Alright, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, my text
will be found in verse 16. The title of the message this morning
is, A Bold Approach. A Bold Approach. The Scripture
says, let us therefore come boldly, boldly to the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Here the Apostle gives us a very
needful A needful and joyful exhortation. Very needful. Prayer to the saint is as needful
as breath is to life. Prayer is communion with God,
and the believer in Christ must have communion with his God. We must. It is an exhortation
to come in such a manner as to be without fear or hesitation. Come boldly. Come instantly. Come now to the throne of grace. It is an exhortation that is
ever present, as you need that right now. And when you leave
here this morning, when you leave and go home, you will need it
then. And when you go to work, you will need it then. Let us
come boldly, now, presently, in prayer to the throne of grace. Paul wrote to the saints of Thessalonica
and he said, Without ceasing. I tell you what, my children
ask for things all the time. And I say all the time, I don't
mean 24-7. It's just an expression. All the time they're asking for
something. And I tell you, my ear gets tired. I get tired of,
I need, I need, I want, I want, give me, give me, give me, give
me. And yet our God never grows tired. Matter of fact, you're
the one growing tired of asking. He never grows tired of hearing
your requests. Pray without ceasing, without
ceasing. And here in the text, we see
what true prayer is. True prayer is actually approaching
the throne of God. That's what true prayer is. If
you think lightly of prayer, it's because you don't understand
the true meaning of it, the true purpose of it. You are actually
entering into the presence of God with your prayers. Now, I know when you pray, at
times your prayers hit the ceiling, bounce back into your ears, and
you don't think they go any higher. That's just unbelief because
God says to pray is to enter into My presence. It is to come
boldly before the throne of grace. Prayer is to present oneself
humbly before the feet of the Father and make known to Him
all your requests, all your longings, all your sighs, all your tears,
all your troubles, laying it out before Him. A good example
of this is, I believe it was Hezekiah. He was surrounded by
those enemies. And they had come in, that Rabshakeh
had come in, and he had caused so much grief. He said, don't
trust in your God. All those other nations trusted
in their God. We're going to come in here and
we're going to kill you, and there's no God that can stop
us. And everybody in Jerusalem was trembling at this. They knew
it to be so. There was nothing he said that
was wrong. None of the other gods were able to help the other
people. And he said, don't trust in your
God. You remember what Hezekiah did. He took those letters and
he laid them out before the Lord. He put one page right next to
the other and he spread it out and he said, I can't do anything.
That's a good picture of prayer. Take all your troubles, all your
griefs, all your troubles and sighs and you lay them bare before
the throne of God. And he received a very good answer. He said, don't let those guys
trouble you. I'm going to send them back the
same way they came. I'm going to kill them and you
don't have to raise a sword. I'll take it. It's my battle.
He blasphemed my name and I'll kill him. You don't worry about
it. That's a good answer. You know what? That's the answer
you receive. If you'll cling to it, if you'll believe it,
it's the answer you receive. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Fear not. How many times do you
say it in Scripture? Fear not. Don't be afraid. Fear not. Don't
be afraid. The throne of grace, the believer
in Christ comes before the throne of grace. And you know this to
be true, believer, we do not come in our own self. We dare
not approach this throne in our own merits. We dare not come
to God bringing our merits or our desserts. We dare not come
in our own name or hang our hopes upon any goodness or self-worth. We know that in our flesh dwelleth
no good thing. We know to approach before God,
we must come only in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of. What does that
mean? We said at the end of prayers
as though something we tag on at the end. No, everything we
said in the prayer is dependent upon that. When we say, in the
name of Jesus, what we are saying is, I want these things based
on the merit of Him. I want these things based only
on the fact that He cleansed me of my sins with His blood. So all of the merit that I am
asking for is in Him. And God looks over at him and
says, yeah, yeah, that's a good request. And every believer, this is how
we come to God in prayer. We come not in our own name.
We come on the grounds of this. Look at your text. Paul said
this, here's the grounds for which we come before the throne
boldly, seeing, verse 14, that we have a great high priest that
is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God. And the law. The office of high
priest was necessary for the worship of God. You did not worship
God without a priest. You did not worship God without
a mediator, someone to do the work to intercede between you
and God. And this high priest was a man
anointed for this work of intercessory work in things pertaining to
God. Why is this? Why would we need
a high priest? Because sin hath separated us
from God. When our father sinned, he died
spiritually, and therefore we were separated from God. Sin separates us from God. We are estranged from the womb
speaking lies. We are born in enmity against
God, for we are not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be." That little baby, you're not going to have to teach it
how to lie. It already knows. It already knows because the
nature that's born within it is dead. Therefore, God pictured
Pictured this by the veil in the temple. You remember, God
came down and His glory manifested itself in the Holy of Holies,
in that little room above the Ark of the Covenant, was the
glory of God. But what separated the people
from the glory of God was that veil. And that veil was necessary. If there was no veil, the glory
of God would spring out and everyone would die. The veil was necessary. The veil is a picture of Christ.
And the veil was necessary because of the sin of the people, so
that the glory of God would not pour out over them and kill them
all. And so then God, by picture,
sent a man, a high priest, into that veil, not without blood. The priest must have the blood
of the bull and of the goat and bring it before God to atone
for sin. Yet because it was perpetual,
Because that priest of the old covenant must of necessity enter
year after year after year, what is that saying? It's saying the
blood of bulls and goats, it is not possible for them to take
away sin. Otherwise, they wouldn't need
to do it every year. If it really took away sin, there
would be no need of it again and again and again. But God
said, that was just a picture. of the great high priest, the
great high priest. Those high priests were only
a shadow in picture. of what Jesus was to accomplish
by the offering of His own blood for the sins of His people. So
Jesus offered Himself once to God, and having obtained eternal
redemption, sat down and finished the work. The whole of chapter
4 in Hebrews is about rest. Jesus Christ, after obtaining
redemption, after obtaining righteousness, He finished the work. The work
is done. And so we who believe have entered
into His rest. He ceased to do work after He
had finished it. He sat down. The work is done.
Sin is gone. Redemption accomplished. And you remember what happened.
to that veil after he finished the work. What happened? The veil was rent from the top
to the bottom, signifying what? The way is open. Do you get it? Come boldly to the throne of
grace. On what grounds can we approach
the glory of God? Because the veil is rent. Because Christ has died. Because
God rent the veil from the top to the bottom. He did it. He
started it. He purposed it. And He accomplished
it. And now the entrance is open. Go in. Go on. Go boldly. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Come
now to the throne of grace. Come now. Why? It's open. Because the high priest. So when
you say in the name of Jesus, all of that is included. You
got it? Everything I just said is included.
The way is open. I come because He opened the
way. Father, I come and ask of You these things because Christ
made the way open. Okay, that's a good answer. What does that one of the game
shows that say? Good answer, good answer. It's
a good answer. Now Jesus has come and His flesh
has been rent and the way is open. His offering is perfect. The way into the holiest is now
made open. Now access is granted. Why then do you hesitate? I know you do. Not because I peek into your
lives, because I know my own. Why do you hesitate, believer?
Are you so bowed down with ten thousand ties of guilt and sin? Are we so grieved? that the words
escape us, that we cannot pray, have you been so grieved for
sin? Then flee to the very presence
of God without delay. For who can stay us, seeing he
has commanded this? Let us come boldly. to the throne of grace." If we come not to God, if we
fail to avail ourselves to the all-powerful throne of God, if
we waste away in grief and pine away in anxieties, it will be
a self-inflicted wound. You did it to yourself. If you're
anxious, you're doing it to yourself. If you're troubled and grieved
and you will not come, you're doing it to yourself. You have
access to the all-powerful God, and yet you will not avail yourself.
Why? It's a self-inflicted wound.
They're the worst. For God says, come boldly. Do you need mercy? Do you need
help? then let not conscience make
you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him." As a matter of fact, all the
fitness he required, Christ provides. That's it. So why are you waiting
for fitness to come? Do you wait to feel like you
should pray? I just don't feel like I should.
That's when you need it the most. When you don't feel like you
should pray, there's something dreadfully wrong with you. Prayer is a joyful thing. It is a sweet release of all
my troubles. It's the only place I can go
where the burdens are lifted. It's the only place I find solace
and peace. It's the closest to heaven I
can get in this body. To be alone with God. And if we fail to do it, it's
our own fault. Now then, let's look at this
text more closely. Who is permitted to come? That's vitally important, isn't
it? It says, come boldly, but who's allowed to come boldly?
Well, the apostle says, us. Us. And if you want to, you can
trace this. I've told you that this is a
very important word. It's a thread running through
this because he's talking to believers. Go back to chapter
3. This is where it begins, right
here. The us is mentioned in verse 1. Wherefore, the us is
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Holy brethren, partakers of the
heavenly calling. That is, all who are called to
spiritual life by the Holy Spirit and faith in Christ. There's your answer. Let us.
Who's the us? It's not just anybody. It's those
that have the heavenly calling. Those who are not only called,
because I'll tell you this morning, I call every one of you to Christ.
I can point every one of you. The Scripture says to the whole
earth, come unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be you saved.
I am God and there's none else. He calls all men generally. But
these men that receive this calling are not only hearers, but partakers. We not only hear it, we believe
it. We trust it with all our souls. That is the partaker of the heavenly
calling. It is one born again of the Spirit
of God. This is because the elect of
God. The elect of God by nature do
not differ from any of the sons of Adam. We were born dead in
trespasses and sin. We're by nature children of wrath,
even as others. But God, we were all wandering
in this wilderness, dead, depraved, blind, lame, could not, would
not, will not come to God. We're not seeking God. We're
only doing what we desire to do. But God called us. I like this, He found you when
you weren't even looking for Him. People say, I found God. No,
He found you. You weren't even seeking Him.
You weren't even in the right ballpark. You weren't even in
the right area. He found you in a waste howling wilderness,
half dead, no hope. He found you. He called you. He saved you. So then the difference
is the grace and power of God. So when you look over at your
fellow man, you see how that wicked man lives, how he's depraved,
you understand this, the only difference is God called and
saved you and that's the only thing different. You're not one
bit better than him. Nope. In sovereign free grace, God
chose us, loved us, elected us. In free grace, purpose to save
us by Jesus Christ, then our high priest actually came and
redeemed us, justified us by His one offering for our sins.
And at the appointed time, the power of God called you to life,
called you by name, and called you forth, just like He did Lazarus.
Lazarus, come forth. I imagine if He said, come forth,
every grave in that whole world would be opened. But He specifically
called Lazarus. And you know what? Only Lazarus
came forth. This morning, He calls particular
people. And when He calls them, there's
no question. He's not debating with them. He's not even asking
them. He's commanding them. And they
come forth. They come alive and they're given
faith. And so are you born again then? Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. So are you born again or you
have this heavenly calling? What's the evidence then of this
heavenly calling? What's the evidence of our being
partakers of the divine nature? What is this evidence that we
are saved? How do I know if I'm born again?
One thing, faith in Christ. That's the whole purpose of this
text. He's telling them the gospel was preached to those Old Testament
saints and yet it didn't profit them because it was not mixed
with faith. You can know all about election
and redemption. But you cannot claim it except you believe it. It's not yours. Except you believe
on the Son of God. Except you believe. So the evidence
of the new birth is faith. And that's what he's telling
them. You should continue in the faith. You won't believe some things
that men say are evidence of salvation. It's foolish, some
of the things that they come up with. Some men look at dramatic
experiences and say, well, I've seen a vision. I've seen a revelation. That's my proof. Some say, well,
I spoke in tongues, or I was baptized, or I accepted Jesus
when I was ten. That's their proof. You ask them,
they'll tell you, what's your hope? Well, you know, when I
was, they're looking back at something, they're looking at
something they did right then or something they did last week. But what says the Scriptures?
I don't care what you say. You shouldn't care what I say. We all got opinions about things,
but I don't care about opinions. I want to know the truth. What
does God say? Go to John, John 1. John 1, verse
12, "...but as many as received Him." To them gave He the power, the
right, the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. The evidence then of the new
birth is this, have you received the Son of God? What is it to
receive Him? Did He not just tell you? Believe
on His name. It's the same thing. You hear
this all the time, accept Jesus. You heard it? I have. People
say, well, you need to accept Jesus. Do you realize how arrogant
that is? As though your approval has anything
to do with redemption. You approve of Him. You look
at Him and you say, OK, then I will allow you. I accept you. No. No. Receiving and accepting
are two different things. You receive Him as He is revealed. Accepting Him, you can take and
leave what you want. That's what men do. When they
accept Him, they accept portions. They accept things that they
approve of and reject things they disapprove of. To receive
Him is to receive Him unconditionally without any objections. You see, I receive Him because
I need Him, because I have to have Him. Lock, stock and barrel,
I have to have Him. I need an absolute Savior because
I am an absolute failure sinner. I need somebody absolutely to
do everything for me that I cannot do for myself. Therefore, I gladly
receive Him." And you know what John said? He said, that's because
you've been born again. You've been born again. And your
faith is not the cause of your new birth. John said that. That's
what the next verse is telling us. He said, which were born.
You have the right to be called the sons of God because you believe
on Him. But belief is not the cause.
Belief is the evidence of the birth. The birth is by the will
of God. The evidence of it is faith in
Christ. Now, going back to your text,
let us. Let us who are born again of
the Spirit of God, what's the evidence of my birth? Faith in
Christ. Do you believe on Jesus Christ
alone? Then you are called to come. That's who's called here. Let
us, let us who believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess the truth that we
are sinners and have no goodness of ourselves, no value in ourselves
to please God, but in Christ alone is all we need and all
we want. Therefore, we are partakers. Paul says that back in the same
chapter there, chapter 3 in verse 14, it says, for we are made
partakers of Christ. Made partakers of Christ. This
is the evidence of all who are called to come. And this evidence,
is it temporary? Is faith something that you did? Everywhere in scripture, faith
is always present and for a reason. Because faith now is all that
matters. I enjoy looking back at things
that I have believed. I know whom I have believed and
I have believed him for many years. But the fact is, I know
whom I have believed right now. And am persuaded, presently persuaded
that he is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day." Faith is always... This is the whole
point of Paul. He's trying to say, let us fear
lest we be deceived. I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be the ones that get there and then all of a sudden
realize that my whole life was a sham, was a lie. I want to
know that I know that I've entered into His rest. I've got to have
it. I've got to believe in Him today and trust Him now. And
that's the only relief I have. Not just once, but continually.
And those who are called come to God, find rest, and cease
from our works. Chapter 4, verse 3, For we which
have believed do enter into His rest. These are the ones called
before the throne of grace. Those who have entered into the
rest of Christ and cease from their own works. Christ is the
end of the law. The end of the law for righteousness. To who? Everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth. Therefore,
the us that are welcomed before the throne of grace are those
who believe, are born again in the Spirit, and do now believe.
on Jesus Christ. Secondly, the saints of God,
where are they to come? Look at your text. Let us, therefore,
come boldly to the throne of grace. Soon and very soon, every man
will approach the throne of God in judgment. Revelation tells
us that there's a great white throne. And all the souls and
bodies of men will be presented before the throne of God to be
judged of Him for all eternity. It is here all men will be judged
of God by the strict standard of holy, righteous judgment. It is at this throne that there
will be no mercy, no pity, but only perfect, unmovable, unchangeable,
and unbreakable justice. Paul said when he saw that on
Mount Sinai, he said, Moses did exceedingly fear and quake. Have you noticed in our day men
fear demons, monsters? Men, wicked men without conscience,
those are fearful things, aren't they? And men fear them. But isn't it strange that they
will not fear the living God? The One who controls demons,
monsters, and wicked men. Yet they will not fear Him who
has unlimited power. They fear them that have limited
power that can only do harm to the body. But they will not fear
God who can cast the body and soul into hell. They don't have
any fear of Him. Therefore, it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. For a sinner to come to God in
the merits of his own flesh, he will be treated in strict
justice and will receive a just reward for his merits. Is that how you desire to approach
God? Does any of you desire to approach
God in your own merits? It's a foolish thing to expect
to be received of God in your own righteousness, in your own
merits. But believers in Christ, the Word of God speaks better
things to us. For we have not come to the mount
of God that burneth with fire, but we have come to Mount Zion,
to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, the church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, the judge of all the
earth, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus
the mediator." of the New Covenant. You see, when I say, come to
the throne of God, I'm not talking come to the judgment throne.
I'm talking come to the throne of grace. We as believers come
to the throne of grace. Grace. We know that to approach before
God's throne in our own nature is would be only to deserve hell. But now that Christ having bore
away our sins in His own body on the tree, God as judge poured
out all His justice of ten billion hells upon Christ and cannot
demand twice payment, so you come boldly to the throne of
grace." The throne of God to you, believer, is nothing but
grace. It's not a judgment throne to you. Your judgment is passed. Believer, recognize you are the
sons of God. You are the sons of God. And
if sons, then heirs. Heirs of God. You got that? Not heirs of property
or lands or things. Heirs of God Himself. Your inheritance
is God. That's your inheritance. You
inherit God. I inherit God? You bet. Heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ. Behold,
God said, I am thy exceeding great reward. God is our reward. The throne of grace. The throne
of God is a throne of grace for us. Why then must we approach and
how then are we to approach? We must approach because we are
always in need of grace. If anybody knows how needy you
are, it's God. And you and I are needy people. Needy. We see that this body of death
hangs about our necks daily. We see that we are surrounded
by many troubles and trials and difficulties, woes and griefs,
afflictions both within, afflictions of others, and like I said, self-inflicted
wounds. We have so many. And we need
this throne of grace. We're in constant need. And listen, when you come, what
should you expect? What do you expect when you go
to God? What you should expect is grace. It is the throne of grace. What
is grace? It is unmerited free favor. You should expect the favor of
God. You should expect it. Lost men
expect it based on their works. We expect it because of Christ's
work. And you should expect it because
He does call it a throne of grace. It is a throne of free mercy,
free grace, because there's no other kind. free grace. Therefore, come boldly. That's how you should come. You
should come expecting grace and you should come boldly. Why? Because all that God has said
and done is for your good. Everything God does is for your
good. Over in Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah
32. Verse 40, God said, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. But I will put My fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land
assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul." Now
what should you expect? You should expect good. You know
what you're going to get? Now let me ask you this, does
it always appear to be good? Appearances. Appearances. We're all about appearances.
All about appearances. Does it appear good? No. Because you and I have such
a crooked view of things. Ecclesiastes 7 says, consider
the work of God. Can you straighten that which
He hath made crooked? Now, it's only crooked because
that's how you view it. All the trials and troubles you
think are crooked. It goes against what you reason. But what's crooked is your view
of things. To God, it's straight. Those wheels of providence, you
know what? They never turned to the right hand or to the left
hand. Why? Because they went straight. And so what you're
experiencing is not crooked but straight. So then the appearance of things,
our troubles, our trials, our difficulties, His delays of providence, they're
all meant for our good. But yet they are meant to cause
us to come boldly to the throne. You know, there's nothing more
dangerous than a desperate man. You've got a man that's got nothing
to lose, watch out. And when God puts us in a corner,
when we've got nothing to lose, where are we going? We go straight
for the throne. We got no place else to go. Who
put you in that corner? God did. And was that not good
for you to be there so you would go to the throne of grace boldly?
Yes. It was good for you. Come boldly. And this boldness we know is
not arrogance, but rather it is a reverence. We don't come
as arrogant children. We come with reverence. We come seeking help and mercy. And notice he said that to obtain
mercy and find grace in time of need. Self-righteous religious
men have a motive to come to God and they come with bargaining. Believers never bargain with
God. We come for free mercy. Because mercy, if it's not free,
it's not mercy. Do you need mercy? I got a gospel
message for people who need mercy. Free mercy. And yet God says,
come boldly every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and seek
mercy. And you know what you'll get?
You'll obtain mercy. Do you need help in time of trouble? Then come boldly and you'll find
help. For the Scripture says that He
is a very present help in trouble. God's Word is very specific,
isn't He? If you're out of trouble, you don't need any help. It's only in trouble that he's
a present help. That you recognize he's a present
help. In trouble! What then hinders you from approaching
God? You and your unbelief are the
only things that hinder you from receiving mercy and help. Pride, self-reliance, all of
these things hinder us. When God's Word is plain as the
nose on your face, let us, those who receive the heavenly calling,
born again of the Spirit, believe on Christ. Let us come, how? Boldly. Where? To the throne. Not of judgment, but of grace.
To do what? Obtain mercy and find need. in our troubles. Father, help us to heed that. Heed that. As much as I need air, I need
that. Help. One of my favorite prayers of
David is just simply that. He said, If you don't know what you need
help with, just say help. And you know what you have? You
have help. More than you need help. I pray God blesses us.