Drawing Near For Grace (Hebrews 4:16)

Kootenai Church

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And turn now to Hebrews 4. We're going to read together verses 14 through 16,

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Hebrews 4. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the

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Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

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Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Let's pray together. Our Father, we have sung of your grace.

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We have reflected upon your grace and the goodness of it. We who are in Christ are the recipients of grace, grace unending and grace abundant.

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And now we read even in this passage of a grace that is available to us from the throne of grace. And we pray that our thoughts and our meditation may be directed by your

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Holy Spirit today as we study and read and think, and that you would be glorified through our time and our study here in your

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Word. Use your Word in our hearts to accomplish all that concerns us and for our sake and for your glory, that Christ may be honored here in all that is done and said.

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We ask it in His name. Amen. Well, prayer is one of the most essential aspects of the Christian life and one of the most fundamental things that a

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Christian must do in order to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet as fundamental and foundational as it is to our

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Christian walk and our faith, it seems that prayer is something of a curious thing because it is at the same time the easiest thing in the world and yet one of the most difficult things that we have to do as Christians.

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It's easy in the sense that in order to pray, all we have to do is to direct our thoughts and our focus upon our

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Father who is in heaven and address Him, speak to Him. It's that easy. It's in one sense as easy as breathing.

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We just have to make a conscious decision to direct our thoughts and then to address our Father in heaven. It's very simple.

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We don't have to go anywhere to do prayer. We have to go to a place that is marked by an

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X or a special sanctuary or a special room to pray. We don't have to go to a prayer closet. We don't have to go to any particular location in our home.

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We don't have to travel to pray. We don't have to dress up to pray. We can pray anywhere. We can pray in any garb.

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We can be praying lying down, sitting up, kneeling, being prostrate. We can pray in almost any position, almost any place.

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It's easy. We don't even have to perform a bunch of religious ceremonies before we pray just to get ready to pray.

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It's not like we have to offer an animal and go to a certain place or address it. We don't even have to schedule our prayer time at all.

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We don't have to make an appointment to pray. We don't have to put it on the calendar to pray. We don't have to get approval from somebody else that this time works for them.

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It is truly one of the easiest things in all of our Christian life to just to pray. But it is at the exact same time one of the most difficult things for us to do, is it not?

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Now, without shaking your heads, nodding your heads yes, or raising your hand, or in any way indicating whether this statement holds true for you or not, right?

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We're all clear. I'm not asking for volunteers or hands up. Is there anybody here honestly?

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Again, no hands or nodding. Is there anybody here honestly who is satisfied with your prayer life as it is?

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Anyone? Again, not asking for hands because I don't think that any of us would be.

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It's not true of me, but you're a pastor. I know, but that doesn't mean that I'm satisfied with my own prayer life.

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I never pray as long as I wish I would. I never pray as fervently as I wish I would. I never pray as passionately or consistently as I wish

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I would. I never pray as undistracted as I wish that I would pray. I never pray for all of the things that I wish that I could pray for.

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None of that is true. I'm in no way satisfied as much as in it, and prayer for me is not something that is easy.

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Prayer for me is something that is very difficult because my mind runs at almost the same speed, a little bit faster than my mouth runs, sometimes ahead of my mouth, and you can tell that.

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So, my mind is always racing, and the most difficult thing for me is to stop and sit and focus long enough to simply utter three uninterrupted, undistracted sentences, and to do so with earnestness and passion, and to do that on a regular basis for as long as I wish.

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It's one of the most difficult things in all of the world. I'm not satisfied with how I pray, how long I pray, none of that.

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Now, maybe this will change by the end of my life, but I don't expect that I will ever be satisfied with my prayer life.

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As easy as it is, it is one of the most difficult things that we do. So, how is it that this essential discipline can be at the same time so easy and yet so difficult?

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Why is that? It's weird, isn't it? You would think that if something was easy, it would be easy, and that if something would be difficult, it would be difficult.

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And yet, the easiest thing is the most difficult thing for us to do. And I know that I'm not alone in this struggle.

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And again, I'm not asking for hands. I'm not alone in this struggle. But the temptation is for all of us to think that we're all alone in this struggle, right?

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That we are the only ones that struggle with this easy discipline called prayer, and that everybody else has it down.

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And we look around, and we think, you know, everybody around me, everybody in the other section over there, they probably have a warm, and vibrant, and active, and consistent, and persistent, and passionate prayer life.

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And they probably start praying, and before they know it, it's noon, and they're like, wow, I didn't even get to work today. I'm going to have to call my boss and explain why

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I'm late. And here four hours went by, and I didn't even think about it at all. And I'll just continue praying when

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I get home tonight. And then they show up, and they probably show up after work home, and they start praying, and they skip dinner, and they're fasting for weeks on end.

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Everybody's got this down except for me. I'm the only one that struggles. And that's not the case. That's just not true.

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I think it is the reality that most Christians struggle with this thing that is so incredibly easy and is intended to be easy.

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And then I read in the Gospels of the apostles, the disciples who walked three years with Jesus, and they said to the

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Lord, Lord, teach us to pray. And then I breathe a sigh of relief, and I say, if Peter needed that, and James needed that, and John needed that, and if they recognized that this was difficult for them, then

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I can take some comfort in that. Scripture is full of instruction on prayer. It's full of examples of prayer.

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Now, really, Scripture could do...Scripture could take one of two tacts to encourage us to pray, either a stick or a carrot.

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Scripture could bludgeon us, pistol -whip us, guilt us into prayer, as it were.

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Scripture could...you could read verses where we are reproved for not praying enough, where we are mocked and ridiculed, and guilt is heaped upon us for our lack of prayer and our lack of fervency in prayer.

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Scripture could do that. It could motivate us to pray by guilting us into it, right?

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Like some relative that was at Thanksgiving, guilting you into something all the time. Scripture could do that, guilt -trip us into prayer, or Scripture could just invite us in.

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And yet, this is the tact that Scripture takes. When you read through, there are commands to pray. There is the expectation to pray.

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But even if you read through it, the commands for us to pray are couched in such a way, they're given in such a way so as to incentivize us to take advantage of that command and to obey that command.

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So we are commanded to pray, and yet even those commands are stated in such a way as to say, look, pray, and here's all the reasons why you should pray.

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Here are all the promises relating to us when we pray. Grace is available. Instead of guilting us into prayer,

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Scripture invites us in, and rather than making us feel guilty necessarily for our lack of prayer, it is as if the storehouses of divine grace and the treasures of heaven are opened wide open, and the

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Lord just says, come on in and take what you want. Ask what you will, not with guilt, not with cowardice, but with confidence.

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Step in and take it. It's yours. It's all purchased. It's all available. It's all there.

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Just step in and enjoy it. That is the way that Scripture talks about prayer, inviting us in.

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And all of the examples of prayer, the examples in the Old Testament and the New Testament, all of the incentives to prayer, and the promises, and the commands, and the encouragements, and the patterns, and even the sample prayers.

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And even in the Psalms, we read of coming forward and coming into God's presence with joy and thanksgiving, and a vocal shout of praise, and all of that.

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Those are invitations to come on in and to bask in His glory and to enter into His throne room, as it were.

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And that is actually what we have in this 16th verse of chapter 4. We have spent the last couple of weeks looking at this high priestly ministry of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We saw in verse 14, His exalted status as the Son of God, Jesus, the Son of God who's passed through the heavens, seated at the

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Father's right hand. He is the one who has made this propitiation, this atonement or sacrifice for us, that has made this grace available.

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That is the same one who knows our weaknesses and is sympathetic. He is seated at the Father's right hand, having been tempted, and being tried, and suffered as we do, and tried in experiencing the weaknesses that we experience.

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He sits at the Father's right hand, ready to give aid and assistance. And so, we are invited in verse 16 with these words, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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And in that verse, verse 16, we have at the beginning of the verse, in the first half of the verse, this access that we have described.

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It is an access to the throne of grace. And then in the second half of the verse, we have that grace described, a grace that is timely, that is there to meet our need, and that is abundantly available.

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So, let's look first at this access that we have. There is this magnificent invitation in verse 16, let us draw near to the throne of grace.

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Now, given what is said concerning the character of the Lord Jesus Christ and His characteristics, this invitation to walk into God's throne room and to approach

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His grace is quite a magnificent invitation. Just think of it for a moment. Who is it that sits upon a throne?

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Who sits upon thrones? Any of you ever sit upon a throne? No. No, none of you have.

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Not like a real throne. None of you have ever. I asked that question, and then I thought, I asked that question, and then

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I thought, I shouldn't have asked that question. Okay.

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But we have never sat upon a throne. Rulers sit upon thrones.

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Sovereigns sit upon thrones. Kings sit upon thrones, but not commoners and not subjects.

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And so, that He would describe here this one who sits upon a throne. He sits upon the throne of grace. And I think that in this context, the one that is being described here as sitting upon this throne of grace is none other than the

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Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's already described in chapter 1 how Jesus made purification of sins and has sat down at the

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Father's right hand. He shares His Father's throne. We sing about that. We read about that. He is sharing His Father's throne.

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And then He has described here Jesus, the Son of God, who has passed through the heavens, again, a reference to His ascension, and then seated, being seated at the

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Father's right hand, that position of power and preeminence. And so, we are to understand that we are to approach this one, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who has shared our weaknesses and can sympathize with our temptations, and our trials, and our struggles.

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And because of His sympathy, He sits upon this throne of grace. He is this sovereign and this ruler who sits upon this throne of grace.

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And it is interesting that the word throne and grace occur together here. Those are not two words that we typically attach together, are they?

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We think of a throne of power, a throne of judgment, a throne of majesty, a throne of omnipotence and sovereignty.

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And yet here, this word throne is combined with the word grace. And that is a combination that would be odd to anybody who is familiar with the imagery that is being conveyed here of a sovereign king who sits upon the throne.

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You didn't usually think of them in terms of being gracious. Nobody would dare to step into the presence of a king.

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Do you remember Esther even being the king's wife? Remember when she was faced with that challenge of approaching the king and asking for grace for the

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Jews? What did she say? This could cost me my life. In ancient times, those familiar with the idea of a throne and a kingdom and a monarch who sits upon it, the idea of a commoner approaching such a throne was utterly unheard of.

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You didn't think about that. And to think of a throne being a throne of grace itself, and yet these earthly magistrates, the earthly magistrates are nothing in the presence of the one who sits upon the throne of grace, nothing.

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His throne is a throne above all thrones, and His kingdom is a kingdom above all kingdoms.

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That is why He is the King of kings. And enthroned in majesty and splendor and magnificence and power and sovereignty, that is

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His throne. All the kingdoms of the earth are nothing in His sight. Scripture describes

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Him as a drop in the bucket. He is the king who appoints other kings, and His kingdom is an enduring kingdom and an everlasting kingdom.

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And it goes from generation to generation, and it knows no end. There's no limit to His sovereignty.

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There is no limitation on His power. There is no limit on His grace or His mercy.

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All things are under Him. He rules in His sovereignty. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, and His kingdom is everlasting, an everlasting kingdom.

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He raises up nations and then throws them down at His perfect timing according to His perfect will.

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He establishes kings in the earth and has done this through all of human history. And when their time is up and the appointed time has come,

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He removes those kings from sovereignty and destroys them, just like Nebuchadnezzar. And all the kingdoms of the earth are nothing in the presence of this king.

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Isaiah saw a vision of this king seated on his throne, and John chapter 12 tells us that when Isaiah saw him, he saw

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Jesus. It was Jesus, the second person that Isaiah beheld in Isaiah chapter 6. And what did

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Isaiah do when he just saw a vision, a glimpse of that throne? He melted like wax, and he came undone.

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No mortal person can look upon this throne. So tell me, who is it that would have the temerity, the audacity, the boldness to walk with confidence into this banquet hall where this throne is seated and this king is seated with all of his splendor and magnificence to walk into that banquet hall and to make requests of that king?

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On what grounds do we do that? On what basis? Who has such temerity to approach such a throne?

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And why would we even be invited to do that? This is the place where blood has been applied for a sacrifice.

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This is the place where angels swarm around this throne and sing never -endingly, holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come, the Almighty. And they do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a never -ending pantheon of praise to this king, and we are invited to draw near to that.

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That is utterly mind -boggling that we would be even invited to walk into that and to approach such a king.

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That is unheard of. Now, just the thought of doing that, that this is this kind of a throne, does that make us or should that not make us rethink how it is and when it is and where it is that we approach this king?

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One of the things that I am unsatisfied with in my own prayer life is the flippancy, and I don't mean this in an irreverent sense, but the flippancy or ease with which

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I think that I should be praying, that I can come in with stuff going on in the background and approach this throne with this king, this sovereign, with all that that entails, and that I can do so with such ease without even really thinking about what it is that I do.

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And sometimes I think I just want to step back and remind myself of what it is that I am approaching. Imagine stepping into the banquet hall of an earthly monarch and just marching up to the throne to make your requests.

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If you can picture that, would you not, in doing that, would you not rethink how it is that you would state your case or how it is that you might ask your requests or how it is that you might focus in the context of such a king?

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Can you imagine walking into such a throne room and just in an earthly monarch, imagine this, walking into such a throne room with your phone in your hand and kind of flipping through stuff and scrolling through Facebook while you're praying, while you're talking to this king?

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Would you do such a thing? So, just the imagery of a throne is enough to make us say, I don't even want to draw near at all.

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That makes us almost terrified to step into this, right? But if it were just a throne, we ought to be terrified.

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But it's not just a throne, it's a throne of grace. And suddenly, this changes it. This is the whole idea.

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This is the whole reason I say that the idea of a throne and a grace do not seem to go together. The majestic and powerful magnificence of this one coupled with this idea that it is a place of grace so that I can come in and I am not just facing a monarch who is powerful and just and righteous and holy and infinite in all of his attributes enthroned in splendor.

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I'm not just approaching that, but I'm approaching one who is toward me graciously disposed and willing to help and able to help and wanting to help, one who is favorably disposed toward me.

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So, back to the imagery of a monarch, it is not just the monarch whom we are approaching as if we are a commoner off of the streets from the poor neighborhood of the kingdom, but rather we are like, to use the biblical imagery, we're like the firstborn son stepping into the presence of the king with all the rights of sonship and all the rights to the kingdom, heirs of the throne, and then we can approach our monarch.

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You see, that's a little bit different, isn't it? And then to understand that this monarch who sits upon this throne, this king, is our brother, our co -heir to the kingdom, who has promised to use all of the resources of the kingdom for our good and for our eternal glory and his eternal glory, which are all wrapped up together.

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This one who is on the throne is our brother and our co -heir and the one who is so lovingly and graciously disposed to us that he invites us in.

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And only in Jesus Christ is the Father graciously disposed toward us in any way.

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This is the throne of grace, and this throne of grace is only for believers. It's not for unbelievers. In other words, the unbeliever cannot walk up to this monarch and just request anything that he wants because he is still in a rebellious state, impenitent and unrepentant, and in no way is

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God favorably disposed to the unbeliever at all until that unbeliever repents and lays down his arms in his rebellion and believes upon the son who died in his stead and has been born again, then, and having been adopted into the family, then this king is favorably disposed to the one who approaches the throne, but only after that.

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This throne of grace is for believers. We have a unique relationship to this one who sits upon the throne.

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And this throne, because it is a throne of grace, is not a throne that exists to oppress its subjects through taxation.

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It's not a throne that exists to oppress its subjects through manipulation or coercion or any kind of tyranny at all.

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As Spurgeon has rightly said, it is a throne not for receiving tribute but for dispensing gifts. It's a wonderful way of seeing it.

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This is not a throne that is there to receive tribute. This is a throne that exists and the one who sits upon it exists for the sake of distributing his gifts and his grace to us.

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That is why he says, draw near to this throne of grace that you may receive this mercy and grace to help in time of need.

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So, the imagery of this throne makes me want to stay away. I want to stay distant from this because it is too high and too holy and too magnificent for me to even dare to approach.

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And yet, the imagery of a throne of grace, and it is my co -heir of the kingdom and my brother, my redeemer who sits upon it, he is the sovereign and because I have been adopted into the family,

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I'm one of the kids and I can approach him and he is favorably disposed to me.

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We ought not to think that this one who sits upon the throne that his grace stopped with our salvation. It is grace from first to last.

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This one who has saved us and has poured out upon us all of this grace to redeem a lost and fallen humanity, to make we who were rebels his children and has given us adoption and brought us into his family, having taken his seat at the father's right hand, it is not just his compassion that has not ceased, his grace has not ceased at all either.

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In fact, that grace continues to be ours and poured out upon us until we are gathered around that throne singing with the angels who are there even singing right now.

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It is grace from first to last. And so, the one who sits there having poured out abundant grace, this one magnificent God who has not withheld from us his only son, will he withhold from us all good things?

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None. The same God who is favorably disposed to grant us all of that grace to save us is also there to give us all of the grace necessary in our time of need.

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And so, we are invited to draw near, beckoned to draw near. The word draw near is a word that means to come near, to approach something or to come forward.

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It's used oftentimes in Scripture, a lot of times. I'm not going to give you a bunch of examples. I'm just going to focus on how it's in the book of Hebrews because I think that the author of Hebrews uses this in a significant way.

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It is used seven times in Hebrews, three times it's used of approaching God or drawing near to... Sorry, it's used of approaching

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God or like something like the mountain in Hebrews chapter 12. It says, we have not come near or drawn near, come to a mountain that can be touched, an allusion to Sinai and the law.

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But it says in chapter 12, we have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. We've drawn near. It's used in Hebrews chapter 11 verse...

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I was going to say it's verse 1, but I don't think it is. It's 1...verse 6, those who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek

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Him. And the idea there is that we draw near or approach God. Four times it is translated as draw near, and this is significant.

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In all four times that it is translated as draw near, it is used in the context of priests, high priests, sacrifices, and worship.

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And that is how the author uses this word that has this idea of drawing near and approaching unto

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God. It is in the context of high priests, sacrifices, and worship. So, for instance, we have in chapter 7 verse 25, therefore,

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He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, that is through Christ, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

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And there the idea is that the intercession that is made by Christ as our high priest. In Hebrews chapter 10, for the law, since it is only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near.

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And see, it is the inability of those old sacrifices to perfect those of us who draw near to God through them.

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And so, the author is making the case that you can't approach God through those sacrifices. They cannot do what the sacrifice of Christ has done.

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See, always in this context of being mediated in some way, in a priestly fashion. Hebrews 10 .22, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, and here's the language of sacrifice and ceremony, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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So, in all of these instances where the author uses this idea of drawing near, this word for drawing near to speak of approaching

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God in worship, it is always in the context of a mediated sacrifice. And that is the same context here.

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Who is it that is our high priest? Verse 15, is Jesus the Son of God? He is our high priest. And so, the idea is because our high priest has done his work, we can draw near or approach to God.

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So, to answer the question, how is it, with what temerity or how is it that we are able to walk into this throne room and approach this throne of grace?

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On what basis? On what grounds? The answer is that we have a high priest who has gone ahead of us. He's entered within the veil.

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The veil has been torn in two. The access has been opened up and he sits enthroned inside the Holy of Holies, which is heaven itself.

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And for that reason, we can approach God or come near to God. And the whole notion of drawing near to God was something completely foreign to an

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Old Testament Jew. So, we have an approach to God, a nearness to God, an opportunity to approach the

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Father that no Old Testament Jew could have ever fathomed or understood. What Jews understood from their sacrificial system was the transcendence of God, that he transcends this physical realm, that he is highly holy and lifted up.

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That's what you see in Isaiah, where he sees Yahweh and the glory of his robe fills the temple and the angels fly around him and sing this worship chorus, holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord God, the Almighty. It is the transcendence and the exalted nature of God, which a Jew understood.

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I was just this last week reading through the book of Exodus in my Bible reading, and I came across the passage where Moses goes up onto the mountain to receive the

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Ten Commandments. And you remember that passage? What did Moses do? What was he told to do before he went up on the mountain? To put a barrier around the bottom of the mountain so the children of Israel wouldn't go up and cross that barrier.

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And Moses went up, and the Lord said to Moses, go back down and tell them, do not cross this barrier. You're not to come up here and try and sneak a peek at God.

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God is not somebody to just be gandered at. And that barrier existed, and it was to keep all the children of Israel away from the base of that mountain.

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Only Moses and Aaron went up onto that mountain. And then Moses came back down and told the people, do not cross this barrier, or God will break out against you.

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There's wrath and judgment if you try and think that you can approach him that flippantly. So every Jew understood God is high and holy, and I am not.

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And the only way I can approach God is through a sacrifice. And so they would bring an animal and sacrifice the animal.

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And that blood was to atone for their sins, to cover over their sins so that they could have access to God, but even not directly, only through a priest who performed that function of sacrifice for them.

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So their entire relationship to Yahweh from first to last was all mediated through this sacrificial system and the priests and the covenants and the ceremonies and all of that.

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It was all mediated through that. No Jew would ever think of just walking up to the throne room of God and approaching God on his own.

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You wouldn't do that. And yet we are invited to just enter in. Wow, what ease and grace we have been given in approaching

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God. And not only we're invited to enter in, the scripture says we are to enter in with confidence.

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Boldness, it's translated elsewhere. We are to enter in with a confidence and a boldness, a courage and an openness.

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The same word is used in Hebrews 10, 19, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, right?

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Confidence. We don't enter in as cowards. We're to enter in with confidence. We are to approach that throne that I've described earlier.

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We're to approach that throne with a boldness, a confidence. That doesn't mean flippancy.

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I am to have in mind exactly what it is that I am coming into. This is a blood -bought access that I have been given.

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I have that in my mind. I don't minimize the transcendence. And yet, in spite of that, the majesty of that transcendence,

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I am invited to just simply enter in, and not as a coward, but with boldness and with confidence.

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Hebrews 10, 22 says, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

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With sincerity and assurance, with boldness, with confidence, we can approach the throne of grace.

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Can you contrast that with the Old Testament system? How did the priests enter into the holy of holies?

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No priest would ever do what you and I are called to do, what we're commanded to do. No priest would ever do that. No Old Testament, even the high priest himself, even

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Aaron, had to dress up a certain way and bathe his entire body with water and go through all these ceremonial cleansings.

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And then he had to take an animal and offer it for his own sin. And then having done that and washed himself again, he would take another animal and offer it for the sins of the people.

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And only then, with great fear and trepidation, would he step behind the veil and take the blood of that sacrifice and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat of the

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Ark of the Covenant. Only then would he do that and then quickly leave. And he would only do it once a year, on one day of the year, and it only took a few moments for him to do it.

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He had very limited access. And there's no limitation on our access to the throne of grace.

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We can come in not just once a year, but as many times as we want. We can step behind the veil.

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And not only can we step behind the veil as often as we want, we can do it several times a day if we want, on any day of the year that we please.

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And having entered in, we can stay there as long as we want. There's no rush to leave. No priest who ever lived in all of the

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Old Testament would have ever thought that anybody could approach God the way that you and I have been made available to approach

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God. No priest would have ever considered that. It's a magnificent invitation. Let us draw near.

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The floodgates of grace are open, and we can step in and receive grace to help in time of need.

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Now, on what basis did an Old Testament priest step into the Holy of Holies behind the veil? On the basis of blood that was shed.

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He didn't step back there without blood. And even on that one day of year, he didn't step back there at any time without blood.

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And on that one day, he took the blood of the sacrifice, on the day of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, and he sprinkled upon that mercy seat.

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That mercy seat was over top of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments, the tablets that Moses brought down.

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Those broken tablets were inside the Ark, and above that Ark was the flat top of the Ark, which was called the mercy seat, with the cherubim on each side of that.

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And the high priest would walk in there with the blood of that sacrifice, which was for all believing Israelites, and he would take that blood, and he would sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and then he would leave.

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And that blood was over top of the broken law of God between the cherubim where God was supposed to be seated, where that seat where mercy would be given.

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And on the basis of that blood over that broken law, mercy would be extended to the people of Israel, and grace would be given.

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On what basis do you and I approach the throne of God? On the basis of blood that was shed. But our high priest has not entered into an earthly tabernacle made with hands behind a veil that closes us off.

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The veil has been rent in two, and our high priest steps in not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood, his own sacrifice, he has entered into heaven itself, and he has applied the blood of his sacrifice to our broken law, to the law which we have violated.

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And so those 10 commandments, that brokenness of the law, that was ours, and the blood that has been shed covers that.

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And so now we are told in Scripture, the blood of that sacrifice cleanses us forever and makes us perfect.

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And this is not a sacrifice that has to be repeated every day, every month, every year, or even a second time at all.

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It is a blood that once for all has paid the price for sin and redeemed us and given us this access.

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Everything you read in verse 16 is so foreign to somebody steeped in the old covenant dispensation that it is words that are without any kind of explanation.

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They could never even have conceived of this, never would have entered into their mind that anybody could approach God on these terms with this much freedom and this much access.

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We have been given it. And not on the basis of bulls and goats, but on the basis of one who died in our stead and shed his blood for our law -breaking.

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That is just magnificent. And we're just told, enter in, walk right behind the veil.

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All the barriers to our access with God have been taken out of the way. Our guilt, our shame, our guilty conscience, all of our sinful deeds, all of the wrath of God has been born for us.

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And not only that, but we've been given a positive righteousness by which we can approach this throne and receive grace to help in time of need.

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We have been justified and the wrath of God has been satisfied on our behalf. And so we have this access in Christ and because of Christ.

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And what do we receive of it? A sufficient supply of timely grace. Look at the end of verse 16. We have this confidence to approach the throne of grace, draw near to it, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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I think that the reference there to mercy is an interesting one. And I think it is an intentional illusion on behalf of the author to draw our attention to something that was associated with the high priest, and that was the mercy seat.

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So there is an intentional attempt here to connect the work of Christ to the mercy that we have been given.

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So because he has gone behind the veil and because the veil has been opened up and our access to God is free and full, we get this on the basis of the mercy that we have been granted because of what

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Christ has done on the mercy seat and by the mercy seat in applying his blood to our need.

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And so we have, because of what he has done, abundant mercy available and always available to us through that free access.

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And not only that, but the grace that we have received. We receive grace to help in time of need. And the word translated help here is the same word used back in chapter 2 verse 18.

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And I would just reference you back there and remind you of that. This is another proof that the author here is picking up with the theme he ended chapter 2 with and started chapter 3 with, which was

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Christ our high priest. In chapter 2 verse 18, he says, for he, that is Christ himself, was tempted in that which he has suffered.

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He is able to come to the aid or to help those who are tempted. And so at the end of chapter 2, he ends with the temptation of Christ and Christ helping us.

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And now he has picked up after the warning passage of chapters 3 and 4, he has picked up again this theme of Christ being our high priest, verses 14 and 15, and of the help that we are given because likewise he was tempted.

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So, what is it that we need and what is the time of need that the author is referring to in verse 16?

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We have boldness to access this throne of grace so that when we receive the mercy and the grace that we help need in time of need.

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We need this grace. What is this time of need? I think that in the context, the author means specifically and he is addressing specifically a time of temptation, a time of temptation.

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He has just described what in verse 15? Christ's temptation. He knows our weaknesses.

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He can sympathize with us. He is the high priest who having endured the weaknesses that we have has resisted this temptation, being tempted in all points as we are yet without sin.

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And so we have this access to the throne of grace to approach this one who sits upon the throne of grace, who himself has been tempted, who has endured our weaknesses, and we can receive grace to help in our time of need.

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What is our time of need? Our time of temptation. It's a time of temptation. That's why he says back in chapter 2, verse 18, he references the temptation of Christ and says he is able to come to the aid to give grace to those who are tempted as he was.

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It is in the moment of temptation that we need this grace. And the original authors, the original recipients of this, were tempted in a way that we have not yet been tempted in our context, and that was,

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I would remind you, the temptation to go back to the Old Testament system, right? To abandon this free grace and this magnificent access that they have, and to go back to animal sacrifices.

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That was what they were being tempted with. Because of what they didn't understand about the work of Christ, they were allured to go back to that, and they were allured to abandon

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Christ because of the persecution that they were enduring, and the persecution that was...they were right on the cusp of enduring.

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They were tempted to give up their faith and to deny their faith. In a moment of that temptation, there is grace available.

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And we are tempted to think...I use that in kind of a pun, I guess. We are tempted to think that in the moment of temptation is the last time that we want to pray.

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We think, man, I'm just...I'm so tempted right now to do something, and I just...this is...I do not need to be in prayer right now because this temptation is weighing heavy upon me.

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No, it's the opposite, right? In the moment of temptation, when our flesh is weak and our flesh wants to end us and destroy us, it is right at the moment of temptation when we are at our weakest that the enemy comes in, that's when we need to pray.

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We don't need to think, no, I need to be outside of temptation, then I can approach the throne of grace. The point of this passage is just the opposite.

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It is in the time and the moment of temptation, that's when we need to rush in boldly to the throne of grace and say,

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Lord, I need help. And here's the good news. We have a sovereign who sits on the throne, who knows our weaknesses, he knows our temptations, and he knows exactly what grace needs to be given in the moment of that temptation, and he is willing and able to meet that need.

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And so, in the moment of temptation, that is when we pray. You may not feel like praying, you may not want to pray, that is when you need to pray, to approach the throne of grace, to receive the grace that is there to help in the time of temptation, the time of need.

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And of course, that grace is not just available for times of temptation. This is why I think that the author kind of left it somewhat generic.

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It is a time of need. There are all kinds of needs that you and I have, that we can come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and help during those times of need.

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Now again, just this idea itself is something completely revolutionary to an Old Testament Jew.

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There's no Jew who ever would have thought of this, that they could walk into the throne of grace and just receive grace from their high priest.

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This is another thing that makes Jesus greater than all the Old Testament high priests. As a

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Jew, if you had an Old Testament high priest like Aaron or another priest, he might be able to sympathize with you.

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You could go in and pour out your heart to him and say, look, this is what I'm struggling with, this is what I'm dealing with, I got this going on at work, and I got this going on at home.

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And that high priest could probably sympathize with you to some degree. Because he has been set by weaknesses as you are, he could say, yeah,

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I feel your pain, brother. I've been there, I've experienced this, I have similar experiences like that. And yeah,

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I can sympathize with you. But if you ask him for grace, is he able to give you any grace? No, because that high priest is not a dispenser of grace, and that high priest doesn't sit upon a throne of grace.

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And that high priest is unable to give you anything to help you. You can come to me and you could say, Jim, this is what

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I'm struggling with, and I could sympathize with you, but I am powerless to help you, powerless. I have no supernatural ability to just reach back into my grace dispensary and give it to you at my will.

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I can't do that. But we could go to Christ, who sympathizes with us, and He is not powerless to help.

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This makes Him greater than any Old Testament priest. Other Old Testament priests can sympathize, but they can do nothing to help.

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Christ sits upon a throne of grace, and He can not only sympathize, but He is ready, willing, and able to help.

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As He sits enthroned in the Holy of Holies, having applied the blood of His sacrifice to the mercy seat, and now because of that,

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He can dispense mercy and grace to those who approach Him in a time of need. So draw near, not with cowardice, but with confidence, not for one moment doubting and thinking that you will receive anything, but draw near to our co -heir of the kingdom, our

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King who sits upon that throne, our brother, our head, our sovereign, our God, our Savior, our

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Redeemer, our high priest, knowing that in the time of temptation and trial, He can not only sympathize, but He can grant us the grace that is necessary to overcome any temptation.

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That's the promise of this passage. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we thank

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You for Your full and free and infinite grace, so abundant to those whom You have saved by that grace.

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We thank You that Christ, who is our God and Savior of grace, has so lovingly and graciously saved us for Himself.

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We thank You for that. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your work in redeeming us and for Your interceding work even now as we are here,

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You sit enthroned on that throne of grace, ready to dispense all that we need in our time of need and weakness, and we thank

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You for that. Turn our hearts and our minds and our attention upon You during those times of need that we may draw near with confidence, knowing that we shall receive that grace and mercy that we need.

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We thank You for this full and free access to Your glorious throne and to this infinite and rich supply of redeeming, saving, and sanctifying grace.

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May You be praised and glorified as we are in our moments of need, receive from You all the grace that is necessary, and then we display

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Your glory to a watching world and to one another. May You manifest Your glory to us and through us all by Your grace, we pray in Christ's name.