Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 4. The title of the message this
morning, Boldness Before God's Throne. Let's begin looking at
verse 13. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open in the eyes of him with whom we have to do. All of us
are going to stand before God in judgment. And the writer here
describes him as God with whom we have to do. You and I cannot
avoid dealing with God. He's the one who created us.
He's the one who rules over us. So we must be, we must answer
to him. We must be judged by him. And
we cannot pretend to be something that we're not with God. We can
pretend that with each other, can't we? Pretend to be something
that we're not. Pretend to be better than what
we really are. But we can't do that with God, can we? None of
His creatures are hidden from Him. He sees everything about
every one of them. All things are naked. They're
bare. They're opened up to His sight. So we can't hide anything
from God. God sees us as we are. He sees
us in all of our sins. The sins we commit, the sins
we Think about the sins that we want to commit. He sees the
sin that we are. He sees our sin nature. And this
is the God we must stand before in judgment. And if we would
call out to God in prayer, this is the God to whom we must come. There's no other God who can
hear. They're idols, but they have ears and they hear not.
So no point praying to them. If we would come to God in prayer,
cry out to him in prayer, this is the God to whom We must come. Well, then how can a sinful person
like me have boldness before God's throne? Let me give you
four points here that'll give the believer boldness before
God's throne. Number one, the believer has
boldness before God's throne because we have a great high
priest, not just a high priest, but a great high priest. Verse
14, seeing then, that we have a great high priest that has
passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast
our profession. Now, the high priest of old fulfilled
a very important role for Israel. He represented the people to
God by offering sacrifices for their sins, sacrifices that pictured
our Lord Jesus Christ. And the high priest gave us a
picture of Christ's intercession for his people. He put that incense,
that sweet incense, beaten small. He put that on the coals of the
golden altar before the Holy of Holies and a sweet smoke went
up and filled the holy place. Well, that smoke is a picture
of Christ's intercession for his people. It's sweet to the
father. That Aaron and his sons gave
Israel a picture of that, but that's all they gave. That's
all they could be was a picture of Christ. And many, many times
they were mighty poor. You know the history of history.
Many times they were a mighty poor picture. But then in the
fullness of time, Christ came. And he came as the great high
priest of his people. He didn't come after the order
of Aaron. He came after the order of Melchizedek,
a high priest forever. He is the great high priest. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
so much greater than Aaron's priesthood. Because the real
thing is always better than a picture. When I was about 13, 14 years
old, I had a real cute girlfriend. Janet Connelly was her name.
She was a cheerleader at South Point, whatever school that was,
middle school or whatever. And she gave me a picture of
her in that cheerleading outfit. Buddy, I want to tell you, I
treasured that picture. Carried it with me everywhere
I went. Nobody would believe this was my girlfriend. Some
people, I showed them the picture. They still didn't believe, that's
not your girlfriend. But you know when I never, ever, ever
pulled that picture out of my wallet? I was with her. Christ, our great high priest
has come. He's so much better than the
picture. If we ever get a sight of him, we're going to put away
the picture. We're going to put away the priesthood
on this earth and look to him. Let me give you a few ways. He's
so much better than the picture. And I'm going to confine myself
just to the book of Hebrews. There are many examples of this
we could look at. We'll just look at the book of
Hebrews. Number one, the sons of Aaron
offered sacrifices and they offered them over and over and over and
over again. because they're animal sacrifices,
which could never put away sin. The only benefit to any of the
sacrifices that Aaron and his sons offered was that they were
a picture of Christ. But the sacrifice that Christ,
our great high priest, offered put an end to all sacrifices
because his sacrifice put away the need for sacrifices. His
sacrifice reconciled the people to God by putting their sin away. Look at Hebrews 2 verse 17. Wherefore, in all things, it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people." Christ's
sacrifice actually made reconciliation between God and his people. It
put their sin away, reconciled them to God, and made them friends. That's when somebody's reconciled
their friends, aren't they? Christ has made me God's friend.
We're friends. That I can come boldly into his
presence, can't I? All right, number two, the sons
of Aaron were not always faithful to serve God and to serve his
people. Many times they served their own interest to enrich
themselves, and they did that at the expense of worship and
at the expense of God's people. But the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great high priest, Always faithful. You can always depend upon him.
Hebrews 3 verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all of his house. Now consider Christ, our great
high priest. He was faithful. He is faithful
to do everything the Father sent Him to do. He didn't leave one
thing out. He was faithful to completely
save all those people the Father gave Him to save. He was faithful
to completely save them from all of their sin. Now Christ
is the one who saved us. He's the one who's faithful.
He's faithful to remove all of our sin. Then we can have boldness
before God's God. Because if we have no sin, we'll
be accepted there. And we can have boldness, confidence
in this way. Christ was faithful to save us,
and he'll always be faithful to keep us and to accept us. So we can have boldness before
his throne. Thirdly, the high priest was
always a Jew, so that he could represent the Jews. He had the
same nature as the Jewish people that he represented. But now,
that Jewish high priest, he didn't do the Philistines any good,
did he? He didn't do the Amorites or the Amalekites. He didn't
do any Gentiles any good. He didn't represent them. He
wasn't from their nation. He didn't offer sacrifices for
them. He didn't make intercession for them. But Christ, our great
high priest, he came in the human flesh to represent not just Jews,
but sinful men and women from all over the world. Every age
of every generation, men and women from every race, every
nationality are represented by Christ, our great high priest.
See, our great high priest is a man. He came into flesh to
represent people who were in the flesh. He's a man. Jesus
of Nazareth. That's what he said his name
back here is. Our high priest is Jesus. Jesus. He's no mere
man. He's the God man. The writer
here says he's Jesus. the Son of God. He's Jesus, Joshua,
God our Savior. He's God manifest in the flesh
to represent an elect nation. Hebrews 5 verse 1. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men and things pertaining to God
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Now,
Jesus, the Son of God, who's come in the likeness of my flesh,
is my representative, then I can have boldness before God's throne,
because I'll be accepted in him. And since Christ came in the
flesh, he has compassion on people who
are in the flesh. Verse two of Hebrews five, who
can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Now I find such peace and confidence
in that verse because I'm ignorant. I'm ignorant by nature. I'm ignorant
of who God is. I don't know who God is. I don't
know how God saves sinners. I don't know what's going on.
And I'm out of the way. I'm out of the way of salvation.
I'm out of the way of fellowship with God. I'm out of Christ.
Adam took me out of it and I never did try to get back in it. I
always went the wrong way. But if Christ is my great high
priest, if Jesus, the son of God, is my great high priest,
I can have boldness before God's throne. I don't have to worry
that my ignorance will keep me away. I don't have to worry that
I'm lost and Adam would keep me away. I can have boldness
because the great high priest who sits upon that throne has
compassion. He has compassion on those that
are out of the way. He felt everything that I feel. He felt weakness. He felt shame. He felt sorrow. He even felt
sin. Without sinning, but he felt
sin. He felt the guilt of it and the weight of it. So if Christ
is my righteousness and Christ is the one who has compassion
on my ignorance and my weakness, I can have confidence in Him.
If I don't, all I'm doing is calling into question His compassion
for sinners. Fourth, the sons of Aaron had
a temporary priesthood. They had to get a new high priest
every time the priest died. Well, what if the new high priest
is not as good as the old one? People are gonna suffer, aren't
they? Israel let the priesthood degenerate
so much My goodness, you think what a gift God gave them in
the priesthood, that that high priest would represent them to
God. And they let the priesthood degenerate
so much that a man became a high priest, not because he was the
son of the high priest, but he just won some sort of election.
You know, he bribed the right people and he won some sort of
election, you know? And it wasn't even a lifetime appointment.
You know, the high priest is to be a high priest for life
till he dies. By the time our Lord came in incarnate, they
let the priesthood just degenerate. Not only did they just let it
be an election, you know, you bribe people, they made an annual
thing so they could get money, you know, all the time. Caiaphas
was the high priest the year that our Lord died, that year,
just because he won the job somehow. But Christ, our great high priest,
has an eternal He'll never turn it over to somebody else. Hebrews
5 verse 6, as he sayeth also in another place, thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now he's a priest
forever. Yes, our high priest died, but
he rose again and now he has an eternal priesthood and he'll
never turn it over to somebody inferior to him. He's the eternal
high priest. Our great high priest, he loves
his people eternally. He'll never stop loving them.
And he will represent them eternally. He's not gonna change. He's not
gonna decide to cast them out because everything he does is
eternal. Now, knowing the Savior never
cast his people out will give us boldness to come before God's
throne. He'll never cast us out. All
right, fifthly, the sons of Aaron, were priests under the law. They were priests under an inferior
covenant that could never save anybody. But Christ, our great
high priest, he's a high priest of a great covenant, a better
covenant, the covenant of grace. Hebrews 7 verse 19. For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. by the which we draw
nigh unto God. Now the law said, stay away,
stay away, stay away. Only the high priest can come
in. You better not come in. But now this better covenant in Christ
says, draw nigh, draw nigh to him in confidence, in boldness.
Verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament,
a better covenant. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continued with ever hath an unchangeable
priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost,
to come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Christ is the great high priest
of a better covenant. It's the covenant of grace. It's
a covenant that saves because it's sealed in His blood. Christ
is our high priest under the covenant of grace. Grace. Not law. Grace. And since it's
grace, since it's by grace, since we're accepted in grace, sinners
like us can have boldness before God's throne because it's by
grace. Then sixth, Even when the sons of Aaron were faithful,
even when they did their absolute best, all they could do was shed
and sprinkle animal blood, which could never take away sin, because
it's animal blood. A bull can't be a representative
of a man. But Christ, our great high priest,
he came with better blood to shed and better blood to sprinkle. His own precious, sinless blood. Hebrews 9. Verse 11, But Christ, being come in a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that 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. The blood of Christ eternally
redeemed His people. Because His blood is precious
blood. Now what makes His blood so precious?
What's perfect? Sinless blood. And that let His
blood pay the redemption price in full for His people. Now if
it's Christ who shed His own blood for my sin, then I can
have boldness coming before God's throne, can't I? Because my sin's
paid for. I don't have to worry about coming to God and Him bringing
up my debt. You know, you gotta pay your debt for all this. He's
never gonna say that. The debt's been paid. If Christ
shed his blood for me, it has been. Now that blood must be
shed. The blood must be shed. The lamb
must be killed. But that blood also must be applied.
And that's what the high priest did. He sprinkled blood with
everything with blood to give us a picture of everything's
purified by blood. Verse 22 there in Hebrews 9. And almost all things, or by
the law purged with blood, but without shedding of blood is
no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of
things, all these things are patterns, the patterns of things
in heaven should be purified with these, but the heavenly
things themselves with better than these. And those, the way
they're purified with something better is the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When he sprinkles his blood on
our hearts, We're made pure, white as snow. Verse 13 of Hebrews
9. For the blood of bulls and of
goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. How much more should the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. Now the blood of Christ is applied
to our hearts. Our hearts are truly purified. It's not like a picture when
the high priest sprinkled the altar, you know, with blood and
give a picture of purifying it. When Christ sprinkles his blood
on our hearts, our hearts are purified. And really what that
means is we're given a new heart. Well, how can I know if the blood
of Christ has been sprinkled on my heart? Well, one way. Do
you trust Christ? Do you trust him to be all of
your salvation? If we know our heart is purified,
we're going to quit working to make God happy with us. That's
what the writer means when he says here, purge your conscience
from dead works. Works that we do try to make
God happy with us are dead works. They're dead works because they're
works done in sin trying to make God happy with us and all they'll
produce is death. God will never accept them. But
if Christ died for me, If His work is my work, His obedience
is my obedience, I can rest in Him. His obedience is enough.
His sacrifice is enough. Christ is all it takes to save
me. He's given me a new heart, a
heart like Him. Then I can have boldness coming
before God's throne. He sprinkled His blood on my
heart. The Father's going to accept
that. And then seventh, the sons of
Aaron. The only thing they could ever do was offer animal sacrifices,
which could never take away the sin of men. The sacrifices of
the son of Aaron offered, not only did they not take away sin,
all those sacrifices did just give a constant reminder, just
constantly pounding on people's head. Your sin's not put away.
Your sin's not put away. Your sin's not put away. You
still look, you're a sinner. You're in your sin. You're still
being reminded you're a sinner who's in need of a savior. Hebrews
10 verse one. You know, if those sacrifices,
those high priest had offered, if they put away sin, they wouldn't
offer another one. They kept offering it, reminding
people. Hebrews 10 verse one. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would
they not have ceased to be offered, Because if the worshippers once
purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. But they
did have conscience, still had conscience of sins. Because in
those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. But Christ, our great high priest
came to fulfill the picture of all those millions of animal
sacrifices. And he just had to do it once.
He just had to offer one sacrifice for sins because his sacrifice
was a perfect sacrifice. And his sacrifice made all of
his people perfect by putting their sin away. Hebrews 10 verse
11. For every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. In verse 17, because of this
sacrifice, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now,
where remission of these is, there's no more offering for
sin. See, we don't offer sacrifices for sin as a picture, like they
did in the Old Testament. Because there's no more offering
for sin because remission has been made. Reconciliation has
been made. The payment's been made in the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He once and for all, forever
sanctified his people, made them holy, put their sin away. So
if Christ was sacrificed for my sin, he made me holy. He made
me righteous. Then I can have boldness before
God's throne because he'll always accept righteousness. So come
to Christ. This is the hope. Come to Christ.
Come to His throne of grace by Him and never stop coming to
Him. Never stop professing that He
is all of my salvation. You know, when someone is baptized,
that's what they're professing. That's what they're confessing.
Christ is my Savior. He's all of my salvation. When
He died, I died in Him. He died for my sin. He was buried.
He was put to death for my sin. I died in Him. I was buried in
Him. And when He arose again, I arose in Him. He arose because
He put my sin away. That's my profession of faith.
That's my confession of salvation in Christ. Now, it wouldn't be
a shame if somebody left this place and never came back and
never went to hear the gospel again, never sought Christ again.
It wasn't real, was it? It wasn't
real. You profess Christ. You confess. You profess all
of your salvation and you keep professing him. You keep following
him. You keep seeking him. Our text
says, let us hold fast our profession of Christ. And he says the same
thing here in Hebrews 10 verse 19, having therefore brethren
boldness because Christ has put away our sin. We have boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by new and
living way, which he had consecrated for us through the veil. That
is to say his flesh. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful
that promised. If the Lord Jesus Christ is our
great high priest, we have boldness, confidence before God's throne
because Christ has made us accepted. He came as our great high priest.
He appeared in the flesh. He suffered and died and rose
again. And now he's passed into the
heavens. Well, you know why he's passed
into the heavens? The father accepted him. The father accepted
everything he did, accepted him. He accepted his sacrifice and
he accepts everyone who has faith in Christ too. See, our boldness,
the confidence to come before God's throne is because of who
Christ is, because of who our great high priest is. I remember
being a little boy and Henry saying, got four points. And
I'd say, okay. And then he'd get down to his
first point, look what time it is. And I'd times that out by
four and think, oh no, I'm going to be here at three o'clock.
That was a long first point. The next three are going to be
short, but I wanted to establish that first point because the
next three are built upon it. Our first point is this, we have
boldness, confidence before God's throne because of who our great
high priest is. Well, second, a believer has
boldness, confidence before God's throne because of the heart of
our great high priest. He's touched with the feeling
of our weaknesses. Verse 15, Hebrews chapter four. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity.
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Now this word infirmities, it
means feebleness and disease. It's the feebleness, the disease
of our sin. And you know, if we look at ourselves,
that's all we are. It's not like I got a few points
of infirmities. That's all we are. We're just
all infirmity. We're so feeble. We can't do
anything to please God. We can't do anything to save
ourselves because the disease of our sins already killed us.
And Adam all died. I mean, we're already dead. But
Christ, our great high priest, is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. That is such a great statement.
Take some time this afternoon and think about that. The heart
of Almighty God. It's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. Now, being touched with feelings
means that you can sympathize with someone, because you know
what it feels like. You know what they're suffering.
You parents understand this concept very, very well. When our children
hurt, they suffer growing pains. They come home, and you know
how children at school are. They're so mean and cruel, and they come
home, and they're so upset. Somebody's just ostracized them,
treating them Oh, our hearts hurt for him, don't they? Because
we know, oh, honey, I'm sorry. I know right where you're at.
I've suffered that sin. You can identify, you sympathize
because you felt the very same thing. That's what this saying
of our Savior. We don't have to be afraid to
come before God's throne of grace because we're afraid. The Holy
One who sits there is not going to understand me in my sin. I'm afraid to come before Him
because I'm so ashamed. He can't understand shame. I'm
so weak. He can't understand weakness.
He's the Almighty. I'm full of fear and pain. My heart is so broken with sorrow
that I can't take another step. He can't understand that. Yes, He does. He does. We don't have to be afraid. He
can't understand that because he's never suffered it. Yes,
he did. Yes, he did. God became a man. Jesus, the
son of God, is our high priest. And as a man, he suffered everything
we suffered in this flesh with the exception of committing sin.
That's why he could take away our sin. He had no sin of his
own. He's the sinless sacrifice. He's the sinless high priest.
He knows the weakness of flesh. He limited himself to flesh.
Even in the flesh, he was God. He had all power. He could and
did do many, many miracles, didn't he? But he never did one for
himself. He never did one to help himself, because you and
me can't do that. He limited himself. He knows the weakness
of our flesh. He knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it
is to suffer sorrow. He shed tears. He knows what
it is to suffer sorrow. He knows what it is to be poor.
He knows what it is to have to get up and go work hard in the
shop. He knows. He knows what it is
to suffer physical pain. He knows what it is to be homeless.
He knows what it is to suffer the pain of loneliness. He knows
what it is to suffer the pain of those people who were your
friends who swore they'd die with you. He knows. He knows the pain of being hated
by everybody. He knows the pain of being hated
by the in crowd. Well, especially when we're little,
but you know, all the time we want to be in the in crowd, don't
we? He knows the pain of not being hated by you. Get a hold of your sin. He knows
the guilt of sin. He never committed sin, but he
knows the guilt of it because he made sin. for his people. And he knows what it's like to
die. He knows what it's like to face
death. So, our infirmities should not keep
us from the throne of grace. Our infirmities should drive
us there. To drive us there. Because the one who sits upon
that throne understands our infirmities even better than we do. His heart
hurts when his people hurt. Hebrews 2 verse 18, he's promised
to help comfort his people. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor, to comfort, to help them
that are tempted. Our infirmities should drive
us to the throne. None of our infirmities are too
small for Him to notice. No matter is too small that you
can't take it to prayer, not that you can. No matter is so
small, you shouldn't take it to the Father in prayer. None of our infirmities are so
small, He won't notice them. And none of our infirmities are
so big, He can't take care of them. Those infirmities drive
us to the throne. And that gives us boldness to
come. to the very throne of God. It gives us freedom to come to
the very throne of God in all of our weakness, in all of our
infirmity. In our own words, in your own
words, come to the bottom. You don't have to sound like
Charles Purchin to have God hear you. Come in your own words. Come in your own words. One time
Holly was, I don't know how little, she was little, teeny tiny, and
we were, I don't know, doing what in the living room, and
you know how after the news they have the pick three drawing,
you know, and they drew a six, and the person said six, and
Holly got so excited, she got a six! She was so excited! I
don't know how many words she said, but I'm going to tell you
what, Jan and I rooted for a six. We watched that thing every night
for weeks and weeks and weeks, rooting for a six. Just to hear
that little baby yell out six, just thrilled our hearts, didn't
it? In your words, you might think
they're weak. They're not as good a word as
somebody else. You might think it's not expressing everything
that ought to be expressed in your words. your sorrow, and
your pain, and your hurting, and your infirmities, have boldness
to come before the throne of grace. Because the one who sits
there cares. And to come before him full of
fear, full of questions, worried that he's going to cast me out
because of my infirmities, is to call into question his compassion. Just come boldly and honestly.
with confidence. He'll accept you because of your
infirmities. If you wait and you think you've got everything
fixed up for you, come. He'll not accept you. Come in your
infirmities. This man saves sinners. All right,
thirdly, a believer has boldness before God's throne because we
come to a throne of grace, a justice grace. Verse 16, let us therefore
come boldly, confidently into the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now we
should never be afraid to come before a throne of grace. Now
we ought to be afraid to come before a throne of justice, shouldn't
we? Guilty sinners never want to appear before the bar of God's
justice. But the throne of grace, now that's a throne for the guilty. Grace is for the infirmed, to
help them in their trouble and their weakness. See, it's the
same thing as my infirmities. The guilt of my sin shouldn't
stop me from coming to God's throne. The guilt of my sin should
drive me to God's throne because it's a throne of grace. Do you
need grace? Then go to the source of it.
It's the throne of grace. But never forget this. We come
to the throne of grace. Yes, it's our high priest who
sits there. Yes, he has compassion on the ignorant. on the week. On that throne sits a king. You
come to that throne begging for grace. That sounds like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Come to that throne confidently
begging for grace. He doesn't have to have grace
on me. He'll be gracious to me, will be gracious. He made sure
we know that. But his heart is also touched with a feeling of
our infirmities. You come begging grace. For Christ's
sake, that will move the heart of the king on the throne to
be gracious to you. So come boldly. Now that's confidently,
not proudly, not presumptuously, but confidently because of who
our high priest is. Because he promised grace for
sinners. And to not come to the throne
of grace, to not beg for grace is to say, I don't trust God.
I don't trust him to keep his promise. I don't trust that his
grace is enough. My friend, you mark this down,
God always keeps His promise. He always has compassion on those
begging Him for grace. Christ is enough. Now you come
begging Him for grace. Come boldly as a sinner who needs
grace from the King of grace. And look at this, come at all
times. Whenever you need grace, morning,
noon, night, whenever you need grace. When is it that I need
grace? All the time. Then come all the time, continually. Aaron could only come into the
Holy of Holies once a year, couldn't he? And he went in there with
fear. And the people were fearful when he went in there. Is God
going to accept that? They listened for those bells around the hem
of his garments. Are they still ringing? Is he still moving,
making those bells ring? If he's not, God's killed him.
We're not accepted. He came full of fear. But sinners
like you and me come to the throne of grace without fear, boldly,
because the lamb, as it had been slain, sits on that throne. The
one who died to purchase salvation for his people sits on the throne. You come boldly to him. He knows
better than anybody else. He's but your sinner. And then fourthly, a believer
has boldness before God's throne because that's where we obtain
mercy. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. Now that word obtain is to take
hold of and to receive. Well, there's just one place
you can lay hold upon mercy. There's one place you can receive
God's mercy. So then it's yours. It's at the
feet of the one who sits upon the throne of grace. And it's
not an uncertain thing. Well, you know, maybe I'll come
to the throne of grace, but maybe I'll receive mercy and maybe
I won't. I don't know. No, sir. Mercy is obtained, obtained
at the throne of grace. Why need mercy? I'm a sinful
man. Do you need mercy? Then come
confidently before God's throne because that's where he dispenses
the mercy that we need. And in closing, let me give you
this outline I heard somewhere on this first 16. Let us therefore
come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. This will give us boldness
to come to God's throne. Number one, who comes? Who comes to this throne? Us,
he says. Let us. There's no restrictions. Let any sinner who needs grace
come boldly to this throne to receive it. Number two, come
where? Come to the throne of grace.
The throne of grace. Don't come because you deserve
it. Come because you don't and you need grace. Thirdly, how
do we come? We come boldly. Come confidently
because of who Christ is. Not because of what we've done
something right, but because of who Christ is. And fourthly, why
do we come? Why should we come boldly as
throne of grace? Because we need mercy. We're
sinners in need of mercy and grace. And I can come boldly
to that throne in the Lord Jesus Christ, can't you? I pray God
make it so. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we do thank you that
we can come boldly before your throne of grace in our great
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you for
this blessed instruction to call your people to come before your
throne of grace. And Lord, we come and bow. Oh,
how thankful we are for the throne of grace. How thankful we are
for your mercy and your grace to your people in a time of need. Father, we confess we always
are in a time of need and we beg your mercy and your grace
constantly. How we thank You for Christ,
our great High Priest, who put away our sin, made us able to
come before You, accepted in the beloved. Father, I thank
You. Now, cause Your Word to take
root, I pray, in the hearts of Your people. Cause us to find
our hearts thrilling, soul thrilling rapture in Christ our Savior. Cause us to rest in Him. Father,
deliver us from this sense of fear and dread coming before
you, cause us confidently in Christ to come before you, confidently
knowing we'll be accepted and heard as your dear children.
It's in the precious name of Christ our Savior. For his glory's
sake we pray and give thanks. Mike has selected for a closing
song, It Is Well With My Soul. That's one of our favorites. Let's let it ring out like it's
never been heard here before. Let it ring as well in my soul.