Hebrews 4:16 "Throne of Grace"

Hebrews 4:16

V16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need.

It is a very different thing to empathies with someone who is suffering than to make the sufferings his or her own.

If I have compassion on an orphan it can only go so far being that I have never been an orphan. I don’t know what its like at 830 when the sun goes down and I have no house to call home or parents to call mom and dad. I don’t know what its like to try and put food on the table for a family and not have a job or any job offers on the voicemail.

I can however have empathy for someone who deals with being a first year teacher or giving their first sermon with someone who is entering graduate school even. I can relate to someone who constantly overdrafts their account as I did so much in college opening your account to draw out a 20 only to find that you owe the bank 150.

It is very different to have compassion or hurt for someone for any particular reason yet never to have undergone there suffering than to have been standing in their very same shoes.

Christ as it were stood in our shoes and still does, having empathy for us undergoing all if not more than we could suffer. And being that he was fully man and fully susceptible that the world could dish out, he is able to help us in his timing and help us perfectly. His sufferings and temptations equipped him to deal with all of our sufferings and temptations.

1. a. God’s awful throne

- Let us draw near is to approach, seek association with or to agree with…

- ISSUE – Let (us) with (confidence) (draw near) to the throne NO WAY!

1. It is near impossible to draw near to the throne of God

Whoever the writer is asking to draw near to Gods throne must think he is losing his mind. The equivalent is me saying let us jump from a plane with no parachutes which will result in certain death. Let us approach the heavyweight champion of the UFC and fight with him in the cage.

I am not confident about either of those two endeavors let alone approaching the throne of God most high.

In the early chapters of the Institutes of the Christian religion written by John Calvin there is found a statement that reads “Hence that dread and terror by which holy men of old trembled before God as scripture uniformly relates. Throughout the scriptures righteous men of faith understood their experiences as not calm and casual but as the prophet Habakkuk described it “my lips quivered, my belly trembled and rottenness entered into my bones”.

1 Kings 10:18-20

The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and at the back of the throne was a calf’s head, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

This example of an earthly throne is a representation of the highest King in all of Israel at the time. This however is not the throne we are focusing on despite its amazing and majestic description. This throne that the writer of Hebrews is describing is far more amazing than Solomons. The one who sits on this throne created everything Solomon owned as well as well…Solomon himself.

Heaven is the throne of God and beyond, and the earth is his footstool. – Isaiah 66:1

b. What is the throne and why is it unapproachable?

If we should always regard prayer as an entrance into the courts of the royalty of heaven; if we are to behave ourselves as civilians should in the presence of an illustrious majesty, then we are not at a loss to know the right spirit in which to pray. If in prayer we come to a throne, it is clear that our spirit should, in the first place, be one of lowly reverence. It is expected that the subject in approaching to the king should pay him homage and honour. Let pride bite the curb at a distance, let treason lurk in corners, for only lowly reverence may come before the king himself when he sits clothed in his robes of majesty. In our case, the king before whom we come is the highest of all monarchs, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Emperors are but the shadows of his imperial power. They call themselves kings by right divine, but what divine right have they? The Lord alone has divine right, and to him only does the kingdom belong. He is the blessed and only King. They are but small kings and presidents, to be set up and put down at the will of men, or the decree of providence, but he is Lord alone, the Prince of the kings of the earth. Our view of God no matter how high or how low that is does not change his being, is the “I AM.”

Our hearts, be sure that it they prostrate fall in such a presence. If he be so great, place our mouth in the dust before him, for he is the most powerful of all kings; his throne has control in all worlds; heaven obeys him cheerfully, hell trembles at his frown, and earth is constrained to yield to him homage willingly or unwillingly. His power can make or can destroy. To create or to crush, either is easy enough to him. My soul be sure that when we draw nearer to the Omnipotent, who is as a consuming fire, a raging storm, we remove our shoes from off our dirty feet, and worship him with lowliest humility.

Boldness there should be, but let it not be nonchalant. Still we are on earth and he in heaven; still we are but a worm of the dust, a creature crushed before the day is over, and he the Everlasting: before the mountains were brought forth, he was God, and if all created things should pass away again, yet still were he the same and at the word of his mouth everything that is –was because he said it is. When we approach it is only to the Infinite Majesty above or you have created for yourself an idol that ebbs and flows at your pleasing.

One of the pitfalls of Christianity in America is that there are so many worshiping a God who does not exist. We have fashioned a God with our own hands made of iron and clay and we manipulate him.

Sovereignty is very high and terrible; its light is like unto a jasper stone, most precious, and like unto a sapphire stone, or, as Ezekiel calls it, "the terrible crystal." The King says, the Lord of hosts: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." "Who are you, O man, that reply’s against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have thou made me like this?" "Does not the potter power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?" These are great and terrible words, and are not to be answered. He is a King, and he will do as he wills. None shall stay his hand, or say unto him, What are you doing?

God could have set up a tribunal of justice, a tyranny of oppression but he chose to set up his throne of grace. Grace reigns there in bountiful measure; more than we know based on what we deserve It is crucial that we find ourselves there more than we find ourselves in other places. Most everything will leave us with a sense of want or a sense of regret.

Vacation- eating, spending, dancing , drinking

We will never regret spending time at the throne of Grace (kindness).

"I've got so much work to do today, I'd better spend two hours in prayer instead of one." – Martin Luther

Prayer, for Luther, is rooted in the Bible and of utmost importance – praying the scriptures where our promises are found.

How can we approach with boldness and with confidence when we have needs, how do we approach?

2. How can one draw near?

1. Jesus as Mediator

-This is often misunderstood by many to mean that God is this terrible Tasmanian devil and Christ is kind of wrestling God back from ripping the world in half like a piece of notebook paper. God is a madman and Jesus is level headed and he asks God to leave us alone.

2. Understanding that sending Jesus is Gods doing. (see the difference)? We are sinners and God takes the initiative in love by giving his only son.

3. The reason we cannot approach is there is no darkness in God, no shady deals or bribery or skeletons in the closet. His justice is perfect and if we don’t like it ….tough.

Now Jesus says, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus is the only true Go-between with God. The apostle Peter said, "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Only Jesus can bring us to God. The apostle Paul said, "We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). Only Jesus can save us from the separation and alienation that cuts us off from the Father. "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

It's Jesus or alienation. Repeat

“The basis of this confidence is that the throne of God is not marked with a naked and terrible majesty that overpowers us, but the name of the new covenant in Christ’s blood that this throne is called is that of Grace. This is the name we are always to keep in mind when we avoid the sight of God. If we turn our minds to the blood of Christ and the mercy of his grace we can never fall into overwhelming despair. The writer of Hebrews deliberately clothes the throne with grace to ease our fears. Since we have been adopted and he is our father there is nothing that should ward us off from approaching him. We may safely call on God. Because of the work of Christ the blood offers us entrance in with fatherly love and gracious goodwill.” –John Calvin

Moreover, it is clear from the connection of our text, that the interposition of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential to acceptable approach. As prayer will not be truly prayer without the Spirit of God, so it will not be prevailing prayer without the Son of God.

3. c. That we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need

Do we believe that Christ does not say “your on your own se you later” but I am here to serve you for the rest of your life. Do you believe that the character of Christ implies that he is willing to serve you even when you met him?

God's invitation to everyone is, first, come to Jesus for forgiveness and reconciliation with me, and then, second, "Draw near to the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

I opened with what I will close with to assure us of this promise.

Christ suffered and was tested with what we are suffering and are tested with and the very evidence that God is obliged to love and give us mercy is Christ himself.

1. Without Christ it is impossible to draw near to the throne with confidence

2. Without Christ God is every bit as awful as he is recorded in scripture

3. Without Christ there is no mercy and grace but the alienation of Hell itself

The mercy shows us the forgiveness of sins and the allowed entrance and the grace (kindness) is sufficient to help us through each minute of each day. Ultimately as we pray for help in times of suffering and need, he is there empathizing with us and answering us in his perfect timing. Since he is able to help he knows what time is the best to help also.

How can we be sure?

Seated on the throne of grace, God is again bound to us by his promises. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." True prayer offered through Jesus Christ, his truth binds him to hear it. The everlasting God wants not to break his promise. He delights to fulfill it. He has declared that all his promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus as long as they would be the prayers that Christ would pray; but, for our consolation when we survey God under the high and terrible aspect of a sovereign, we have this to reflect on, that he is under covenant bonds of promise to be faithful to the souls that seek him. His throne must be a throne of grace to his people.

And, once more, and sweetest thought of all, every covenant promise has been endorsed and sealed with blood, and far be it from the everlasting God to pour scorn upon the blood of his dear Son. Very much of the validity of a charter depends upon the signature and the seal of a king, how sure is the charter of covenant grace. The signature is the hand-writing of God himself, and the seal is the blood of the Only-begotten. The covenant is ratified with blood, the blood of his own dear Son. It is not possible that we can plead in vain with God when we plead the blood-sealed covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the power of the blood of Jesus with God can never fail. It speaks when we are silent, and it prevails when we are defeated. Let us come boldly, for we hear the promise in our hearts. When we feel alarmed because of the sovereignty of God, let us cheerfully sing—

"The gospel bears my spirit up,

A faithful and unchanging God

Lays the foundation for my hope

In oaths, and promises, and blood."

The point of God's word in Scripture is that Jesus is a very sympathetic, caring, and powerful Go-between with God. Because he loved us and died for us and rose from the dead, anyone—any one of you—who trusts him can draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.