in the Scriptures this morning to the fourth chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 4. Our reading will be verses 14 through 16. Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16. Stand with me. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. May the Lord bless His Word to our hearts. You may be seated. A very interesting conclusion and also introduction to what lies ahead. I don't think this is the best place for a chapter break at 5.1. The chapter break should probably be at 4.14 because clearly there's a new section begun here on the priestly work of Christ which actually continues to the end of the 10th chapter. But enough about structure. Rest is what we've been talking about. Rest. And then we're told here immediately that we've got to hold fast to our profession and come boldly unto the throne of grace. For many of us, rest means life should be at peace and we shouldn't have trouble. You know, it's funny, the Lord oftentimes brings discouragements into our lives, frustrates our expectations in order to bring us back to first things and to show us what His better and truer comforts are. I'm reminded in this text with the disciples. After the resurrection, remember that the Lord for 40 days appeared to them intermittently. He wasn't always there. He had a real physical body, but it already seemed to have taken on the principles of that spiritual body that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15. It was real flesh and blood. He ate and drank with them. They could touch Him and feel Him and see the wounds. But he was more in control of the manifestations of that body, but more importantly, he talked to them of the things about his coming kingdom and what their responsibility as the apostolic foundation would be. And perhaps over those 40 days, like you and I undoubtedly would, they got used to having him appear and having him teach. And it was an encouragement to them until one day he led them out, probably a mountain in Galilee, And after spending all the night before with them, renewing the Great Commission that all the evangelists record, he went out to the mountainside and he raised his hands, blessed them, and he ascended into the heavens. And they're looking up. He had given them a Great Commission, but the Great Person was leaving, and they knew that this was a different departure. And their longing, and I'm not sure that they would have been able to continue had not God sent angels to them and told them, hey, remember what He said now, don't stand here gawking into heaven, He's going to come back, just like you've seen Him, physically, bodily. Now go wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit. When God takes away one kind of comfort, He gives better comfort to us. We see this in small things and in great things. Still the questions are for us because we face the same thing. Why did he leave? Why did he, why does he leave us here? We have a great work to be done. He's given us a great commission. But what are our comforts and our helps to fulfill this great commission? How do we overcome the discouragements that inevitably arise because people don't treat us like they should. We don't treat them like we should. The world continues to mock. It doesn't love the gospel any more than it did when our Lord ascended. What do we do when life does not match up to who we are in Christ? And by the way, it never will in this life. It didn't for Jesus. As a side note, can you imagine that line this morning that was sung, He did not abhor the virgin's womb. That really struck me. Talk about life not matching up to expectations. the Son of God in the womb of flesh and blood, the Son of God nowhere to lay His head. He came into His own and His own received Him not. He told the disciples on that last night, if they hated you, hated me, they will hate you. So there's a sense in which our expectations about this life, yes, God blesses His people and He takes care of the righteous and we're the apple of His eye, but our Lord's life does teach us that this life will never match up to who we really are in Christ. And so we have to have realistic expectations and we need encouragements. Now these particular believers, they'd already gone through one wave of persecution a few years earlier. Now they were facing another one. Imagine somebody writing a letter to you and commending you and saying, you know what, it was a great thing you did when you willingly gave up the spoiling of your goods. Imagine your house, imagine your property, imagine your vehicles, all of that absconded, taken away from you out of your love for Christ. Somebody some months or years later writing you a letter and saying, you know what, that was a wonderful display of God's grace in your life, now get ready to do it again. And you're thinking, but I already did it once. And I mean, not that we would, oh, I did it once, but you know, I already went through that once and we're going to do it again? You know, these people were fearful. They were discouraged. They were thinking of, you know, maybe going back to a form of Judaism in order to escape. So what's the comfort that he gives them? Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens. seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens." It's as if he says, first, I want you to see the glory of Christ. And he mentions that glory in three ways in verse 14. He's our great high priest, he's passed into the heavens, and he's Jesus, the Son of God. So let's focus on those three. As a way to, wait a minute, what are my discouragements? And again, I don't mean they didn't have your coffee flavor. Okay, I don't mean our American society disappointments. I mean real disappointments. God has taken away my health. God's taken away my job. God took away one of my children for a time. You know, I'm being persecuted at work because of my stand for Christ and my allegiance to Him. What is the Bible's remedy for the legitimate discouragements and crosses that God brings into our life. Well, he says, I want you to see the glory of Christ. Notice these three things. First of all, we have a great high priest. Now here's something you need to know very clearly, that is you cannot come to God on your own. You cannot represent him. and represent yourself to Him. When you hear about your meeting with Him one day, don't think you and God are going to sit around at a table like in a police station, you know, in the movies, the accused sits on one side of the table and the detective or the DA sits on the other side of the table and you go back and forth. That's not what it's going to look like. Okay, that's maybe silliness. I'll make my case with God. No, you won't, because you don't have a case to make. And he's not going to listen to your case, because unlike on earth, he's not going to listen to your excuses. He doesn't care. Well, my parents, so what about you? How did you guard your... Well, my husband... Well, I don't care about your husband. Your husband's not on trial here. You're on trial here. And so, you and I, we've got to have a priest. We've got to have, and this is part of our Savior's mediatorial work, we've got to have someone that God will accept. to make peace, to satisfy His offended justice, and to restore us to His favor. And we're told here that Jesus is our great High Priest. Now, great doesn't, it's a comparative, but it doesn't mean that there's a greater one. It means great in the absolute sense. Peter, the great. The great one is what it means here. The Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest. Why? Consider his obedience. Perfect. A high priest, if he's going to represent us to God, he's got to have an obedience that God accepts. What about his compassion? We'll talk about that in verse 15. Perfect compassion, because He's been through everything and been tempted in every way. There is nothing you can go through, nothing you can feel that He has not already exhausted it, taken it upon Himself, and He did it. He didn't need to do it for Himself. He did it for you. for his bride. He offered a great sacrifice on the cross, so perfect that Paul will say in chapter 9 that by one offering he has forever perfected those who are being sanctified. In Daniel chapter 9 verse 24, the greatness of Christ is said that he will make an end of transgression. He will make an end of sacrifice. by His one offering. So we have a great high priest. And so now we've got to make the connection. Because He's telling us in the midst of this to hold fast to your profession. I know you're discouraged. I know you're fearful. I know you're wondering what's going to happen to us now. Wait a minute. See? Wait a minute. I have a high priest. He is great. He has done all these marvelous things for us so that I can hold fast because He is holding fast to me. But the thought's not completed just with His greatness. It says there, notice, He's passed into the heavens. Now, I think this refers directly to the ascension. He's passed. Now, what does that mean? Well, you see, you and I, I mean, on earth, you can follow men all you want to, but they won't satisfy you. You know how this is. We follow men for a while and, you know, they always let us down. Surprise, surprise. You know, we have these waves over the years where we're going to follow this guy, he's got the answers. Or this guy, we like him. Or that guy, we like him. And men always have feet of clay. That's why, you know, never get in. you know, a personality cult, never follow these self-anointed teachers that rise up and seem to have the flag du jour that everybody wants to rally around. A priest on earth won't do you any good. We've got to have a high priest who is right where the action is. Now listen to me. So the Old Testament Levitical priest, one time a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, they would pass through the veil, one time, and into the most holy place where there was the Ark of the Covenant. And they would apply the blood of the sacrifice to the laver on the Ark of the Covenant and to the horns that were on the ends of the Ark of the Covenant. Now, again, he couldn't enter into there without blood. And, of course, Jewish tradition says that they tied a rope to his feet because if he didn't offer the right sacrifice or God killed him, which did happen, they would be able to pull him out. So, I mean, it was a great system in one respect, because it reminded us that there was a way that we could draw near to God. But Peter also described it in Acts 15.10 as a burdensome system. Because even while the priest went in, it was a testimony. God may kill you by drawing near to Him. And do this every year, because the blood that's being shed with these sacrifices just isn't enough. That's why I would really discourage being too caught up in these Messianic Jew movements and whatnot, and let's rediscover Passover. All that was repeated because it was ineffectual, and because it pointed to something beyond itself. Our great high priest doesn't pass through an earthly curtain through the temple. That's why the temple's destroyed. It doesn't matter if it's ever rebuilt, and if it ever is rebuilt, and they offer sacrifices again, it will only be a testimony to the continuing idolatry of Judaism and its rejection of Christ. We have a priest who has passed not through the veil into an earthly holy of holies, but he has passed into the heavens, into the very presence of God, and there he offered himself as the perfect atoning sacrifice for sins. Father, strike me down with the knife of your justice, as it says in Zechariah 13, 7. And the father struck him down. He put him to grief. He bruised him. He crushed him. He made his soul an offering for sin, but he didn't stay dead. The father raised him from the dead. He appeared to a variety of people, 500 at one time, the apostles, Peter, the women, all of these, James, his brother, and then he ascended into the heavens. Now, what does that mean? Now listen, when the high priest on earth would pass into the most holy place, the curtain would close behind him, and that curtain would stay shut for the rest of the year. You better not go in or you die. Jesus has passed into the heavens, and he left the door open behind him. He left the door open. He says, come. He says, I have brought an end to sacrifice. I've made an end of transgression. I have brought in everlasting righteousness. I am the king of peace because I have removed the barrier. That's why when he died, remember what happened, Matthew records it in chapter 26 that the veil was torn from the top to the bottom. No more curtains between us and God. It was curtains for sin, it was curtains for death, but it's an open curtain for us to draw near to God, and that's what... See, this is not what we think. Well, we need more present solutions. No, this is the present solution. The great high priest, with the perfect sacrifice, he's passed into the heavens, left the curtain open, tore it down, and we may draw near now with assurance that our Father forgives us. and that He receives us and He'll give us strength. And the third part of that glory at the end of verse 14, to tie it all together, He's Jesus, the Son of God. Now, think with me for just a minute. So our great high priest is passed into the heavens. He's now exalted and extolled and very high. Well, we'll learn in Hebrews, this theme comes up again and again and again. It's almost like we can't hear it too much. Chapter 7, verse 25, He ever lives to make intercession for us. 924, He now appears in the presence of God for us. 1 John 2, verse 2, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and He is the propitiation. I mean, just let those sink in. You've got sins this morning. There's a great high priest. Heaven's open. What are you waiting for? You need forgiveness? Run to him. You're concerned about the world in which we live? Speak the gospel. Tell the people, hey, there is a way to be forgiven. There is a way to have the power of sin broken in your life. God will bless you with the grace of repentance. Heaven is open. This is the today to which we have now come. This is the rest. of God, that He is open for us through this new and living way, Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus, the Son of God, has passed into the heavens. Now, the older liberalism, and even a little bit of the modern silly newism, wants to draw like these, you know, either, well, we're Jesus people or we're son of God people, but, you know, they don't, you know, and churches always struggle with this. Humanity of Christ, deity of Christ, and, wait a minute, Jesus? I mean, you've got to understand that, now, if Jesus, the man, God-man, I'm not forgetting his divine nature, but the real humanity, if he passed into the heavens, this world is not what the scientists and the space explorers tell us that it is. Because he physically, bodily removed through the heavens and is at the right hand of God. Where that is, we don't know, but it is somewhere because he has a real body. But notice, it's Jesus, the Son of God. So both of these, on the one hand, we needed that perfect man to obey for us, suffer in our place, to be a worthy substitute. But no mere man, can a mere man, even a perfect man, receive in himself the full satisfaction, the full justice of God? I don't think so. That's why the Scriptures say he also was the son of God. He had to be the beloved of the Father. The divine nature had to uphold the human nature and its weakness. Two natures, one person without conversion or composition or confusion. A real person, a unified person, the God-man. The great mystery and miracle and glory at the heart of the gospel. And He, who knows your weakness in His flesh, Jesus, has passed into the heavens. He's also the Son of God, which means He can help you. We have beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now in the light of that, look at the end of verse 14, hold fast your profession. He doesn't say in the light of your obey, in the light of your own strength, in the light of this is our rules, in the light of we're trying to make you feel guilty, you better do that. I mean, it's important for us to know our duty. you know, whatever the particular sphere or calling of life is, it's very important. But you and I, we don't have any inherent strength to do our duty. We're not robots. We're not some kind of unthinking army of God. We have to have help. We have to have strength. I could be told all day long, do this. But as Paul taught us in Romans 7, I don't always want to do it. In fact, I very often want to do the opposite. Husbands, lay down your life for your wife. That's great and noble. But I don't want to do that. I want to lay down my life for me. We're supposed to prefer others to ourselves. I was thinking about that in traffic the other day when I was driving behind somebody who was going very slow and obviously not going anywhere nearly as important as where I was going because I was going to do ministry, quote unquote, and they were just going to the mall, okay. But that verse, prefer others to yourself, you've got to be joking. That's our faith? That I'm supposed to lay down my life and my own family and I'm not, you know, barking out orders. Hey, I'm God over here. You go do this. Make up your bed in 10 seconds or you'll never walk, you'll never sit down again. Okay. I mean, you know, no, that's not, no. See, we can't hold fast our confession, our profession. It's a very similar idea. It means the words that we hold to, the doctrines that we hold to. We can't do this without the first part of the verse. And that is, Jesus, the Son of God, is our great high priest and he's passed into the heavens. So that the Christian life, listen to me, is nothing but a continual looking unto Jesus. That is why He said what? If any man will come after me. We don't have enough of that thinking. You know, being a Christian is not, well, I believe this, or I don't do this, or I don't dress like this, or I don't listen to this, or I don't look at this. Those things may all be true, but that's all second tier to Jesus. We're following Him. We're disciples of Christ. If any man will come after me, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. so that the living reality that enables us to make some progress in laying down our lives for our wife, or in obeying and reverencing our husband, or in preferring others to ourselves, is nothing in us. And so whenever you hear, you know, duty and commandments, and these things are great, make sure you always draw them back to, I can't, Jesus, unless you're my high priest and take away my sins, and unless you have passed into the heavens, and you're anchoring my soul within the veil, and I look to you, and you're my strength, and you're my hope, and you are my joy. So in the light of that, obedience takes on a very different specter. In the light of that, your confession takes on a very different... Jesus didn't tell me to do these things because I can. Because I'm able. He told me to do these things because He's able. Jesus didn't tell me to, you know, obey my parents because they're worthy. They may not be. They're intrinsically worthy because of the place God's put them in, but they may not be personally worthy. But wait a minute, He never told me to do that because I can. He told me to do that because He can. And so all ages, we're all following Christ. Thank You, O Lord, for Your laws. Thank You for Your commandments. Thank You for family duties, societal duties, economic duties that You've given us throughout Your Word. Thank You for all these things. I can do it only because of You. Without you, I can do nothing. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So that's the, and there's one other little juicy encouragement there. Verse 15, to hold fast and to look to Jesus. He says, for we do not have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It's difficult to translate this in English. It's much more tense or terse in Greek, but the idea is he feels it. that one of the reasons He took upon Himself our flesh, now He didn't need this, He didn't need for the devil to tempt Him and test Him, but He feels these things. Isaiah talks about, I believe it's in chapter 62, speaking of God's feelings toward His people in the Old Testament and all of their afflictions, He was afflicted. Now in some sense that was true, but boy, we have that much near to us now because we look at Jesus now. Isn't this a funny thing? So here's the Son of God, maybe some of them who are the original recipients of this letter. Okay, well He's so exalted, how does that help me now? Oh, He's also Jesus. And He has gone through and He has wept. Have you been standing out in public at the Mall of Georgia or your local shopping center and seeing the blasphemy and the immorality around you and just started weeping publicly before? Maybe you have. He did. Have you ever wondered, where's faith on the earth? He has. Have you ever had friends forsake you when you needed them most? He has. Not only did they fall asleep when he invited them to pray, but they ran away when he needed them to stay with him for support. Have you ever felt like at any time in your life that God has forsaken you? He has. Have you ever wondered, why doesn't anybody recognize that I'm a Christian and I've got these gifts? That was what Satan threw in his face. If you're the son of God, throw yourself down from here. Don't live in the shadows of obscurity. God will send his angels and they'll catch you before you hit the ground and everybody will know. Show yourself to be the son of God. That's what Christians are always trying to do in this world. Same temptations, nothing has changed. Give us something dramatic. So that everybody will know we are the children of God. And Jesus said, they're going to know it by your love and by the cross on your back. And the joy with which you bear that cross. So in every way, have you been hungry? And maybe you wonder economically, how am I going to? The Son of Man had no place to lay his head. Can you imagine this? That he voluntarily went through that 40 years in the wilderness. I mean, 40 days in the wilderness. He had nothing to eat. He felt hunger. Pain? Some of you may say, and again, I've talked, I mentioned this recently, I've talked to several Christian doctors recently who said that they're shocked at the number of believers who come to them and live with some kind of continual physical pain. Could be headaches, could be back, could be leg, just a variety of things. And we think, man, nobody understands. Yes, He does. In every way. Now granted, I could say maybe if I've been through a similar thing that you've been through, maybe you've been in a car accident, and I have too, and we can kind of compare notes and aches and whatnot, that's helpful, and that's encouraging. We would not ever look down on the help and the encouragement we try to give each other, but it's something totally different. And granted, this won't mean a lot to you if you've got a divided heart, but if you've got a fearful heart that wants Christ, this means all the world to you. It means everything in the world to know that there's one who came to earth for me, clothed in my nature, who has been tempted every way like I've been tempted, suffered, felt it deeply, and I can take all of this to Him, and He completely understands it. And He not only understands it, but He gives help. so that I can bear it. And you've known believers like this who's like, they live with this and you find out that they've lived with this and with some pain or some difficulty or struggle in their life. You're like, man, how in the world? Christ. They've taken it to Him. He's given them strength. And notice there is one exception there. He says, yet without sin. And it's been taken in a variety of ways. I think probably it's best just to take it as his temptations did not originate from within himself. He did not have a fallen sinful nature like we do. And some people have said that, well, that means he didn't really feel it. No, I think it actually meant he felt it more. Because the problem with you and me is that we've given in to sin and temptation. And so we don't know the full power of it. We don't know how deceptive Satan can be, how deceptive the flesh at one level can be in trying to get us to fall because we've given in. Now, if you've made some progress and you're resisting sin, you may have felt a little bit of sweat. I don't want to say that to my wife. You know, you're physically contorting. I'm going to bite my tongue so I don't say that. Imagine the Lord Jesus assaulted insinuations of the evil one. Boy, he felt it to the nth degree. As far as temptation could go, as far as sin could go, as far as Satan could go, hurled everything at him. And we wonder why at times we read of him in the gospel throwing himself on the ground. throwing himself, praying all night to his Father, because he was doing all of this for us, because he was being assaulted even while he was alive. He was bearing in himself the curse that we brought upon this world and the evil that we brought into this world by our decisions. And he went to the very end in order that now, now, that we have this great High Priest who has been tempted in every way like we've been tempted, and He's crowned with glory and honor, He's passed through the heavens, and whatever we struggle with, Lord, help me. I wonder how often we call out on Him. That's what verse 16 is. Let's therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Now a few quick things. Throne of grace. Isn't that amazing? You ever feel in yourself, I don't want to go to God. It could be a throne of judgment. Not anymore. Now here's something beautiful. Jesus said in John 5, 24 that the one who believes in Him will not come into judgment. Do you know that? If you're a Christian, you'll never come into judgment. You'll never be condemned. God will not bring up anything against you. Matthew 25, it's interesting when Jesus has divided the sheep from the goats and he starts listing out the virtues of the sheep. He says, I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you ministered to me. I was in prison and you came to me and ministered to me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. And they're looking at each other. Where do we do that? I mean, it's like the sheep here in that parable at least, they're very self-forgetful. It's like they're more like the Matthew 5, blessed are those who weep, blessed are the poor in spirit. They're not out there trumpeting their virtues. Now let me film that we did this. They don't expect, and maybe sometimes in our own lives, maybe you as an ardent Christian have not taken seriously the throne, let me translate a little bit differently, the throne of favor. The throne of holiness and of justice. Remember what the psalmist says, justice and righteousness are the habitations of your throne. Well, there's no place for me there. Oh, yes, there is. Because on that throne, there's a smiling father who looks at all of those who believe in his son and says, come, come, come. You're forgiven. Why do you hold on to your own guilt and try to self-atone for what you've done in your past? Forget it. Why do you make other people atone for the things that you feel like they've done to you? Let it go. Let it go for them. My throne is the throne of favor. If my justice and judgment is satisfied, why can't you let it go? Why can't you freely forgive? That's the parables, isn't it, that are so... You know, it's like, hey, I've forgiven you like your national debt, a hundred million quadrillion dollars. You owe me a buck fifty, pay up. No, I don't have it. That's us. God here has bestowed upon us this ocean of mercy, this friendly smiling. It's forgiven. My Son, my Beloved, I crushed Him for you. I raised Him from the dead. He's passed into the heavens. He's the anchor of your soul within the veil. Whenever I think of you, I look at Him and I see, wait a minute, He's their head. He's their husband. He's their Lord. I love Him. I love them. My throne is a throne of favor. And we're like, eh, I don't know if I can really forgive them for saying that to me. I don't know if I can really let that go or not. I don't know if I, you know, I don't know. That really bit me. Boy, we need to be careful, don't we? Jesus said if we don't forgive, even the Lord's Prayer, Lord, forgive our sins as we forgive others, and we'll pass over that part. Of course God will forgive us as we forgive others. Why? Because it's meritorious? In the light of this, of course not. Because the gospel is transformational. And when we know this high priest, and when we look upon him whom our sins pierced, and we see what he did for us, how could I not forgive? I don't even remember that. I don't even want to remember that. You did that to me? Okay. Will you forgive me? Of course I'll forgive you. Aren't you going to put up barriers for re-entry into fellowship? Are you kidding? God didn't put up any barriers for us for re-entry. He laid them upon His Son, and He said, curtain torn, door open, come to Me through My Son, I'll forgive you, I'll receive you, you're My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. And He says, come boldly. Come with assurance to this throne of favor. How do we come? I would recommend that you do it vocally. Okay, we, I mean out loud. A lot of times we think prayer is in the brain. Prayer's not in the brain. I mean, yes, your mind's engaged. I'm not saying that. Pray out loud. I was reading something, been reading through, I mean, Spurgeon sermons as I could have late this year. It's kind of one of my reading goals. And the number of times he said this has a little bit astounded me that he didn't really make any gains in overcoming his sins until he learned to call vocally on Christ, believing that promise out loud. I'm being assaulted, Lord. Will you please help me? And granted, it didn't mean that the Lord would help him anymore if he prayed silently versus out loud, but there's a sense of reality, isn't it? I mean, there's in a room, if you're in a room with a friend, you don't look at each other and have a mind meld. Okay, you know what I'm thinking? I mean, what if I just stood here all morning? I totally get it. No, you didn't get it, okay? Because we're among friends and we're among brothers and sisters and so it's back and forth. What do you think it is with Christ? Is He real or isn't He? Is He real to you? He says, call upon Me. Come boldly. Now there's all kinds of reasons we don't come boldly. Sometimes we won't forgive ourselves. Sometimes we set a level of, well I haven't reached this place yet and so I'm not going to come, be careful. I saw a funny thing in the hospital this past week when I was in there with a friend and it said a lot of people say I'm going to call on God at the 11th hour but they die at 1030. Be careful. They'll say, I'll finally get serious about calling the Lord when I finally, you know, get this. And I've heard people say this to me. When I get this worked out, I'll turn to the Lord. Then you would fall into that category where he said, I didn't come to call the righteous. If you can fix your own problems before you call on me, don't call on me later. Because I got a little secret for you. You can't fix them. You may think you can fix them. You may think you can manipulate yourself or others or God, but you can't. Come boldly. Now, how can we come boldly? Is it because we're special? Yeah. I mean, we are in Christ. But He's the reason we come boldly. And that's why He said, remember there, three times, John 14, 15, and 16, on that last night, He said, ask Him my name. What does that mean? Why don't we say at the end of our prayers, in Jesus' name? Because we're saying, Father, I thank you for this food, not because I deserve it, not because I'm worthy of it, but because of what your Son has done for me. Receive me, Father, in His name. That's how we can come boldly. And those two things we're told to come for, mercy and grace. Now in context here, I think mercy probably is parallel to the Hebrew hesed, which means, in other words, I don't think it's so much forgiveness because this isn't the letter to the Corinthians where there's particular sins. This is a letter dealing with fear, dealing with discouragement. And so the perfect Old Testament counterpart to mercy there would be chesed, which means God's steadfast love. His sworn covenant love. And isn't it, you know, that would obviously, the author then could have imported, what, a hundred of the Psalms? In which David is just like torn and tossed and fearful. Oh! The loving kindness of the Lord endures forever. That's a funny thing to base stability on, isn't it? We think, well, I need some earthly stuff. I need to know my bank account's got more money in it. Or I need to know my guns are all loaded and clean. I mean, God certainly uses means, but here he says, you want to overcome fear? You want to overcome discouragement? Chesed. Mercy. The loving kindness of the Lord. His compassion. Have you ever rejoiced in the fact that maybe you've met a friend and you could just really let your hair down with them and you could just tell them, just like, whatever. Like, man, I really was struggling with this. Maybe you've had a man in your life and if you were struggling with lust or whatever, you could just go to them and say, I'm just really, really, really struggling. It wasn't like, okay, I'm putting on my white wig and the black cap and the gavel's going down. It's like, no, they understood. They sympathized with you. They prayed with you. You know what the Lord does? He says, that's who I am for you. That's who I am for you. Do you need compassion? I'm right here. I've gone through everything you've gone through and now I'm armed with power and glory. The church used to believe this. How do you think people went to the stake? Can you imagine American Christians as we are now going to the stake and opening their veins for the cause of Christ? Oh no, there's got to be another explanation. We've got to find a way to make peace or let's form a pack and there's got to be a way that we can avoid this. And yet we read in history that men and women and children willingly opened their veins for Christ because He was more real to them than their next breath. And because they had learned, like we have to learn, I've got to go to Him. If I need guidance, if I need stability, if I'm discouraged, I can cast all of this upon Him. He says, come to me and I know your frame, I know your dust, that your dust, Psalm 103. There's nothing that you've done that I'm like, oh, I can't believe He did that. I can't believe she said that. I can't believe that he felt like that. You may be thinking, oh, if anybody, you know, knew what I had. But maybe some here. Well, the one that really matters is not, we're not your judges. And if we've given that impression over the years, then shame on us. Because we're all brothers. There's only one who judges, and that judge is smiling. Because He's satisfied. And because He laid upon His Son the iniquity of us all, so whatever you're dealing with, gone through, struggling with, in the middle of now, He says, you come to Me. I'll be compassionate. I'll forgive you. I'll help you. He says, I'll give you grace to help. Notice at the end of verse 16, in time of need. I'll give you strength. I'll give you everything you need. You might say, well, I asked one time and God didn't do it. You know, it's a funny thing, if we don't talk much, meaning you and me, or maybe another friend, and you know, and you're like, you know, and maybe it's a little bit distant even, and suddenly there's like a crisis in your life, and it's like, I'm gonna be a little bit hesitant to like, even pastorally, to like come in there and help, and cause like, well, I'm not really wanted, and you may have felt like that with a friend. I don't know, they've kind of been distant from me, and I'm not sure they really want me there. I mean, my heart's there, but there's been, and we think, That God's not like that? Jesus said in John 14, if you love me and keep my commandments, then I'm going to draw near to you and I'm going to show myself to you. And so there is a sense in which we're warned in Scripture, don't peeve the Holy Spirit. Don't grieve him. Don't push him away. Because if we push him away and it's like, well, I've got to go to God right now, but there's something in your heart that says, well, will he receive me? I mean, look at all that I've done, and I'm going to give you the simple answer, and that is yes. He will. He'll give you strength, grace. He'll give you favor. He'll give you help in the time of need. Now, in that interesting verse, in the light that these believers were already somehow thinking, Because that's why Paul wrote the letter. Maybe it'd be safer for us to go back to Judaism. So they were already down the railroad track a little bit in their thinking, and Paul even at this point says, hey, hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, God will receive you. So I'll leave you with this this morning. You might be thinking, well, I'm a little bit down the road already in this sin that I'm giving into, and my attitudes, and all these things, and I don't know that this really applies to me because I've offended God. If you look to Jesus, God ceases to be offended with you. Let that sink in. If you repent and turn to the Lord Jesus, God's not offended with you anymore. He doesn't hold your sins out and say, look at what John did, look at what Kevin did, look at what... He didn't do that. He said, look at what my son did. And I laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So you just come to me, and you see my throne of favor, and I'll give you compassion and my steadfast love that will encourage your spirit, and I'll give you grace to help. I'll give you strength. But don't stay away. And that boy, that makes pray without ceasing take on a whole different hue, doesn't it? Pray without ceasing. I gotta go to work. I mean, it's hard work to pray. Yeah, but remember, the need's constant. And so it's not like, pray without ceasing. Okay, let me go down the prayer list 3,000 times today. I've prayed without ceasing. You haven't prayed at all. Pray without, oh Lord, I need your strength. Just pray all the time. Lord, I'm struggling with this. My words, I can't believe I said that. Will you forgive me? Yes, I will. Will you help me? Yes, I will. Will you receive me? Yes, I will. Will you give me wisdom? Yes, I will. Will you forgive me? Yes, I will. I sinned again, Lord. Will you forgive me again? Yeah. Do you think if I told you to forgive 70 times 7, I'm only going to forgive you 70 times 69? I'll forgive you. I'll forgive you. Because we have a great high priest who has passed into the heavens. Now all these blessings hinges on that. That you are looking to, loving this great high priest who has passed into the heavens. Do you love him? Do you believe in him? Have you received, look at what he did, and I'm resting upon that. He is my salvation. He is my righteousness, Lord. You bore my curse. You're my hope. Receive me. Pray that. Believe that. Look to the Lamb of God. And then he says to us, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord. Do what I say. Not because you're trying to earn a thing. But it's kind of like husbands and wives at a lower level, even parents and children. If we're treating each other as we should, and we have the right attitude, and mom says, hey, will you take out the trash? Sure, mom. Be a privilege. Wait a minute, that's silly. That's like an 1840s book, isn't it? We're not supposed to do that today. Everybody's got like the right of first refusal when it comes to the trash. No, no. Wait a minute. Now let's run through this for just a second. Who's asking me to take out the trash? Mom. Who's mom? Oh wait a minute. Mom. We can do this with dad. We can do this with husband and wife. We'll just do it with mom. Because mom tends to get everybody to wipe their shoes on her a little bit. You wouldn't be here without your mother. She wiped your smelly bottom for the first two, three, four years of your life. She fed you. She took care of you. Mom, and maybe dad, but certainly mom, is like the only person in this world, maybe dad, okay, but certainly mom, who would push a train out of the way, or push you out of the way and take a train in the face to save your life. And I'm gonna tell my mom, pick out the trash, make up my bed, You've got to be kidding me. You ask me, I'm like a god walking around the earth. Am I supposed to get out the trash? With a good spirit. Let's boil it down, isn't it? That's really what it comes down to, isn't it? You're not supposed to listen to mom and dad. I'm in college. So I'm going to respect my dad who says, hey son, let's have a talk about that girl. I'm God here. I've got this under control. See, this is where we kind of have a disconnect, isn't it? Because everybody here, oh, we like Jesus, and oh, Jesus is great, hallelujah, praise Jesus. But then I'm going to go back and do what I want to do. when it comes to trash taking out and listening to daddy and loving my wife and speaking to her with respect since she does put up with me. And if I was really honest and talked about all the stuff she did for me or my husband, I'm going to really reverence him because he does put up with me and love me and he's seen me at my worst and he didn't throw me out in the trash and all these things. We ought to have just real tender hearts, because we have been shown so much mercy, and that Jesus Christ, when He hung between heaven and earth, understand, it was our stripes, and our shame, and our curse He was taking, and yet, I'm afraid some of us haven't looked on Him whom we pierced, and it's not broken our hearts. Is it broken yours? I'm Reformed. I don't care. I don't care if you're Baptist. I don't care if you're Episcopalian. If you hadn't stood before the cross and it hadn't broken your heart, you don't know anything about what it is to be a disciple of Christ. What about that person? It hurt my feelings. Have you looked at the cross? I don't know if I can forgive. Have you looked at the cross? I don't know if I've got strength to... Do you see where he is? He's passed into the heavens. Jesus, I don't know if I can really say no to this end. Do you see what he's doing at the right hand of God? See, the problem with the church, the problem with all of us, is not that we're waiting for this new leader to come forth or there's this new... No, no. We just don't know Jesus enough. And we're not walking closely and adoringly with Him. Do that and a lot of these silly things that we're dealing with today, we get immediate answers to. It's very simple. Not my will, O Lord, but Yours be done. Prefer others to myself. Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Let's pray that the Lord will help us know Jesus better. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this gospel. We pray that it would really pierce our hearts. We thank you that the throne that we come to even at this moment, it's a throne of favor, of a smiling, satisfied judge. We can never love you enough, thank you enough, rejoice in you enough. And Lord, we thank you that you don't ever put that on us. You never say, well, you'll never love me enough. You never put any of those kind of silly demands upon us. You just love us. And you say, come, and I'll give you mercy. I'll give you help. I'll show you my love. I'll give you strength. Thank you for that. Thank you that whatever happens to us in this life, here's a place where we can find encouragement. that our great high priest has passed into the heavens. Help us to take advantage of that encouragement, of that strength. Heaven is open. Day and night, as Revelation makes clear, the gates of Pearl and the countless hosts dream in. Lord, if there's some here who are standing on the outside looking in, bring them in. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.