Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter that we read,
Hebrews chapter 4, and reading from our text, verse 16, the
last verse. Hebrews chapter 4, the last verse,
verse 16. 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, verse 16. And it is
specifically upon my spirit, the last part, find grace to
help. in time of need. God's children
have times of need and there is a provision in the Lord Jesus
Christ for them that is the grace that he has to give and that
is to be obtained through prayer in times of need. The chapter that we have read
follows on from chapter 3 where there is the example of the children
of Israel going through the wilderness journey from Egypt to the promised
land. And yet there was many that never
entered into that promised land. They did not enter into the rest
of Canaan. And the Apostle uses this as
a warning, as an example to us. And we have in the latter verses
of chapter 3, the question in verse 17, But with whom was he
grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believed not? And the reason why they could
not enter in, because of unbelief. May we never think lightly of
unbelief. Unbelief is a sin. Unbelief is
the reason why. countless millions never enter
into glory. However, the Apostle then uses
this as a warning to us. Many of the things that happened
in the Old Testament were for our learning, and often they're
taken as examples that we shouldn't sin in the same way And we shouldn't
provoke God in the same way they held up to the New Testament
church to the end of time as living examples, solemn examples
of those who entered first upon the way, came into the wilderness,
came out of Egypt, but never entered into Canaan. And it is
a warning to us, and this is taken up Right at the beginning
of the chapter we read, chapter four, let us therefore fear lest
a promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should
seem to come short of it, even seem to come short of it, even
if there be just a hint of coming short of it. And what is evident
from the chapter before It could have been seen by what happened
in the wilderness that these would not endure to the end. And so we are told in the Psalms
that the Lord gives us grace and glory. The two things go
together. Grace here below and glory hereafter. If we are to have glory or eternal
rest in heaven, then we need God's grace here below. Not only saving grace as quickened
into spiritual life, but we also need to be kept in the way and
we need to be strengthened in the ways of the Lord and not
left to unbelief and to doubting the Lord through the way. Now
before we come to some main points this morning, I just want to
notice a few things that, where we may fear to come short, that
if these things are with us, these three things, that we will
then endure and we won't come short at the last. The first
thing to note is in verse 2, Hebrews 4 verse 2, it is that we should profit through the
word preached. This is put in a negative way
with the children of Israel, that the word of God did not
profit them, and the reason is told that it was not mixed with
faith in them that heard it. You think of the many times that
the word of God was given to the children of Israel, given
in the Passover, that those that just saw the Passover as a lamb
slain and sheltering beneath it and never looked past that
to Christ, that did not profit them at all. All of the sacrifices
through the wilderness, that did not profit them if they didn't
look past the blood of bulls and of goats and see the coming
Lamb of God. If they'd have been at Mount
Sinai, and they saw the broken law, the broken tables first,
and then the restored tables, and put those restored tables
in the ark, which is a type of Christ, Christ fulfilling the
law. If they saw all of that, but
never looked past it, and saw the Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
the seed of the woman, that was to fulfill the law, then that
word did not profit them. It was just rounds of dead service. It was just what some of them
said, what a weariness it would be. And if we couldn't see what
it was pointing to, I think we would think the same. All that
bloodshed, all those sacrifices, all of that labour and that work,
and you think, what's the purpose of it all? But if that purpose
was to show forth The Lord Jesus then, that was the end in view
of those things, of the Word of God that directed in all those
things. And so with us as well. If the
Word did not profit them, and it was not mixed with faith,
so it is with us in the Gospel day. The question is, does the
Word of God profit us? Does it do us good. Do we go out from the house of
God? It may be searched, it may be
the word has found us out in our sin, it may be found us out
in just coming backwards and forwards to the house of God,
and yet no life in our souls. We've never seen the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith, we never had our heart burn within us like
those two in the way to Emmaus as the Lord opened up the Scriptures
in all things concerning Himself. So one thing that will ensure
that we do endure unto the end and we don't come short is if
we are profiting through the Word of God. We are feeding upon
that Word. You think in a natural way if
we were sitting down meal after meal, and that food did not profit
us, it did not do us good. And there are some people it
doesn't. They can't digest it properly, they react to it, and
they get thinner and thinner, and it doesn't profit them. We
need not only to eat that food, but it must do us good, it must
profit us. And this is what is set before
us here. We come not just to learn of
doctrines, not just to hear the word, but to feed upon the word. That was what the Lord said to
Peter, feed my sheep and feed my lambs. And we are to feed,
except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man,
ye have no life in you. And that can be told here, they
don't have to wait to get to the borders of the grave to know
whether or not we are feeding on the Word. And that is the
first thing, that if that is so with us, then we need not
fear that we are coming short at the last. The second thing
is in verse 3, if we believingly enter into rest. He says, for we which have believed
to enter into rest, as he said, as I've sworn in my wrath, if
they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. The Lord from the foundation
of the world has chosen his people He is the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. There's no uncertainty in the
salvation of God. Those that were given him of
the Father will be saved. They cannot not come into heaven
at last. They must do. But for us, we
are walking that path. walking these things out and
so the rest that is spoken of here in the scriptures there
are several rests that are spoken of we have right at the beginning
the seventh day which is referred to here and one day in seven
sanctified set apart as a day of rest The children of Israel
entering into Canaan was their rest from their wilderness journeys. We have then the Christian Sabbath
when our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week
and that is the day that he appeared to his disciples and that is
to be the day of rest. We have then the rest of heaven
which shall be at last for the people of God, no more toils
with Satan, with sin, or this world, or the labor of it. We
have another rest, and that is the rest of the gospel. And that is what is referred
to here, because it says that those that have entered into,
in verse nine in chapter four, there remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God, And then the secret then is in verse 10,
for he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from
his own works as God did from his. So he's going back to the
creation, God created the world in six days, then he rested because
it was a finished work. When the Lord suffered on Calvary
and he rose again, he ascended up into heaven, he sat at the
right hand of the throne of God. He rested because that work was
finished at Calvary, the work of redemption. And so with us
in a gospel day, the true rest is to cease from our own works. By nature, we are under the covenant
of works, And we will naturally try to obtain heaven by our own
works and by our own deeds. And it is a labor, it is a toil,
and it will never achieve heaven. It will never get there. It's
hard work. Our Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And that rest then
is to see, believingly and by faith so clearly, that our Lord
Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and made it honorable. He has paid our debts. He's ascended
into heaven. And when we see that, then we
realize there is not a work for us to do to fulfill the law.
Christ has done it for us. There's not a work for us to
do to pay the debt due to our sin because Christ has paid that
debt. And so it is entering into the
rest of believing truly in Christ and what he has done. The labor
and the unbelief, it arises in that way. We do not trust Christ
for what he has done. We think that we need to add
our part to it. It's like someone saying to us,
well, we have paid your debt, but instead of being thankful
to them, Instead of resting, we go out labouring and trying
to work and trying to get some money to pay the debt. And they'd
say to us, what are you doing? Why are you spending all of that
labour? You're saying, I'm trying to
pay my debt. You say, but it's paid. It's done. What are you
doing that for? And it slights that payment that's
already been paid. It puts a thought, well, it's
not sufficient. It needs something added to it.
and it's not rest for us, it's labour. And so the Gospel is
believing fully and resting in what Christ has done, trusting
in what Christ has done, not trying to steady the arc, as
it were, not trying to work at work ourselves, and especially
not coming into that unbelief to think that the Lord cannot
do what he has said he will do. The big test with the children
of Israel, right through the wilderness, was that they did
not obey the Lord. And when it came to the borders
of Canaan, they saw the high walled towns, they saw the giants,
they saw what seemed to be impossibilities and they couldn't believe that
God would overcome them. We might be the same. And this
is the warning for all the people of God, is that they look upon
those things that are too hard for them, too great for them,
and the temptation is to despair. Say, I can never get to heaven.
I will never endure unto the end. And in that, we are not
trusting Christ. Where Christ gives us spiritual
life, he will also maintain us. Paul says in Romans chapter 4
and 5 that if while we were sinners Christ died for us, how much
more being reconciled we shall be saved through his life. And if God has passed by us when
we are in our sin and bid us live, He will give us every grace
and every help to endure unto the end. He that endureth unto
the end shall be saved, but no one will endure unto the end
that trusts in their own selves, keeping their own selves, strengthening
their own selves. By strength no man shall prevail. The might, the help must be of
the Lord. So that is the second thing. The third thing is this, is making
use of our high priest above. And this is where we come to
the words of our text. If there is provided for the
Church of God, which there is, a high priest, one to appear
in the presence of God for us, it is making use of it. Imagine. If we had a friend in Buckingham
Palace, a friend in high places, a friend that had access to those
that had authority, had influence, and they had money, and we were
in need, we needed money, we needed someone to help us, to
speak a word for us, and we just sat and we complained about how
poor we were, we had nothing, and we didn't know what to do,
and you'd say, Haven't you got a friend at Buckingham Palace? Haven't you got a friend that
is mighty, that has authority, that has money? Why don't you
ask them? We think that someone was foolish
if they had such a friend and didn't ask. And yet we can be
like that with the Lord. And we don't ask. And we don't
come to Him. And it is very easy to pass over
that. a real rebuke from the Lord many
years ago in the early part of my ministry, and I had three
services coming up on the Lord's Day, and I was seeking for a
text, I was seeking to prepare for the services, and I couldn't
get any text, and I got more and more angry with the Lord.
I say it to my shame, and I went before the Lord in prayer, and
I said to Him, You have sent me into the ministry, but you're
not giving me any text, and you promised you would give me the
text. And I was real angry with the Lord. And when I finished
in prayer, all that was heard was just a still, small voice,
you have not asked. And it was true. I'd gone into
my study, I'd opened my Bible, I was searching through the scriptures,
I was trying to find a text, but I hadn't asked. And it was
that simple. And you know, it so made me so
ashamed and so humble before the Lord. And I've never forgotten
that time. And there's many, many things
in my life, and I believe in yours as well, that is a simple
thing. You have not asked. Ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. Always try to remember that.
In the ministry, it will be a help to each of the hearers as well. But in my case, I missed out
the first part. I just started seeking. That's
all. But when we ask, then we can
seek. And when the Lord gives his word,
it might be like the Ethiopian unit, not understand it. But
then it is knocking in prayer. Lord, what does this mean? Open
this up to me so I understand it. And so it's making use of
our high priest above. It's coming there. It's asking. And our text says, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. So there is, there is
a high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, has appeared in the presence
of God for us. We have one made like unto his
brethren, yet sin accepted. He is our advocate with the Father,
not someone else's. And he is one that can be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. The scripture puts it the other
way around. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And it pictures
a high priest in heaven and he doesn't feel for us, he's not
moved, he's not touched, he has no compassion, he doesn't feel
for us at all. We haven't got one like that.
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sins."
Hard for us to really grasp how that could be so, that the eternal
Son of God could be tempted or tried in all points like ourselves,
yet no sin. So it is coming then. Let us
therefore, because we have such a high priest, come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. So on to look then, three main
points. Firstly, the times of need that
the people of God will have. And then secondly, coming to
the throne of grace at such times. And we're told here, coming boldly. And then lastly, the reason for
coming is spoken in two ways, to obtain mercy and to find grace
to help. Firstly, the times of need. The
people of God will have. It's good for us just to realise
this in God's plan and God's purpose. Unless the devil say,
well, you've been converted, you believe, everything will
be alright. You won't have anything go wrong.
No troubles at all, you just sail through life with a good
hope of heaven, and you'll never get into a place that, like in
Psalm 107, again and again, they fell down, there was none to
help. And what was the changing point
in every time? Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. The prayer, the crying to the
Lord was their help. But it was falling down first,
and none could help. God's people do have times of
need. So, my right at the start, we
put a stop to the devil's lie in that, put a stop to those
temptations of thought, well, we should be, if we have grace
sufficient for everything, we should be able to meet every
case and every trial and every need. And we don't even think
we should have needs and should have troubles. But what does
the scripture say? Our Lord was so insistent on
that. In me ye shall have peace, in
the world ye shall have tribulation. Great trouble. The disciples,
when they were to encourage the brethren in Acts, they said,
ye must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. If we weren't
already entering into tribulation, You think, well, that's a miserable
encouragement in starting in the way of the Lord. But if you
already were having many troubles, then that would be a great comfort. It would be a waymark that you
weren't out, that you were still in the way. You know, if we were to be given
directions to go from here to London, And we were given those
directions which to go. And we started to go in it. And
we found a road with much hindrances in it, potholes, and really rough
and horrible road. You think, surely, we've taken
the wrong road. This can't be right. But if the
person before had said, this is the direction, and you'll
find a road that's full of potholes, and it's a very rough road and
a horrible road, Instead of it being a discouragement, when
we came upon all of those things, we'd say, ah, this is what we
were told would be there. We must be in the right way.
And so in the scriptures, the Lord is very clear in that, in
telling what his people are to encounter in the way. Tribulation. Then also we have it, as the
apostle says in Romans 7, the combat with sin. He says, the
good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not,
that I do. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Every child of
God will have an adversary in sin, their own sin, the sin that
is in the members, sin that will be there even though we don't
want it to be there, sin that we love by our old nature, But
by God's grace we hate the old, the Puritans used to say that
to impress upon the heart of a young believer that he is called
to a daily battle with the corruptions of his own heart. Those corruptions
will be there and they'll rise up and they'll be too much for
you and I. The heart is deceitful above
all things. and desperately wicked, and it
needs one outside of ourselves, not our own heart, to manage
that heart and to deal with that. So that is something, that is
a time of need the people of God will have on a constant basis. He told with the Philadelphian
church in Revelation 3 that the Lord would keep them in the hour
of temptation. And that shall also come upon
all the earth. Temptation and trial. James,
he says, that a man is tempted when he is overcome of his own
lust and carried away. It is not sin to be tempted. It is sin to give way to that
temptation and go on in that way, but to resist it. We have no strength or power
of our own. We rely on the Lord and rely
on His authority. Let him that thinketh, he standeth,
take heed lest he fall. And when the Lord spoke to Peter
and says, Satan hath desired to have thee and to sift you
as weeds, but I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And
Peter says, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. But Peter
did deny his Lord, and he did need the Lord's prayer. And though
he denied his Lord, his faith still stood, because our Lord
had prayed that it would stand in that hour. The Apostle Paul
knew what it was to have a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet him. We don't know exactly what that
was. We could surmise what it was,
but we don't know. But whatever it was, Satan made
great use of that. And as dear friends, I've known
have said, when I've questioned, have said, well how could that
be? An affliction that causes that, because it's spoken of
in the messenger of Satan, and this was a man over in Australia
and he had chronic arthritis. He used to have gold injections
every three months. He looked at me, he said, Roland,
he said, it is not the affliction, it is what Satan does through
that affliction. how he stirs up and how he would
poison us against the Lord or make us fretful and murmur and
complaining and irritable is that which is the messenger of
Satan. Those times of need the people
of God will have. Another time of need will be
under the chastening hand of God. There is none that the Lord
receives, we're told in Hebrews 12, he chastens every son whom
he receiveth. And we're told that now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that
are exercised thereby. If we are to profit through chastening,
We need that help of the Lord. Otherwise we rebel, we fight,
we kick against it, we don't submit to it, we don't bow before
the Lord. Then what is it when we fall,
when we do fall into sin? When David fell into sin with
murder and with adultery, the recovery, of the soul is of the
Lord. The Lord sent Nathan to him. And when you and I fall, we have
the beautiful word in 1 John 1, that if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. But we need help again to confess
those sins and to bring them before the Lord. our dealings
with men as well. We're told concerning the Lord
how that he endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. The apostles, the early church,
they had much persecution. The Lord said, I've given them
thy word and the world have hated them. And we have interactions,
not just with the world, but with the church of God as well.
And if we are to speak and walk graciously and kindly and to
honour the Lord in all we do, we need help from our own spirit. When the disciples were with
the Lord and the Samaritans didn't receive them, they said, shall
we call down fire from heaven and consume them as Elias did? And the Lord said, you know not
what manner of spirit ye are of. The Son of Man has come not
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they had to learn
the spirit of the Lord. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest unto your souls. Our way is to rise up in anger,
to justify ourselves, to fight back, whether with words or physically,
And yet the Lord's way is a different way. We may know that, but we
need that help that our old nature is subdued and we don't rise
up. Another way of help, and I believe
that in a lot of ways this is what is pointed to here, is when
we have sickness and affliction. Those things come upon the people
of God. We're not to think or preach
as some do. that, well, if we are the people
of God, you will not have sickness, you will not have affliction,
you'll always have health or strength. And if these things
are taken, it's some indication that you're not a child of God.
No, the people of God have many sicknesses, many afflictions
in common with all of mankind. It is because of sin that the
Lord gives for his people that help in those sicknesses and
in those afflictions. We read of Elisha, even though
he was able to do many miracles, yet at last he fell sick of the
sickness whereof he died. And all of us here, this body
one day must be laid in the tomb. We must die. And those will be
times of need when we come into that sickness and into that we
When I go into the old people's homes and I see those who've
led very active lives in ministry, some of them I've known when
they have been so active. And then I've seen them come
down. I've seen them get dimension. I've seen them helpless and dependent
upon others. And I've seen them need grace
and help that they never thought they needed and didn't need early
on in life. And certainly I've come into
those things where maybe years ago I never needed help in a
certain way. But as time has gone on and we've
come into different things, we do need that help. So the times
of need that the people of God will have, don't be surprised
when you or I come into times of real need. The second thing
then is coming to the throne of grace at such times. Our text says, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Now there are many things
that may prevent us from coming especially boldly to the throne
of grace. We can think perhaps that the
time of our need has come about because of something that we
have done, some mistake, some sin. It's our fault. How can we expect the Lord to
help us in such a situation? How can we boldly come if that
is the case? Or if there are those thoughts
that Well, maybe the people of God shouldn't even have these
problems. They shouldn't even be in these
troubles. Then those things will stop us
from coming to the throne of grace. May we be wary of anything
that hinders our coming in prayer. The Lord told the parables that
men ought always to pray and not to faint. And the word here
is to encourage us to always pray, always come to the Lord. And it's good to begin, and to
begin with telling the Lord of what that need is. When Abraham's
servant was to get a wife for Isaac at the well, he told what
his mission was, he told what his need was. Then he made his
petition. Jacob, when Esau was coming,
he told the Lord that Esau was coming and how he feared for
his wife, his children, his flocks and all that he had. He didn't
hold back what his fears were. He didn't say, well, I've had
the promise that it shall be from Isaac and the eldest shall
serve the younger. And I must be one of God's children,
and I'm in the line to Christ. He'll be all right. Don't worry
about his coming. He can't hurt me. He didn't just
trust in like that. He's not like us saying, well,
I know I'm elect. I must be one of the children
of God. So don't worry about these trials. It'll all be all
right. And so we don't pray, and we
don't ask the Lord. Beware of whatever devices Satan
might use, our own wicked heart. in thinking, well, you don't
need to pray, you don't need to ask. You think of the children
of Israel, when they came into the promised land, and God told
them to destroy all of the nations round about, and the Gibeonites
heard about it. And so then they took mouldy
bread, and their shoes all spoiled, their clothes all spoiled, and
they came to them, and made out they came from a long way away.
And you know, the children of Israel, we read, they took of
their victuals and asked not counsel of the Lord. In other
words, they thought it was such a cut and dried, such a easy
thing, they didn't need to ask the Lord, they could use their
own judgment. And how far they fell. They found
three days later, they dwell amongst them, and they'd been
deceived. One of the times that we should
most pray is when we think the thing is so easy and so simple,
we don't need to pray about this. But we do. And it is times of
need to come to the throne of grace and to come boldly, not
in an arrogant, careless way or an irreverent way. We come
with the fear of the Lord, but we come boldly knowing we have
God's authority that the Lord is appearing in the presence
of God, not for the righteous, not for those that don't have
need, but for those that do. And may the thought be, if he
is appearing in the presence of God for others, why not for
me? If he is our advocate with the
Father, does that apply to everyone else but me? And so we are to
come believing that this is the provision of God for us. It's an amazing thing that God
has ordained a way that he will hear sometimes not even audible
prayers. You think of Hannah in the temple,
Shiloh. And she is praying for a son. And Eli marked her lips. Her voice was not heard. He thought
she was drunken, but she said, no, I'm a woman with a sorrowful
spirit, and I poured out my heart, poured out, just completely poured
out her heart. That's another illustration of
real prayer. Later on, you know, Eli says
to her, the Lord give thee thy petition that thou hast asked
of him. I don't think she, she didn't tell him what her petition
was, but later she comes back and says with, Samuel, I am the
woman for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my
petition that I've asked of Him. And she's able to clearly see
and show forth the help and the answer to prayer that she's had. There's one thing in coming to
the throne of grace, we not only get the help that we need, but
we also have a token for good. and an answer to prayer in our
hand. And if we looked upon our times
of need as an opportunity God has given us, that we might have
an answer from him, and that he has given us something to
go and pray about. Sometimes we can complain we
don't know what to pray for, we don't know how to pray, but
God knows how to give us those prayers. Remember when the Lord
first began to work in my heart, and I lived on my own, just 20,
and I bought my own house. And the Lord had begun with me,
and I knelt to the chair one day, and to pray to the Lord. And as I knelt there, I couldn't
think of anything to pray to the Lord. And as I knelt there,
all manner of sinful and evil thoughts came into my mind. And
I thought, this is a terrible thing. I'm in the attitude of
prayer. I'm kneeling before the Lord
in prayer. And all these sinful and evil
thoughts are in my mind. And so I then started to pray. I confessed it before the Lord.
I begged him to take away these evil thoughts and these things
that were going on in my head. And after I'd prayed for some
time like that, then I stopped. And I thought, that was a good
prayer, wasn't it? That's a really nice prayer.
And then I thought, well, one moment ago you didn't have prayer,
and then you had evil thoughts, and now you're proud of the prayer
that God gave you. And so I started praying again,
confessing my pride and the evil of my heart in even taking the
blessing of the Lord and being proud of that. One of our hymns
says, the heart uplifts with God's own gifts and makes even
gracious now. And we can. We can be proud of
our graces, proud of our prayers. That was the Pharisees, wasn't
it? They prayed to be seen of men. But in that way, the Lord
teaches how to pray when it is real things that we go through. How are our prayers? Are they day by day just the
same prayers or do they change with the things that happen?
I know in the ministry we do use the same phrases again and
again. Years ago when we had a dog and
we used to say in our home, come on Jack, it's time for the reading.
He'd jump and sit on the settee and he'd sit up straight for
the reading, leave all his toys and we'd have the reading and
prayer. And I realised, when I come to the end of the prayer,
I use the same words, because he'd start to whine. Before the
Amen, he knew when the prayer was coming to the end. As soon
as the Amen, he'd jump off the settee and pounce on his toys,
and he'd be playing with his toys. And I thought, that dog,
if that was my child, I would think, what a good child that
is. Sitting so boldly up, leaving the toys, paying attention to
the reading, the poor dog had no soul or anything, but it made
her realize how wrote or used words we can use are just the
same all the time. And our heart is not going with
her, we don't really know what we're saying. And so when we
come boldly to the throne of grace, then it must be, is what
I want to look on the third point, that we have a reason for coming,
a reason for coming. And in our text we read this,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Two things, obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Everything that we receive
from the Lord is on mercy's ground. We don't deserve it. We don't
deserve anything out of hell. And we come on mercy. God, be
merciful to me, a sinner, was the publicans prayer. And it's
good for us to remember whatever we are asking, whatever it is,
whether it is in the tribulation or sin in our members or being
tempted, whatever it is, the thorn of the flesh or under temptation
or in chastening of the Lord, We come on mercy's ground. We do not have anything in ourselves,
but we plead for mercy through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mercy seat is a blood-sprinkled
mercy seat. It's not just any mercy, it's
mercy at a price. It's because the price has already
been paid. You read of when Ahab showed
mercy to Ben-Hadad, It was said that because he had let go a
man that God had ordained to utter destruction, then he would
pay with his life for Ben-Hadad's life. But with the Lord, he dies,
he suffers, he sheds his precious blood, he pays the debt of his
people, and then he can show mercy justly and righteously
for his people. We don't deserve it. But the
Lord has died, and he has paid the debt, and he says that we
may obtain mercy. And may we remember that everything
that we receive is on mercy's ground. We won't then be chiding
with the Lord and saying, you didn't give me what I deserved.
I've done this right, and I've done that right, and I've obeyed
you, and you haven't done this. You haven't given me this. Now
the children of Israel, they said to Jeremiah, they said,
when we served the Queen of Heaven, we had everything, but now we're
serving the Lord, now everything's going wrong. Jeremiah pointed
out to them that they had done wrong in serving idols for a
long while. Were they now to just expect
that as soon as they changed, that the Lord was indebted to
them? No, it is mercy. Maybe you remember that. So if
anything that we receive, whatever we receive, we're not putting
it in debt. The Lord is not our debtor. We're
not demanding of him. We're asking if it is his will
and that he'll mercifully give us these things. So that's the
first thing. We come asking for mercy. If
the Lord gives us answers, we'll receive it as mercy, if we've
truly been asking on mercy's ground. The second thing is to
find grace to help in time of need. In all those situations
that we mentioned, with the tribulation, with the sin in our members,
with temptations, it is to obtain help from the Lord. Call upon
me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify me. And Jacob had prayed, and when
he last saw Esau's face, and he was in peace, he said, I saw
thy face as the face of an angel. It was an answer to prayer. He'd been given that answer.
There's a reason for coming. Hannah came, and she was able
to say, The Lord hath given me my petition that I asked. How
much are our prayers able to be assessed as to an answer? Or do we go away and if someone
was to ask us, what have you prayed for? What are you looking
for for answers? You say, oh, I'm not sure. But if we pray and we're looking
and watching for help and answers, then there'll be something as
well we can come with thanksgiving. Because it is with prayer and
supplication and thanksgiving. And if there's been no specific
petitions, there'll be no thanksgiving. If there's not an Ebenezer raised,
a thanks for the help given, then There is not that praise
and glory to the Lord. There's a beautiful encouragement
here to find grace to help in time of need. Now, sometimes
there will be a direct answer in time of need. I remember a
dear brother in the faith, now in glory, he had a farm out near
here in Kent, and he was a shepherd. And one day he'd lost a key. And he didn't know where to find
that key. And he prayed the Lord would
show him where this key was. And when he was out on the farm,
he saw across the field one of his sheep lying down. He thought,
why is that sheep lying down? All the others are standing up.
So he went away to see what was wrong with it. And as he got
right up to this sheep, in the middle of this great big field,
the sheep got up. and underneath the sheet was
the key. And the Lord used that way to show him where that key
was. And so in that there's an answer
to prayer, like with Hannah, it's a specific thing. But the
word of our text says, find grace to help in time of need. Another
promise is like this, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall
sustain thee. Not he shall take the burden
away, but sustained these, like with the Apostle Paul, with the
thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, he did pray that it'd
be taken away, but it wasn't taken away. But the Lord gave
him something better, and he gave him grace to bear it, able
to bear it. And you and I might have a trial
this morning, a trouble, an affliction, a weakness, circumstance, improvidence,
something that maybe we had prayed that the Lord would take away
and change. And instead, the Lord would have
us to come again and again to his throne of grace to find grace
to help, to be able to bear it. The apostle's assessment of that
was that I will therefore glory in my infirmity. When I am weak,
then am I strong. And he could see that help that
the Lord was giving him day by day to bear with that. And we
need to bear that in mind. Sometimes we only assess the
effectiveness of our prayers if the Lord changes the circumstance,
takes away the trouble, gives us what we want, instead of giving
us the right spirit and grace to be able to bear that trouble
and bear that affliction. Are we fretting about things?
this morning, troubled about things, trying to get out from
underneath it, trying to change it. And the Lord says, no, it
won't be changed, but I'll give you grace and I'll give you help. I'll give you the strength of
mind and spirit to be able to endure it and to be upheld day
by day. And this is why we come to the
throne of grace. to find grace to help in time
of need. We read, he giveth more grace
and grace for grace. He gives saving grace and then
he gives the grace of the spirit of prayer and supplication. And then he gives that grace
of help in times of need. This all comes from the Lord.
We trace it to the Lord. I hope that those of us here
this morning, that we can trace that grace given and that help
given The Apostle says, having received help of God, I continue
until this present day. And we will. If we continue to
receive that help in the way the Lord has chosen to lead us,
we will endure unto the end. And we won't be like the unbelieving
Israelites who didn't get into Canaan. We'll be like those who
do endure unto the end and are brought to heaven at last. So
he bringeth them, we read in Psalm 107, unto their desired
haven. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.