Approaching God Boldly, 24th May 2026

This week Pastor Mike continues our series on Prayer by looking at Hebrews 4:16 and how we can approach God with boldness. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This morning what I want to talk about is something a little like some of the jargon that you can sometimes get uh in church life. Uh and one of the things that you'll uh hear people talk about, uh I think in in church life and so on, is approaching God or approaching the throne of grace or approaching the throne of God. And this morning, what I want to talk about is something that I genuinely believe uh is uh it's a staggering verse. If you can catch it in your head and understand what it's saying, and it drops to your heart, it will change the way you live, absolutely, no two ways about it, and it will change your relationship with God, it will change the way that you get to know God, and that uh relationship that you have with Him will become more meaningful. Uh, you will live your life with uh with greater purpose uh as well. And it's the Bible talks about the throne of God or the throne of grace and approaching the throne of God or approaching the throne uh of grace. And if if we understand who God is and what he's really like, if we can connect with them in a more meaningful way, uh you do actually then say, I want to go and meet him. I and we you will go to God in prayer, you'll go to God in that relationship more often uh and more regularly, and and that real that greater sense of relationship with them uh brings a greater joy in your in your life. You meet Christians and you think, How do they manage when life is so difficult? You know, they they they still seem to be able to go on and they can shout, praise the Lord, hallelujah, and forever. So either they've caught it, they've either got something there, you know, or they've lost their marbles. Uh and I would venture to say that that there are there's a a level of relationship with God where even although your world is falling apart, that you know you can hold on to Him, and how do you get there's a greater joy about it, there's a greater sense of fulfillment, uh there's a greater contentment, there's a greater strength uh that's available to us to be able to deal with life. Uh so there is and there's a greater power, and if that's the case, then our faith would be stronger, and our faith will be stronger, uh, and our confidence in God is greater. Uh, and I'm sure that if I was to ask anybody today, would you like a little bit of that in your life? Every hand would go up and say, Absolutely. So, with that in mind, I'm just going to read from the book of Hebrews in the new the New Testament. And the book of Hebrews was written the uh the Jewish nation were dispersed uh around the world, all over the place. Uh so there were uh and the writer to the Hebrews, probably Paul, uh, writes this letter to the the the Jewish believers uh to be carried around the world to encourage them and and so on. Uh we're going to touch on verse 16, but uh the the first part of it, verse 14, says this 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we, yet without sin. And we'll come to what that means in a in a moment or two. And then verse 16 says, Because of that, because we have a high priest who sympathizes with us, who's gone to the heavens, who sympathizes with us, who was tempted in every way that we are only he never sinned, but he knows what you're going through, he knows the struggles you have, he has walked in our shoes, so to speak. He says, Let us then, because of that, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Read that for yourselves for a second, and you can say, Ralph, let us make it personal to yourself. Let me then, with confidence, with boldness, some versions would say, draw near to the throne of grace, that I may receive mercy, and that I might find grace to help me in my time of need. It is a staggering verse. And it's not just an invitation, it's a command. It's saying, Because we have a high priest who's gone to heaven, who sits at the right hand side of God, because of that, then let us, let us with confidence, let us with boldness approach the throne of grace. This is not a private privilege for some spiritual elite, for the holier than holy, for the pastor, for those that sing in the praise band, or you've been a Christian for 20 years, or therefore now you've you've earned your stripes and somehow you can go. This is a collective invitation for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It includes those who are weak in their faith, that are that are clinging on by the skin of their teeth, clinging on by their fingernails, those who are struggling with their faith, those who are doubting sometimes. And I don't understand that. And listen, we are all there at times. You know, when when you're faced with that question, why does bad things happen to good people? Why does there's loads of times, and and Jesus, God is real with that when you when you doubt and you struggle with your your faith. The Christian faith says just come as you are and let God sort you out. That's a one-win deal for any and all of us. And what it reminds me of is this is that the God of heaven, the God of the Bible, is not pushing you away, as sometimes we think, that he's not distant, but he's actually summoning us, summoning us to draw close to him. And and the tragedy is many people go through their life thinking the door is closed, and the door is not closed, the door is wide open. The tragedy is that so often many people don't walk through it. So let me just walk through some thoughts, and I won't have time to unpack all today because there's a huge amount of theology uh in this one verse. But even for us, when we think of a throne, and you think of the queen or the king sitting upon the throne, you think of royalty, you think of royalty, you think about power, you think of dignity, you think of authority. And really, when the writer of the Hebrews says that we can approach the throne of God or the throne of grace, what he's really saying is God sits there in dignity, in royalty, as the King of Kings, as the Lord of Lords, with authority, with all authority, and with all power. He is the head of the whole human race, so to speak. And not only that, but if you read in Romans 8:34, it also says there that uh Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God making intercession on our behalf. What is an intercessor? What is somebody that intercedes? It's somebody who's there and speaks on your behalf. So already I'm saying to myself, when I am being asked to approach the throne of God, I'm not approaching a place. I'm approaching a position. I'm approaching a person of all authority, of all dignity, of all royalty, of all power. And not only do I have the invitation to come to that relationship, but also there is one, the great high priest, who sits at the right hand side of God, interceding on my behalf, being an advocate on my behalf. And that's why when we pray, we pray, and we often say, and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. And it's almost as open I pray that Jesus says to God, there's Michael speaking to us again, there's Michael there, of my own self, not worthy. But because God sees me through the filter of Jesus, through the righteousness clothed in the righteousness of Christ, the Bible says, then I have access to the throne of God, to the throne of grace. Let me take you back to the Old Testament, and let me take you back to the book of Isaiah, chapter six. And Isaiah got a glimpse, just a glimpse of what the throne of God was like. And it's it's biblical language, I get, but this is how he explains it. He says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with his the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim angels stood above him, these angel beings, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, and two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And Isaiah then goes on to say this the very foundations of the earth, the threshold trembled at the voice of him who called out. In other words, when God spoke, the universe trembled. This is just a glimpse of what Isaiah sees, and the whole temple was filled with his glory, was filled with something that looked like smoke. Just a glimpse of the power and authority of God. And here is Isaiah's response. Then Isaiah said to himself, When I saw this, I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isn't it true? If you truly get a glimpse of how holy God is, how powerful He really is, how royal he really is. The instinctive reaction is I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to go and approach that. I know myself, I know my feelings, I know how I messed up yesterday, I know how I messed up this morning. I'm a man of unclean lips. I live in a world that's irreverent and blasphemes the name of Christ rather than worships the name of Christ. That's what Isaiah is saying there. He says, I just got a glimpse of the throne of God, the throne of grace. And his instinctive reaction is that. And then it goes on to say, Then one of the angels flew to him with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar of God with tongs, and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sins forgiven. What I want you to notice is this when Isaiah was in the presence of Almighty God, he looked upon the throne of God, the throne of holiness, and his first response was, I don't have a chance, I'm ruined. Woe is me. The first thing he was aware of was his own sinfulness and his own condemnation. Why is it then that the Bible says that we can draw near to the throne of God with confidence? With boldness. Because our unworthiness is one of the things that usually stops us being able to do that. Or even if we do it, we do it sheepishly, we don't do it with confidence, we don't do it with boldness. If you and I had to come before the presence of God each time and only face a holy God who would judge and condemn our unrighteousness and all the holy things, you would come in fear, you'd come in anxiety, you'd come in worry and all of that sort of stuff. But something happened that changed it all. You see, in the Old Testament, what you would do is you would have the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, and then the tabernacle in the temple, and he would make a sacrifice, he would bring a perfect lamb, a spotless lamb, once a year, and he would go into the Holy of Holies, where only he was allowed to go, and he would make that sacrifice. And if that sacrifice was acceptable to God, the high priest would come out and the people were forgiven for their sins. If it wasn't, then the high priest would lose his life. And the high priest would go in, and the Bible tells you what they used to do in the Holy of Holies is he would have bells around the hem of his garment, and he would have a rope tied to his ankle. And the people knew they could hear the bells as he made the sacrifice. And as he sacrificed that lamb, as long as they could hear the bells, they knew he was still alive. If they didn't hear, they could not go in after him because they would lose their life. So the rope was round his ankle to drag his body out. Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, God sends him to earth to be that sacrifice once and for all, so that we don't have to go into a holy of holies, but we can place our trust in that sacrifice that was made, and in doing so, we have access to God. You see, the reason that I can draw close to the throne of grace with confidence and boldness is not because I'm worthy or anything I've done. And even despite the fact that I'm unworthy to do so, my confidence, my boldness doesn't come from me. It's not an arrogance in what I've achieved or how good I am, but my confidence is because of what Christ has done for me, what God has done for me through Christ. By making that sacrifice that our sins can be forgiven. And that means I can come confidently based on the finished work of the cross. If my security, my confidence was in my ability, I would be hesitant at best or whatever it would be. And I have to understand that as I come to that throne of grace, because Jesus was crucified, I have the privilege of coming to the throne of God. And this morning, if you placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that verse applies to you. We don't have to go through another mediator, we don't have to go through another priest, we don't have to go through another way, another intercessor other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we can draw close to the throne of grace with confidence that now all men have access to Almighty God. If you read your Bible carefully, what what actually hung or what separated the people from the area that was the Holy of Holies was uh like a tapestry, a carpet that went from the top of the temple to the bottom of the temple, probably an inch and a half, two inches thick. And when you read about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it specifically says that on that at that time in the temple, that veil, that curtain, that tapestry, that carpet was ripped in two. Now to rip that an inch and a half, two inch carpet thick is going to take some strength to do. But it specifically says it was ripped from top to bottom. If it was me and I was going to try and rip it, at my height, I'm starting at the bottom, I'm trying to rip it. And it's there to give us a reminder that God said, because of the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that veil is no longer required, that barrier between man and God is no longer there. And it's as though God Himself ripped it from heaven to earth, from top to bottom. You know, I I love the fact that the Bible has got so many little nuances and little bits that are dropped in there just to remind us that God is attentive to the detail. And he's attentive to the detail at that, he's attentive to the detail in my life and your life as well. So because of that, I can come boldly to the throne of grace. It's not to a courtroom, but it's to a throne. He has all authority to judge, and one day he will. And yet at his throne for us who draw near to him, he shows us mercy and grace. It says that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You know, for the unbeliever, the throne is a place of decision, it's a place of judgment. But for us as believers, it's a place of refuge, it's a place of safety, it's a place where we can find mercy and find grace. What is mercy and what is grace? I can't remember who said it, but it's very true when they said this. Mercy is the heart of God, and grace is the hands of God. Mercy deals with your past, and grace is there for the present moment and the future. Mercy is God not giving me the punishment that I deserve. Grace is giving me his goodness and his love and everything else that I do not deserve. I always remember at Sunday school, G-R-A-C-E grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. That God is gracious to me, God lavishes his love upon me, God meets my needs in the here and now freely, because Christ paid the price for it. Christ wrote the check that he could be gracious to me, and in soul we can come to that place and find mercy. You know, you say to yourself, why is it that I should not come to the throne of God in condemnation? Today, Josh has already said, and Jennifer has already said, Pentecost. Jesus said, Listen, I need to go back to heaven. I need to go and sit at the right hand side of the Father. Because one day in the 24th of May or whatever it is, Michael will be praying for something, and I've got a job to do in heaven. But for the Christians that live on the earth, I am not going to leave you on your own. Because you're not going to make it on your own. But I will send the helper, I will send the comforter, I will send the third part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The power. Paracletunamis is one of the words. It's the power. How do we live out the Christian life day by day when we say God gives us strength? He gives us that strength through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and and through us. And so He He brings the Holy Spirit into our lives. And through that, when I mess up, when I sin, when I do something that is un Christlike, when I say something or when I choose Not to say something. There's a little voice in my head. There's a voice in my heart, the Holy Spirit, that convicts me of my sin. And that's on a daily basis. And that's why I should be going to God for forgiveness every day, sometimes 150 times a day or forever it would be. And that's where I make myself right with God and ask for his forgiveness. Repent, to say sorry, and also to try and rely on his Holy Spirit that I may change my ways. So when I approach the throne of God, when I approach the throne of grace, it is not a place of condemnation for me, but it's a place of safety, it's a place of refuge. You know, I am pretty certain that I could get a dad to be here, just to stand here, and have their son or their daughter, a toddler or wherever it would be. And the minute that that child is in need of anything, listen, even for adults, you know, you need a five R for your pocket money, you go to your dad, you go to whatever. But to see that little child run to their father for love, for comfort, for strength, for protection. It's basically what this is verse is saying to is listen, you just come and run into the arms of your dad. Run into the arms of your heavenly father, be bold, be confident, and you'll find everything you need. You'll find mercy for your past. So you don't have to continue to beat yourself up. That your past doesn't have to bleed into your future or bleed into your present. The heartaches and the heartbreaks, the labels that people have slapped on you, you'll never achieve anything. You'll never be good enough. The times where it just feels as though a dagger straight into the heart, where somebody's reached into your torn out your heart, your lungs, your stomach, whatever, bereavement and loss, that you'll carry that grief with you. But you can live with the strength to carry that. For the decisions that you've made, the regrets that you've made, God says when you come to the throne of grace, when you come to the throne of God, there's mercy. There's a heart of God that forgives you for all of your wrongdoings. And indeed, that you can forgive yourself and you can forgive others for the wrong that they've done to you. And for the moment, for the moment that you're in, you'll find that grace, grace to help with our present. It's not just forgiveness for yesterday, it is strength for today. Exactly what you need when you need it. And he gives specific grace, and that's a sermon all in its own. So it is, you know, there is grace for temptation, there is grace for suffering, there is grace for decision-making, there's grace for endurance, there's grace for ministry, there's grace for weakness, there's whatever it would be. So, like a child that runs to his dad. In fact, that that's a poor analogy because we're all imperfect. But if you can imagine that being the perfect father, and he says, Listen, even before you come, I know what you need, I know what you want. And then comes, I suppose, maybe the most comforting part of this verse in all, and it says, In your time of need. And when it says in your time of need, if you do a little word study on that, it really says at the appointed time. At the appointed time, just when you need it, just at the right time. Maybe not according to my clock or my calendar, but certainly according to God's. And he is there just in time. And sometimes he maybe does leave it to the last minute just to see how true we are in our faith. Sometimes just to test us, but I tell you this: God's grace is never late. God's grace is never late. It may not come when you want it, but it will always come, as that verse says, when you need it. Abraham was asked to obey God and sacrifice his only son, and he takes him to the mount. And as he lifts a hand with a knife in it, or forever, God makes a way where there seemed to be no way. He provides a ram in the thicket for them. Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, leading a church of four million folk, they got to a stage where they moaned Adam, they whined at them, they they set themselves up against them. Said, Listen, we wish that you'd left us back in slavery. How bad does it have to be to say, listen, I wish I was back in my old ways. And Moses needed grace in the wilderness. David, the Bible says he was a man after God's own heart, failed miserably, failed royally, no pun intended. But David needed grace in his failures, and God gave him grace in failure. Peter. Peter who denied Jesus three times. Jesus says to him, You think you're the big man? I'll tell you just now, you see before the cock crows, you'll have denied me three times. What does Peter say? Never. They might, they might, but never me. I'll never deny you. And at a campfire, watching from a distance to see the kangaroo court that was going on. A young teenager recognized him and said, You're one of his followers. Like a deck of cards, he folds. And yet Jesus has breakfast on a beach with him. Denied him three times, and Jesus says to him three times, Do you love me? And Peter finds grace after his denial. And can I tell you this? Based on the word of God, not based on my thoughts, based on the word of God, you will find that grace. You will find that mercy when your moment of need comes. When your moment of need comes, you'll find that God's mercy and grace has been standing there all along waiting for you. This verse, if you delve into it, the tense that it is written in is continuous present tense. What does that mean? It means it says, come now. Now, now come now, come now. And in the continuous presence, it says, and keep coming, keep coming. You've got access all of the time. You don't have to wait in line, you don't have to wait in a queue or whatever it would be, but come now and keep coming. Every moment of the day, every day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year, every year of the decade, whatever it would be. And I hope this morning that you're starting to let it drop from here to here. And see, I've got access to the very throne room of heaven itself. I've got access to the Lord God Almighty. The one who loves me, cannot love me anymore. And he will not love me any less. The one who knows all of my failings, knows all of my regrets, and yet he says, Listen, come. Because my mercy will deal with that. And if whatever your need is in this moment in time, my grace is sufficient. My grace covers everything you're ever going to need, Michael. And in your time of need, and in any time, just come. Why do we not come as we finish? If this invitation is so clear, why do we hesitate? I think it's because often guilt says stay away. Guilt says stay away. You know, as a young child, if you've done something wrong and your mother says, wait till your dad gets home, you'll hide in a corner, you'll hide under the pedule, you'll just stay away. And sometimes because we haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and go to God for forgiveness and repentance, we feel guilty. And that causes us to say, sometimes pride says, I'll handle it myself. Especially guys in the west coast of Scotland, I'll handle it all myself. I'm big enough and brave enough and forever. Sometimes fear says, Well, what about rejection? What about if you're the one that God says no to? Nobody's excluded from that. And God is not a liar. So fear is the old devil puts it in our ear and tells us, listen, you can't. Guilt, pride, fear. Sometimes unbelief says, What's the point? It won't make a difference. It won't make a difference. And this very verse dismantles every one of those lies. It says, guilt, pride, fear, unbelief. Even if you're riddled with guilt, if you're full of pride, if you're full of fear and anxiety, if you're full of unbelief, all you've got to do is take God at His word that Jesus died for you, that Jesus paid the debt, the sin debt, he guaranteed that you can then go to the throne of God, the throne of grace, and receive all of that. My time is up this morning, so let me ask you this. Are you coming boldly? Are you coming boldly to the throne of God, to the throne of grace, or are you holding back? Some of us are living far below the level that we should be, some of us are living far below what is available to us in Christ. Not because God is unwilling to bless our lives, just simply because we're not coming in confidence and boldness. Some of you are struggling alone with things because you're not coming in prayer. When you could pray, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. The guys that wrote these hymns knew something. There was something that had gone from here to here and outworked in their life. You struggle alone when you could pray. Some of us are carrying burdens you were never meant to carry. It's like that little pilgrim's progress. When the pilgrim gets to the cross and the pack, the burden he's been carrying rolls away. For us, you go to the throne of God, they go to the throne of grace, and God says, Listen, I'll just take that burden from you. I'll meet you in your time of need. I've got enough grace to take that burden from you. And some of you are fighting battles without drawing on God's resources to make sure that you're on the winning side. Interesting enough, this verse is not just an invitation, it's a command. It's a command. It says, let us come. Because we have a high priest, because we have somebody who's made it possible, because we've got somebody who's sitting there advocating for us, interceding for us. Come on, let's go. Let us go. It is indeed a command. The throne is open, the high priest is sympathetic, the grace is available, the mercy is waiting. The only question is this is will you come? Not tomorrow, not when you feel better, not when you feel as though I've pulled my life together, not when I've got enough money in the bank, not when I've got to a certain age, not when I understand it all or forever. But it just says, Now, come now and come boldly. And that's a great invitation for the child of God who runs to the Heavenly Father. And that's what we have got. And if that drops from here to here, as I said at the beginning, it changes the way you do your life. You will live with greater purpose, you will live with greater meaning in your life. Perhaps this morning you've never even realized there was an invitation. And that invitation started in John 3.16 when it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, will not have a meaningless life, but will have a life of purpose, of dignity and enjoyment, eternal life. I used to think the eternal bit was the choice, but it's not. The choice is either spiritual death or spiritual life. And so John 3.16 that invitation is there. Jesus died upon a cross, and there's a thief on one side of him, slanders him and slags him and blasphemes, and the other one realizes that Jesus is the answer. And he simply says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Lord, remember me. And Jesus' answer is a guarantee. Today your passport is stamped, and you can breathe your last knowing that your next breath will be in the presence of God, around the throne of God. Perhaps this morning you've never taken that first step, or this afternoon you've never taken that first step. That is the first step you need to take to understand the gift that God gave you in Jesus Christ, and to accept it and to unwrap it. And to say, do you know something? I'm going to stand down being the boss of my life. If there's somebody who loves me like that, somebody who knows me like that, and somebody who has a plan like that for my life, that has to be way, way better than any plan I can come up with. And I'm willing to take that first step. Like the thief on the cross that said, Lord, remember me. I want my past forgiven, and I want grace for the future. And all you have to do this morning is simply pray a little prayer that just says, God, would you come into my life? I thank you for the gift that you gave me in Jesus Christ. I'm willing to accept it. And the rest, that's the first step. And the rest of it, but guys like Pastor Joshua and like come into church and come into the Alpha Group and our daily bread and whatever, that takes care of the rest of the journey, and we'll look after you that way. But that first decision, that come now decision, is yours. And if that's the case, I'm going to pray in a little minute or two. And you can just pray that little prayer yourself and say, God, I accept the gift of Jesus Christ into my life to know my past forgiven and my future secure. And on the basis of that, you've started that journey. If that's the case and you pray something like that, come and see me at the end. And I'll give you a wee booklet that will help here. Come see Pastor Josh, or tell the person that brought you, listen, I prayed that little prayer. It's important you tell somebody, so it is, because you don't stand for it in here, you'll never stand for it out there. And we'll give you a wee booker or we'll help you along life's way. But if you've been a Christian for a million years, may you understand afresh this morning the privilege that we have and what is on offer to us as we go through this series on prayer. To let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need. Let's just pray. Father, we thank you for being so patient with us. And we struggle in learning who you are. We struggle in our relationship with you at times. We thank you that you've called us to the throne of grace, a place of mercy and grace, a place that we can find help in time of need. And Father, I pray that every person who hears this message may realize that no sin is too great to bring before you forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus Christ has covered it all at Calvary. There is no pain that is too heavy for you to lift, there is no sorrow too deep for you not to comfort, and no hurt so painful that you cannot heal it. So we just want to say thank you for being our heavenly Father, the God of grace and goodness and love and mercy. Help us by the power of your spirit to come boldly, to come confidently, time and time again. So would you instill within our heart a deep yearning desire to come to you, to come to that throne of grace, to know you, so that our relationship with you will be what you want it to be. All of this we pray in the precious name of our great high priest who sits alongside you, making intercession on our behalf. And all God's people said, Amen.