Words of Encouragement

Q: What does the Bible say about our high priest?

The Bible describes Jesus as our great high priest, who intercedes for us and understands our weaknesses. In Hebrews 4:14-16, we are assured that we have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who has passed into the heavens. Unlike earthly priests, He is touchable and empathetic, having experienced temptation and suffering in all points as we are, yet without sin. This incredible truth enables us to approach Him boldly at the throne of grace, seeking mercy and finding grace during our times of need. The Apostle Paul, too, underscores Christ's comprehension of human weakness and frailty, allowing Him to be a merciful and faithful intermediary.

Q: How do we know Christ's intercession is effective?

Christ's intercession is effective because He is both fully God and fully man, uniquely able to mediate between humanity and God. The effectiveness of Christ's intercession lies in His dual nature as fully God and fully man, which is essential for mediating between a holy God and sinful humanity. As stated in Hebrews 9:11-12, Christ entered the heavenly holy place with His own blood, obtaining eternal redemption for us. His role as a great high priest surpasses that of all earthly priests, for He does not simply represent us before God; He is the perfect sacrifice that reconciles us to God. Thus, His intercession is grounded in His perfect righteousness and divine authority, making it entirely sufficient for our salvation.

Q: Why is it important to come boldly to the throne of grace?

Coming boldly to the throne of grace is crucial because it is where we receive God's mercy and grace in our time of need. Approaching the throne of grace boldly, as encouraged in Hebrews 4:16, emphasizes our need for God’s mercy and grace in our everyday struggles and infirmities. The throne of grace signifies a place where we can seek help without fear or shame, acknowledging that we are utterly dependent upon Christ’s sufficiency. This passage reassures us that no matter how unraveled we feel or how deep our trials may be, God delights in granting us access to His grace. In our weakness, we find strength; in our need, we find provision. This approach fosters a relational dynamic between believers and their High Priest, strengthening our faith amid life’s challenges.

Q: How does Jesus understand our weaknesses?

Jesus understands our weaknesses because He experienced human suffering and temptation while remaining sinless. Jesus's understanding of our weaknesses is both divine and experiential. According to Hebrews 4:15, He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. This means He fully comprehended the pressures and pains that accompany human existence. He knows our struggles personally because He has walked in our shoes—facing temptation, sorrow, and rejection. Moreover, His perfect empathy is not merely an intellectual understanding; it is an experience grounded in His incarnation. This affiliation enriches our relationship with Him, as He is not a distant deity but a compassionate high priest who relates to us and seeks to comfort us in our trials.

I want you to open your Bibles
with me now to Hebrews 4. Let me read just three verses
of Hebrews 4, beginning with verse 14. 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 an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, tested, 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 I want to address tonight a certain problem and offer to
us some help from the scriptures. Many of us and many of our dear
beloved brethren and sisters are traveling in some deep and
troubled waters at this particular time. We have some very serious illnesses,
I guess in the life of this church and the time of my pastorate,
I don't suppose we've ever had so much at one time. And we even
have some of our friends who are on the very threshold of
death. And then some of us are getting
older, some of our members are getting older, and with age comes
particular problems and difficulties. And then there's the pressures
of business. I know some of you men here have
your business, your secular work, your jobs, your vocation. The
pressures that are brought to bear upon you are increasing
all the time. All the time. It's just sometimes
too much. And then there are family problems.
So many people having family problems and talking the other day to a dear
couple, their son and daughter-in-law has gotten a divorce and they
were so broken up and troubled and the wife said it's just like
a death in the family, you know, and the responsibility of children
I knew a dear man one time that had a 17-year-old son that was
such a rebel, just such a rebel, that he went down to the courthouse.
I don't know the legality of it, but he did it. He went down
to the courthouse and had that boy emancipated. He said, he
can live in my home, but I'm not responsible for anything
he does or says or anything else, and I want that down on paper.
That's a heartache, isn't it? to have to emancipate your own
son and withdraw all responsibility for his conduct. But there are
people, our people, who struggle with these things, inward struggles,
temptations, not to mention the day-to-day conflicts of life
and problems that arise. And if I might ask you to turn
to 2 Corinthians 4, Paul experienced some of this. This is no new
thing. This is no new thing. The Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians
4, he made this statement in verse 7. We have this treasure,
the knowledge of Christ's eternal life, faith. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. We're troubled on every side,
yet we're not distressed. We're perplexed, but we're not
in despair. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. We are cast down, but we're not
destroyed. Now, speaking candidly, I'm sure
many of us have entertained the thoughts of quitting the battle.
Just quitting. Have you ever thought about quitting? Anybody in here over 30 that
hadn't thought about quitting. I thought a lot of times what
a pleasure it would be to pastor a little church of about 15 people
down somewhere in the woods. Fish all week and preach on Sunday. And you thought the same thing.
And all of your struggles and troubles and trials just quit. In whatever words you put it,
it still comes out the same, it's running away. Doesn't matter
how you word it. It all comes out the same. Just running away from ourselves
and running away from our problems and running away from our difficulties
and our responsibilities and shutting ourselves off from the
things and circumstances which cause so much distress and disquietness
of spirit. What we're trying to do is find
an easier, simpler road. That's all. An easier, simpler
road. But I ask this, as I thought
about that, I ask this question, well, where do we go? To whom do we go? As the multitude listened to
our Lord in John 6, they listened to the claims of Christ. They considered the difficulty
of the way, and they departed. But then he
turned to his disciples and he said, Will you also go away? Do you want to quit? Do you want
to leave? And the Apostle Peter said, Lord, I'm sure he'd thought about it.
One time he did. He said, I'm going fishing. But
he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are assured
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So whatever
I am and whatever I feel and whatever I encounter and whatever
I experience, I can't leave my only hope. I can't leave my only hope. I
can't leave the only fountain. I can't leave the only source
of mercy. David said, I'm going to stay
by the well even though it appears to be dry. Wasn't that what he
said when he said, I would have fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So
wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord, and again
I say, wait on the Lord. I want you to turn to Jonah and
listen to Jonah here, Jonah chapter 2. I tell you, you talk about
a man in the depths, it was Jonah He prayed unto the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly, Jonah 2. And he said, I cried, verse
2, by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me,
out of the belly of hell cried I. And thou heardest my voice,
verse 3, for thou didst cast me into the deep, into the midst
of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, and all thy billows
and thy waves passed over me. And then I said, I'm just, I'm
cast out of thy sight. Yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Verse 5, the waters compassed
me about, even to the soul, the depths clothes round about, the
weeds were wrapped around my head, and I went to the bottom
of the mountains, and the earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, from the pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee
to thy holy temple." Now, Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we
go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. I want to give you tonight
some words, some words of encouragement, some words of comfort, some words
of hope, some words of life for the darkest hour, for the deepest
sea. and for the most difficult trial.
And these words I've selected are what I read a moment ago,
Hebrews 4. We'll go back there and look
at them almost one at a time. Hebrews 4, beginning with verse
14. Here are these words of encouragement. This is what Peter was saying,
Lord, you have the words of life. And here they are, verse 14,
Hebrews 4, In other words, understanding
some things. This is what the Apostle is saying,
understanding some things. Have we seen the message of the
book of Hebrews? The Apostle who wrote the book
of Hebrews had one purpose, one primary purpose, and that is
to establish to establish these believers who had believed on
Christ in their profession, so that they would not quit,
so that they would not turn back to the law. So they would not leave for any
reason. That's what the book of Hebrews
is all about. He's establishing them on Christ,
for he says, you see, he displays before them the excellences of
Christ. He said Christ is above the angels.
He said Christ is above Moses. As Moses is the builder of the
house, As a son in the house, the Lord
built the house. He's so much above Moses and
the law, and above Aaron, and above the tabernacle, and above
the priest. And his sacrifice and intercession
is above all sacrifice. He literally takes away that
person and establishes a second. That's what Hebrews is all about.
And he tells them here in Hebrews 3, turn back a page, verse 6.
This is what he's exhorting these people. He says, verse 6, Christ
as a son over his own house, whose house you are, are we if
we hold fast our confidence in rejoicing, firm to the end. Hold
it. Hold it. Verse 12, take heed,
brethren, lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. Verse 14, for we are made
partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast to the end. And then he says over here in
Hebrews 10, listen to this, verse 38, Now the just shall live by
faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him. But we're not of them who draw back unto perdition,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. So seeing,
seeing this, understanding this, Christ is above the angels and
above Moses and above the priests and above the sacrifices and
above all things. He is, listen, seeing then that
we have such a high priest, that we have such a high priest, a
high priest who makes the atonement, a high priest who effectually
reconciles us to God. A high priest who intercedes
before God for us, who's entered not into the holy place made
with hands, but heaven itself to make intercession for us.
And he's a, let me call him a great high priest. Seeing then that
we have a great high priest. I'll tell you the others were
small in comparison to him. What Averin did was but a shadow
of what Christ did affectionately. what every atonement that Avon
and those high priests offered were but a shadow. What they
did had no virtue at all, except as it derived its virtue from
what he did. Nothing. A great hypo. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest, look at this, that's passed into the heavens. I want you to look at Hebrews
9. This is very important here, Hebrews 9, verse 11 and 12. But Christ being come, 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. Verse 24, For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are but figures,
pictures, shadows of the truth, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. Seeking this, we have,
we have such a great high priest. who is passed into the heavens.
And what he does, compared to what they did, is as far to be
preferred as heaven is above the earth. That's how far above
what they did is what he did. They ministered in these things
here. And our Lord Jesus Christ has
entered into the heavens. And look at Hebrews 4, verse
14 again. And he's the Son of God. Understanding then that we have
a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God. Not a mere man as these other
priests. He's the Son of God. He's of
the same substance, nature, name, and essence as the Father. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace, Equal in Power, Glory, and All Excellencies. A perfect
and all-sufficient Savior, being the Son of God, is able to save
all that come to God by him. He's able! Let us then hold fast what we
believe. And there's the reason to hold
it fast, understanding and seeing and laying hold upon the truth
that we have such a great high priest who's passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Why, we need not be defeated.
We need not be discouraged, we need not be cast down, for we
have a high priest who is great, no trouble can move him, who
is high, no enemy can reach him, who is merciful and no weakness
can change him. So he says, let us hold fast
our profession. Let us hold fast our profession
and not allow anything or anyone to dim our view of him, as one
old writer said, or lessen our hold upon him, or discourage
our trust in him. I like what Habakkuk wrote over
here. Turn to Habakkuk. Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
chapter 3. Habakkuk 3. Listen to this. Now,
here's what we're saying. Let us hold because of who he
is. Let us hold fast our profession,
not allow anything or anyone to dim our view, or lessen our
hold, or discourage our trust in him. Habakkuk 3.17, Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in
the vines. Now, this is a bad situation for a man who's got
a farm. The labor of the olive tree shall fail the fields. yield no harvest, the flocks
shall be cut off from the foal, and no herd in the stall. Yet I rejoice in the Lord, and
I will joy in the God of my salvation." That's tough times, difficult
times. So hold it, let us hold our profession,
hold it fast, hold it firmly without wavering. and hold it
boldly without compromise, and hold it openly without shame,
and hold it humbly without pride, and hold it resting entirely
on him." Sovereign grace is a word divine. For, Lord, I can plainly
see Had not thy choice preceded mine, I would never have chosen
thee. For persevering strength I've
none, but I would on this depend, that Jesus Christ loves his own,
and he'll love them to the end. So empty and bare, I still come
to thee, for righteousness divine. O may thy righteous merits be
by imputation mine. All right, verse 15. Verse 14
is a great one, isn't it? All right, verse 15. For we have
not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. We have not, in other words,
our high priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
What are infirmities? Well, infirmities are feebleness. Infirmities are weaknesses in
whatever area, just weaknesses. Infirmities are defects. Infirmities
are ailments. That's what infirmities are.
They're feebleness, weakness, defects, and ailments. And these
are the things that cause us to suffer and cause us to be
troubled. Paul said that. He said, who
is weak that I'm not weak, or that I do not feel his weakness?
He said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? And we have this great, great,
great High Priest, High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who's
passed into the heavenlies, who has effectually reconciled us
to God. He's touched with the feeling
of our impermanence. our weaknesses, feebleness, defects,
and ailments touched. Now this I must establish, He
knows them all. You go to the doctor or the psychiatrist
or the counselor or the preacher and he tries to diagnose your
problem, you don't know it and he doesn't either, but our Lord
knows it. He knows me. He knows me. Look back at verse
13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are open unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do. He knows my infirmities, my feebleness,
my defects, my weaknesses, my ailments. He knows them. None
of them escape his notice, and none are so small as to not be
worth his notice, and none are so great that he won't deal with
them. He knows them. He knows them because He's God.
His eye is in every place. And He knows, watch this now,
He knows our infirmities experimentally because it says, in all points,
He was tempted as we are. How does He know my infirmities
so well? Well, He's God. But he knows
them not only being God, but he knows them experimentally
because as a man, there is no temptation that I'm called upon
to endure that he didn't himself endure without sin. That's right. Matthew 8, 17 says he bore our
infirmities. He knows what it is to be poor.
He knows what it is to work hard. Were you ever in a medieval carpenter
shop? He knows what it is to sweat
and to labor. He knows what it is to have no
place to lay his head. He knows what it is to be in
pain. He knows what it is to be despised and acquainted with
grief, a man of sorrows. He knows what it is to be reproached,
to be lied upon, to be despitefully used, does he not? He knows what
it is to face death, suffering. He knows what it is to hear the
suggestions of Satan. You say, oh, my heart is so tempted
to sin. In whatever area, did not Satan
come to him and say, if, if, if? He knows what it is to be
forsaken. He knows what it is to walk the
winepress of God's wrath in a way you'll never know alone. He knows
what it is to be disappointed in others, and thank God he knows
what it is to forgive them. When he rose from the dead, he
said to the women, he said, go tell my disciples. That wasn't
all he said, was it? And Peter. Don't you leave him
out. Master, he quit us. I want him
to have a special invitation. Master, he denied he even knew
you. Give him a special invitation.
Only name he called was Peter. Go tell all of them, don't you
forget old Peter. He knows what it is because he
experienced every bit of it. Turn back to Hebrews 2, verse
16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, Hebrews 2.17, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham, wherefore in all things. Now don't take the
power out of that. I know of the holiness
of our God. I know these things. I know who
he is. But he's a man. But don't take the strength out
of that. 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 the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered, being tested and tempted and
tried, he is able to comfort and succor them that are tempted. That's what I'm saying. infirmities,
while it says he is touched. And that word touched, I looked
at that a little while. And let's use it like we always
use it, like it's commonly used when someone is distressed and you love that
person very much and they tell you how troubled and distressed,
you're touched, aren't you? You're touched. It doesn't say,
the word's not he's angry with our infirmities, it's not he's
filled with vengeance and rebuke because of our infirmities, it
says he's touched. He's touched with the feeling. He's affected. I'm touched, I'm
affected, I'm filled with the deepest pity. He says I've been
there. I have been that. And He's filled
with the pity and compassion and desire to comfort. I know
what you feel and I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake
you. Can you see this? Our Lord, knowing
by experience as a man in the flesh all the infirmities and
defects and weaknesses and trials that we feel and experience.
He knows these things. He endured them without sin. But he has compassion and pity
upon us because, in the next place, of his relationship to
us. Now then, I address you fathers. Our Lord Jesus Christ has that
relationship with us, for it says, as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. That's his
pity, Gary, just like you feel for those two children of yours.
They hurt, you hurt. You touch. And as a brother,
it says, He's not ashamed to call them brethren. And he said
to those people at the judgment, inasmuch as you did it to the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me. That's right, my
brothers. He's a brother. A husband. Why, he said, husbands love your
wives as Christ loved the church. As a friend, he said to his disciples,
you're my friends. You're my friends. As a lover,
having loved his own, he loved them to the end. That's his relationship
to us, and he is touched, he is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. And you know, when the Apostle
Paul, turn to 2 Corinthians 12, when the Apostle Paul was in
his deepest valley of distress and trouble with that thorn in
the flesh, in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
me, He said, and He said to me, I besought the Lord, He said,
verse 8, three times, that this trouble and trial and sorrow
and difficulty and infirmity might depart from me. And He
said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect
in your weakness. So most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ might
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak in myself,
then am I strong. Because I don't depend upon my
strength and my ability and my merit, I depend on His. That's when I'm really strong.
Mr. Spurgeon said one time, when
we think we're the most spiritual, there's a possibility that that's
when we're the least spiritual. And when we think that we have
the least about us and in us and upon us, when we think we
have the least, that may be the time that we're dependent on
Him and we have the most. Can we lay hold on that? That's
what Paul's saying. All right, back to the text for closing
comment, verse 16. No need to go back. Seeing then,
he's touched with a feeling of our infirmities, defects, weaknesses,
because he was in all points tested as we are yet without
sin. So let us, us, we who have the infirmities, I'm almost persuaded
that this religious world is convinced that God helps those
who help themselves. I really believe this religious
world believes the grace of God is designed for the strong. I
really do. But that's not what Christ said.
who have the infirmities, us who have the defects, us who
have the trouble, let us, it's a privilege, it's a command,
let us, he will let us, let us therefore, because we have this
great high priest, let us therefore come boldly, come to the Lord,
come without restraint, come without fear, come without shame,
come without doubting. Come with confidence, come boldly. Let us, just like we are, Charlotte
Elliot wrote it, just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul
of one dark blot, to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, sight, riches, healing
of the mind, all I need in thee to find, just as I am, without
one plea, but that Christ's blood was shed for me. Just like a,
let us come boldly. Like Gary said, don't creep in
the back door. There ain't no back door to glory.
Let us come boldly. Where? To the throne of grace. Old Clarkson said that God has
a threefold throne. He has a throne of glory to which
I can't approach. He has a throne of justice to
which I won't approach. But He has a throne of grace,
and this is where I can come. Grace, grace, grace, grace. He delights to show mercy. He's
plenteous in mercy. His mercy and His grace is accentuated
and enlarged and exalted and magnified in my weakness. Let us, seeing we have such a
great high priest, seeing he's opened the door, seeing he's
all we need, seeing he's reconciled us to God, seeing he's so far
above everything that's ever been before, and he's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, come on, let's go to the throne
of grace. Why? that we may obtain mercy. This is why we come, mercy and
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace. Mercy is God
not giving me what I do deserve, and grace is God giving me what
I don't deserve. But it's all at the throne of
grace. Come on. Well, when should we come, Preacher?
In time of need. But I'm going to be hanging out
there all the time then, aren't you? I don't have any time that's
not a time of need. I don't have any time that's
not a time of need. Isn't that comforting? And isn't
that the only source of comfort?

Words of Encouragement

What does the Bible say about our high priest?

How do we know Christ's intercession is effective?

Why is it important to come boldly to the throne of grace?

How does Jesus understand our weaknesses?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Words of Encouragement

What does the Bible say about our high priest?

How do we know Christ's intercession is effective?

Why is it important to come boldly to the throne of grace?

How does Jesus understand our weaknesses?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book