I've entitled this message, Who,
Where, How, Why, and When. Now that comes directly from
verse 16. Who, Hebrews chapter 4, verse
16. Who is the us that is exhorted
to come boldly to the throne of grace? If that question is
not answered, we really don't understand any of the rest of
it. That's very important. Who is the us? Am I included in that group?
And then, where are they called to come? Let us come boldly under
the throne of grace. That is where I am called upon
to come right now. The throne of grace. There is
a throne of grace right now. How are these people told to
come? Boldly. Oh, I pray that you and
I will do that tonight. Why do they come boldly to this
throne of grace? To obtain mercy. And to find grace to help in
time of need. When are they called upon to
come? In time of need. Which is all. the time. Who, where, how, why, and when. Now that has been called the
journalistic approach to investigating something. Who, how, why, where,
when. And I'm going to consider these
one at a time. Let us, verse 16, let us therefore
come boldly Who is the us? Now, I can forget the rest of
this passage of scripture if I don't understand who the us
is, because it makes the rest of it meaningless if I don't
understand who the us is. Who is the us that's called upon
to come boldly That's strong language. Who is the, who are
these people that are called upon to come boldly under the
throne of grace? Now I'm going to answer this
question strictly in the context of this passage of scripture.
I'm not going to have to look anywhere else. We're going to stay right
here and we're going to find out who the us is. Look in verse
14, seeing then that we have a great high priest. Now, the first thing that I've
noticed about the US is this. They are those people who have
this great high priest. And as I said, we read hundreds
of times about a high priest or chief priest But here's the
one time we read of the great High Priest, which can only, it only fits one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the High Priest of the Old
Testament went into the Holy of Holies once a year on the
Day of Atonement. You have read about that in Leviticus
chapter 16. And when he went in to the Holy
of Holies, he had a breastplate with the names of the 12 tribes
of Israel. And he had a shoulder pad. I can't remember what the word
of it is. It might be an ephod or a shoulder pad, but on his
shoulders, he had the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. He didn't have the names of the
Amalekites. He didn't have the names of the Moabites. He didn't
have the names of the Philistines. He didn't have the names of the
Canaanites or any of those otherites. The only names he had on his
breastplate, he loved these people. They were in his heart. Their
names were on his shoulder. He was able to carry them, his
strength. The only people he represented
with the children of Israel. Now in the Lord's great high
priestly prayer for his people, I'd like you to look at this,
John chapter 17. You may be familiar with the
scripture, but I want us to look at it. John chapter 17. I love John chapter 17. This
is the Lord's great high priestly prayer for his people. But look what verse nine says,
and this is the Lord speaking. He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me. For they are thine. Now the Lord saw fit to make
this statement. Somebody says, why couldn't he
just say, I pray for them? Because he means for us to know
he's praying for a particular people. And when he prays for
you, What else is needed? If he prays
for you, if he represents you before the Father, if he as your
great high priest brings his own precious blood into the Father's
presence for you. Now, the Lord pointed this out
in this great high priestly prayer. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me. The us is
the elect. And that's simple enough, isn't
it? The us are those given to him before the foundation of
the world. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should
lose nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. The us are those that Christ
died for. The us are those that have Christ
as their Great High Priest. What a privilege it is seeing
then we have right now this Great High Priest. And he describes this Great High
Priest that every believer has. Seeing then that we have, verse
14, a Great High Priest that's passed into the heavens. Now
here is the sphere of his operation. He's not in some man-made temple,
or he's not in some man-made tabernacle. He's certainly not
in some dark confessional grove somewhere. He's passed into the
heavens. Right now. Passed into the heavens. And look how he refers to our
great high priest Seeing then that we have a great high priest
that's passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Now this high priest of ours,
his name is Jesus. You know what that means? Savior. Savior. He's the Savior. You
know what that means? He saves. He doesn't try to save. He saves. He's the Savior. The next name the writer gives
him is Jesus, the Son of God. The Son of God is able to save.
Here's his ability to save. Seeing we have every believer,
all of God's elect, seeing we have this great high priest that's
passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, incapable of
Failure, if he's your high priest, you must be saved. He's equal with the Father. He's
the Son of God. He cannot fail. I love it when
he said to Peter, he said, Peter, you're gonna deny you know me.
You're gonna miserably fail in everything you do, but I pray
for you. that your faith fail not. You're gonna fail, and he did.
Oh, how miserably he failed. But you know something he never
quit doing? He never quit believing that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now, he may have wondered whether
he was saved afterwards. He might have had much doubt
about his own salvation. But he never doubted this, Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you know the
reason he kept believing that? Christ said, I've prayed for
you. You see, the Father never says
no to the Son. Whatever he requests, the Father
gives. When he said, Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do. Do you know every single
person he prayed for was forgiven? He's the great high priest, Jesus,
the son of God that's passed into the heavens. Now, seeing
then that we have this great high priest that's passed into
the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession
for, we're going to get back to that in a minute, but for.
This is our great high priest. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Now, our high priest is the sympathetic
high priest. He is the one who is touched
moved to sympathy, not anger, not disgust, not I'm tired of
this. I'm not going to deal with it
anymore. I've reached my limit. No, he's touched, always touched
and moved to sympathy with the feeling of our infirmities. Now, Our infirmities. Have you ever gone through something
very troubling, terrible? And when you see somebody else
going through that, you're touched, aren't you? I can remember there was a time
when people who had problems with depression, I thought, believe
God. Then I experienced depression. And I no longer had that haughty
attitude toward those people. I was touched, not looking down
on them, not judgmental, not saying, where's your faith? Touched
by the feeling. Now infirmities, what is this
thing of infirmity? It's weakness. Weakness on account
of sin. The shame felt. The guilt felt. Feeling isolated by your sin. Feeling forsaken because of your
sin. The feeling of your infirmities. That feeling of weakness before
sin. Weakness before trial. Weak! That's what infirmities is. Weakness
because of sin. Now there are parents who have
loved their children, but they just keep going on, keep going
on, keep going on. And they've had to withdraw themselves. They've had to, they still love
their children, but they've had to withdraw theirselves because
of the destructive behavior. But you know, the Lord Jesus
never withdraws himself. He is always touched. always moved to sympathy by the
feelings of our infirmities. Now somebody says, how can that
be? You know, I used to wonder this when it said, 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. Now, if he's without sin, how
can he really be touched by the feeling of my weakness before
sin, my sinfulness, my shame, my guilt? How could he be touched
by that if he never sinned? Because he was made sin. And
he has experienced everything you and I have experienced by
way of the feelings of our infirmities much more acutely. Now, of course, I don't grasp
all of this. He never sinned, but he experienced
all the shame and guilt of sin. He experienced what it is to
feel totally isolated, forsaken, alone. He experienced everything
with regard to sin much more acutely than you or I ever have. And when I am overcome with the
feeling of my own weakness, he's touched. He's moved to sympathy. He understands that better than
you do. You see, there's no priest like
this priest. And unlike other priests, he's
sinless. Don't you love it the way he
says yet without sin? Look down in chapter five, verses
one and two. These are the high priests taken from among men.
Chapter five, verses one and two. For every priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that
he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins who can have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. That means
astray. There are two descriptions of the people he has compassion
towards. Those who are ignorant and those who are straying. That's
what out of the way means. Stray. Sheep. You know, I think
of what David said, Lord, I've gone astray like a lost sheep.
Seek thy servant for I don't forget thy word. Now, why is
it that he can have compassion? For that he himself also is compassed,
bound with infirmity himself. This human high priest He couldn't
really represent anybody. He was a sinner himself. That's
why he had to have a sacrifice first for his own sins before
he could offer a sacrifice for the sins of others. He himself
was compassed with infirmity. Bound is the meaning. Bound with
sin. He felt that. He experienced
that. He didn't look at these people
and say, who are these idiots, these sinful people? Why do I
have to do? No, he was touched. He had compassion,
but not like our great high priest. who's moved to sympathy. Now, those other priests brought
the blood of bulls and goats, which could never take away sin.
This high priest brings his own precious blood. Now, the blood
of the lamb, the blood of the goats, they could never take
away sin. They were given just to represent
what he brought would bring to the father. But he brings to
the father in the behalf of every one of his people, his own precious
blood that takes away sin. He doesn't have to say, forgive
them again. I know they did it again, but
forgive. No, all he does is present his blood and nothing else needs
to be said. The father is satisfied. The
father is well pleased with the blood of his son. He's the only
priest, great high priest that's done that. You know, all other
priests, I think this is interesting, you know, in the tabernacle,
they had to go in every year. over and over and over again.
And there wasn't a chair in the tabernacle. You know why there
wasn't a chair in the tabernacle? The priest's work was never done.
But the Lord Jesus Christ sat down. Why? Because his work was finished. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had
by himself And I love the way he didn't say when he had purged
our sins, it says when he by himself purged our sins. That
means you and I didn't have anything to do with this. This is what
he did. He did this by himself. When he by himself purged our
sins, he sat down. Why? The work of purging was
finished. Sin was put away. It was gone. And oh, how precious
it is to have him as our great high priest. So who is called
upon to come boldly under the throne of grace? Those who have
a great high priest. Secondly, who is called And I'm
spending most of my message trying to figure out who the us is.
And I've got a few more minutes, I want to say something about
this. Who is called to come boldly to the throne of grace? Verse 14 again, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that's passed into heavens, Jesus, the
son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us hold fast
our profession. Like I've already said, in the
original, the definite article is used. Let us hold fast the
profession. The, and that same word is also
translated confession. It's the same Greek word, confession. Now what does confession mean?
Confession means to speak the same thing. We confess the same thing, we
have the same gospel. We believe the same thing. It's
agreement. This is what we're in agreement
on and what it is essentially, this profession, this confession. We're in agreement with God.
We are at agreement with what God says about himself and we
love what he says about himself and everything he says about
himself. We say amen to. We're at agreement
with all of his glorious attributes. We're at agreement with what
he says about us. When he says we're nothing but sin in and
of ourselves, we agree. We're at complete agreement with
what God says about us. and we're at complete agreement
with what God says about His Son. This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. In Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We're at agreement, aren't we?
We're at agreement. Everything God says with regard
to His Son, we're at agreement on. That is our confession, and
you know, In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23, he says, let us
hold fast the confession of our hope. It says faith in the King
James, but it's the word that's generally translated hope. Let
us hold fast the confession of our hope. Now, if I'm a believer
and you're a believer, we have the precise same hope. There's no difference. We're
in complete agreement with regard to our hope. My hope. of standing
before God and being sected is because I'm in the Son. He kept the law for me. He put
away my sins. He was raised from the dead for
my justification. He is all my hope. That's the profession. That's
the hope. The hope that Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Seeing it left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Now who is allowed to come boldly
into his presence? Everybody that has this profession,
the profession. And one more thought with regard
to those who are called upon to come boldly under the throne
of grace, Verse 15, for we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Our sinfulness, our want of strength,
or capacity to restrain corrupt desires, Our want of capacity
to go through trials the way we should. The feeling of shame,
the feeling of guilt. Listen to this scripture. Romans
chapter five, verse six says, for when we were yet without
strength in due time. Christ died for the ungodly. Now, I spent most of this message
on who, because the rest is meaningless if I don't know who is. Who is
called upon to come boldly to the throne of grace? Those who
have this great high priest. Number two, those who have the
profession, the profession of our hope. And number three, those
who are weak. those who are weak. Where do
you fit in with regard to those three descriptions? Well, where are they told to
go? Let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Now remember, a throne. Somebody's
sitting on a throne, aren't they? It's not just a symbolic piece
of furniture, somebody's sitting on that throne. And there's someone
sitting on that throne right now, the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 6, when he said, in the year the king Uzziah died, I
saw also the Lord high and lifted up, sitting on a throne. And if you ever see the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if I ever see the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
how we'll see him. sitting on a throne and there's
a reason he's sitting his work's finished his work's finished
he accomplished salvation when he said it is finished listen
to me if you're one of these people that are called upon to
come boldly your sins all gone it's put away it is no more why
is he sitting because he's not pacing back and forth, worrying.
He's sitting in regal splinter, undisturbed by any kind of opposition,
sitting on this throne. Now, it's a throne of justice. Scripture says judgment and justice
are the habitation of our throne, but it's also a throne of grace. This is where we're called to
come boldly to. This throne of grace. Salvation is really by grace. It's not by works. That's the
way you come boldly. Salvation is by grace. And I love the word grace. The throne of grace. The adjectives
that we use with regard to grace are inherent in the word. If
it's grace, it's free grace. If it's grace, it's sovereign
grace. If it's grace, it's saving grace. If it's grace, it's eternal
grace. Just those meanings are all inherent
in that beautiful, simple word, grace. It's a throne of grace. Now, how are we called to come
to this throne? Well, the writer said boldly,
with cheerful confidence, expecting to be heard, expecting to be
received, boldness, having therefore boldness brethren to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Let us, this is a command, this
isn't good advice, this is a command for me and you, It's a command
for us to come to the throne of grace and it's a command for
us to come boldly because we don't have any reason to be anything
but bold because it's a throne of grace because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now salvation will buy our works
in any way to any degree. We couldn't have any boldness,
but our boldness. is in his saving grace. John put it this way in 1 John
4, 17. Herein may we have boldness on the day of judgment. For as
he is, so are we in this world. Does he have boldness to come
into his father's presence? You bet, we do too. Is He altogether lovely to His
Father? Is He perfectly righteous? Everything you can say of Him
as He is, so are we in this world. And that's why we are called
upon, commanded by Him. Why don't you go like this as
a command? He commands you. Your right is with the command.
He commands you. Come boldly unto the throne of
grace. Now, why? Do we come with boldness
to this throne of grace? Well, he tells us in these simple
terms, to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in time of
need. Now, why do we come to this throne?
To obtain mercy, to find grace, to help. Now, I love the simplicity
of mercy, Is God not giving you what you deserve? Now, if God
gave you what you deserve, separated from Christ, what would He give
you? I don't have to answer that question. Grace, is God giving
you what you do not deserve? That is what I need. I need for
God to not give me what I do deserve, and I need Him to give
me what I do not deserve. Grace. Mercy. Grace to help. I like that, grace
to help. You know, when Christ stood as
my surety, He helped me. When the Father gave me to Christ
to take full responsibility for my salvation, That was grace
to help me when Christ walked on this earth and kept the law
for me. Oh, how he helped me. That's great to help. Isn't it?
When Christ paid for my sin and was forsaken by God, he was helping
me. My name was on his heart. He
knew exactly what he was helping me when he was raised from the
dead grace to help as he's. seated at the right hand of the
Father, representing me right now. What grace to help. Every believer can say boldly,
the Lord is my helper. The Lord's my helper. I'll not fear what man can do
to me. If the Lord's my helper, I'm fine. And last, when can the believer
come to this throne of grace with boldness to obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need? Beloved, isn't that all the time? all the time. I need thee, precious Jesus,
for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need the precious fountain
where I can always flee. The blood of Christ, most precious. The sinner's perfect plea. You see, we're always poor and
needy, and that's a good place to be, isn't it? Poor and needy. And we can always come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. and find grace
to help in time of need. Aren't you thankful for that
word God has written for us? Let's pray. Lord, we come in the name of
our great high priest, that's passed into the heavens, who
presents to you his own precious blood, who represents all of his people. And Lord, because we do have
this profession, Christ really is, your son really is our only
hope. And Lord, we find ourselves to
be filled with infirmity, needing your grace and your mercy. Lord,
we come with boldness, believing our acceptance is holy in him. And we have a right to come boldly
to you, into your very presence, because you told us to. Lord,
move each one of us. to come boldly under the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Lord, as we look at the days
ahead for the holiday season, we pray that you would bless
us, bless our homes, bless our time of fellowship, bless us
for Christ's sake, Accept our thanksgiving. We're so thankful
for our great high priest in his name. We pray. Amen.