doing the best they could but dear Lord they were unclean.

But God their heart was right and dear Lord you atone for them.

So God maybe there are some today and they're just they're tired of living in their sin.

They're trying to clean up their life on their own.

But God I pray today that they'd stop trying to do it on their own.

That today is unclean and as sinful as they may be that they just God with all their heart

would come to you today and repent that you would atone for them and heal them dear Lord

as only you can.

God I pray for those today that do not know Jesus Christ.

That they put their faith and trust in Him.

God I pray for those today who are yours.

That we are ever reminded that Jesus cares for us.

That His work didn't end on the cross.

Yes He's seated at the right hand of God.

His work of sacrifice is completed.

His work of atonement is completed.

But God your word tells us that He lives to intercede even today.

So God we don't know exactly what that looks like but God we see the we see the love of

Jesus and how He prayed for us even in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

And God we thank you that Jesus intercedes for us today.

We thank you that He is on our side.

God I pray God that if there are some who are struggling today that they would find

comfort and strength in your word and in Jesus Christ to know that He loves them today.

That they are not abandoned.

That they are not forgotten dear Lord.

Sometimes it feels that way in the midst of our struggles.

But dear Lord I pray today that you would remind these sitting here that you love them.

That Jesus loves them.

That He gave His life on the cross for them dear Lord.

So I pray that we find strength and encouragement in your word.

And I ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.