Visit the Throne of Grace and learn about the Priest, your Profession, and the privilege of Prayer. A message from 10 February 2008.
Hebrews 4:14-16 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. (15) 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. (16) Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
You have a PRIEST - a Great High Priest - Your Representative, Your Sacrifice, Your Mediator. God is a Person, with a great warm heart of love. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. If you’re searching for hope - here is One who cares and understands.
He’s touched by your feelings. God is present. He’s been tested, tried and tempted - and found faithful, faultless. He cares - He knows our weaknesses; every pain and hurt. He knows what life’s like. Our God is able to share our feelings. You’re His own family – special and dear to Him.
He calls you “beloved” – 1 John 3:1-2 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God… (2) Beloved, now are we the sons of God…
The Lord Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused. He knows our sadness and gives hope. He has tasted our disappointment, borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.
God wants closeness and fellowship with you. He has demonstrated it towards us - while we were yet sinners - when we were yet His very enemies (Romans 5:10). Greater love hath no man than this. He wants you to know His love. God’s ultimate design in Eden was communion and closeness with mankind. God’s original perfect design was marred by man’s sin who spurned His love.
The story of the prodigal says it all. “Every day the father looked down the road which led his son away. And one day he saw his son coming, coming home. He ran to his son with compassion embraced and kissed him. Immediately, he called for sandals to be put on his feet and a robe and a ring. The son said, “Let me only be as a servant in your house.” The father said, “You are my son who was lost, but now is found. Then he summoned his servants, “Kill the fatted calf. Let there be a celebration.”
For Him to be your PRIEST, you’ve got to have a PROFESSION of faith in Him.
This means our profession - our declaration of faith. Hebrews 4:14 Let us hold fast our profession.
Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Cling to Him - lay hold on faith.
God has compassion and mercy. Faith is a transaction. An agreement - a covenant that He makes possible. God was rejected in Eden; rejected by Israel as their king – they wanted an earthly king instead - 1 Samuel 8:6-9. He is despised and rejected of men. Yet He delights in our worship… you can please God. You can gladden His heart with your worship.
God sees the fragile and lowly, and reaches out in care. He welcomes the outcasts. The Lord is gentle in His dealings with the hurting. What a priest! He wants to bear our burdens – He is there for us to call on, to draw close to. Hold fast your profession. Hold fast to Him in faith.
God desires to pour out His mercy and love from the vast riches of His great grace. Titus 3:4-7 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, (5) Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. It doesn’t say a lot about Enoch. But it does say he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). He lived in close communion with God. He held fast his profession. He had this testimony: He pleased God.
Our Priest calls us to PRAYER. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. The throne of His grace is a place you can run to. A 24-hour service for every believer. There is access today.
"Mercy" is NOT getting what we DO deserve! "Grace" IS getting what we DON'T deserve! God’s grace is available right now -in our times of need. “Let us keep on coming to” is the sense – a continual turning to Him.
We may receive mercy – pardon. We may find grace – God’s great strength to help. We have the great privilege of prayer. God and man can meet at the throne of grace today. You can pour your heart out at His feet. Come with boldness to this One. He wants to meet you at the throne today.
[0:00] 14. See then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens.! Three things here about this grace to help in time of need.
[0:13] 1. Firstly, you are a priest. You have a priest today who has passed into the heavens and yet He is also here. This is our loving Saviour with a real great warm heart of love that He reaches out to us with.
[0:30] This high priest, this priest of yours, He can be touched by your very feelings, by your very weaknesses. Here is one who cares, who understands, who has sympathy and understanding.
[0:43] The feelings of our infirmities, our weaknesses. So I know some open up to me and say, I've got weaknesses. I know I could give you a long list of two of my weaknesses and my faults and failings.
[0:55] I'm sure Julie could give you an even longer list of all of my failings, my many many failings. See her afterwards if you want to list them. But He is touched by the feelings of our infirmities, by our weaknesses.
[1:12] And when you feel a weakness, He is there for you. He is here for you. He truly cares. He knows where everyone is at and what is going on for you. Where you are right now and what is going on in your life.
[1:24] And He has felt every pain, every hurt, every rejection. He knows what it's like that He was clothed in human flesh. God, manifest, revealed in the flesh, in human skin.
[1:40] A real human being. An average looking person. It says there wasn't anything about Him that made Him stand out in how He looked. But there was certainly one thing that was unique about how He looked.
[1:52] He was more marred than any man. More marred. His face was shredded and injured and wounded and bruised for you and me. No other man has had a face like his in terms of that, the suffering that He bore.
[2:06] And so He can empathise. He can sympathise. It breaks my heart when I hear the stories and I hear the wounding and the hurting of lives in our own midst.
[2:21] As well as in the world we live, in the community we live. The horror stories of families and lives ruined by sin and misery. And yet, Christ knows.
[2:33] He knows really, truly and deeply where you are at. And He feels for you. Every hurt. And He can feel for you. He knows what life is like. The whole drama of human experience. He has experienced it.
[2:45] That's the one who cares for you. He has passions, compassion, feelings for you, plans for you. Our God, your God. Grasp that this morning.
[2:57] He's real for you. He's here for you. And He's loving, He's passionate about you. About you. You're His own family. His own special dear ones.
[3:08] You know, it says in the Word of God, one of the descriptions of the people of God, it says that you are beloved. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
[3:22] Amen. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved. Beloved. Now are we the sons of God. You're beloved. Jenny, Chris, isn't that great?
[3:34] Isn't that good news to know that you're beloved? Beloved. I believe in that. Beloved. It's amazing. It's all about, sometimes in our world and the church world at times, it's all about me and my feelings, my hurts and my coming to church to get a blessing.
[3:54] But yet, what about God and His feelings? How does God, how healthy is our relationship with Him? How close or distant is He from us? God has feelings too.
[4:07] And you hurt the heart of God. I hurt His heart with my sin. With our careless ways. With our preoccupations with other things.
[4:19] With our distance from Him. Our selfishness at times. How does God feel? Put yourself in His shoes. And think about this one. The Lord Jesus Himself, when He came to planet Earth, to take our place.
[4:32] How they treated Him. What they did to Him. What we did to Him. He's carried our sorrows. He's borne our griefs. And God is so personally involved with us.
[4:44] And I just want to impress on you today. God is personal. Because He's created you. He intimately knows you. And all about you. He knows your needs. He knows the numbers of your head.
[4:56] And they're getting less to count. He knows the numbers of tears you've cried. He knows the heartache of day by day. Some, they live like a saint for the hour and a half of church.
[5:07] And live like the devil the rest of the week. You know, who's going to know? I've just got to put on a face for the church people. God knows. He sees. And it hurts His heart. When we live like that.
[5:18] God wants that closeness, that fellowship with you. He's expressed His love. God has demonstrated His love towards us. In that one who were yet sinners. Christ died for us.
[5:29] He took our place, our sin. For God so loved the world. So loved you that He gave. Greater love hath no man than this.
[5:42] No one has loved you more than Him. No one can. Greater love hath no man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. The prodigal went and went his own merry way.
[5:56] Merry way in the pig pen. He came to His senses. And it says that He came to His senses. He came to Himself. And He went back home.
[6:07] And every day the Father was there. The Father was there. Looking down that road. That same road that His Son had gone down. As He had abandoned Him. As He had taken His share of the inheritance.
[6:18] The Father was there. Scouring the horizon. Scouring that same road. That same long road that His Son had gone down. That led His Son away. And one day He saw His Son.
[6:30] He saw His Son coming to Him. Coming home. What did the Father do? It says He ran. He ran to His Son. He ran to His Son and He embraced Him. He embraced Him.
[6:41] In all the pig pen smell and muck and mire and unworthiness. Here we see the heart of God. His love. His grace. He was in all points tempted. Like as we are yet.
[6:52] Without sin. Tempted. Tested. In every respect. In all points. We need a priest like that. A priest like that. There is no priest in an earthly church that can help you.
[7:06] Like this one. He is the priest. He is the high priest. He is the great high priest. He is the one that you can come to. One mediator between God and man.
[7:18] He is the one to come to. The priest who understands. Your priest. Secondly. How is your profession today? It tells us in our text here.
[7:30] Verse 14. Let us hold fast our profession. For Him to be your priest. You have got to have a profession of faith in Him.
[7:41] It means our profession of faith. It means our confessing Christ as our Saviour. It means your confessing your trust and your faith in Him. As Lord and Master. Your declaration of faith. Have you got one?
[7:52] Have you got a confession? A profession? Are you holding it fast? Are you holding it strong and true? It is the same word used in Romans 10. Where it tells us.
[8:03] That if thou shalt confess. With thy mouth the Lord Jesus. That word confess. Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
[8:15] There is a confession made unto salvation it tells us. A confession. When you say I confess that Jesus Christ is my Lord.
[8:26] That is the confession of your faith. It is the same word used in Acts 3 verse 11. The context there is of the lame man. And Peter and John bless him as they pray and he is healed.
[8:38] And as the lame man which was healed. Held Peter and John. All the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's greatly wondering. Here he was. The lame man held Peter and John.
[8:50] That is your profession. That is how we should treat faith. We should have it as something we want to hang onto. And lay hold of. And grasp. And hold firmly. Take it.
[9:01] Take faith today. God has compassion. People. Don't let things put you off. Hold it fast. That profession. Of your faith. He has gone into the heavens for us. He is making intercession for us.
[9:12] Praying for us. This one. This mediator. Between God and man. The man. Christ Jesus. He is the one. Who opens the door for you. And he says come boldly.
[9:23] To the throne of grace. By his grace. Freedom. To enter in. Confidence. And grace. And boldness. Don't miss this now. This priest. This profession. This prayer.
[9:34] Let us pray. Let us pray. To the ending. Thank you.