Let's turn to God's Word and
I want to direct you to the last verse in Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews
4 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. I'm sure it's a scripture well
known to each And to all of us, let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. The theme then that I want to
take up for a short while before we turn again to God in prayer
is that of the throne of grace. And here of course it is evident
that the apostle is during a certain deduction making a conclusion
Observe the use of this word, therefore. Let us, therefore. Throws us back onto the things
that he has been saying in the previous words. He's speaking
really of the outcome of the priestly work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 14, 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, for we can
make this good deduction that we can surely, as a result of
the one who has gone before, this great high priest, the one
who has now entered heaven, we can by and through him come boldly. unto the throne of grace. How the Lord Jesus Christ then
is that one who has gone before his people. That's what he says
here in the beginning of verse 14. We have a great high priest
that is passed into the heavens and how that truth is said before
us in the chapter that we read from. We read in chapter 9 and
there of course he is speaking in the first place of the Old
Testament's order of worship. He speaks of the first covenant. that covenant that God made with
Israel at Mount Sinai, speaks of the ordinances that were appointed
by God when he gave instruction to Moses during 40 days in the
mount. He speaks of a worldly sanctuary,
that is a sanctuary that belongs to this world. And what does he say as he speaks
initially of that sanctuary? He reminds us how into the second
went the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood
which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. Into that second sanctuary, that's
the Holy of Holies, where the high priest would go on the Day
of Atonement. He could only go on that day,
one day in the year, and he must take with him blood to sprinkle
upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So, he is speaking
of the Old Testament order, but then he goes on to speak of the
Lord Jesus. who is the fulfillment of that
priestly office. What does he say at verse 11
in chapter 9? But Christ, being come an high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, as is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And then at verse 24, Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. It is the Lord Jesus
Christ then, the one who has gone before the one who has passed
into the heavens, it's where Christ is now and he is there
of course still in his human nature, he is there as the God-man
that is the very place where he appears. And what is he saying
here in the text? In view of this we can come boldly
onto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Oh our sinners we are to follow
Christ. We are to follow where Christ
has gone before. Joseph Hart says in the hymn,
unless we should mistake the way he lines it out with blood. What a comfort it is, that way
that has been marked out by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is that one then in whom we
have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. This is something then of the
context in which the words of the text are said, but coming
to consider the text in particular. First of all, I want to observe
the contrast between the earth and the heaven. Here we have
mention of the throne of grace. And what is the throne of grace?
Well, it's equivalent to what is there in the Old Testament
as the mercy seat. We come to the throne of grace
in heaven, there was a mercy seat here upon the earth. Remember back in Exodus 25, where
we have Moses receiving those instructions, those directions,
and he is told how they are to make the Ark of the Covenant,
made of Shittim wood overlaid with gold, and in it they are
to place the tables of the Law, the tables of the Covenant that
God had made with the children of Israel, and then upon that
Ark of the Covenant, there would be the Mercy Seat with the cherubim
one on each end and the cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat,
looking towards the Mercy Seat. And what was the significance
of that Mercy Seat? Well, it was the promise of the
presence of God in the midst of Israel. as God says there
in Exodus 25-22 there will I meet with thee and there will I commune
with thee from above the mercy seat between the cherubims and
how the children of Israel are ever mindful of that how when
they come to God they They plead in terms of that promise of His
gracious presence. We have it, for example, in the
Psalms, and we see it there quite clearly in the opening words
of the 80th Psalm. how the psalmist Asaphia cries
out, Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph
like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine
forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength,
and come and save us, turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face
to shine, and we shall be saved." How they look to the Temple of
the Lord, how they look there to the holy place, there to the
Shekinah glory, the presence of God upon the mercy seat. We have it not only in the Psalms,
we see it also in the Prophets, In Jeremiah 14, 21, do not abhor
us for thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of
thy glory. Remember, break not the covenant
with us. That is the prayer of the prophet
in days that were so dark. so difficult as the armies of
the Babylonians are laying siege to Jerusalem. The city is about
to fall. The people will be taken into
exile, removed into captivity. And oh, the prophet cries out
to God. Oh, that was their comfort. It
was God in the midst. Again, Jeremiah says, a glorious
high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. That mercy seat then, in the
Old Testament, is a reminder of the promise of the presence
of God. They had the presence of God.
But it wasn't just a promise of God's presence. The mercy
seat, remember, was also the place of propitiation. When the High Priest entered
into that place, the Holy of Holies, on the Day of Atonement,
as it's set forth there in Leviticus chapter 16, he was to take the
blood of sacrifice. There were those two goats, for
example. One was to serve as a scapegoat, the other was to
be the sin offering. The sins of the people were confessed
over the head of that scapegoat. He was taken then at the hands
of a man into the wilderness. The removal of their sins on
the scapegoat. But the other goat was the sin
offering. And that was to be sacrificed
and the blood taken and it was to be sprinkled there upon the
mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And that's what we read.
In chapter 9 verse 7, into the second went the high priest alone,
once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost is signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as the first tabernacle was standing. Or the mercy seat,
that mercy seat that's spoken of verse 5 in that ninth chapter,
over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Now, it is interesting that that
word, mercy seat, or the word that's translated mercy seat
in our English version, is a word that occurs on just one other
occasion in the New Testament Scriptures. The other occasion
is in Romans 3.25, and there The Apostle is speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he's speaking of Christ's sacrifice. And what
does he say? Romans 3.25, "...whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation by faith in his blood." And that
word, propitiation, is the same word as is rendered mercy seat
here in Hebrews 9.5. the mercy seat, the propitiation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that mercy seat. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them. How remarkable,
then, is what we see when we think of the type, all that the
mercy seat is, and how that mercy seat is fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the antitype. He, in that
sense, we might say, is the very throne of grace. Lord Christ
is that one who is now in heaven. and His very presence there in
heaven is a constant prayer on behalf of His people, His very
presence. And so we read here in chapter
7, 25, wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. And the contrast. Well, think
of what was to happen there in the Old Testament. What were
the requirements of the Lord of God? That first covenant that's
spoken of in the opening verse of chapter 9, that's the law
of God, as I've already said. And what is the manner of the worship? It
was only that one day in the year there were so many restrictions
and limitations with regards to any approach to the mercy
seat. Into the second went the high
priest alone, just the high priest, none of the other priests, none
of the children of Israel apart from the high priest alone. And he could only go once every
year and He must take with Him the blood, and He must sprinkle
the blood. And what is the significance
of all this? That the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest, while as that first tabernacle
was yet standing. And we remember what happens
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, how that veil that separates
the holy of holies from the holy place, that veil was rent in
twain in the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the contrast. So many limitations and restrictions
under the law, but now under the Gospel, what freedom? Let
us therefore, he says, come boldly. unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. No more are we now under that
law of God. All that law is such a ministry
of condemnation, such a ministry of death, but now all the freedom
that comes with the gospel of the grace of God. At the end
of this epistle Paul says concerning Christ by Him therefore let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the
fruit of our lips giving thanks in His name. Or do we come with
that sacrifice? We are a kingdom of priests And
that is what we are to offer, not the blood of boars, of goats,
not the ashes of an heifer. No, we're to come with the fruit
of our lips. And we're to come with all boldness
before the throne of Christ. Why, we sang it just now in our
opening praise. Behold the throne of Christ.
The promise calls us near. There Jesus smiles that Jesus
shows his smiling face and waits to answer prayers. There is the
contrast. But what is said in this text? What is to be our response? Well,
we are to come. Let us therefore come. And so in the second place, to
say something with regards to the way in which we are to come. Firstly, it is the coming in
faith. It's a spiritual coming. It's
an act of faith. The Old Testament is now finished. Remember that 8th verse in chapter
9? What was signified there? with
all those restrictions, that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest. While as the first tabernacle
was standing, it is now manifest. The veil of the temple has been
rent in two. It has all been manifested in
the gospel, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself indicates to us
what is the manner in which we are to come. It is a spiritual
coming. when there was that earthly tabernacle
it had a particular position in the earth initially of course
the tabernacle was erected at Shiloh and then in the days of
David taken to Jerusalem these are local places and so the children
of Israel would look to the temple the place where God's presence
was when Daniel is there in exile in Babylon. Does he not open
his windows three times a day towards Jerusalem? And he prays
to that place. It was a local place then. But
now, when we come to pray, we look to God in heaven. It's a
spiritual coming that we exercise now. It's the coming of faith. And as I say, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who makes that quite plain to us in the Gospel.
The language of John 6.35, "...he that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst." Those
statements, parallel statements, the one interprets the other.
What is the coming? It's the believing. He that cometh
shall never hunger, he that believeth shall never thirst. Coming and
believing are one and the same thing. And so the coming that
we read of here, it's not like it was in the Old Testament,
where they go to a local place, a geographical spot. It is a
spiritual coming. When we come to the throne of
Christ, And it's coming in and through the Lord Jesus Christ
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the
faith of Him. It's always by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, one God and one mediator between God and
man. But as it is a coming in faith,
so in the second place we see that it is also are coming so
freely and so openly. We are to come boldly. Let us,
therefore, come boldly. Now, I know I've remarked on
this word boldly before, but it is interesting because it's
one of those compound words. It's two words married and wounded
together. And it's the word ALL and the
word SPEECH. all speech or all the freeness
and the freedom of speech. Remember the exhortation of the
prophet Hosea, take with you words and turn to the Lord and
say take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. Oh we
can come with our words and so often do we not feel that our
words are such poor words. But we come to the throne of
grace, we come to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and He takes
our poor words, and He causes that they prevail. Sometimes
words fail us. We come with our sighing, we
come with our groaning. Oh, it's the Spirit Himself who
helps us in all these infirmities. But remember, by those sighs
and groans, He is making intercession according to the will of God.
Oh, we can come so freely to the throne of grace. We sometimes
sing the language of the hymn writer William Cooper. Have you
no words? Ah, think again. Words flow apace
when you complain and fill your fellow creatures' ears with the
sad tale of all your cares. Oh, let us not be afraid then
to come with our broken words. our poor words, because we're
coming to the throne of God's grace. It's a coming in faith,
it's a spiritual coming in that sense. It's a coming so freely,
and it is also, we must remember, a coming in fear. It's a coming
in fear. There's a place for reverence. We're coming to a throne. Oh
yes, it's the throne of grace. But nonetheless, it is still
a throne. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
gives instruction as to how we are to pray, He tells us we can
call upon God in that intimate way, we can call upon Him as
our Father. But we have to remember where
God is. Our Father, which art in heaven. Heaven is that holy,
happy place and that's where God is and the first petition
that we make in that prayer is hallowed be thy name let thy
name be holy now we have to come with all due reverence we're
not to come in any presumptuous way before God or God forbid
think of the prayer of dear Hannah back in 1st Samuel, "...talk
no more so exceeding proudly, let not arrogance come out of
thy mouth." God preserve us from proud talk, or God preserve us
from the spirit of the Pharisee that the Lord speaks of there
in Luke 18. who comes thinking himself so
much better than another, who comes with his high words, his
proud words. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. We're not to be presumptuous
with God. We're not to come in unbelief. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. You might say sometimes I feel
so full of unbelief. But can we not then come with
the prayer of that man in the gospel, Lord I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. And sometimes we do have to pray
in the very teeth of unbelief. Well that's how we're to come,
we confess our sin, we have to confess our unbelief, the root
of all our sins. We're to come then with reverence,
we're to come in fear. All the coming, we come in faith,
we come so freely, so boldly, we come with all due reverence,
remembering that our God is in the heaven, we're upon the earth,
and therefore our word should be few. Those are remarkable
words, are they not, there in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Keep
thy foot, when thou goest to the house of God, be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not
what they do. Be not rash with thy mouth, let
not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God
is in heaven, thou upon the earth. Therefore let thy words be few. It doesn't mean that we cannot
pray, but it means that we are to ever remember the otherness
of God, the greatness of God, the glory of God. And then finally,
what is the consequence of our coming? Well, we have it in the
text. the beginning of that second
clause, that. Let us therefore come boldly
onto the throne of grace that, literally in order that, we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. There's a purpose in our prayers.
There's to be a purpose in our prayers. We need to obtain something.
We need to find something. That's why we pray to God. And
we remember God's promise, we remember the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, Ask and it shall be
given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and he that knocketh, it shall
be opened unto him. The language of the Lord Himself.
And how He speaks with such sureness and such certainty, the shalls,
the wills, all those promises of God in the Lord Jesus, they
are yay, and they are amen. Oh, we're to come, and we're
to come with that purposing. We remember what God has said,
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye my face in vain. It is not a vain thing, it's
not a meaningless exercise just to pray unto God there's a purpose
in it all but what of the the characteristics of those who
do come who avail themselves of this blessed opportunity in
the day of grace they know that there's a throne of grace because
it's the day of grace well here we see that these who come have
needs. They have needs. They stand in
needs of mercy. That we may obtain mercy. Why do they want to obtain mercy?
Because they feel the awfulness of their sins. They know their
sinfulness. They feel the sinfulness of their
very nature, their own nature. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I would not, that I do. That's Paul's lament, Paul's
complaint. He feels the wretchedness of
his fallen nature. And so too these, they feel what
they are. They feel their sinfulness. They come to confess specific
sins that they know they're guilty of. They come then, not like
the Pharisee, but like the publican there in Luke 18. Oh, that man's
prayer, God, he says, be merciful. And literally, it's that word
again, it's a different form of the word, but it's the same
root as the word that we have in chapter 9, verse 5, and in
Romans 3, 25. He prays, God, be propitious. God, be propitious to me, a sinner,
to me, the sinner. And remember, it is the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the propitiation for our sins. He is in His love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation. What does that mean? It means
that God poured all His wrath upon the person of His only begotten,
and His well-beloved Son. We were considering it on the
Lord's Day, that precious truth of imputation, substitution,
the Lord Jesus suffering in the sinner's place. Well, that's
what that publican prays, God be propitious. He's pleading
Christ. He needs to know the application of that precious
blood that purges the conscience from all dead work. There's a
need for mercy. There's a need for grace. There's
a need for grace. And find grace to help in time
of need. Oh, it's that complete and utter
dependence upon grace, and it's sovereign grace. And there's
an emphasis, surely, here upon the sovereignty of that Christ,
because we come to the throne of Christ. Or we come to Him
who fills the very throne of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ,
and how He fills that throne of God with all the fullness
of His grace. And so, we come together in this
fashion, Thursday by Thursday, the purpose of our coming is
to pray. And we have this exhortation.
It is an exhortation. It's in the imperative, let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Well, the Lord help us thus to
come. Amen.