Thank you. Well, it is good to see you tonight, and it's good to have Dr. and Mrs. Comfort back with us. Always good to have them. Amen. They can be with us as well as others, and so glad to have you with us today. Well, let's turn in our Bibles to a very familiar passage of Scripture, and that's to the book of Hebrews, chapter number 11. Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll stay there for just a little bit tonight, but Hebrews chapter 11. Now, very quickly, Let's just take maybe two or three or four different individuals who immediately, maybe glancing at this in just a moment's notice, can see someone in the listing that you have there. We call them the heroes of faith or the hall of faith. But someone in there that just, boy, it just galvanizes your thoughts. I mean, boom, you're just attracted to it that quickly. And so let's volunteer maybe two or three that would say yes, this person or that person, and then give maybe about a four or five word summary as to what about this individual in this hall of faith, if we could call it that, four or five word summary that just brings it to your attention and God uses that summary in your mind to draw you more closely to the Lord. Alright, who will be first? Yes, sir. Why? Very good. Alright, Abraham. Very good. Someone else. Alright, yes, sir. Jacob ended well by faith. Good. This side can participate. Okay, yes, sir. Brother. Yes sir, by faith God and yes sir, amen. Someone else? We've got time for maybe one or two more. Quickly if you have them. Anyone else? Back in the South 40. Joseph, character by patience. How about one final one? Yes sir. He pleased God. Praise the Lord. Each of these are listed here because if we went one by one and went all the way through it, that there was something in their lives, something that went on, something that the Lord used by way of provision or a promise, whatever it was, it was that they had trusted the Lord and the Lord had allowed them and enabled them to go through the journey of life that they have. Tonight you and I are here obviously for one reason, well for several reasons, for fellowship and just getting to see some friends and know how to pray intelligently for one another as we hear the prayer requests mentioned from the pulpit and maybe from the pew as well so to speak. But tonight, the Lord just, well earlier than tonight, but for tonight, the Lord laid a passage of scripture on my heart concerning Hebrews chapter 11, yes, by way of example and by way of precept, but also asking myself, and I would ask of you the same, as to upon what is all of this founded? When we think about Abraham or Enoch or we think about Rahab or we think about this one or that one, and they were willing to trust God in the midst of a storm, so to speak, or in the midst of great opportunity, whatever it was, they were willing to trust the Lord. and allowing their influence to school us tonight just a little bit in preparation for the time when we go one with another and have a word of prayer or several words of prayer as we're praying for the ones that are in the throes of Milton or the ones that we've just gone through and they're still doing rescues and a lot of renovation, not recreation, but renovation. through all going through our area. So, as we look at Hebrews chapter 1, and we see all of these, let's pause long enough to just look at the first verse. And then we'll take that kind of as a, when I was in gymnastics, we would use the springboard to get onto an apparatus, whether it was the pommel horse or the parallel bars. We'd get a running start, bounce on that, get on there, and you already have the momentum. And so let's use verse number 1 to do that for us tonight. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1, the scripture states it in this fashion. I tell you what, we know it, but let's read it together as a congregation. And it reads, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Once again, by way of emphasis, would you do that with me please? And it reads, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Tonight the Lord has laid a message, well earlier he laid it on my heart, but for us tonight the message God's laid upon my heart is simply entitled, Come Again, Come Again. Will you pray with me please? Dear Father, I thank you for the privilege before these my brothers and sisters of opening your precious word Lord, there are those who have gone and are going through the throes of what they call mother nature. But we know all things are in your control. We don't know if this is just among the others of the various events that will happen on the earth and in the air and so many other things politically before you come. We don't know if it's time yet. But what we do know is a lot of folks are suffering and a lot of our brothers and sisters whom we know or don't know. but they're our brethren and they're suffering at this time. So, Father, in just a little while, among other prayer requests, we'll be praying for them tonight. So, Father, as we look at some foundational principles for our prayer lives, I pray that, Father, what you've laid upon my heart, it'll not be disjointed, but, Father, will be one stanza after another, so to speak, in how we can go about your invitations to prayer. We'll give you the glory for what's accomplished and we'll thank you in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Chapter 11. We have already read verse number one but I would allow your eyes to fall on verse number 38. Chapter 11 verse number 38. And again I will just give this, it's neither here nor there and I'm used to it but sometimes it just catches me at a wrong time and that is I have some retina problems and I just had a problem just then when I looked down and sometimes when I look down and look at the page I have It looks like floaters, but it's technically not floaters, but it's like an ink blob that's just there, or everything goes white. And so if I hesitate, it's probably because I made a mistake and I'm blaming it on that, but it may be that as well. So if you'll just kind of pardon me as I may hiccup once in a while as we go through it, but hopefully it won't do that tonight as it just did. So let's look at verse number 38. And in that first phrase, he says, Now the just shall live by faith. And most of you know, if you look back at the wording, the just, the word just there is translated many, many times through the New Testament as righteous, or the righteous ones, or rightly, or righteousness. So it has the idea of right before God, being correct, being right before God. And he is saying this, this is God's standard for everything we do. Whether it's to make a purchase, whether it's to pray about being a missionary, whether it's praying about helping someone and giving them a gospel track. No matter whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we're to do it how? To the glory of God. Therefore, it must be founded on righteousness. So tonight we've looked at the first verse, faith is the substance. That's usually a tangible, a substance, something you can touch, feel, or you can kind of put your hand on it in a way of maybe not touching it literally but allegorically or by way of illustration. But it's also the evidence of things not seen. So that when we look at this word we just looked at, the just, shall live by faith. That would encompass our prayer lives as well. Obviously so. I doubt anyone's caught by surprise tonight to say, when we get together here in just a little while, we need to go to the Lord in faith. Obviously, we remember James 1. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But then he makes certain that we understand it is faith that is righteous faith. It's not a wavering faith, but it is a strategic faith. It is a dedicated faith. It is a confident faith. He says, but let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is as a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed. And then he gives this understanding, exhortation regarding cautiousness on our part. He says, let not that man think that's wavering that he shall receive anything of the Lord. So tonight, as we begin to look at this simple message called Come Again, there's several things that are gonna start with the letter P, as the Lord just kinda helped me work my way through it. And that is the pattern, the first pattern for our prayer lives, for mine, and I'd invite yours too, the first pattern is it must be righteous. Sometimes I'm intended to pray about things that I have to kinda step back and think about now, what is my motive for that? What really is the foundation for that? Is it something that I just do out of habit and I've done it for so many years, it's instinctive to pray before I eat? Or am I really asking the Lord's blessing on this food? When I pray for my children or grandchildren, do I do it because Becky and I do it regularly? I pray for this church and a pastor and the comforts as they're traveling around. Or is it that which is righteous? So that's the first standard because that serves as the foundational standard for whether we eat or drink or whatever we do in life, it must be righteously based. But there's also another standard that we see in verses 4 through 37. And in chapter 11 verses 4 through 37, we will not go through that, you know that, that's the hall of faith. By faith Enoch, by faith Moses, by faith Rahab, these that we've heard tonight. We could talk about Gideon, we could talk about so many others. So when we look at the pattern for how we are to move forward in our prayer lives, number one, we have those who are men and women of prayer, no doubt about that. But also, God really has them to be recorded in His Word so that we know that their motivations, their methods, the timing of their prayers, the sincerity of their prayers, We're all based from a heart that is yielded to righteousness with its guard up, because Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me, Romans 7, 21. So I've got to make sure that everything is right, and as I bow my knee, or at least bow my heart before the Lord, I'm saying, Lord, here is the petition in my heart today, as I have already worshiped you, but now, Father, these are the prayers and the supplications that are being brought before you, according to Philippians chapter 4. So the first thing we see are the patterns. Now we see the permissions. And this is a delightful thing. As a matter of fact, you know the passage. If you want to turn there, you're welcome to. It's in chapter 4 and verse number 16. The writer of Hebrews, of course we all know that it's Apostle Paul, I'm teasing of course, but I believe that's the case. In chapter 4 verse 16, the writer of Hebrews wrote, Notice the word boldly there. Why? That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I noticed there that in chapter 4, verse 6, he says, Come boldly before the throne of grace. What a great opportunity. What a phenomenal permission we have, an invitation before the Lord tonight, in your quiet time. Whether you call it devos or whether you call it God and I time, for me it's my appointment time with the Lord. But no matter when and where it is, it's a sacred time, a sacred opportunity. and in sacred company. The just ones shall live by faith." Everything about my prayer life needs to be bathed in faith. So many times I have to come before the Lord and remembering the ways, propensities of Randy Bray. And sometimes as I'm battling within my prayer life, my consciousness of praying specifically or maybe there's a battle raging about, I wonder if he's hearing your prayers or whatever it is that Paul says when I would do good, evil is present with me. So I know when I attend to the Lord in my prayer life, I know there's going to be counter thoughts that are going to try to distract me or to dissuade me or discourage me, certainly to defile me. So I must be on guard. But one thing I must remember with gladness of heart is it's none other, as we looked earlier this week, Sunday evening, that Jehovah and Adonai and the various names of God, the God of gods, the supreme God, the possessor God, the existing one, He's the one who beckons me, beckons us as a congregation for the little ones in the other area there to pray for them, to pray one for another and certainly To lift up our eyes and look on the fields for they are wide unto harvest. Who will go for us? Whom shall I send? As we look and say, Lord, harvest is great, the labors are few. Send forth labor. So as we look at it, we have His invitation, but not only there. Let's go really where our chapter is going to be tonight, and that's chapter 10. We looked at chapter 11, we've looked at chapter 4. Now, as we're looking at God's permissions, we have 19 through 21. Would you notice that? I'll read it. We're going to do it at kind of a quick clip. as we go through here, but it really deserves a slow, steady pace as you walk through it on your own time. But it says this in 19, having therefore brethren, now we're going to look at the therefore here in just a little bit, but with his invitation he says, having therefore brethren, here we go, boldness, we saw that word once before. Oh, come boldly before the throne of grace. And now in a different context, he says, Now notice, if you will please, the next prepositional phrase. He says, By the blood, the next prepositional phrase of Jesus. The next two verses are commentaries on verse 19. Notice what he says. Let's see what he says here. Oh, what an intimate fellowship we can have in prayer. He says, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance. We're going to look a little bit more at that verse in the following two in just a little bit. But we've already gone through the first two points. The first was the patterns. Chapter 10, the just shall live by faith. Chapter number 11, the elders obtained an excellent report. So we see through their example, but more than that, we see the standard that's foundational for everything in our lives, our priorities, our passions, our problems, the righteous ones. those who are righteous before the Lord as being in His family, standing in righteousness, as we see from this text, and we're gonna see it in addition, so that when we go to prayer, we understand why we're able to even bow the knee, to bow the heart, to bow the eye, and to join with one another in collective prayer, or specifically in individual prayer. We don't come in our own merits, oh my goodness, Oh, I have to go before the Lord, as I started to say a moment ago and didn't finish it. In my prayer, sometimes I just say, Lord, I believe. But knowing the exercises of thought that are also going on in my mind to try to distract or discourage or whatever it is, I say, Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief. Lord, my belief is Randy Bray limited. I go as far as I can stretch, Lord, to say that I've prayed for Brother Jesse many a time. Still has a problem with his foot. Sorry, that wasn't in the notes. Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Lord as I'm battling this that is trying to make its point like an attorney against a client and he is saying this client did this and he did that. Sometimes in my mind I have those voices saying you don't deserve or whatever it is. You're awfully sleepy here this morning Bray. Whatever it is that would distract. Lord I believe. Help tell my unbelief. We've seen His permissions where He says come boldly. We've seen having therefore boldness to enter. Now we're going to see the principles, the principles of this. Again in chapter 1, I'm sorry, in chapter 11 in verse 1, He says, now faith is the substance. I mentioned just a moment ago that normally substance is a tangible. This pulpit is a tangible. This microphone is a tangible. But sometimes concepts can be a tangible as well because when you can focus on it, it is just as vividly real as though you could reach out and touch it. I understand that. I know how X equals Y or I know how to get from there to there and it's not, excuse me, it is not a problem. So when we look at the principles, he says, faith is the substance of things hope for. For me, for purposes for me tonight, as I studied this and applied it to my life, the standard from which we're talking about here, faith is the substance, would be the doctrinal standings that preceded this. You'll notice the very first word in chapter 11 is now, now faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. And so the word now in my brain, in my mind, takes me back to chapter 10 when he says, now faith is. So it's not just taking us forward to the saints who had walked by faith, but it's taking me to take a few steps backward to see what is the standard, what is the substance, what is the foundation by which someone who is declared righteous before the Lord, being his child, and purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus, where I'm able to come boldly before the throne of grace and enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ, what is it that makes that the substance? The doctrine by which? Well, let's go to chapter 10. Would you do that with me, please? And we're going to go back and turn the page back to, if you need to, like I do, to verse number 7. You're going to notice the father and the son as we see here witnessing their interaction. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, speaking of the Lord Jesus, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not." In other words, the earlier part of the chapter and earlier in the former chapter goes into the sacrifice of Christ. The blood of bulls and goats is not sufficient. Verse 8, but above when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not. Neither had his pleasure therein wherein are offered by the law. Now let's go to verse number nine. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. Verse number 10, if you'll notice carefully with me please. By the which will. It's kind of an awkward, if I could put it that way, wording when we say by the which will. But we understand he is saying here that when Jesus is saying, I am coming to do thy will, O God, and he mentions his name, that personal pronoun I, I am coming, I am, he's exercising his will to do the will of God, which means that he was coming to do exactly what God would do, and he is involving his own will. Notice what he says, by the which will, We are sanctified, set apart unto God, set apart from the world, by the which we are sanctified, here we go, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Would you say those last three words for me? Once for all. Notice the word for all is in italic and it's because the word once is a word all by itself that means that. It either means all at once or once for all. It can be translated either way. So here's what He is laying the ground for us to see. In verse chapters 9 and 10, you're going to see, and we're not going to go through them all, but you're going to see in rapid fire, boom, boom, boom, boom, one after another, once. He died once. He died for us once. Once for all. Here we saw it, even as it said, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. Oh my dear friend, what an opportunity you and I have as we look at verse number 12. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for the sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Look at verse number 14. He hath perfected, or completed, forever them that are sanctified." When you and I think about the principles, why we can come to the Lord individually or collectively in this matter of having a fervent prayer life, an effectual prayer life, as the Apostle James wrote, when you and I, or he penned it, When you and I understand, in order to have that, we're not coming because Randy Bray has this on which to offer God. But I have the privilege as God's son, I have the privilege of being a joint heir with Christ and he even calls me his brother. when you and I have that opportunity, I have to also be careful that I keep a perspective about me that, yes, I can come boldly, yes, I can come at any time I care to or any time I need to, and yet I also ought to have that reverence about me that when I come before him, it is not slipshod. Now, it may be in a moment like Peter. And Peter didn't say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He didn't need a snorkel as he went under the water. But he just said, Lord, save me. Sometimes you're gonna be in those settings when it's difficult. And it may not be in water. Around here now, it may be. But it may not be, it may be in finances, it may be in health. And all of a sudden, maybe on a bed where you're in trouble, you have to say, Lord, help me. Whatever the cause, that we can come as often as we care to, and yet understanding before whom we speak. And then I see where it says, faith is the evidence of things not seen. Well, I looked at faith as the hope. a substance of things hoped for, I see that as the doctrine upon which we can stand before coming to the Lord. But when it talks about the evidence of things not seen, it is that faith that arises to what we saw, the just shall live by faith, and then we can bring in the congregation of those whom we know, like Hebrews chapter 11, that says, you know what? If Moses can do that, to lead a land, to go to where he didn't even know where he was going. And as our brother over here said, he offered up his son, his only son, whom he loved. If God had him to do that, and he brought it about. And he said, no, I want you to build a boat. Didn't even know what that was. Didn't know what a flood was. And yet he was moved. He moved with faith. So we've already seen the patterns, the permissions, and the principles, but now we have some problems we've got to work through very quickly. Some problems. Oh, let's look back to chapter 5 and we're going to see a loss of maturity. Now, the book of Hebrews, I believe, as many others do, is not a book that is written to the unsaved Jews to convince them of the Messiah. Now, an unsaved Jew could read the book of Hebrews and be drawn to the Messiah. But I believe, based on the exhortations and the rebukes found all through this book, that the writer would not have given those exhortations and rebukes to the unsaved, but rather to the saved. Here, I believe, and we'll see it again in chapter 10, he is writing to Christians who had lost their confidence. The word confidence and boldness come from the exact same Greek word, same exact Greek word. Just on the context, sometimes it appears as confidence, other times it appears as boldness. And we're going to see, notice if you will, chapter 5, and in chapter 5, would you look at verses 11 through 14 very quickly. The Bible says this, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. The writer is writing to the Hebrew Christians. We call them completed Jews today. And hard to be uttered, seeing, number one, ye are dull of hearing. Number two, for when the time ye ought to be teachers. In other words, they've been saved a while. These are not newborn Christians. He's saying you ought to be teachers. Number three, ye have need that one teach you again. And he's not talking about this meat of the word they need to be taught, but rather he's taking them a step further and he is saying, which be the first oracles, the first principles of the oracles or the laws, the rules, the commandments of God. And then he finishes with this, he says, "...and are become such as need of milk, and not of strong meat." I don't know about you, but discouragement can drive me a long way from true north if I allow it to. Perhaps you can be that way too. Perhaps that which discourages you brings you into despondency, maybe even into depression. is something that has become a way of life for you and it interferes with just about everything that has God written on it, if I could put it that way, a righteous thing. And just about the time you're to take a step in faith, here it comes again and it slaps you across the head and it says, oh, you know it's not gonna last, or whatever accusation against God or you that your flesh will allow to come in and in surround sound and in 3D will try to convince you, you might as well just quit. I don't know what it was for these who lived in times of stark persecution, who had watched friends perhaps taken to the Colosseum, or taken out and stoned, or taken to the pinnacle of the temple there in old Jerusalem, as James was. And they said, if you'll recant, we'll allow you to have your life and your ministry. But if you don't recant, you're going to go over Church history tells us that he didn't recant and they threw him over. Supposedly, according to church history, he didn't die in the fall. It's a miracle he didn't die in the fall. It's a long way down. So they stoned him following that. Dear friend, when you and I consider the things that would keep us and help us to fall back and they're dull of hearing and all those things, I just simply called it a loss of maturity. I have found in these last number of years that I have a lot of loss of muscle and I'm hoping through some of this yard work and whatever else and I'm going to exercise. I keep telling, of course I've had that refrain for quite a while, but one of these days I'm going to pay attention to it and I was at a physical therapist last week and this week and got some shoulder problems and going for that. And he was encouraging me, and I said, would it be helpful? I was just trying to encourage myself and thought I'd make points with him. Would it help if I did some exercises with my legs? And he says, yeah, as long as you want to live in your own home. I didn't have to read between the lines what he was saying. He was saying, if I don't, there's gonna come a time when my legs are gonna say, you're on your own, fella. So here's the point, is that when you and I look at this, and we look at the loss of maturity, I've lost, I used to be in pretty good shape, and I've lost that muscle memory for a long, long time ago. And here are some folks who evidently had stopped praying, perhaps. It stopped being righteous, perhaps, and had a lot of logical reasons why they were justified and slowing down just a little bit, stepping aside just a little bit, letting others do it who are more talented. And they had a loss of maturity. Oh, I think maybe they had a loss also in the confidence of the sacrificial substitute. We've already looked at some of it, but as you look in chapter 9, oh my goodness, we're just going to fly through these very quickly. Chapter 9, verse 12, I'm not even going to read these, time is just about away from us. But in chapter 9, verse 12, verse 26, well let's look at verse 26, would you do that with me? This is chapter 9, for then must he often, this is talking about the sacrifice, for then must he have suffered, and he must have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now, Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ once suffered. But Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. We've already looked at chapter 10, but if you'll notice verse number 18, if you'll do that with me, chapter 10 and verse 18. Notice what he says, now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. I like the word remission. It's translated remission here, it's translated forgive in other places. It's a Greek word that simply means this. Anybody can look it up, you can look it up, blue letter Bible, anybody can look it up. It simply means this, to send away. In the way of forgiveness, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. In other words, when I ask God to forgive me, He sends it away and not only does He send it away, He follows it up by cleansing the environment. There's nothing left of my sin. When He forgives it, when I see remission of that sin, it is forgiven by God. And he's talking here about the Son of God and the sacrifice He made so that I can come boldly before the throne of grace, so that I have God's invitation to lift up my head and to come into the holiest of holies, so to speak, and to bear my heart or to request that which is eager upon my mind and in ambitions for His glory. So when we look at the loss of confidence, maybe that's what it was, or maybe it was a loss of confidence with patience. Chapter 10, if you will, verses 36 and 37. Oh, what an indictment. He says, For ye have need of patience, remaining under the pressure of what you're in, after that ye have done the will of God, He might receive the promise. For yet a little while he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. Well, as we bring it to a conclusion, last two points very quickly. We've seen the pattern, the permissions, the principles. We've noticed the promises. But now let's see the plea. Plea from your own testimony. Now, here's Paul, here's the writer of Hebrews, I believe to be Paul, has stated, And I mean, he, through the entire book, he's convincing them that Christ is so much better than the angels. And he's making the case that the Christ they put their faith in, that that Christ was indeed the Son of God. And he fulfilled, and he created, and he did all of these things. But interspersed between some of those things, he came right eye to eye, heart to heart, with what you are, here's what you've done. But now, he's going heart to heart with them and he's going to remind them of some things. Notice if you will with me please, 32 to 34. We'll start with, yeah, 32. But, now this is after, I mean, oh I wish we had time to get into all of it, we don't. He says, but call to remembrance the former days. In which after ye were illuminated, the Lord shined His light, John 1. The Bible says that Jesus lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So we know that that's the light of His glory. So, Caldwell remembers the former days in which after you were illuminated, ye endured the great fight of afflictions. Partly while ye were made a great gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while ye became companions of them that were so used. He gives nine things here. For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. He's coming right back to them, heart to heart, and saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yes, I'm telling you, you need to get right with the Lord. But I want to remind you, you were right with the Lord. You sacrificed, you suffered for His namesake. You even came, Paul said, or the writer said, you even came to my And I just want to remind you, you don't have to get saved again. As a matter of fact, the case all through 9 and 10 is once for all, all for once, when Jesus died on the cross, there's no more remission of sin. Some people use this as a text to prove that you can lose your salvation. It's everything but that. The reason we can't lose our salvation is not by the degree of my faith, it's because when Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me is greater than all. Nothing, no man, nothing can pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. When you and I understand the sovereignty of God, and the doctrinal accuracy of the sufficiency of the blood of Christ to pay for our sins. And then because of that, standing on that, we have God's invitation to come to Him tonight, two by two or three or four in a group. And we go before Him in prayer. That we're not standing there because of eloquence of tongue. We're not going there because of the years that we've been saved. We're going there by the grace of God to find mercy to help in the time of need. So that when you and I say, Lord, I have this burden or Lord, I have this opportunity. Lord, I have this ambition. We know He hears us whatsoever we ask if we ask according to the will of God. And so the plea is the previous testimony. It's the writer's exhortation. We've looked at that. And then finally we look at the practice to pursue the biblical maturity. Let's look at one thing real quickly before we close. And notice, if you will, his exhortation. And they're found throughout in verse 26. For if we sin willfully, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more And most people look at that that try to prove you could lose your salvation and they implant forgiveness in that sentence. It's not what he's talking about. He says, For if we sin willfully, we've exercised our will, and because of that we did so in a sinful way, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more. What's the next word? Sacrifice for sins. Praise God when he died on the cross for Randy Bray. It was once for all and all at once. My salvation is secure in his hand. But I must also remember. Verse 29, How much sore punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant? Therewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. That's just one verse of several in this and other texts. We'll not do that, but finishing up with one last thought. And that is, dear friend, verses 22 through 25. We'll not go into detail, it's been preached here many a time, no doubt. But he gives six things. Once I understand it's because of His grace, because He loves me, because He desires for me to come boldly under the throne of grace. I don't have to wait like a dignitary. I think I mentioned this in Sunday school. You go to Windsor Castle and you want to see the Queen. Let's say you're a dignitary, the President of the United States, or you want to see the King now. And you go in, before I went through it with a man that just got saved. He was 70 years old. And so he used to work at Windsor Castle and he took us through it. And he said, this is the waiting room. And it was a room probably about as wide as, maybe as wide as this auditorium, maybe twice as long, maybe a little longer than that, and it's called the waiting room. And if it's the President of the United States, whomever it is, no one's on the throne when this individual is escorted in to sit down. Protocol requires that whomever it is from any part of the world, when they come in, it's required that they go in to show honor to the king or to the queen. I'm so glad when I come boldly before the throne, when I just invited in that I'm going because of the sacrifice of Christ, but he lovingly, guardingly wants me, not guardingly, but he wants me to come before him. But if I want to live my life in such a way That I don't have to worry if my prayers are bouncing off the wall, even though I may get accused of that. I don't have to worry whether or not, well, I don't know if I, I can just come. Here's, he gives me six things and I'm finished. Notice what he says. Let us draw near. What an intimate relationship. Let us draw near with a true heart. In full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, we've already checked it out, we found those things that would offend the Holy Spirit, defile my conscience, violate Bible principle, from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and wash it The idea of wash there has the idea of running water, cleansed by the running of water. And he is saying here, washed with pure water. And then finally he says this, the last of the three. He says, let us hold fast that profession of our faith. You see him encouraging him on? And he's about to fuss at them, talking about, you've counted the blood of Christ. Okay, well, let us hold fast without wavering. For He is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, last point, and so much more, as you see the day approaching. And then he talks, if we sin willfully, and we've already talked about that. Friend, I'm finished tonight, and I invite you to apply these principles, simply put by this guy, but principles that if you and I understand the foundation for our prayers, it's not only the invitation of God, but the standards. We call it the doctrine. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. But it's also the evidence by way of testimony that God loves us so much that even when we take steps back and we get discouraged as these perhaps were, and maybe we've gone under persecution, we've kind of stepped out of the way, but even in our wandering, as James would say, erring from the truth, we hear the beckon call of a loving God by means of the word of God and the sweet Holy Spirit in our hearts and saying, come again, come again. This book was written for the likes of a Randy Bray. The many times I've had to come and say, Lord, I don't know how you put up with me. I'm having to come before you again, Lord, and say, please forgive me. But when He does and He forgives and He cleanses, He says, come boldly. Come with confidence before the throne of grace because that's why it's called grace of that throne. I pray as we go tonight before the Lord in prayer with each other that maybe these principles will help us keep in mind what an awesome privilege we have. What a great opportunity we have, and especially what a responsibility we have to be those who are living by faith that God calls righteous His children. I pray that you will. Father, it's been a quick message for me, perhaps not so much for them, but Lord, I pray that, Father, it will encourage our hearts that even when we get discouraged in the midst of prayer, that will lasso those thoughts and set them aside and say, get thee behind me. I want to speak with my heavenly Father. And the Lord Jesus who enters