A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): I don't know if you're in need tonight. You might be in need tomorrow. You'll be in need at some point. But here's the great news. We have access to a throne, and it's a throne of not wrath. You better get up here. Come up here right now. No, it's—listen, it's not a throne of condemnation. Condemnation always, always, always drives you away from the Lord.

But conviction of the Spirit drives me to the throne of grace where the Lord can look at my indifference at times and my heart and be willing to forgive and to bless. I don't understand it. I think that's why it's amazing grace.

Guest (Male): As you read through your Old Testament, you discover Israel had many high priests and they would serve an important role. But as we'll learn today on A Daily Walk, Jesus is far superior to the Levitical priesthood. We'll give you several reasons why as we get back into our new study of Hebrews with Pastor John Randall. We'll begin in chapter four, taking note of what is it that makes Jesus our great high priest?

John Randall: Jesus, on the basis of His perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of His own blood, passed through the heavens and into the Holy of Holies to the very throne room of God. So in summary, Jesus' priestly ministry is far better than the Jewish high priest, for only one on this one day a year was allowed to pass through an earthly veil to enter the Holy of Holies.

But in contrast, our great high priest passed through the heavenly veil, once-for-all, into the throne room of God. And since Jesus passed through the realities of which the Tabernacle was only a type and Aaron passed through the things that were types or symbols, Jesus is way better than Aaron.

That is why David described the scene in heaven. I love it in Psalm 11:4. He said, "The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven and His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men." In the Old Testament, the high priest of Israel passed through the courts and the veils into the most holy place, but Jesus passed through the heavens into the very presence of God. He is seated at the right hand of the Father and He is currently carrying on His high priestly ministry in interceding for us right now, praying for us right now.

Because of this marvelous truth concerning Jesus, the writer exhorts these Hebrews now to hold fast to their confession. Hold fast our confession. The phrase, the words "hold fast," it's an extremely important point that runs through really the entire letter. The words "hold fast" mean to lay hold of, to cling tightly to that which has been taken hold of.

The writer is exhorting his readers, especially those wavering in their faith and wandering back into ritualistic Judaism. In the present tense it's used, so it's like he's saying, "Let us keep on holding fast to our confession regarding the Messiah." Don't let that go. Don't let go of that. Don't turn away from that. Hold fast to that confession. You know who He is. You know what you have access to. You know what He's accomplished. You know He's alive from the dead. You know His word is true. So don't turn from that. Don't let go of that. Hold fast to our confession.

The word "confession," the noun form of this word is used six times in Scripture and it represents the open expression of one's allegiance to a proposition or better yet, a person. An open allegiance. Our confession. It's what Paul talked about in Romans 10:9 when he said that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That's an open confession of my mouth. I believe. Don't turn from that confession. Don't turn from what you've declared and what you've believed.

Paul said it this way in writing to Timothy, First Timothy chapter six, verses 12 through 13. He said, "Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of eternal life to which you were called and you've made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. And so I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things of Christ Jesus, who testified of the good confession before Pontius Pilate." Jesus made a good confession before the authorities. You've made a good confession concerning Him. Now hold fast to that. Stick to it.

There's everything in this world that would love to rip that right out of your hands, take it right out from you. I am not wavering. I am staying the course. I don't care what the rest of everybody else does. I don't care what the culture says. I don't care what this says. I don't care what they say. I care what God says, and I'm holding fast to that.

Too many Christians letting go. "Oh, I'm just gonna let go." No, no. Hold fast. "I just let go and let God." I think you ought to hold fast and let God because that's what it says here. It's a great bumper sticker if you have it. You don't have to take it off after church. Maybe you should. People get all condemned. It's on my t-shirt. But what I'm saying is, listen, it says hold fast. Don't let go.

Too many people are just wandering away, letting go of what they know to be true, and you see them just wandering and caught up in all kinds of things that are destructive. That's what was happening to these people here. I love what Charles Spurgeon said. This quote is powerful: "Shall we desert Him now that He is gone into heaven to represent us? Now that He has fought the good fight and won the victory on our behalf and gone up to heaven as our representative? God forbid."

Look what He did. Look what He's done. Are we gonna say, "Hey, thank you. That was great. I'm letting go and letting God"? No. I'm gonna hold fast. Jesus said whoever put his hands to the plow and looking back is not fit for the kingdom. We've got to fight the good fight. Jesus' ministry as the great high priest is so much better than Aaron. For one thing, He's passed through the heavens.

But secondly, He's so much better because Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses. It says in verse 15, "We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." You may recall back in chapter two that this important truth was first introduced: that in all things, Jesus was made like us so that He could be a faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God.

As our great high priest, Jesus knows what we're going through because He became one of us. The Word, John tells us, became flesh, took on flesh and dwelt among us. He came to this earth. He experienced the hardships and physical weakness that we encounter. Therefore, He can sympathize with us. This word "sympathize" is very important. Sympathize is a feeling for or capacity for sharing in the interests of another. An affinity, association, relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other. Unity in harmony, in action and effect. That's what it means to sympathize.

Sympathy expresses the feeling of what others feel so that one can respond with sensitivity to the need. You can often find people who have true sympathy. True sympathy, generally, they don't say, "I know how you feel." Because since they know how you feel, they also know how unhelpful it is to hear someone say, "I know how you feel." True sympathy is fairly quiet. Time-intensive presence. Intensive and sensitive.

Sometimes it's best to just be like Job's friends initially. When Job was suffering, it says they just were there and they were quiet. They said nothing, and that was a blessing. It wasn't until they started talking for the whole book that Job said, "Miserable comforters are you all." They were so much better when they were just quiet. Sometimes it's just the ministry of presence. You're just there.

I don't even know what to say. So it's best when we don't know what to say, don't say anything. Just sit there. I've been called into situations that were so devastating and so tragic. I was praying as I'm driving there, "I don't even know how to respond to this. I don't even know what to do. Do I quote a scripture? Do I not quote a scripture?" And I just would sit there and just listen and be quiet. I found that that was so effective then me just saying, "I know how you feel," because I really didn't.

The Lord that we serve, the Savior to whom we look to, He's not removed from our trial, but He feels them with intimate acquaintance. He knows what it is. He's not disinterested or cold to what we're going through. He came to this earth and took upon human nature precisely that He might be able to have that kind of fellowship, so that He could know and He could help. This really should draw us to Jesus. That He was made like us. That He knows our temptations by practical experience, yet He was without sin.

Not only did He feel our weakness as a human being in His humanity, but something else: Jesus was also tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, the Bible says. Jesus was tempted in every area. Sometimes that's a surprise to people. He was Jesus. He was. But He knew what it was to fight the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He knew what it was to be tempted. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin when you give into temptation.

Everybody's tempted and everybody's temptation is different based upon the individual. But Jesus overcame temptation. One of the temptations that Jesus overcame, and we talked about it on Good Friday where Adam failed, was the temptation to do God's will. Adam failed at that. God had revealed His will, Adam chose to do his own will rather than God's will, and sin was passed onto every person.

But Jesus in the garden, although it was difficult, He said, "Father, if there's any other way, nevertheless not My will but Yours be done." He chose to obey the will of the Father. Therefore, He is able to sympathize with us. For many of us, we face temptations every day like that. Am I gonna do God's will? Am I gonna do our will? Am I gonna respond in the spirit or am I gonna respond in the flesh? Am I gonna live my life for God or am I gonna live my life for me?

The moment you say, "I'm gonna live my life for Jesus," that's when the war's on. If you want to live for Christ, you want to raise your kids in Christ, you want to be in fellowship, you want to go to church with people and sit next to them, have them hug you, pray with you. "Don't touch me. Keep praying from Jesus. Jesus prayed from a distance." You want to do that, just know something. There's gonna be a battle. There's just gonna be opposition. You're gonna have to fight it.

Jesus can sympathize with that, and I'm thankful. Jesus, though faced with temptation, would not bend. He did not sin. He was without sin. And thus He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because He's been through it. Sometimes people think that Jesus cannot relate. Oh, friend, listen. He is the great high priest. He's passed through the heavens. He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He can sympathize with our weaknesses and He knows how to help us overcome temptation.

The problem is, rather than run to Jesus when temptation comes, we run to the temptation. Then we wonder, "I don't know how this happened." What do you mean? "I don't know, I got wasted." Well, tell me. What happened? "I don't know. I just drove my car to the bar. It was late, went and sat down, started with a few peanuts, and then after that I just put a ton away and I got pulled over. How did it happen?"

I'll tell you how it happened. You put yourself in the wrong place. Did Jesus drive you there? No. You drove yourself. "I don't know how it happened." What? "Well, we struggled in our relationship." Really? Well, what do you mean you don't know how? "I don't know. We were parked. No one was around. It was midnight and we went from there." Yeah, I know how it happened. You don't have to explain it to me. You went there. If you don't go there, it doesn't happen. If you go there, it will. Don't blame Jesus.

The devil made me do—no, you did it. We do that instead of running from temptation. Listen, if you know it's a temptation, you stay as far away from it as you possibly can because it's a temptation. Any fool can go to the edge and say, "See how close I can get without falling." That isn't smart. That's really foolish. Anybody can do that. You know where the real challenge is? How far can I stay away from that? If you want a challenge, see how far you can go in the opposite direction of that. That's how you overcome temptation.

In verse 16, it tells us that our high priest has a throne, and it says here that it is a throne of grace. Verse 16: "Let us therefore," or in light of this, what we have, what He's done, how great He is, therefore, "let us come boldly." Oh, I love that. Boldly to the throne of grace so that we can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Within the Levitical sacrificial system, only the high priest could come into the holiest of all places. If you weren't a high priest, you're not even getting close to that veil. The Ark of the Covenant? You're never gonna see it. The throne of God, the mercy seat? Nope. Not for you. You don't have that access. All the common people didn't have the opportunity to draw near to God. There wasn't enough lambs and goats and oxen to be sacrificed to atone for the sinfulness of man, giving them access to the throne room of God.

But Jesus, our great high priest, through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, opened the doorway that was closed so that we have access. How do you know that? Well, the Bible tells us in the Gospels, on the day that Jesus died, Mark chapter 15, verse 38, it says, "The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." It doesn't say from bottom to top because that would be a work of man. It was from the top down, which means God tore the veil. And suddenly, the holiest of all places was open.

Anybody could look in. It's like, "Hey, sew that veil up real quick." God was saying, "The Lamb has been slain. The blood has been shed. The doors are open. My throne of grace is accessible. If you need grace in your time of need, come on in. Open house." Not one day a year, anytime, anyplace, He's available. That's what makes Him great.

Through this act of divine grace, we have access into the holiest place. It's now available to all people. We no longer have to keep our distance in fear away from God, but we are invited to come with confidence and full assurance before the throne of grace. I love this word "to draw near." It's interesting. It means to come facing towards. It means to approach, to visit, figuratively to worship. Draw near, to go near. It's used in the present tense, which is an exhortation to keep on drawing near in worship, in prayer, in seeking the Lord with a heart of devotion.

What a radical contrast that is. Again, if you've read the Old Testament, you know how radical this contrast is because in God's previous command at Mount Sinai, in Exodus 19, the Lord said, "You shall set bounds for the people around, saying, 'Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.'" I'm definitely not drawing near because you die.

The sacrifice hadn't been made yet. The sacrifice has been made, and now we don't have to be away. We can draw near with confidence. The word "confidence" means we have a freedom and unreservedness in speech. Fearless. Cheerful courage is the word. Cheerful courage. We don't have to be afraid because it is a throne of grace.

Grace is the gift of God as expressed in His actions of extending mercy, lovingkindness, and salvation. Grace is defined in this way: grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless. Grace. It's a throne of grace. John wrote concerning Jesus and he said, "And of His fullness we have received grace upon grace." The Bible says where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Praise the Lord.

I love that old song where the lyrics are as follows: "He ever lives above for me to intercede, His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead. His blood atoned for all our race and sprinkles now the throne of grace." Amen.

So I don't know if you're in need tonight. You might be in need tomorrow. You'll be in need at some point. But here's the great news. We have access to a throne, and it's a throne of not wrath. You better get up here. Come up here right now. No, it's—listen, it's not a throne of condemnation. Condemnation always, always, always drives you away from the Lord. But conviction of the Spirit drives me to the throne of grace where the Lord can look at my indifference at times and my heart and be willing to forgive and to bless.