Show Notes
Hebrews 4:4-16
* Note - durring the service, there was an electrical outage.
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Episode Transcript
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Together in prayer, are great and
loving heavenly father, we are so very
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grateful that you have given us your
holy word. You've given us our own
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copies of the originals, and we
need that word daily and especially, father,
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we want to hear it preached,
and I pray that the preaching would
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be clear from conviction and from the
leading of Your Holy Spirit. May every
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word be edifying and encouraging. ME. We be exhorted to trust and rely
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and to look unto Jesus, and
may we be in couraged, father,
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to go to the Throne Room of
God, to the holy of holies.
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May We be encouraged to spend much
time there every single day as a result
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of hearing the scriptures today. Bless
us. We pray in Jesus name.
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Amen. And if you have your
Bible there, I invite you to turn
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with me to Hebrews, Chapter Four. Hebrews for now the text is fourteen
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to sixteen. I'm going to back
up all the way to eleven. Give
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us a little context here. So
Hebrews for beginning at verse eleven. Let
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us therefore strive to enter that rest
so that no one may fall by the
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same sort of disobedience for the word
of God is living, an active sharper
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than any two edged sword, piercing
to the division of soul and of spirit,
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of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
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heart. And no creature is hidden
from his sight, but all are naked
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and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account.
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Since then, we have a great
high priest who has passed through the heavens,
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Jesus, the son of God.
Let us hold fast our confession,
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for we do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with our
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weaknesses, but one who, in
every respect, has been tempted as we
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are, yet without sin. Let
us then, with confidence, drawn near
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to the throne of grace that we
may receive mercy and find grace to help
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in time of need. The grass
withers in the flowers fade, but the
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word of our God endures forever.
Nay, it endure within each one of
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us. Today, you may be
seated. This pulpit has such a slant
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to it I'm losing everything down the
it's okay, well, we'll do this.
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Many years ago, when I was
just a skinny little kid. Once
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in a while I would go with
my dad to work. He was a
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contractor and he worked for a large
company in Orange County building condominiums and apartments.
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This was back in the S and
I've just got to follow them around
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the job. But the highlight of
the day was when the coffee truck came.
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That's what we called it, the
coffee truck, and he would come
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during the break and during lunch and
then the afternoon break, and when he
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came he'd blow his horn in the
men would make their way out there and
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I'd go with them and I would
walk right by them, through them and
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everything, and I'd go up there
and I would take what I wanted off
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that truck. Kind of bold for
a little kid. And there's Pie,
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I love Pie, you know.
And there's chocolate milk. Oh, we
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don't have a lot of that at
home. I'll have that today. Why
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was I so bold and why did
the guy who ran the ruck not say
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what are you doing? Well,
it wasn't because of me, it was
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because of my dad. He was
the boss and the coffee truck guy wanted
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to place him so he could have
all in the business throughout the course of
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building those apartments. It wasn't me
and it wasn't because of my boldness or
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my goodness that I could do that. And it's not because of your goodness
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or mine that we can enter into
the very holy holies of God himself.
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And that's what our passage shows us. It's only through our high priest,
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it's only in Jesus name, through
faith in him, that we can in
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fact boldly enter into the very holy
of holies in glory, in heaven itself.
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What a privilege. The writer to
the Hebrews Rights Marvelous Truth Doctrinal truths
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about the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The whole first chapter
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is filled with incredible statement after statement. He wants those Christians back then and
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us today to keep our eyes on
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were tempted
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to fall away from the faith,
they were tempted to go back to Judaism,
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they were tempted to run because,
yes, they were going through many
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trials and many difficulties. And,
like a good pastor that he was not
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only a writer or theologian, but
he was a good pastor. He encouraged
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them through this marvelous text and I
hope you leave here today greatly encourage desirous
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to see your prayer life grow and
increase. When you stand before God,
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will it be in Christ Jesus,
your high priest, or will it be
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in your own efforts and in your
own righteousness? I hope it's in Jesus
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and in Jesus alone. Point number
one speaks of this high priest, a
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great high priest in glory. Verse
Fourteen, that's exactly what our writer is
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saying. He begins with an exhortation
here. Well, at the end of
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verse fourteen he says, Let us
hold fast our confession. He commands us
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to do that, because they're tempted
to fall away. You'll see that through
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the opening chapters of Hebrews. Hold
fast to your convictions, to your beliefs.
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Maybe you know somebody who as a
good friend in the faith and you
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read together and you went to church
together, and all of a sudden they
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begin to move away and not be
around that much and they end up not
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going to church. And I have, of I had a friend like that
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and then in about the last seven
years or so he began to just not
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go and he invited us out on
Sunday mornings to let's go to Brunch,
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let's do this, let's do that, you can take time off, and
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he had no concept of what our
Sundays and Lord's days were like, and
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so I prayed and prayed for him
that he would come back. And then
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about a year ago we heard the
news. His wife woke up and he
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was there in bed with her and
he had passed on. And I have
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no, no hope, but only
God knows. I hope he's then glory,
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but I have really no hope that
he's there, because he didn't persevere,
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he didn't hold fast to his confession. Notice the reasons that our writer
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gives. Jesus is our great high
priest. We see that in chapter three,
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verse one, and it's what he's
done and continues to do. Is
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One reason why we ought to hold
fast. Another is where he is and
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where he resides now in the third
is who he is. Is Jesus,
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the son of God. You see
that in verse fourteen. What is he
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done? The high priests? They
offered up sacrifices again and again under ragular
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basis, and the Day of Atonement
that was the High Holy Day. Will
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look at that in just a moment. And they offered them up. Jesus,
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our high priest, is our sacrifice. And he offered himself up when
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they took him and tried him and
lied about him, and pilot three different
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times says I find no fault,
I find no guilt in this man.
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And then he proceeded to have him
crucified and Jesus on the Cross, taking
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our sins upon himself, knowing the
full displeasure and wrath of his father,
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cried out, my God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?
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And it's because of me, it's
because of you. Our sins were laid
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upon our savior. Will see that
in greater detail this evening in is Zaiah.
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And he died for us. And
yet on the third day he promised
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and he did. He rose again
from the dead and he continually now we
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see it in different places, especially
Hebrews. He continually intercedes for us.
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He speaks on your behalf to his
father. He is at the right hand
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of God right now in glory,
so far above those human priests in the
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Old Testament, in the old covenant, because they would die. But of
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Jesus, you see, lives on, and he lives on and makes intercession
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for us. And that's where he
is. It's in the highest heavens,
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which implies something. It implies that
he was raised from the dead and that
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after forty days, he ascended to
glory, to the highest place of power
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and authority in the entire universe,
at the right hand of God. As
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the PSAMA says. In a hundred
and ten psalm, the Lord says to
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my Lord, sit at my right
hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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And he is there, and God
is the father, is promising and
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answering his promise to Jesus. Even
now he is dwelling in the holy of
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hopes. And who is this person
again? Well, you see it in
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the verse. there. This is
Jesus, the son of God. Now
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a lot is said about him in
chapter one. He is seen there as
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our great prophet. He is the
creator of the universe and sustainer of all
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things. He is, as the
writer puts it, the radiance of the
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glory of God, which means he
is God, Very God, of Very
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God. He is the second person
of the Trinity, the Son of God.
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He is seen in chapter one as
Almighty King, Eternal Lord. And
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yet, as you go on in
Hebrews, if you want to turn back
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to chapter two for a moment.
In chapter two and verse Seventeen, we
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read therefore he had to be made
like his brothers in every respect so that
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he might become a merciful and faithful
high priest in the service of God to
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make propitiation or satisfaction for the sins
of the people. He is the son
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of God and he is seen there
as fully man, and that's vitally important
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for your salvation and for mine.
He is called Apostle and high priest of
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our confession. He said to the
apostles, I will build my church and
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his Apostle and high priest. He
went forth, he went to glory,
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he sent forth his spirit and he
is in the process of building his church
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right now now. The writer to
the Hebrews contrasts. As you go through
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Hebrews first ten chapters, he contrasts
the old with the new, the new
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with the old, the priesthood and
Jesus, who is a part of a
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different priesthood than milk kizedekian priesthood.
He contrast those two Old Testament priests were
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sinful men who would eventually die they
couldn't continue on being a priest, but
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Jesus will never die. He had
to first offer a sacrifice on that day
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of Atonement, for himself and his
family, their sins, and then for
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the sins of the nation. Once
a year, one priest would be selected
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for this high and holy honor.
They would spend two or three weeks prior
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to that day walking through things,
thinking about what they were going to do,
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because this was it was an awesome
honor, but it was a fearful
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thing to go in and stand in
the presence of the Holy God, and
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so they would put bells on the
bottom of their robes and a rope on
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an ankle and they could hear him
in the holy of holies. And if
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they didn't hear him and there was
no sound and nothing was being said,
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they would pull him out of there
because God had struck him down. He
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had done something wrong before God,
a holy God. Year after year a
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new high priest would enter in and
continue to offer the sacrifices, continue to
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bring with him blood and to sprinkle
it on the altar and on the ARC.
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One writer, Bishop Westcott, writes
these words. The writer everywhere insists
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on the duty of the public confession
of the faith the crisis claimed not simply
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private conviction but a clear declaration of
belief openly in the face of men.
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And these Christians were being persecuted.
As you read on and Hebrews, you
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see that some were cast into prison, some lost their homes and so on.
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And he says this is a public
confession they had to make, just
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as we make a public confession here
of our faith when we become members of
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the Church today, and this is
so sad. As a pastor I've seen
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this over the years. People make
confessions, they take vows and make oaths
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and promises and then, as time
goes on, they treat them as meaningless.
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Please come and talk with the elders. We haven't seen you for quite
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some time. Or let me meet
with you and let's talk. How can
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I help? How can I be
an encouragement to you? And people are
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making their way out and making their
way out and they don't want to hear
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and it's it's sad, but it's
important when you know they're they've made their
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way way over here. You say
remember your vows. You stood before the
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congregation and you took these vows.
That's a serious promise to Almighty God and
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they act as if who cares?
You can't tell me what to do.
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I'm going to do whatever I please. But the writer to the Hebrews is
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warning US and saying you make that
value, you have that conviction, you
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lived by it no matter what comes. Raymond Brown rites of David's followers,
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interesting example of commitment. He writes
their duty at that moment was to obey
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the king's instructions and to trust his
wisdom. It meant that they were going
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into a life of hardship, in
security, privation, suffering, possible death,
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but they would be with the king
and that was enough. And if
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you read the life of David,
coming to the latter part of Second Samuel,
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there's a whole chapter and David's mighty
men. They were there with David
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through ups and downs, through good
times and very, very difficult times.
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But they made that commitment and they
state and they followed the Lord, as
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David followed the Lord. Secondly,
he's not only a glorious high priest,
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but notice that he's a great high
priest with a human nature. Remember that.
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That's vitally important. That's what he
says to us in Verse Fifteen.
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We do not have a high priest
is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
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but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are.
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Yet without sin, he can feel, he sympathizes, he knows what's going
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on in your life, good and
bad, a hard, difficult, wonderful,
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joyful, he knows it all.
The stoakes back during those days believe
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that the primary attribute of God was
Apatheia, the inability to feel anything at
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all. They reasoned that if he
could feel, he could be controlled by
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others and therefore would be less than
God. On the other hand, in
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contrast, the epicureans believe that God
dwelled in Intimodia, the space is between
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the world's in complete detachment. Oh, there's a god, but he's doesn't
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really care much about what's going on
down on earth. There he's separate from
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all of creation. Yet, in
contrast, according to the scriptures, with
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those philosophies, Jesus, as high
priests, can fully sympathize with our feelings,
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are sufferings, our temptations. God
has entered the world in Christ and
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taken on a complete human nature.
Even now he is God and man,
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you see, and he always will
be Jesus fully God and fully man,
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and we read that in the first
couple chapters of Hebrews. He can really
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feel like the rest of us.
You know why? Because he had to
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learn. He had to learn how
to walk. When he started out he
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was like like Little Judah, just
being held. Couldn't walk. Judah hasn't
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said a word to me yet,
but I'm not going to take that personally
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because I know he doesn't know how
yet. He's got to learn how to
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talk, doesn't he? and Jesus, it's hard to believe. We always
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think of Jesus being there growing up
knowing at all. He's God. Therefore
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he doesn't. He doesn't understand anything
that we humans go through. Well,
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he understands everything that we humans go
through. He had to grow in knowledge,
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which he had to learn the discipline
of work. He knew what it
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was like to live in a fallen
world and suffer. He knew what it
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was to be tempted. Satan tempted
him at the very beginning of his ministry
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in the Wilderness. He was there
forty days and forty nights and he was
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very hungry and Satan came and he
tempted him and Jesus stood on the word
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of God. Peter was used by
the devil once when Jesus said to his
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disciples, I'm going to be taken
and I'm going to be beaten, I'm
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going to be crucified and on the
third day I will be raised, and
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Peter Literally took him aside. The
other apostles are here, they're watching this,
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and Peter took him aside and said
no, Lord, this can't happen.
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And what did Jesus say to it? He said, get behind me,
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Satan. Don't you tempt me.
Satan, you have the thoughts of
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man, in the considerations of what
and wants, and not of God.
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In the garden of Aasemite, the
great time of anguish, of temptation,
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of grief, of having the burden
in the focus. Very shortly he's going
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to be on that cross. He's
going to have to endure the wrath of
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God, endure our sins upon him, the holy one. and He fell
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in his face. And three times
you prayed to God, if you can
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take this away, this Cup,
Lord, take away, but if not,
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then thy will be done and not
my will. And Luke says that
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he sweat profusely and he sweat great
drops of blood. That's going through temptation
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and on that cross, during those
three hours of darkness where he was made
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sin and the father poured forth his
wrath, judging all of those sins in
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Jesus and not in us, and
he cried out, my God, my
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God, why have you forsaken unbelievable. We can't even comprehend what he went
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through. C S Lewis is responding
to people who say Jesus was perfect,
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so he didn't really know temptation.
He writes this. A silly idea is
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current that good people do not know
what temptation means. This is an obvious
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lie. Only those who try to
resist temptation know how strong it is.
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After all, you find out the
strength of the German army by fighting against
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it, not by giving in.
You find out the strength of a wind
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by trying to walk against it,
not by lying down. A man who
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gives into temptation after five minutes simply
does not know what it would have been
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like after an hour. That is
why bad people in one sense, no
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very little about badness. They have
lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
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We never find out the strength of
the evil impulse inside US until we
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try to fight it. In Christ, because he was the only man who
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never yielded to temptation, is also
the only man who knows to the full
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what temptation means, the only complete
realist love the way. He ends that
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without sin. Hebrews Chapter Seven,
if you look there and verse Twenty Six,
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for it was indeed fitting that we
should have such a high priest,
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holy, innocent, unstained, separated
from sinners and exalted above the heavens,
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the sinless son of God on and
his epistle says. You know that he
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appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
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That's Jesus, holy and undefiled.
Jesus is not a STOIC. He
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feels, he cares, he experiences
our struggles with the devil, with sin,
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with death, and that's why Jesus, knowing our struggles, he bids
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us to come to him. And
if you're a note taker, than take
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this down. Man a few eleven, twenty eight to thirty. Jesus says
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to us, come to me,
all who labor in our heavy Laden and
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I will give you rest, take
my yoke upon you and learn from me,
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for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest
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for your souls from my yoke is
easy and my burden is light. He
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knows, he knows how to guide
US and teach US and discipline US and
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encourage us. He understands and he
wants us to come to him. He
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wants us to follow him because,
you see, the yoke of sin,
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sin is an awful, awful taskmaster. Jesus is a wonderful Lord. The
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final thought this morning number three.
A great high priest who receives sinners.
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It's an amazing statement. I'm so
grateful for that and I hope that you
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will drink this in and take this
with you and find it motivation and grace
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this week to seek his face,
as God says, seek my face,
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and David said THY face. Oh
Lord, I shall seek notice in Verse
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Sixteen. Let us then, with
confidence, drawn near to the throne of
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grace, with confidence, with a
bold, frankness as an honest, humble
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seeker, not with an attitude that
I have it together, because we know
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that we don't, but with the
hope that Jesus does, and we come
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in Jesus righteousness and in his name
and Jesus is there in the holy of
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Holys and we have the privilege of
talking to our heavenly father, brothers and
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sisters. This is most amazing.
It's such a contrast with the fear and
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trembling of the Old Testament believers,
the high priest. It was an honor,
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but he did so in fear and
in trembling. Nay Dab and by
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WHO A bay who? Errand's first
two sons put strange fire together. They
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conducted something else that God had not
commanded them in worship, and he struck
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them down because he is holy.
Our brother Azer was too familiar with the
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arc and things that were going on, and the oxen almost stumbled and he
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grabbed hold of the arc as if
he were going to save God himself.
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The Holy God struck him down.
How scary is that? In Hebrews,
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Chapter Twelve and verse eighteen we see
what it was like. For you've not
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come to what may be touched a
blazing fire and darkness and gloom and tempest.
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That was the old covenant and the
sound of a trumpet and a voice
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whose words made the hearers beg that
no further message bespoken to them and it
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was so tears, so artem reading
my notes here. Yeah, that was
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special effects. That Moses said,
I tremble with fear. Thank you.
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This is a first and I've done
this a few times. Moses knew God
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face to face and yet he said
I tremble with fear for God. Jesus
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is our high priest. He's there
in the whole of Holy's, the Throne
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Room of God. He has torn
the court curtain into he's fulfilled or righteousness.
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He is our righteousness and our advocate. Our confidence is not in ourselves,
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it's in him. When you have
sinned and you know it and you
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are grieved and you feel the guilt
of that sin, are you tempted to
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close your mouth and go the opposite
direction instead of going to your heavenly father?
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Immediately you say, well, I'm
not worthy, and that's what the
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Bible says. You and I are
not worthy. The very place that we
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ought to run is away from our
sin into the arms of our father.
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Do you do that, or do
you hesitate because you think, well,
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I just haven't had a very good
week. I've really stumbled a number of
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times and therefore I'm not going to
go to the throne of grace. But
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the basis for you going there is
not your performance at all, because God
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demands perfection and we cannot produce it. We can only come in Jesus and
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his righteousness, or we cannot come
to God at all. And so the
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writer here is saying come to the
Throne Room of God, the throne of
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what? What's it say in the
text? The throne of grace. It's
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not a throne of judgment. Not
to the judge of all the earth.
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You want to get this victor different
phone. Not The judge of all the
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earth, surrounded by glorious, powerful
angels in flaming fire. Now it's being
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led by Jesus to our heavenly father, to his throne in the throne is
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a throne of grace, not a
fire, but of grace. Now listen
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carefully. I know it's hard to
it's hard to keep your focus. I
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don't that's ever happened before, but
that was something else. I'm glad I
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know Jesus and and he is my
righteousness. Listen to what John Calvin says
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about this, inviting us to come
to the throne. This is this is
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really good. Calvin was such a
theologian, but he was a great pastor.
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The basis of this confidence, he
writes, is that the throne of
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God is not marked by a Naked
Majesty which overpowers us, but as adorned
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with a new name, that of
grace, counts. UNMERITED FAVOR is there,
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it's poured forth. This is the
name that we ought always to keep
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in mind when we avoid the sight
of God. The glory of God cannot
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but fill us with despair, such
as the awfulness of his throne. Therefore,
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in order to help our lack of
confidence and to free our minds of
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all fears, the Apostle closed it
with grace and gives it a name that
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will encourage us by its sweetness.
It is as if he were saying,
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since God has fixed on His throne
a banner of grace and to fatherly love
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towards us, there is no reason
why His Majesty should board us off from
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approaching him. He in fact,
is our heavenly father. His arms are
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open wide, all because of what
Jesus, his son, is done.
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Why should we go there? And
he tells us, and that's the end
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of of the message. To receive, to obtain, to get mercy.
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First of all, mercy has to
do with God's pity upon sitters, at
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sinners, as we wallow in our
sins and struggle with it, the bitter
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fruits of sin. And he has
mercy on us and he's ready to forgive
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and to remove our sins. As
far as the East is from the West,
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come to me, I will have
mercy on you. The first word
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that David used in Psalm fifty one
when he confessed his sin to the Lord,
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was Lord, have mercy upon me. And the second word here is
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grace, God's unmerited favor, his
love, his enabling grace. Work out
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your salvation with fear and trembling,
says Paul, and Philippians too, but
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then he follows it up by saying, for God is at work in you,
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both to will and to do for
his good pleasure. That's the ongoing
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grace of God. Final words the
brothers and sisters. We must ask and
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seek and knock, and he promises
that the door will be open unto us,
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not to a dead, unfruitful philosophy
or I ideology, but to a
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living hope. For Sake of time, I'm not going to read the passage
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and Hebrews twelve. The first part
of that passage had to do was signi.
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The second part has to do with
the Saints in Heaven in the very
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presence of God, with all the
holy angels. It is an amazing picture.
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That's where we go, you see, after we die, we go
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there immediately, and right now in
prayer, we go there in Jesus.
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Is a little kid that I had
nothing that I could bring. I don't
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have any money in my pocket that
I could even buy something off the coffee
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truck, and as God's children,
we have nothing to bring except to say,
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Lord, I'm trusting in your messed
son, his shed blood and his
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righteousness, given to me as a
gift when I believed. Praise God.
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Please go to the Lord, seek
his face. This week. Spend much
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time in prayer, and it isn't
always sitting or kneeling or whatever. It's
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driving in the car, it's doing
mundane task that we don't have to think
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much about. We can be talking
with our heavenly father about every detail.
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As we read earlier, he knows
everything about us. Bring it to him
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on, burden your hearts and leave
it there in the Throne Room of God.
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Let's pray our father and our God. We are so very grateful for
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every word of scriptured. We ask
that your spirit would attend this text,
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that he would drive at home,
that we would be comforted and courages.
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We go back to this text this
week. Just three verses are so encouraging.
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Bless us, father, as we
seek you give us grace upon grace
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to love you more and to want
to be not only in brief times but
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all day long, knowing that we
walk and live in your very presence in
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Christ Jesus, Our Lord, we
thank you. We pray your blessings on
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the means of grace that we will
look at now in Christ. Name a
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Man
