From our Sunday service on February 22, 2026, Hebrews 4:14-6:20. This is part 4 of our Hebrews series. Watch the full message: Our Great High Priest – Hebrews Series #4 on YouTube.
Today we take up a truth I love to preach: Jesus is our great High Priest, our Advocate with the Father. Last time we saw God’s rest, and how Jesus has given us the opportunity to stop working our way into heaven and rest in the finished work of the cross. Now He is set before us not only as Savior, Brother, and rest, but as our representative with God. God wants you to know that having Jesus as an Advocate should be an anchor for your faith.
A High Priest Who Understands
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14–16
We have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, so we must hold fast our profession. We do not have a priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore we may come boldly unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus lived on this earth for over thirty years. Based on the timeline, it may have been almost forty. He may have been around forty when He died, if He was born in 6 BC and died in AD 33. That is a long time to walk this earth, and in that time He faced hardship. He fought sickness. He worked a physical job. He cared for His family. He lost friends. He experienced what this life has to offer, except for one thing: He never sinned. Temptations were around Him every day, and He never gave in. He knows what it feels like to be tired, pressured, and tried, and still He can represent us, because He did not fail.
The priests of the old covenant were taken from among men, compassed with infirmity, and had to offer for their own sins as well as for the people. They could sympathize because they shared the same broken condition, but they were also flawed, and their office ended. No man took that honor to himself. He had to be called of God, as was Aaron. Jesus is a different kind of Priest. He was called of God, as it is written, “Thou art my Son,” and “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” He is both compassionate and perfect. He learned obedience through what He suffered, and being made perfect He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. He does not stand beside us as another sinner. He stands before the Father as our Savior, able to give mercy and grace to help in time of need.
Grow Up, and Do Not Harden Your Heart
The writer then has a hard word. He had many things to say about Melchizedek and this priesthood, things hard to be uttered, because they were dull of hearing. By this time they ought to have been teachers, and they still needed milk and not strong meat. A person who uses milk only is unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Strong meat belongs to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Faith has to be practiced, not merely heard. We are not meant to remain spiritual infants, content only with the basics. There is a foundation every Christian should know, and then we are to go on unto perfection, not laying that foundation again and again as if we had never stood on it. God has given us His Word, His Spirit, and the example of faithful believers so that we can mature, discern truth from error, and live lives that reflect Christ.
Then comes a warning that troubles many people:
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Hebrews 6:4–6
It is impossible, the writer says, for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. This is not describing a true believer who tasted salvation and then lost it. It is about people who understand the teachings of Christ and still reject them. They know who He claims to be, and they choose against Him, as those who crucified Him did, even with “King of the Jews” written over His head. After that kind of settled rejection, there is no turning back in the sense this passage means, because they have already decided they want nothing to do with this salvation.
The next picture makes the two soils clear. Earth that drinks in the rain and brings forth herbs receives blessing from God. That which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Those who absorb the truth and embrace it will produce fruit. Those who harden their hearts and refuse it are like ground that only grows thorns.
But the writer will not leave the church in that fear:
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:9–12
Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. He wants us to show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The warning is meant to keep us from drifting, not to paralyze us.
An Anchor of the Soul
God made a promise to Abraham, and because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself. So by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 6:19–20
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which enters into that within the veil, where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He is already in God’s presence on our behalf, and nothing in this world can remove us from the security we find in Him.
We have a High Priest unlike any other: compassionate because He lived among us, perfect because He never failed, eternal because His office does not end. That truth invites us to grow, and it also warns us not to treat the knowledge of Christ as something we can taste and then refuse. But for those who have fled to Him, the word is comfort. Hold tightly to your faith, press on toward maturity, and live with confident hope. Our salvation does not rest on shifting circumstances or human effort, but on the finished work of Christ, our eternal High Priest, our Advocate, and our eternal anchor. God wants you to know that having Jesus as an Advocate should be an anchor for your faith.
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