John Owen once said, what a man
is in his heart, in his closet, on his knees before
God Almighty, what a man is as he bows before God on his throne,
that he is and no more. Not what I think of him, or you.
Not even what he pretends with all zeal to be. What he is, in
his closet, on his knees, before God Almighty, that's what he
is, and no more. Listen carefully while I read
my text for this evening, and then I'll have you turn to it.
Just listen, will you? What a great word. Us. No qualifying. Us. Us sinners. Us believers. Us God's elect. Us sons and daughters of Adam. Let us. Everybody who wants to. Everybody who will. Everybody
who needs to. And that's who will. Let us.
That includes you and me. Us. Let us come boldly, with
confidence, freely, unto the throne of grace. What an invitation. Let us come
now. to the throne of grace that we
may obtain mercy. That's the first thing. Come
first for mercy. Come to get mercy. He urges us
to do so by the word therefore. Since Christ lived for us, died
for us, rose again for us, took his place at the right hand of
the majesty on high for us, took possession of heaven's glory
for us, sits as our high priest in heaven and makes intercession
for us. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace through Christ the Lord and get mercy,
get mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. You need grace? Come on to the
throne. You need mercy? Come to the throne
through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now the title of my message tonight
is Boldness at the Throne. My text is Hebrews chapter 4
verse 16. I want to talk to you about this
blessed work and great privilege of prayer. As I said to you Sunday,
I don't pretend to know much about the subject. I've read books on it and still
don't know much about it. I've been engaged in it a while,
but I don't know much about it. I do know what God has taught
and is teaching me by his word and experience. And I want to
share that with you. Lindsay brought you a message
a few weeks ago on prayer. I'll have nothing to add to that,
but it's a subject that's most important in every believer's
life. Yet, this is a subject about which there's enormous
confusion, even among God's people. It's a subject about which we
struggle continually. I can't think of a single text
that gives more encouragement to pray greater reason to pray,
or really better instruction in prayer than Hebrews chapter
4 verse 16. Therefore tonight I'm going to
stick very closely with the text. But before we look at the text
itself, let me make just a few general comments which I hope
will be helpful. I'm not going to give any formulas
for prayer. Folks say you pray this way.
I'm not going to give you any rules for prayer. And I don't
give any formulas or rules because the Word of God doesn't give
formulas or rules. That's like a father setting
down rules by which his sons and daughters can come tell him
they've got great needs. That's not the way we approach
God. I'm simply going to give you
what I believe to be the guidance found in God's Word. Now, prayer
certainly begins in private, private prayer. Our Lord speaks
plainly and says, when thou prayest, He doesn't say, if you do. You
might say, well, he's a praying Christian. They're not any other
kind of Christian. All believers pray. Believers pray in their
hearts. Believers pray in private. We
engage in private seasons of prayer as well as in the life
of prayer. And it's altogether proper that
we do so. We certainly ought to practice what the old writers
used to call family prayer. I don't mean family altar time.
We don't have any altars. Our altar's in heaven. But I
do mean family prayer. Bobby Estes is head of his house.
In God's order, he's prophet, priest, and king in his house.
Whether you like it or not, God holds him responsible to be.
The same is true of Don Fortner. It's our responsibility to lead
our families in prayer. We gather our table and we pray.
Thank God for our food. We gather our families around
us and we pray. We endeavor to worship God. We
try to lead our families in the worship of God Almighty. Not
in just a legalistic ritual, but an earnestness of heart.
Lead your families in the worship of God. Pray with your children. Pray with your wives. Pray with
one another. And there is a business of public
prayer as well. Now, in the matter of public
prayer, I've said this so many times, it doesn't need repetition.
We go out in restaurants and have folks all around us. I don't
try to exercise any kind of public, open, outward prayer. I just,
I don't do it for many, many reasons. That doesn't mean that
when we're gathered as an assembly or whenever we're gathered with
a group of people, if I'm gathered with my family, my unbelieving
family, I'm gathering my sisters and brothers-in-laws and my dad
and aunts and uncles, when I've got control, I lead them in the
worship of God. When I've got control of the
circumstances and situation, that's my responsibility and
I lead them in the worship of God and endeavor to do so in
a manner that honors God and hopefully will be helpful to
them. But particularly when we come to the house of God, when
we come to the place of worship, you men are called on to pray.
Take great care. Take great care not to use voice
tones and inflections to make a show before men. Don't do that.
Don't do that. I know we're so inclined to those
things. Don't do it. Just don't do it.
Speak to God in prayer. And yet, don't forget that you're
speaking to God. Speak to God with reverence.
He doesn't need instruction in theology. He's the one who wrote
the book. He doesn't need weather reports. He's the one who sent
the sunshine and the rain, the tornado and otherwise. Don't
endeavor in prayer to sit down and lecture folks. Don't do it.
That's cold. It's just horrible. It's horrible. Don't do that. But do speak. Speak so as to be heard. It won't
do one bit of good in this world, if I call on James Jordan to
lead us in prayer tonight, if he stands where he is or sits
where he is or stands up here and mutters in such a way that
nobody hears him but him. He said, well, God hears him.
I know, but he was speaking for me. He's leading the congregation
in worship. So men, when you read the scriptures
and pray, speak so as to be heard. Speak clearly and distinctly.
But pray. Seek from God grace to lead the
congregation in worship. in prayer, to pour out our needs
before God, to confess our sin before God, to seek mercy from
God, so that as we lead the congregation, we lead the congregation to the
throne of grace. All right, now having said that,
let's look at our text this evening. Hebrews chapter 4 and 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. Here are four things I want you
to see. First, here's a throne. That's where you always begin
with God, at His throne. A throne of grace. Once it was
called the mercy seat, now it's called the throne. In drawing
near to God in prayer, we come to God sitting upon His throne. No one approaches God. No one
comes to God, no one calls upon God, no one prays to God, no
one worships God except as we come to God upon his throne. No one approaches him who is
God who does not approach him on his throne. He who is God
Almighty is the great glorious monarch of the universe, that
one who sits upon the throne of absolute sovereignty. The
Puritan William Jay once wrote this, when God enacts laws, he
sets on the throne of legislation. When he administers those laws,
he sets on the throne of government. When he tries his creatures by
those laws, he sets on the throne of judgment. But when he receives
petitions and dispenses favors, he sets on the throne of grace. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. Now the idea of a throne inspires
all. All that borders upon terror.
A throne repels rather than invites. When you have an idea of a throne.
Now, not a modern idea of a throne. The idea of a throne presented
to us in scripture. The idea of a throne presented
to us as a king sitting in total dominion who has his way and
asks nothing from anybody. That's the throne. Such a throne
is a throne that invites terror, not tenderness. A man comes before the throne,
he doesn't dare come unless the king stretches out his scepter
and invites him to come. And here we have not the throne
of a man, not the throne of a king, but the throne of him who is
king of kings and lord of lords. The throne of him whose throne
is altogether righteous and just, glorious and holy. The throne
of him who is of pure eyes than to behold iniquity. How dares
a man who is but a worm before God, a man who is with all men
together in all the nations of the earth, are counted as nothing
before him. How dares a man approach God
Almighty on his throne? Blessed be his name, we come
to his throne, because it's a throne of grace. If we would come to
God, we must come to him as a king, with reverence, yes, with confidence,
because he's our father, with submission. That's the essence
of prayer. Now listen to me, the essence
of faith and all acts of faith. The essence of worship and all
acts of worship is surrender to God Almighty on his throne. That's the essence of it. Where
there is no surrender, there's no faith. Where there's no submission
to God's will, there's no prayer. All true prayer begins here.
We come to him who sits on the throne. In prayer, we come to
this great king as one who is indeed a king, as one who gives
as a king. I think it was William Carey,
that earliest of all Baptist missionaries that's recorded
in history at least, the first one sent out in an organized
way. He said, ask great things of God and expect great things
from God. We ought to. He's God. He's God. So when we ask things from him,
ask things of the great king who acts in greatness. We ask
great things with expectation because he is as magnanimously
good as he is magnanimously great. We ask great things because he's
infinitely rich in grace and in power. You remember how Paul
wrote to the Philippians? They had sent him a gift. These,
the poorest of the churches, took pity on Paul in his time
of imprisonment, and they sent him a gift. I have no idea what
it was. I suspect the ladies had fixed him some cookies or
cake or whatever and sent it to him. Somebody perhaps sent
him a blanket for the wintertime. They sent something by their
pastor Epaphras, and Paul was overwhelmed. Here you are, folks
who have nothing, giving so generously, so magnanimously. And he says,
but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
and glory by Christ Jesus. What a word. according to his
riches in glory, not out of, not out. God doesn't supply our
need out of his riches, but he supplies our need according to
his riches. As the great king, so he supplies
his children with all their needs. He who is our God sits upon the
throne of grace specifically to dispense grace. It is his
design, his object in displaying himself as the king to dispense
grace to his people. It is in hearing the prayers
of the deity and dispensing grace to us that our God and king is
honored and glorified by us. You remember this is the throne
that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6. He said, I saw the Lord high
lifted up sitting on a throne. It is this throne which John
saw in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. It is this throne that was
typified in the book of Exodus by the ark of the covenant and
the mercy seat sitting upon it. John beheld the throne and he
saw the rainbow about the throne the the covenant of God's grace
through which everything God does He does according to the
covenant and he saw the lamb one as it had been slain, rising
up out of the midst of the throne. Yonder is Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God on the throne, through whom and by whom we approach
God, through whom and by whom God comes to us, through whom
and by whom we offer our prayers to God, through whom and by whom
all mercy and grace is dispensed to us. John said, I saw him and
I saw the book written. He said, I was confused because
the book was sealed and there was no man found worthy to open
the book and I began to weep. And one of the elders said to
me, don't weep for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he's prevailed
to open the book. And he said he opened the book.
He reached and took the book out of the hand of him that sat
on the throne. And John said, I saw him as a lamb, a lamb that
had been slain. And when they saw this, the twenty-four
elders and the living creatures sang a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book and to open the seals, for Thou wast
slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Now turn back to Exodus 25. Let
me show you where the first picture of this is. It is here in Christ, the crucified
Lamb of God, sitting upon the throne, that we behold the majesty
and mercy of God, the justice and grace of God, the truth and
goodness of God portrayed in the gospel. Here in Exodus 25,
God's giving orders concerning the building of the tabernacle
and his worship. And he says in verse 17, thou
shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall
be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt
thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat." The Ark of
the Covenant, a little smaller than this table here. And on
top of the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat. At each end
were the cherubims. Under the mercy seat was the
law of God, which we've all broken. You see the picture. That mercy
seat's Christ the Lord, in whom the law has been fulfilled. And
the blood on the day of atonement, one time a year, the high priest
alone goes into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Lamb, and
he sprinkles the mercy seat. Now, that act could not purge
the conscience. That act could not put away sin.
But it pictured him by whose blood alone sin has been put
away. And this is what God says. Look
in verse 22. And there will I meet you. I'll meet you in my Son. I'll
meet you where the blood shed. I'll meet you where the blood's
accepted. I'll meet you where reconciliation is made. I'll
meet you where sin's been put away. I'll meet you in my Son.
And I will commune with you. from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony
of all things that I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel. I'll meet you here on the throne
of grace through the blood of my Son, and it's here that I'll
give you everything I've decreed to give you, the children of
Israel, my elect. Now then, The Apostle Paul writing
in Hebrews chapter 9. If you want to turn to chapter
10, I'll get there in just a minute. Let me just give you a little
picture of what's leading up to it. He begins in chapter 9,
telling us about the first covenant and the ordinances of divine
service in our worldly sanctuary and the ark of the covenant and
the mercy seat. And then he tells us, into the
second with the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood. In Hebrews 9, 8, the Holy Ghost this signified. that the
way into the holiest was not yet made manifest, while as yet
the first tabernacle was standing. These things, it says, were a
figure, a figure of him that was to come. Now then, look in
chapter 10, verse 19. The Lord Jesus with his own blood
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Now then, having therefore, brethren,
boldness, that same word, having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest, into the presence of God himself by
the blood of Jesus. by a new and living way, which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his
flesh, through the offering of his body, and having a high priest
over the house of God. Let us draw near, look at it,
draw near to God on the throne with full assurance of faith. My soul How can you draw near
to Him with confidence, with full assurance? By faith. By faith. Look at it now. Having
our hearts sprinkled. from an evil conscience, being
justified by the blood of Christ, and our bodies washed with pure
water, the symbol of sanctification, being born again by His Spirit.
Now then, we who are born of God, being washed in the blood,
justified, our consciences purged from guilt and sin, drawn near
to God by the blood of Jesus Christ on the throne of grace.
The Lord God to whom we come and before whom we bow in prayer,
even in hearing prayer, acts as a sovereign, but one whose
sovereignty is the sovereignty of grace. Therefore, we have
in the second place a gracious exhortation. Let us therefore
come. I don't miss the therefore. Come
because of the danger we're in. We're still in this world. this
world of woe and trouble and sin, lest we let anything slip,
come to the throne of grace. Let us therefore come, because
there is a rest to be had only in Christ Jesus. By his finished
work, we alone can rest before God. Come, because God, the God
with whom we have to do, knows all things. Everything's open
and naked to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And
let us come. Because we have, oh thank God,
we have a high priest over the house of God who has passed into
the heavens, listen now, Jesus the Son of God. Come then to
the throne of grace. This coming is spiritual, it's
an act of faith. An act of the heart. In such
matters there are no rules to follow except the rules of reverent
love, gratitude, and faith. Posture is meaningless. Affectation
is horrible. Pretense is utter hypocrisy. Prayer, like all acts of worship,
is spiritual. It's more an attitude than an
act, yet it is an act. An act inspired by the promise
of God. The Lord told David, I'm going
to build you a house, I'm going to put your son on your throne,
and your kingdom's never going to end. And David turned and
said, Lord, do as you said. Do what you said you'd do. You
see, prayer is inspired by the will and promise of God Almighty.
The Lord God said, this is what I will do. David said, therefore,
thy servant found it in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.
Prayer is seeking God's will. It's not just praying. Larry
led us in prayer a little bit ago, and we try to pray here
for our children, for folks who are sick, for various needs. And most of the time, we don't
know how to pray. I don't know how to pray. Lord, show me what
your will is so I can pray. Show me what your purpose is
so that I can pray. Not according to my will, but
prayer seeking God's will. Seeking God's will. And when
we know God's will, then we can pray with confidence. We can
pray with confidence. Prayer is seeking God's will,
being motivated by God's glory. It's not just asking something,
saying now according to your will. But rather it is, if we
use those words according to your will, if we use those words
in Christ's name, the words ought to imply what's true in our hearts. Lord, we're asking this as best
we know how, in utter surrender to your will, for your glory,
through the blood of your dear Son, for the honor of his name.
That's where prayer is. That's where prayer is. Who is
it that urges us to this prayer? Well, it's Paul, a man like ourselves,
a sinner saved by grace, a believer who had experienced and proved
the value of prayer in his soul for a long time. It's the whole
Church of God, for the whole Church of God urges us to prayer. We need one another's prayers,
we encourage one another to prayer, and we help one another in prayer.
And the call comes to us from God the Holy Spirit. He's the
one who inspired Paul to write these words. The Spirit making
intercession for us and in us says, let us come. So that as
we go to God in prayer, we go to God, Lindsay, not just with
words on our lips and not just with a form in our bodies with
bowed head. We go to God in prayer with the
Spirit himself making intercession for us. All right, now here's
the third thing. What a blessed adverb. Let us
therefore come boldly. Did I read that right? Does God
the Holy Spirit call us sinners on earth to come to the throne
of God's grace boldly? He does indeed. Not proudly,
not presumptuously, not demandingly, but boldly. We may and should
come to the throne of grace, to the throne of our God boldly,
because it's a throne of grace. I recently read that when Martin
Luther prayed, he did so with as much reverence as if he were
praying to an infinite God, and with as much familiarity as if
he were speaking to his nearest friend. That's what prayer is. Boldly. The word implies liberty
without restraint. We have liberty to speak our
minds freely, to speak all our heart, all our ills, all our
needs, all our fears, all our wants, even all our complaints.
So we go to God in prayer, and we speak to Him confidently in
prayer. As others may not bind us in
speaking to God by prescribing what words to say, We must not
restrain ourselves, but rather freely speak all that our hearts
and our condition demands. One man came to Augustus Caesar
once with a request, and he came cowering before him with such
fear and trembling, cringing before him. Caesar looked at
him and said, what man do you think you're giving slot to an
elephant? He was offended that the man should approach him as
though he were some kind of a hard, cruel tyrant. How much more offensive
it must be to our God if we approach him in such a way. Rather let
us come with a holy boldness. Now that word holy boldness simply
means this, with a childlike hope and confidence. That's how
to speak to God. If my daughter or my son-in-law
or my granddaughter were to come to me and seek some great thing
that I had within my power the ability to do, if I had within
my grasp the ability to do it, and they thought it was some
great, great sacrifice, some great, tremendous deed, and they
came cringing before me like they were scared to death I was
gonna whip them, I was scared to death, I was going to be angry
with them. I'd be offended. I'd be offended, wouldn't you?
I haven't given them reason to act like that. But I've given
them a lot more reason than God Almighty has ever given us. Come
then, children of God, with childlike, confident faith. and pour out
your heart to God through the merits of God's Son. Remember,
we're not coming to Sinai's fiery mountain, but to Zion's blessed
hill through the merits of Christ before our Father in heaven.
Therefore, we can come boldly to the throne of grace. David,
since it's the throne of grace, our faults are already forgiven. The faults of our prayers will
be overlooked. And our petitions will be properly
interpreted. Because the Spirit himself helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. An old lady at rest
home, one time she was reading this to her, she said, you know
what I think that means? Best commentary I've ever read,
better than John Gill. She said, I think that means
that when we pray, God the Holy Spirit takes out what ought not
be there and puts in what should be. That's exactly what it means. So that when we come to God,
our petitions are properly interpreted. The throne of grace is that to
which we come, therefore our miseries will be pitted by the
God of all grace. And our needs will be supplied. Come boldly, confidently, constantly,
unreservedly, with all sorts of petitions, freely, with simple
words, hopefully, full of confidence, being confident that He'll hear
us. Come fervently, come with opportunity. Seek and seek and
knock and knock and ask and ask and it shall be given you. One
last thing. Here's a blessed benefit supplied,
that we may obtain mercy. and find grace to help in time
of need. Come to pray expecting God to
answer. Oh God, forgive my unbelief before
your throne. As we prayed a little while ago,
Lindsay leading us in the office, Larry out here just now, I wonder if we even half expect
God to answer our prayers. If not, we're just uttering words. God teaches to pray. God, oh
God, teach us to pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's sing that hymn, Lindsey.
Teach me to pray. I think it's number 75 in our
Songs of Grace book.