From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Are you coming regularly to the throne of grace? I mean, could you imagine anything greater than the King of the universe saying, "You can come and sit in my lap and talk to me about anything and have permission to speak and know that I have grace for you to forgive, to help, to cleanse, to strengthen in your time of failure, in your time of need."

And we don't come. How foolish is that? Are you coming regularly to the throne of grace? If not, why not? And if not, why not start today?

Guest (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. Have you ever done something that you just knew you shouldn't do? Of course, you have. And then, just as predictable, you felt tremendous guilt and then began to think that God will never forgive you for that, or worse, you can never come to God again because of what you think you did.

The fact is, every Christian feels that struggle from time to time. So, where do we go during those times of temptation, struggle, and failure? Pastor Jeff has the answer for you today on "The Throne of Grace," the title of the lesson from the series "Beyond Amazing: Understanding the Grace of God." It's our featured series this month and yours for a gift of any amount to supporting From His Heart. Just go to fromhisheart.org for more. If you can, now turn in your Bible to Hebrews Chapter 4 to learn how to resist temptation by approaching the throne of grace. Here is Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hebrews Chapter 4, such a great passage of Scripture. Hebrews was written by an unnamed author. We don't know who wrote Hebrews. I love what Walter Martin says about Hebrews. It says the book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews. It's talking to Jews, Jews who were true believers in one camp, and intellectual believers but never really trusted Christ in another camp. And the third camp was those who are investigating Jesus.

This is what he says in Chapter 4, beginning in verse 14: "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 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. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Three insights from these three verses that are so encouraging, that are so helpful, that have helped me and I trust they will help you. Insight number one: Our great high priest has paved the way for us. He has paved the way for us. "Since then," verse 14, "we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."

Now, this is a Jewish book written to Jews. They knew about the sacrificial system. They knew about the high priest. And the chief priest, the high priest, would go into the temple one time a year. He'd go past the outer court into the inner court into the innermost court, and he would offer sacrifices for the people on the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur. That was the only time he went in there, and he went in there quickly to do what he needed to do and he got out. You say, "Why is that?" Because in the Holy of Holies, that's where the Shekinah glory of God, where the presence of God was. And you just don't come into the presence of God anytime you want to in the Old Testament system.

But God was showing to the people, "I am holy." The Jews knew, these Hebrews that he's writing to, they knew about that. He says Jesus is not just a high priest; He's a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He's the greatest high priest. He's greater than any Aaron. He's greater than any Melchizedek. He's greater than any angel. He is the great high priest. What has He done? He has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.

Jesus became our high priest through the blood of His cross and the power of His resurrection. And what did He do when He ascended to heaven? He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. No priest ever did that. No high priest ever sat down. There's no chair in the holy place or in the Holy of Holies, definitely not in the Holy of Holies. So He sat down because His work was finished. What did He say on the cross? "It is finished." Tetelestai, paid in full. I paid it all. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And Jesus lives to make intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25: "He always lives to make intercession for them." He's interceding for you and for me. Our great high priest has paved the way for us.

Second insight: Our great high priest has sympathy for us. 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." He can lay His hand upon God's throne because He is God. He can lay His hand upon Job and sinners because He was made like us. He's human. He's both. He can understand and relate to our weakness. He knows what it's like to have physical weakness, to have emotional weakness. We struggle. We have weaknesses physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. He feels for you in your weakness, and He knows exactly what it's like to be tempted.

"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." Every temptation you've experienced, He experienced. Now, it's important to remember this does not mean that every particular temptation you've ever experienced, He experienced that personally. When the Bible talks about "tempted in all things as we are," He's talking about categories of temptation. See, the devil really doesn't have that many bullets in his gun. The Bible just mentions three.

First John Chapter 2, verse 15: "Do not love the world nor the things in the world, for if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world." Those three areas: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life. That's where all temptation comes from.

What do we see in Genesis Chapter 3 with Eve? The devil deceived her and got her to fixate on the forbidden. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and desirable to make one wise (the boastful pride of life), she took from the tree and ate and gave to her husband with her and he ate.

What do we see in the New Testament? Luke Chapter 4 where Jesus is baptized and then He goes into the wilderness. He fasts for 40 days and then He's tempted by the devil. First temptation: lust of the flesh. "Hey, if you're the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. Surely you're hungry, Jesus. You've been fasting for 40 days. Prove that you're the Son of God. Command these stones to become bread." The lust of the flesh. Jesus answered, "Man shall not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

And then the devil takes Him to a high mountain, shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in just a moment, and he said, "All these have been given to me and I will give them to you if you will just bow down and worship me." What is that temptation? The lust of the eyes. See, the lust of the flesh is the lust for sex, the lust for laziness, the lust for selfishness, the lust for gluttony. It's what's going to make my flesh feel good.

The lust of the eyes is the lust of greed, wanting more and more and more. "All these kingdoms are mine. I'll give them to you if you'll just bow down and worship me." Jesus said, "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." He just keeps quoting Scripture back to the devil.

And then the last temptation: the boastful pride of life. The devil takes Him to the top of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple, and he says, "Cast yourself off. For it is written," Psalm 91, "He shall give His angels charge concerning you, and they will bear you up lest you strike your foot and dash your foot against a stone." "Oh, Jesus, it will be so cool. You will wow the crowd. Everybody will follow you if you just do three or four backflips off of the top of the temple and land on your feet and everything will be great." Jesus answered and said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." He was tempted in every area that you're tempted in, that I'm tempted in, yet without sin.

And the Bible says He's able to come to the aid of those who are tempted because He knows what it's like to be tempted. Remember this: God the Father can't be tempted with evil. It makes that clear in James Chapter 1. But God the Son can become a man and put on human flesh and He can be tempted just like you're tempted, just like I'm tempted.

Here's the difference: Jesus was tempted and never sinned. Jesus took temptation to the very top of the temptation scale and never sinned. The Bible says in Hebrews Chapter 12, "For you have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane began to sweat blood in His striving against sin. He took temptation to the nth degree.

Jesus took the full load from the devil. The very most that he could give the Lord Jesus in terms of temptation, and He resisted even to the point of shedding blood. He knows what it's like to be tempted better than you know what it's like to be tempted. And He's able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize and commiserate and have fellow feelings about your weaknesses, my weaknesses, our weaknesses, our temptations, our struggles. He knows and He cares. Our great high priest has paved the way for us. Our great high priest has sympathy for us. Insight number three: Our great high priest has made a throne of grace for us.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve and the message today, "The Throne of Grace." He'll elaborate a bit more on this in just a moment. But first, he wants to invite you to go on vacation with him.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hi, Pastor Jeff here, and I'm excited to announce that we'll be going to Israel in 2027. Our trip is set for April 2nd through the 11th, and we would love for you to join us as we walk where Jesus walked. This is truly the trip of a lifetime as the sacred places you've only read about will now be seen up close and in full color. You can find out all the details by going to our website, fromhisheart.org. That's fromhisheart.org, and follow the link titled "Holy Land 2027." I look forward to having you with us for this awesome experience in the land of Israel.

Guest (Male): Well, it is a trip of a lifetime and a wonderful opportunity for you to visit the Holy Land. To find out more about the trip and get all your questions answered, go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Holy Land Trip" graphic right there on the homepage. We hope you can make it for sure. Now let's get back to conclude the lesson, "The Throne of Grace."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Verse 16 is such a great verse. Because we have this great high priest who's made a sacrifice and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and has gone through the heavens, and He feels for us and has compassion and sympathy and knows what it's like to be tempted, it says in verse 16: "Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

See, we can come to God with confidence because of Jesus. Confidence because of Jesus. We don't come on our merits, your merit, my merit, the Apostle Paul's merit, the writer of Hebrews' merit. We don't come based on how good we are because we're not. Our righteous deeds are as a filthy rag before God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We come based on what Jesus did, based on His merits. Ephesians 1:6 says that we are accepted in the beloved, and the beloved is Jesus. And when we accept Jesus, He accepts us, and then we're accepted in Him. Ephesians 4:32: "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."

Why did God forgive me? For Christ's sake. Because He accepted what Jesus did on the cross. He put an exclamation point on it when He raised Him from the dead. That was the propitiation for our sins. That was the satisfaction, the forgiveness for our sins, what Jesus did on the cross and through His empty tomb. And anybody who comes to Jesus in repentance and faith, they're placed into Jesus, and when God sees you, He doesn't see you, He sees His own Son. And if you're struggling with sin, as we all struggle with sin, you can come boldly with confidence to the throne of grace, knowing that the Lord will receive you because in Jesus you're accepted in the beloved.

See, we have confidence in the fact that we're going to be accepted. Jesus said, "The one who comes to me will by no means be cast out." "I won't throw you out if you come to me. Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest," He says. So if you're weary and heavy-laden and beaten down and broken down, you can come to the Lord.

The prostitute in Luke 7 could come to the Lord and weep at His feet. And He says, "Your sins have been forgiven, your faith has saved you, go in peace." Now, Simon the Pharisee, this is the story in Luke 7, he sees that and he says, "If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. He wouldn't let her touch him. She is an immoral woman. She's a prostitute." As a prophet, you don't let a woman like that touch you. But she was coming with a broken heart. She was coming repentantly to the Lord. And what does He have for repentant sinners? Grace. That's what He has, mercy and grace.

And so we can come with confidence that He's not going to throw us out. And we can come with confidence to share our hearts with Him. See, the word confidence means frankness, means boldness to speak. Have you ever seen a movie where it's a military movie and some superior's talking to an inferior in the military, and the inferior will say to the superior, "Permission to speak, sir." "Permission granted." That means I can speak freely. It's kind of off the record. You're letting me as a subordinate talk to you freely. Well, the Lord says at the throne, "Permission to speak. Share your heart with me." Always do it in reverence. Always do it in respect. You're talking to God. But you can share your heart with him.

I had the great privilege last week of recording a program that we're going to air this Friday on the radio with Joni Eareckson Tada. You've heard me share that she's one of my heroes in the faith, and so sweet. But one of the things that came out as I was talking to Joni Eareckson, she has such a deep and abiding walk with the Lord because of her suffering, because of her quadriplegia. She's been a quadriplegic now for 55 years. And she talked about how she had to deal with that from a 17-year-old girl. She said, "For two years I was mad at God, bitter at God. I was biting everybody's heads off that tried to help me."

She said, "I didn't understand why God allowed this to come into my life." And she said, "I began to alienate myself and began to get in a very dark place." And she said, "I knew that wasn't right." She said, "I began to read the New Testament." She said her sister would put her in a chair, she'd have this pencil in her mouth or this thing that she could turn pages, you know. She can't move from her shoulders down. And she would start reading in the New Testament. And she would share her heart with God.

And she said, "Lord, I can't do quadriplegia. You've given me this, I can't do anything with this. I'm just mad, I'm just bitter, I'm just angry. So you're going to have to help me, because I can't do it." And she talks to God just so openly, so frankly. "Trust in him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us." He's a safe place, Psalm 62:8. You can share your heart with God. And when you do, you draw near to God. We can come to God with confidence because of Jesus, and we can come to God and receive mercy and more grace. "Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy." I need mercy, especially when I fail. "That we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need."

David in Psalm 51, after he sinned with Bathsheba, after he had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed, such terrible, horrible sins. And he comes before the Lord: "Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Be gracious, be merciful to me, O God." He needed God's mercy. He needed God's grace. You need it, I need it, we need it. God's mercy and grace. And God sits on a throne of grace.

And the Bible says of Jesus, "Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." Grace upon grace. God is the God of all grace. He has an inexhaustible supply of grace. Now, we say grace is the unmerited favor of God. You don't earn it, you don't deserve it, but He gives it to you anyway. Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.

Grace is the desire—one definition—it's the desire and the power to live for the Lord. Remember what we said: grace is big. It's like grabbing onto Orca. You can't do it; it's just so massive. But it's the desire and the power, one definition, to live for the Lord. And so when we blow it, we come before the Lord, and we come before His throne of grace. He doesn't sit on a throne of judgment for His children. He doesn't sit on a throne of condemnation for His children.

He doesn't sit on a throne of disgust for His children. He doesn't sit on a throne of termination for His children. "That's it, you're done, get out of here. I've forgiven you for that sin; now this is the 500th time, that's it. 70 times 7, 490, you're done. That's all." No, it's a throne of grace, and He's the God of all grace, and grace is an inexhaustible supply. That's the throne that the Lord sits on for His children. And we can draw near with confidence to that throne.

Beyond amazing that I could come into the presence of God. The high priest only came in there one time a year. He came with fear and trepidation, and he didn't stay long. And now there's no more veil, and the Lord says, "Come, and come early, and come often, and come as long and stay as long as you want in my presence and marinate in my presence. I'm a God who loves you. I understand what you're going through. I care about you. I have mercy and grace to help you in your time of need." So let me ask you this question: Are you coming regularly to the throne of grace? If not, why not? Could you imagine anything greater?