Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14,
15, and 16, and we'll look at basically a phrase that arrested
my attention. And it's like, I think it's Proverbs,
it talks about like a ruby or something, a diamond, you turn
it, everywhere you turn it, it's Glorifying. It's refreshing.
You get new sights, new things. And this is one of those passages
where I've looked at it over and over again. We've preached
lessons through Hebrews not too long ago. And it's just wonderful. We'll take a look at this together.
Hebrews 4, verses 14, 15, and 16. 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 a
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 come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, with God the Holy Spirit's
assistance, I hope we're going to look at one particular phrase
in this chapter 4, and it's found in verse 16, and it is four words. The throne of grace. The throne of grace. Now, this word throne, In Greek,
it means potentate. Potentate. As in 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6. And verse 15. Well, let's read
verse 14. That thou keep His commandment
without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ, In His times He shall show who is the blessed and only
Potentate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Another derivative
of this word throne could be sovereign, as in Psalms, oh boy,
chapter four, I may have this, can't even read my own writing.
Let's take a look at this here. It looks like a four. Psalms, I've got two other verses,
so if this one isn't it, we can go look at a couple others. No, I'm sorry, verse, looks like
it's 17. Psalm 17, there we go. Look at
those semicolons. They tell you the verse, the
passage in the verse. And verse 8, keep... Nope, that
ain't it either. Okay, let's try Revelations 11.
Revelations 11. Now I'm going to be wondering
what that is. Revelations chapter 11 and verse
15. If I get this one wrong, we'll
just move on to the next derivative. Revelations 11 and verse 15,
And the seven angels sounded, and they were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of the Lord and of the Christ, and he shall reign forever
and ever. That's what I'm trying to get
at. Another derivative is reign or sovereign. Another derivative
of this word throne could be ruler, as in Psalms 103. Psalms 103 verse 19. Psalms 103 verse 19. The Lord hath prepared His throne
in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. His kingdom rules
over all. So this throne of grace this
potentate of grace, this sovereign of grace, this ruler of grace,
or in another place, king, as in Revelations chapter 17 and
verse 14. Thus, these shall make war with
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord
of lords and King of kings. And they that are with Him are
called and chosen and faithful. He's the King. Another derivative
of this would be Prince. as in Daniel, Prince, as in Daniel
chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 25. Know therefore and understand
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, It shall be seven
weeks, and three score, and two weeks. Messiah, the Prince. This all has connotations of
throne. And I don't know Greek, but I
got Greek tools, I looked them up, and every one of these, potentate.
This is a throne of grace. He's our potentate. He is our
sovereign. He is our ruler. He is our king.
He is our prince. And the last one was a crowned
head. A crowned head. And we do sing
that hymn, crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne. Back to our text. Hebrews chapter
4. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. Forget not, dear reader, it is
the throne of grace to which you come in prayer. It is a throne
because God is sovereign. He will ever have the suppliant
recognize this perfection of his nature. He hears and answers
as a sovereign. He hears whom he will and answers
what and when he will. There must be no dictation to
God, no refusing to bow to His sovereignty, no rebelling against
His will. If the answer that He gives be
delayed, or God should seem to withhold it altogether, remember
that He gives no account of any of His matters, and that He has
a right to answer or not to answer, as seems good in His sight. Glorious
perfection of God beaming from the mercy seat. This is a throne
of grace. A throne of grace. This is who
we serve. And we know no other God. Now,
we did know other gods before He revealed Himself to us through
the Gospel, through His truth. There's a puny god. It was Dagog. It was a god that could make
and put a picture up, and have blue eyes, and all these different
things, and stuff like that. It was a God that we could move
around, and we could put Him up on a mantle and take Him down.
But the God of the Scriptures, He is on a throne. He is a potentate,
the only potentate, sovereign, ruler, king, prince, and a crowned
head. Yet, for our use in edification
this morning, not only is it a throne, of grace. It's a throne of grace. And I
remember four or five, maybe longer than that, years ago,
Donnie preached the message, The Grace of God is the title of
it. And I thought there's no way you could wear out that phrase,
but it was just so good. It was just grace upon grace,
line upon line, precept upon precept. It's just everywhere
you looked around, the believer sees grace. This is a throne,
yes, an undisputable, unmovable, sovereign throne, but it's of
grace. Grace, oh, how sweet the sound
upon our ear, it soothes our sorrows and cheers our soul. And this throne of grace we must,
we certainly need, we must have, nay, we must have it or else
If we ever desire to be reclaimed, to be redeemed, to be rescued
or converted, it has to be a throne of grace. We are poor and needy,
helpless, sinful, wracked in spiritual poverty, bound fast
in the chains of Adam's transgression, and then on top of that we add
our own miseries. However, such a throne is erected
for our great need. all by the free favor and pity
of our God in the person and worth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And blessed be Jehovah, it is
a throne of grace which is occupied by the God of all grace. There
he sits and resides, all to the benefit of his elect bride, to
his church. to the remnant of His calling
and keeping. Pardon, peace, justification,
adoption, all set up freely on this throne by this God of grace. We have light, liberty, freedom,
comfort, all dispensed from this high throne by our sweet and
majestic Emmanuel. Therefore, let us come boldly
unto this throne of grace." Now this throne of grace, in keeping
in context with all of Hebrews, but to go back to verse 14, seeing
then that we, We who have such great needs, we who have fallen
short of the glory of God, we who have sinned on every turn,
every twist, every shape, every form, we have a great high priest
that has passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, for we do not have a 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."
The work is complete. Your believing does not add to
the work of Christ. Your believing is a result of
He's making us meet to be partakers, inherited with the saints and
lights. He makes us meet to come unto Him. And so we come and
we're filled. Therefore, come. boldly to this
throne of grace. Don't plead goodness or merit,
but plead blood, His pure blood. I like this what Spurgeon said.
It had nothing related to this, but I thought this was just so
good. I printed it out. I'm going to put it up. It will
be one of my keep for a while, you know, a little board. I put
stuff up that I keep. As long as there is a vessel
of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed."
As I look around here and I see you, and I see a bunch of vessels
that are not yet full. So the oil will not be stayed. And as you look at me, there's more of you looking at
me than me looking at you, and you see my many faults and flaws
and incorrect grammar. I can't find Scripture sometimes. You see all these things. And
yet, as a local body, a local ecclesia, this is how God would
have it. Some preachers, some elders,
all these different for the perfecting of the saints. We all have gifts
if we're all His children. So, you see a vessel that's That's
got some issues. Probably not even a third of
the way full. So I beseech you, pray for me.
Pray for the work here. Pray for the work here as I pray
for you. As long as there is a vessel
of grace not yet full, to the brim the oil shall not be stayed. We just looked at that this last
Wednesday. The widow and the oil. Turn with
me to 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. You want to see a parallel passage
to Hebrews 4, verse 16? Look at this one. 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. God, through Christ, raises up
the poor out of the dust and lifts up the beggar from the
dunghill to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the
throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's." It's His throne, sovereignty. And He has set the
world upon them. However, there are some who will
be raised up, and they're called poor. Where are we at? We're from the dust. We came
from the dust. We were beggars from the dunghill, and that's
nasty. I could use the 2020 vernacular, but I won't do that. That's what
we are. He's shown us what we are. There's
none good, no not one, in things spiritual. But He does it. He's raised up the poor out of
the dust and lifted the beggar from the dunghill. And He's given
us a name like Prince. And we are kings and priests,
it says in the New Testament. But just in case we get cocky,
the throne of glory, the pillars of the earth are the Lord's.
We always go back to that. We're nothing and He's everything.
We're nothing and He's everything. You know, in simple arithmetic,
in simple math, when you got a zero, It's whatever the first,
you know, ten plus zero. I love those problems. I remember
I used to like, I can really get these, and then something
a little harder, it's like, oh, zero. It's always that way. Christ
plus something, it's a violation of the gospel. It's not the gospel.
But Christ plus nothing, that's us. He's everything. It's really, back to our text. Therefore, let us come boldly."
That word, boldly, is very interesting. In the expanded version, it's
with freedom of speech. With freedom of speech. Now,
of course, we stand fast in the liberty or the freedom with which
Christ has made us free. So in Christ, we have the freedom
to speak to our heart's content. And He's telling us to come boldly.
Speak freely. We are told to come, and this
is not a maybe, there's maybe a blessing at the end of this
thing. No, I like how it's worded. It's a sure portion is promised. We find it all because of verse
15, because Christ has already given us the gifts. The gifts
have already been granted, found, sure to all the seed. So I say,
let us come expectingly, for Christ has already purchased
all these things for us. Just come. Just come. Come for life. Come for help. Come for mercy. As Peter said,
unto whom cometh. We never stop coming. It's not
that we were baptized and then somebody says, were you saved?
And we go looking in the drawers for our baptismal certificate.
No. We keep coming. We keep coming
to gather to worship. If we ever stop coming, then
there would be a question. And then Paul, that they were
of us, but they're no longer with us. Why? Because they weren't
of us. Now there may be some other place
around here that's preaching the gospel. I've been here 30
something years. More than that. I know a few places that are
close, but we're not talking horseshoes. It's the gospel. It's one gospel. One faith. One
Lord. One baptism. And I'm not trying
to be boastful. I'm just saying, thank God, He's
left a vision. For without a vision, the people
perish. That's what the Scripture says. So that's why I asked this
before, a couple of weeks ago, when Don Forter passed away,
that group does not have a pastor. or whatever you want, however
you want to phrase it, an elder, they don't have, and so they're
looking. So pray for them, if the Lord, because most, I hate
to say this, but most of the time, one generation. So these
churches that have been around for more than one or two generations,
what a blessing. Now I would love to see something
here for our children, but that's not my response. I would be faithful,
where would we be faithful? What? In our generation, in our
time. So I say, come expectantly, come
boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain, and that's
not a maybe if, it's obtained, it's here for us. And find grace
to help in time of need. It's already established, it's
finished. It's finished. I remember, I
think as we were trying to figure out who said this years ago,
I don't know if you understand what I'll say, I'll say it anyway.
Donnie Bell made a comment, he said, get on the bike and ride.
Just get on the bike and ride. Well, that's, I don't believe
in free will, none of that kind of stuff. You know what I'm talking
about. If He has given you the tools, if He has given you the
heart, the desire to worship Him and to come to Him, come. Come. For in Him, He says, the
fatherless find mercy." Now I want to close 1 Samuel chapter 22. This is just beautiful. This
is kind of like what Nathan was talking about in Genesis chapter
50 back in the men. It's the same situation, different
characters, but it is absolutely beautiful. 1 Samuel 22. Look at verses 1 and 2, and then
we'll close with the last verse, verse 23. But look at chapter
22 of 1 Samuel, and verse 1. David was the type of Christ,
therefore departed, thence escaped to the cave Agile. Now he's running
for his life. He's in a time of trial, a situation,
difficult, like we find ourselves in all the time. He's running. And he escaped to the cave Agilum.
And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it,
they went down thither to him. Specifically to David. Now look
at this. David is the type of Christ.
And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt,
and everyone that was discomforted, who gathered themselves unto
Him." That's what I'm saying. Find the captain of your salvation. Find the general. Find the ballman
Gilead. And take the medicine. Be in
league with this one. Not me up here, with the one
that I'm preaching. Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He became, what? A captain
over them. That's what He will. You will
voluntarily, willingly submit yourself to Him. Where He goes,
you will follow. It's just like the calling of
the disciples in the New Testament. You remember that. They're fishing.
They're collecting taxes. They're doing what they're doing.
He walks by and He says, follow Me. Bam! They found that pearl
at a great price. They sold everything. How important
is worship? I just look at every one of you
that work, and even us that don't work. Do you get beat up? Do
you get kicked around? Do you get laughed at? You don't even say anything about
the gospel. They just don't like the way
you're doing stuff. This is an oasis. So what happens? when you gather
under Christ. Look at verse 23. This is David
speaking. Abide thou with me, fear not,
for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt
be in safeguard. That word safeguard, I've got
it written down here because I preached this a long time ago.
You'll be in my custody. Aren't we in Christ's custody?
But most importantly, you'll be my responsibility." Who does
that remind you of? Benjamin and Judah. If the lad
go not with us, I'm responsible. Christ is our custody. He has
us in custody. And He's taken us under His wing
and bears full responsibility. So I say again, come. And come with freedom of speech.
Come to Christ with the liberty wherewith He set us free. Any
situation, any problem, what we would consider small, are
large. I think about all the things
that are going on with the brethren throughout that I know of, and
it's amazing, the strials and the struggles. Any normal person
would just chuck it and give it up. But why? And Bruce said
it this morning, the love of Christ constrains us. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love. And the only place that
God's love is found and will not be separated from is in Christ.
Christ Jesus the Lord. Nathan, or Brandon, would you
close us? Heavenly Father, we are so thankful
to be known and to be loved by you. Father, thank you for being
sovereign and gracious towards us. Lord, on our own, we're just