Much Needed Grace, Part 9

If you your Bible, Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 4, as we finish this second warning this morning, looking at the beauty of Christ this Efficiency, his supremacy That's the emphasis of the book of Hebrews And so if you have not been here for the previous. 19 or 18 messages that we have had in Hebrews 3, verse number 7, all the way to end of chapter 4 That's okay. I'm going to sum it all up for you in Five minutes Isn't that good? See, that's what I can do When I'm all said and done, I can sum it up for you. I just can't do it before we get through it

So it all begins with a plea, right? It all begins with the plea: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation in the wilderness This is his great plea on the writer of Hebrews Not to harden your heart against the truth of what you know to be true Okay? And from that plea, he moves on to help you understand the per If you don't respond to the plea And that is how the anger of the Lord burned against that generation in the wilderness See, the Write of Hebrews would use the whole illustration from Israel's past to explain to them

The per of not responding to God's plea The same plea that David would use a thousand years before the right of Hebrews Because he knew how the nation was so pr to turning away from the living God So it began with a plea that moved to the peril, that went from the peril to the punishment, and the punishment was that you were unable to enter into rest because of your unbelief And the writer says, I don't want you to fall into that same situation that your forefathers did And so from that punishment, He moves to a promise and says in verse 1 of chapter 4, there still remains a promise

The promise of rest It's still available to you God hasn't shut the door on you As long as you're living and breathing, the opportunity to enter that rest is still available So the promise is given, therefore, respond to that promise And how do you respond? With the pursuit And that is to diligently pursue, to diligently seek after He says in verse number 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter into that rest How do you do that? Through the p of the Word of God That 's verse 12 It 's the power of the Word of God that enables you to understand the truth

Of the living God and to enter into that great re And because of that power, there is the pres of our great high priest And that's where we're at in verses 14, 15, and 16 He concludes the warning with this supreme inv And what does he say? He says two phrases: let us hold fast our confession and let us draw near with confidence He offers this invitation Hold fast your confession Don't let go of what you know to be true And you see, they knew a lot about Jesus They knew a lot They knew a whole bunch about Judaism because they were Jews, right? But they knew about

Jesus and they'd be given the information It's a lot like that scribe that came to Jesus, that scribe that came to Jesus On the last day that Christ was in the temple, on that Wednesday of that Passion week That scribe who came and asked the very last question of Jesus in Mark 12 It says in verse 28: one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the foremost of all? Tell me, Lord, what is the foremost commandment? And Jesus answered, Well, the foremost is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength The second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself And there is no other commandment greater than these The scribes said to him, Right, teacher, you have truly stated that he is one, and there is no one else besides him And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love Love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices Lord, you got it right You said it right

That is the absolute truth Let me reiterate it back to you: it's more than all the outward Sacrifices It's truly on the inside And what did Jesus say? Jesus said When he saw that, he answered him intelligently, or that he answered intelligently He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God Not far In other words, you recognize what is true You recognize what you need to do But you now need to appropriate that in belie You need to truly love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength He knew everything on the outside

He knew what needed to happen because he was able to reiterate back to Christ exactly what needed to take place in his own life But he was just not far from the kingdom because he knew the truth, but did not act upon the truth. A lot of people we know today know about the truth about Jesus They need to know the truth about God They have all the information correct But they need to act upon it That's why Jesus said in Luke:: No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven Once you put your hand to the plow and you know what is true, don't look back

Don't look back Same thing the writer of Hebrews would say: don't look back, don't go back You know what's true You know about Jesus. I've explained him to you in chapter 1. I've explained him to you in chapter 2 and chapter 3 You know the warning before you do not harden your heart Because you know what's true, respond to the promise of eternal rest Respond to the truth that God gives Pursue the kingdom of God Be diligent in your pursuit by the power of the living God Because if you do, look what happens You had this great high priest This great high priest, hold fast your confession

Hold fast to the truth And come boldly. C confidently to the throne of grace That 's the invitation it gives This is what happens when you respond You have a great high priest And then comes the motivation We talked about this last week And there were three of them Remember? Motivation number one is the priestly priority of Jesus Motivation number two is the impeccable identity of Jesus And motivation number three is the magnificent ministry Of Jesus, your great high priest It begins with that priestly priority

Why? Because you have to get to God, and the only way to get to God is through that one who knows man perfectly and knows God perfectly That is our great high priest And he came with one mission in mind, and that was to bring man to God There is no other name under heaven given unto men whereby you must be saved We know that in Acts 4, verse number 12 We also know that Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life, and no man gets into the Father except by me The only way to get to the Father is through the Son Because he is that great high priest

What's the priest's responsibility? The priest is that mediator between God and man to bring man to God And man, because he's locked into sin, and because God is locked into holiness, you need to have a perfect man to get you to a perfect God, and that is the man Christ Jesus, who is the one mediator between God and man So, therefore, he comes and he says, You need to hold fast your confession You need to come confidently before the throne of grace Why? Because of the priestly priority of Jesus He came to do a work and to finish the work that God gave him John 17, verse number 4

He says, I finished that work And what did he say on the cross? After he cried out in John 19, 30, it is finished What? The work of redemption had been accomplished He came to do that work He came to be that perfect bridge between sinful man And a holy God Now, what you do now? What's he doing now? He is our ad He lives to make intercession For you and me

And all throughout the book of Hebrews, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, he talks about this great merciful, this great Faithful high priest who made sacrifice for sin and made propitiation for sin and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, who has passed through the heavens and all throughout chapter 7 and chapter 8 and chapter 9, he's going to speak again about That priesthood because everything about Judaism centered around a priesthood, and Christ is that great high priest You need to know it's Jesus, our Lord That's the one

Once you embrace Him, once you come to Him, you realize that at that throne there is mercy Will receive and grace that's extended, but you need to come And what's he doing now? Oh, he's our advocate. 1 John chapter 2, verse number 1 What? We have an advocate that says who is our def lawyer? It 's Christ Jesus our Lord And we need one because Revelation 12:10 says this It says, Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of God, and the authority of his Christ have come, and the accuser of our brethren, which is Satan himself, has been thrown down

He who accuses them before our God day and night There is an accus of the brethren And that's what Satan does He accuses us day and night But we have an advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord Who, before you even commit a sin, he stands as your defense attorney, that he has paid the price for your redemption That's what's so great That's why Satan is cast down during the tribulation period to this earth Why? Because the one that has accused us all this time Has nothing to say once we enter into the presence of the living God

We are there in His presence, having obtained the eternal inheritance that's been ours, that God ordained from the foundation of the world And we praise him for that great promise that he gives And you see, this is important Because, what have we told you before? Last week, Zach chapter 6, verses 12 and 13 The Jews knew about this man who would come, who's called the branch, the Messiah Who would be a priest that would sit on his throne? Now, think about this for a second They know Zach 6:12 and 13 They know that

Because the promise given to Israel was that there would be a priest that would finally sit on the throne, because no priest could sit on the throne, no king could perform a priestly duty But there would be one called the branch Remember Zach 6, 12 and 13? Read it to you last week? The branch will come This man who's called the branch will come and perform his priestly duty on the throne of David But did they know that that man who was called the branch, who would sit on the throne and perform priestly duties, did they know? That man was also God, and the answer is yes

How did they know that? Book of Jeremiah Book of Jeremiah tells us in the 23rd verse these words Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch And he will reign as king and act wisely, do justice and righteousness in the land In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely This is his name by which he will be called the Lord our right You see? So they know that the branch, the Messiah, is not just a man He is the Lord of righteousness He is the one who acts justly, who is the one who acts righteously He is God's King

See that? So don't think for one moment that the Jews did not understand that the Messiah would not be only a man But he would be God as well The only Jews that would deny that would be Jews that are ignorant of the Old Testament scriptures Because it plainly states it, not just there, but in other portions of Scripture all throughout the Old Testament That's why When Jesus, on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, would explain the Old Testament scriptures, the law, and the prophets To those two disciples, explaining to them about the Messiah, about Jesus, the one who would come

And die for the sins of man, rise again, because everything about the coming Messiah was clearly portrayed and prophesied in the Old Testament You see that? They knew that So, what does the write of Hebrews say? He says, We have this great high priest who has passed through the heavens, who has sat down at the right hand of God, right? He's already explained all throughout the first three chapters that this Jesus, who is supreme and is sufficient, is the God of the universe So he's already proved the de Of the Messiah All he's doing is reiterating what the Old Testament said

About the prophet, priest, and king who would come and sit on his throne, who is not just a man, but is God Himself He came as a duty to perform a priestly priority He knew that the one sacrifice, the one sacrifice that he would offer Would do more than all the other sacrifices, the hundreds of thousands of sacrifices that have been accomplished on that mercy seat He knew that his one sacrifice would suffice That one sacrifice would be satisfactory To his Father in heaven, that would allow you now access to the throne of God That's why at his crucifixion, that veil was torn in two

So that man would have complete access to the Holy of Holies, the presence of the living God That was last week, his priestly priority That's why you come, that's why you need to be here That's why you need to enter into his presence because that's what he came to do He came to usher you into his presence He came to provide that way for you to get to God the Father So, therefore, his priestly priority Number two, his impeccable id This is motivation number two: hold fast your confession Come boldly, come confidently before the throne Why? Because the priestly priority of Jesus

And number two, because of the impeccable id of Jesus Look what he says He says these words, Hebrews chapter. 4 Verse number 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the S of God Jesus is his incarnational name The Son of God is his eternal name Jesus should call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, Matthew 1:2, right? Jesus, and they all know who Yeshua was because he was that great prophet who had made the prophecy about not one stone will be left upon another

And that would happen in 70 A, just a few short years after the book of Hebrews But they all knew who Yeshua was Jesus Savior, the Son of God And the word for Son, we, which is a term that means equal in nature to So Jesus is equal in nature to God Himself Again, proving the deity of Christ, reiterating once again that this Jesus that they had heard about, this Jesus that He has spoken about, is truly God's Son One who is equal in nature to God Himself, Jesus the Son of God Because of who he is, his impeccable identity, come boldly

He says in verse 15, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses But one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin This Jesus This Son of God, this one who had a sinless humanity Is also the one who is a sympathetic de That 's what makes him the perfect high priest Because of his sinless humanity Remember, he talks about this in verse number 25 of Hebrews chapter 7 It says, Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them

For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sin So he's going to reiterate the impeccability of this Savior who is Jesus He is holy, he's undefiled, he's spotless, he's without blemish Okay, and it says, He's exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests, who offer up sacrifices first for his own sins And then for the sins of the people Because this he did once for all when he offered up him

In other words, He's not like the earthly priests who have to go in and make atonement for their own sins first, then go back out, do the whole rigor again, that they might be qualified to make atonement for your sins This one had no sin He is sinless He's undefiled He is holy Therefore, we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize With our weaknesses, with our infirmities, with our feebleness, with our frailties But one who is tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin He was saying, Look, when you come to this high priest, this one knows exactly What you're going through

No earthly priest knows that No earthly priest can identify with your weaknesses, with your frailties Because none of them were tempted like this one was tempted, yet without sin It speaks to the impeccability of the Christ He is without sin, chor hamart That is, absent from any sin whatsoever There is no sin found in him God is light In him is no darkness at all So this one high priest can sympathize with you because when he was tempted, he never succumbed to sin because he Could not sin

You say, well, well, if that's the case, then how does he know what I'm going through? Oh, simply because of this Listen, when you and I go through temptation, there's a point that we succumb There's a point that we fall Into sin because of our human frailty, because of our sinful nature We can only withstand so much temptation before we fall into sin But Jesus, because he does not have a sinful nature, Jesus, because he is sinless, Jesus because he has an absence of sin because he is light Has to experience so much more temptation than you and I would ever face

And yet he still never succumbed to that temptation because he is the sinless, spotless Savior So he would go through so much more than you and I would go through For instance, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he would sweat great drops of blood Anybody here ever done that? I don't think so And when we get further into Hebrews, we'll talk more about that whole medical process, hemat, and what that means and how that actually happens in the physical being of a person

But here was Jesus in the anguish of his soul, realizing that he was bearing the sins of man, that he'd be separated from His father, for those three hours on the cross, was so in anguish that he would sweat great drops of blood In fact, the writer of Hebrews would say these words later on, Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 3: For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin Have you? That's his response

Because of his sinless humanity, he knows exactly what you're going through Because what you're experiencing He experienced a hundred times greater than you would ever experience it Probably a thousand times greater Because when Satan tempted Christ, In the wilderness, when Satan tempted Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Satan tempted Christ all throughout his ministry, the temptation that Satan had to bring his way was so far greater than any temptation he has to bring your way because of your weaknesses, because of our frailties, because of our feebl But Jesus, not so much

But note this, not just because of his sinless humanity, but because of his sympathetic deity Jesus, the Son of God, tempted at all points like we are yet without sin Understand this, that in Judaism, as well as the pagan world They did not understand God like you and I understand him today, those of us who know him You see, If I was a Jew and I was growing up during the days of Jesus, or anytime prior to that, I would understand the holiness of God. I would get that

And I would understand the wrath of God, the justice of God. I would understand the power of God, the knowledge of God. I would understand a lot of the divine attributes of God But also, I would understand this, that God never dealt with me individually, person and directly and intimately He would deal with me indirectly He would deal with me from a distance But very few times in the Old Testament did God ever deal with an individual on a very personal, intimate level But never like he deals with you and me today Never

That's why we've told you before, and we say this all the time at Christmastime, that the Jews knew about God above them, right? They knew that God would be around them, right? And that God was going to be with them, but they did not understand God in you, the hope of glory That was the mystery of the Old Testament That's why Paul calls it a mystery of the book of Colossians Christ in you, the hope of glory See, if I'm a Jew in the Old Testament, I did not understand Christ in me That's just something, that's just something that the Lord did in the church age

He would actually take up his residence in us, he would dwell in us And so when the writer of Hebrews talks about the fact that you have a great high priest who can sympathize with your weaknesses That was foreign to them Because you see, in their mind, God could not be tempted And in their mind, God knew nothing about their own human frailties He was so far above them, so distant from them, that God did not even understand them

And so, when you begin to realize what was taught in Judaism and what the Rite of Hebrews is now saying about this great High priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who's passed through the heavens and now has sat down at the right hand of God the Father, He knows you He knows you so well He's in you That's how well he knows you You see, I can know you, but not nearly as much as the Lord does Yes, He's on mission, but I'm not in you. I'm not even around you half the time. I'm around you on Sundays, maybe on Wednesdays

You know, maybe you're sick, I visit you in the hospital, but I'm not around you all the time Jesus is not only around you, He's in you So He knows exactly your frailties Tempted at all points like we are, yet without sin So he knows your weaknesses and frailties That's why you go to him That's why you understand that you need to give your life to him Hold fast your confession Come boldly before the throne of grace He knows All that you're going through And that's just such a great encouragement because, let me tell you something, ladies, your husband does not know what you're going through

He just doesn't Not because he's absent-minded, although we can be very absent-minded at times, okay? Not because he's absent-minded, not because he doesn't care Now that's the point He just doesn't understand all that you're going through But the Lord does That's why I want you to cry out to Him Come to Him Hold fast your confession Come boldly before Him Because of his sinless humanity, because of his sympathetic deity, he is so sympathetic toward us That's his impeccable identity He has no sin He is Jesus, the Son of God Now Motivation number one is priestly priority

He is the great high priest who has passed through the heavens He came to bridge man to God He's that perfect bridge He's that one mediator Two, because of his impeccable identity Jesus, the Son of God, He is your great high priest He can sympathize with your weaknesses He's without sin And number three, because of his magnificent min Look what he says Therefore, let us draw near with confidence To the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need Now you got to come

Once you understand his priestly priority, once you understand his impeccable identity, you got to come You can't wait Because of what is before you, the magnificent ministry of mercy and grace That he just wants to dispense toward those who come You know, mercy is not something that God has, mercy is something God is, right? Grace is not something God has It's who He is The Lord is merciful If you come to Him, you receive mercy Why is that so important? Grace is for the guilty Mercy is for the miserable Those who are in misery need mercy

When they come to the throne, they receive mercy and obtain grace to help in time of need Grace is for the guilty Mercy is for the miserable And grace and mercy are very similar, yet yet very distinct in Scripture Mercy is that which eliminates p Grace is that which grants a better condition in light of that pain Mercy is that which shows pity But grace is that which pardons those who are pitiful Mercy says no hell Grace says heaven

See that? Mercy is that which God in His tender, comp, His loving kind Toward us amidst all of our distress is that which causes him to act on our behalf, that will relieve us Of our suffering at the time and manner in which he knows best Grace gives us favor that we do not deserve While his mercy holds back the judgment we do deserve So he says, Look, do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation in the wilderness, because if you do, Judgment's coming But if you hold fast your confession, come confidently to the throne of grace

Instead of judgment, because of his sitting down at the right hand of God the Father, that throne of judgment becomes a throne of mercy that you will receive And find the grace at the moment you need it That's the plea That's the motivation for coming because of his magnificent ministry Let's know what the Bible says Psalm 103 The Lord is merciful Psalm 116, verse number 5 Our Lord is merciful Psalm 119:6 The earth is full of his mercy Psalm 119:15 Great are your tender mercies, O Lord Ephesians 2, verse number 4

God is rich in mercy because of his great love. 2 Corinthians 1:3 is called the father of mercies And in Hebrews 2, verse number 17, he's called a merciful and faithful high priest. A merciful and faithful high priest Remember Mary in Luke's Gospel In her great magnific, he would say this He would talk about the might one who has done great things for her His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him She would respond to what God was doing in her By exalting the mercy of God She would later say these words

He has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance of his m So Mary would respond to what God was doing in her and through her by bringing the Messiah as God demonstrating his mercy towards sinful people And then over in Zach's prophecy, he would say these words He says, And you, child, speaking of John the Baptist, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins

Because of the tender mercy of our God, you're going to receive the forgiveness of sins because of his mercy With which the sunrise from on high will visit us In other words, the sunrise from on high is the Messiah He's called the Sun Eshu of righteousness In the book of Malachi, and that sunrise from on high is now going to visit us In other words, the sunrise from on high is the mercy that comes to us that allows us to obtain the forgiveness of sins So now the writer of Hebrews goes back and simply says, listen, hold fast your confession Hold fast your confession

Come confidently before the throne of grace because of the magnificent ministry of Jesus Himself He is going to allow you to receive his mercy and at the same time obtain grace at the moment that you need it That's how great God is That's why you need to come That's how he concludes this warning With this invitation and the motivation to respond, you got to come You can't wait any longer And it'll go on in chapter 5, talking about this great high priest and the greatness of him, just to reiterate it once again But he gives this invitation because he wants you to know

Remember Isaiah 53? A man of sorrows acquainted with grief This is that lamb that was slain He is a man of sorrow He is acquainted with grief He knows that He knows you He knows your situation He knows all about your sin We've talked about it earlier that all things are laid bare before him He knows everything And yet, and yet, he still beckons you to come You know, if those closest to you knew about what was happening in the inner recesses of your mind, they would have nothing to do with you Nothing at all But Jesus knows And what's he say? You come Hold fast your confession

You come, you receive mercy, you'll obtain grace If you hold fast that which you know to be true, belie it Come to me, and you'll experience the ministry of the great high priest How about you? Have you come to Jesus, the Son of God? Do you believe in his name? Have you embraced the Messiah? A lot of you, you know the truth. A lot of you have been here for years You know probably more about Jesus than most people know Because we emphasize Jesus and who He is And you know He's the Son of God You don't doubt that

You don't even doubt the fact that he came to earth and died for your sins and rose again the third day You know all that too But like that scribe On that last day, there in the temple area, who knew everything there was about what he needed to do To love the Lord as God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, to embrace Jesus as his Messiah He did not And he went away and would probably die in unbelief How sad is that? That's why the plea is given today If you hear his voice, have you heard his voice? Have you heard what the word of the Lord says? Do not harden your hearts

Don't do that Instead, E this great high priest Let's pray Father, we thank you for today What a great, great passage What a great book, the book of Hebrews So rich So full Such a beautiful, beautiful book that holds you in the high esteem We pray for those among us today that might not know you, that have never given their life to Jesus the Messiah May this be that day For those of us who know you, may we cont to live in the light of your glory And may we be ambassadors for your kingdom for your sake and not our own We pray in Jesus' name Amen.