Word of Salvation – Vol. 28 No. 04 – February 1983

 

Friends In High Places

 

Sermon by Rev. A. I. deGraaf v.d.m. on Romans 8.34 & James 5:16

Scripture Readings: Exodus 17: 8-13 & 28:15-35; Romans 8.31-39

Liturgy: BoW Ps 47; 369:1,2,3; BoW Ps.103:5,7; 381:3;
                        408:3; BoW Hy 501:1,2,3,4

 

It must be a nice and safe feeling,
to have FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
like in the city council
or in the federal cabinet,
someone who can speak up for you in case you get into trouble;
someone who can mention your name
there where it really matters.

            * * * * * * * *

You know, when Jesus was still with us, here on earth, He told His followers:
            "believe Me, it will be good for you that I go away.
             Then I can put a good word in for you, with My Father.”

We are so small that often we wonder:
            Who cares about us?
And our children... what must they do in a hostile and uncertain world?
How will they make it?
Who will look after them when we're not here any longer?

It'd help to have a friend in high places,
but these friends have so much on their mind.
Like that royal butler who forgot Joseph,
will not these friends – if we have them – forget?

Ah, but we can pray to God!
Yes, we know.
But so often we dare not.

It goes with us like it went with the children of Israel who were scared of God's power and trembled before His great holiness and said to Moses:
            Please, will YOU do the talking to God for us;
            we are not good enough.

God knows what we are like.

And so, even though the invitation still stands to come right up to Him,
He gave us truly
a FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES.

Often when we think of Jesus' ascension we see the King go to his throne;
and that is gloriously true.

Yet this morning I want you to hear... not trumpets
but the soft tinkling of little bells,
the little bells on the seam of the garment of the High priest
            who is busy in the holy place for us.

THE INTERCESSOR --- THE FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES

Which means:

   1 - YOUR NAME IN HEAVEN

   2 - YOUR BATTLE ON EARTH

   3 - YOUR BURDEN ON THE WAY.

In old Israel the High Priest was a picture of Christ.

He was the only one who could enter into the holy place where God's majesty dwelled.

To walk into the presence of God was no natural thing;
            not after man fell into sin
            and became a stench in the nostrils of a holy God!

To walk into the presence of a holy God
            was certain death even more than it would be
            to walk upright in a flat field under a threatening thunderstorm.

God lives in the light,
  and He is unapproachable
    for little jerks with darkness in their hearts
       and smudges on their lives.

But God said: I give you a friend in high places.
            One man I will allow to come to Me and talk to Me about you and for you.
            He has to carry your names graven in precious stones on his heart; and,
            having sacrificed the offering for your sins
                        he is allowed to come in and pray for you.

Now, you stay outside and wait till he has done that job for you.
But I will make sure that, even when you cannot see him
            when he is busy in the holy place for you,
            you will HEAR him:
            He has to wear a gown with little bells hanging from the bottom seam.

            * * * * * * * *

You know, Satan has ways
            to make you and me wonder if we will ever be right with God;
            to bog us down in our guilt.
    And our own heart may agree with the evil One:
            “How will I ever be right with God again?
            God will not listen to me;
            I cannot pray, I am too guilty; too weak;
            I have tested God's patience once too often.
            Now He's left me to it.
            I do not feel His peace within me.
            He has forsaken me.  I have gone too far.
            How can a holy God love one like me?
            How can He have anything but anger for such as I am?

That's what the devil tries to make you believe.

But listen now; no not yet to the sound of the trumpet of the last judgement;
            not even to the trumpets of the King going to His throne;
            listen to the soft tinkling of the bells
            on the robe of the High Priest!

You have a friend in high places,
            a High Priest who paid the price for all your sins;
            and who cried "It is finished" after doing so.
            Who died for the COMPLETE remission for all your sins;
            not a 99% remission, for MOST of your sins.
            No, the lot!
            And with that terrible price paid for your terrible sins
                        He came into the holy place
                        and once He came in the accuser went out forever.

Satan may pester you here,
                        he can no longer come before God with the list of your sins.
            When you put your trust in your friend and High Priest
                        then there is nothing left of these sins,
                        nothing at all;
                        then you may hear the tinkling of the bells
                        as you know Him busy
                         – praying for you
                        before the face of a holy God,
                        carrying your name on His heart.

Your name is written in the heavens.

That's even more reason to rejoice, said Jesus,
             than the fact that demons are now obedient to do your bidding.

Your name is not just on the list of the tax man
                        and not just on the computers of the Social Services.
            No, your name is written on the heart of your High Priest.
            He paid a tremendous price to get you.
            He rejoices with fierce and holy joy that He got you!
            Got you!  Out of the claws of the evil one!
            He is thinking of you and me forever
            as He prepares, in the Father's house,
            the place where you and I will live with God forever..

When you put your trust in Jesus, then that's the heady thing you may say and believe.

This is the blessed assurance God has for everyone who puts his trust in Jesus.

YOUR NAME IN HEAVEN – we say;
            all fine, but meanwhile there is also

2 - YOUR BATTLE ON EARTH.

And earth, that's where you and I live,
            and that's where Satan has come down
            in great fury
            knowing that he has only a short time left.

But how are we going to manage against him?
What can we do against such an enemy?

Well, come back with me again to the old story in Exodus.

Israel was travelling through the desert.
  Scarce were they out of Egypt,
  Barely were they getting on their own as a nation of ex-slaves,
    and they GET ATTACKED...
                        BY THE HARDY DESERT RATS OF AMALEK..

Unfair!

Why didn't God fight THAT battle for them
                        as He had done against Pharaoh a month or so ago!
            How could that lot of shepherds,
                        who scarcely know by which end to hold a sword,
                        and had never been able to practice arrow shooting in Egypt
                         (you think Pharaoh's slave drivers would have let them?)
            how can they get anything but routed,
                        anything but wiped out!
                        by the enemy they now must face?

But then Moses has to climb up the nearby hill
            and to lift his hands and his staff
            in prayer to God.

As long as his hands stayed up,
                        the children of Israel did win in the battle.
            When he got tired of keeping his
                        arms and hands up towards the heavens
                        two friends stood one to his left and one to his right
                        holding up his arms,
                        until the final victory was won.

Then it is ISRAEL that won the battle.

Do you see how God brings up His children?

When the nation had to be set free from Pharaoh,
                        out of the house of slavery,
                        that was something only God could do.
            All Israel could do then was wait and believe.
            He fought for them; they had to be still; just watch Him do it.

So also in Jesus' battle against your guilt, your sin and your slavery.

You can never get yourself free from that.

All you can do, and have to do,
            is to accept that tremendous work of the Lord Jesus
                        --- in faith.

But then – having made you God's child
            and God's covenant partner again,

He says: Come join Me now.
            I don't like doing things on my Own.

He doesn't, you know!

He is not going to make a new world on His own.
He calls His people to fight the Lord's battles.
But never in your own strength.

We have a Friend in High Places:

He prays for us as we fight here,
He lifts up the staff of prayer while we fight here.
And then Satan has the bitter pill to swallow
            that he is licked by small and inexperienced
            children like you and me.

Then God's grace is sufficient,
            and His power is made perfect
                        in weakness.
            So that no one boasts
                        except in the Lord.

That’s how it works.
Still today.

YOUR NAME IN HEAVEN

YOUR BATTLE ON EARTH

Yes, battle!
The Lord did not promise you or me an easy trip.
But always His help, always His grace!

Now finally:

- 3 - YOUR BURDEN ON THE WAY.

Yes – said James – the prayer of a righteous man is a powerful thing!  It can do a lot!

Especially the prayer of that Righteous Man who is The Son of Man,
    obedient to the end. 
But now we, too, have been made righteous,
            we, too, have been made white
            before the holy eyes of an all-knowing God.

And now our High Priest, our Friend in High Places, is making US priests,
            and He says, I want YOU – in My footsteps
            to be the friend-in-high-places
            for people who do not know yet.

Come, my righteous ones, your prayers too can do a lot.

Paul prayed for all the congregations he had served,
            and thus stayed busy for them even when in prison!

Come, follow your High Priest
            you, priests of God,
            whom He dressed in the robes made white by His blood;
            come take the burden of prayer upon you.
            Fathers and mothers,
               do not WORRY about your children;
               do a better thing: PRAY for them.

People of God, maybe you cannot force your neighbours to church
            but you can pray for them.
You know the Lord, they don't.

Healthy children of God
            pray for the sick... who may be too ill to pray,
            especially when their minds are ill;
            but you, sick people, could it be that
            God, by laying you flat in bed,
            is giving you time to pray for those who think they are too busy right now?

You be someone's friend in high places!
  As Jesus is that for all of us!

It is a great privilege indeed
            that we can and may say "yes"
            when someone asks:
              "Please, would you put a good word in for me?"

Sometimes we think: it is quite a burden.
And it is.
But here, too, we are never alone.
Here, too, we may know that the Prince Himself
            is with us.
The Son of the Father
            who carries your and my name
            and the names of our children, on His heart.
            We lay the names of our children
                        into the hands of God.
            But Jesus carries them right on His heart.

Amen.