Our Priestly Confidence in Prayer

Well this morning's sermon scripture reading comes from Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16.

Hebrews 4:14–16

And you can follow along in your bulletin or pure Bible there.

Hear now the reading of God's holy word.

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 are, yet without sin.

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.

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

O gracious Father, we come to you this morning in hope because we know that you have all goodness and hope and life in yourself.

Father, we echo with the disciples who said, O Lord, to whom else would we go if you have the words of eternal life?

And so, Lord, we come even this morning, not merely for inspiration or for a pick-me-up, Lord, but we come knowing that you have indeed words of eternal life for us.

And so we come this morning and we pray and ask that you would speak to us afresh this day.

In Jesus' precious name we pray.

Amen.

Well, we've been looking over the past few weeks at our priestly calling, which includes the call to pray.

As priests, we have been given the privilege of access to God.

And yet we may often find ourselves in positions of weakness as we conduct our calling.

We never promise an easy life when we come to Christ.

We never promise that everything will just be better and that we'll just be able to float, as it were, to the finish line without a care in the world.

And this was true of Jesus, who as a Son of God experienced temptation himself and yet was without sin.

Our experience with temptation this side of heaven is that we can be seduced into sin.

It's a key strategy of the devil.

We have temptations on the left and from the right.

From the right are things like riches, power, honors, which have a dulling effect on our sensitivity to the true light.

In such times, one can be captivated by the apparent goodness that these things display, and can be allured by their sweetness.

One begins to put confidence in the false stability of prosperity and are led down the path to forget their God.

From the left are things like poverty, contempt, and infirmities.

Such people, burdened by the hardship and difficulty of life, can become disheartened and despairing in their mindset.

And they begin to cast away hope.

And in a similar fashion, are follow a path that leads to being estranged from God.

Temptations are not uncommon to any of us.

And all of that leads us to ask the question: how do we confront such weakness?

Where is the hope in all of this?

Where can we go to in seeking the supplies we need to strengthen us in our priestly service?

And the remedy we're given is prayer.

And it's my concern that we would have a notion of the power of prayer that would lead us to be strengthened in it, so that we may be confident and effective priests in his service.

And we see from this majestic passage this morning a few words so rich and beautiful as this, that we as priests are invited to draw near to God with confidence.

Here we see the writer of the Hebrews use vivid imagery to strengthen the faith of his recipients by inviting them to draw near.

He's concerned that they be priests who avail themselves to the power given to them by the Holy Spirit.

They were believers who had received the Spirit, and yet he exhorts them to draw near.

Why?

What does he mean by drawing near?

While knowing their faith to be challenged, and knowing their weaknesses, their temptations, doubts, and fears, he would have them apprehend God's heavenly dwelling in prayer.

And so he says, let us with confidence draw near.

They were well aware of the temple and how that functioned.

And so he uses this to focus their thoughts on heaven.

He says, this new covenant is much better than the old because it's founded upon Christ's blood.

And that means you have access to draw near to God with confidence.

This exhortation to draw near implies that they didn't always sense the nearness of God.

God is omnipresent, yes, but they didn't always sense his immediate presence or nearness.

You might remember the tabernacle of the temple.

The courtyard was accessible to all who would offer a sacrifice.

But access was not granted into the holy place for the common Israelite.

That was reserved for a select few.

And then when it came to the most holy place, well, that was reserved for the high priest and once a year.

That was the only access given into the immediate presence of God.

But under the new covenant, Christ has entered into the most holy place in heaven and has made provision for us to come to God.

At Christ's death, the curtain was torn.

Christ has gone before us and paved the way.

And that means we have access to God.

His blood has made provision for us to draw near.

And so what does this drawing near look like?

Well, prayer is an approaching of the soul with our desires to God.

In prayer, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are united to the ascended and glorified Christ.

True prayer is a spiritual work from beginning to end.

It's not merely stating our desires, but it's having our desires march to God and hope.

Because there are times when we may have the form of prayer, and yet in our weakness we fail to truly draw near.

We might have our eyes closed and all of that.

And yet we feel more like the Israelites of old, approaching God while standing afar from the courtyard of his temple.

Our hearts are at a distance, they're faint.

We might well say with a psalmist, from the end of the earth I call to you.

Or like Job, oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat.

You feel so distant from God.

Our weakness is evident.

We may speak with our tongue, and yet our minds and our hearts may fail to apprehend his presence.

In those times we feel prayer to be like fireworks, shooting sparks into heaven, hoping that perhaps this time one will ignite and bring down with it some blessing.

And yet to do so is to fall short of God's intended design.

He wouldn't have us rest content with that.

And so true prayer requires the Spirit to draw our hearts to the Father.

As the Apostle Paul says, through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

God would have you and I draw near with our desires, not merely from the ends of the earth, not only into his courts, but into his immediate presence.

And not once a year, but every day.

Prayer like that doesn't happen apart from the spirit and faith.

Hear my voice, O Lord.

I need to know I have your attention.

I need to perceive your nearness.

Look at the Psalms, they're filled with this kind of invocation.

And to be real practical, one way of exercising this is to come Sunday morning in the chapel as we seek the Lord together in prayer for our worship service.

And yet, that said, we make prayer far too complicated sometimes.

When we forget that He is our Father.

The Spirit gives us confidence of our adoption, not with words of eloquence, but with a cry.

Need is the most basic of childlike instincts.

A simple cry can summon the power of heaven and receive the ear of our Heavenly Father.

And so maturity in the Christian life is not learning how to avoid crying.

When I say cry, I don't mean working ourselves up into some kind of frenzy.

I mean heart requests.

Being honest with God.

And if that is hard for you, if you find yourself lacking heart, go to the Psalms.

You might just find your own heart there.

It's where I found mine.

And it continues to be a sweet medicine.

And so don't leave yourself behind.

Come, present your need and draw near.

And I can tell you that's the kind of thing that will take a prayer meeting from being wrote and making prayer a joy.

It makes prayer lively and sweet.

It's one where you don't even have to open your lips, but you're content to have been invited to go and to draw near and to be in God's immediate presence with other priests.

Friends, I'll be the first to acknowledge that I have much more to learn, much more growth that needs to happen in my understanding and appreciation and experience of prayer.

But that said, his offer still stands.

Let us draw near to him with confidence.

The confidence we have in coming to God and prayer can be found in knowing that we come to a throne.

Why is that of importance?

Well, because it's the difference between mere talk and actually coming into the presence of one who can actually help us.

The writer here is encouraging his audience to draw near to a throne.

I think this is the reason why our prayers can so often be small and timid.

Our faith fails to apprehend him as a king, as occupying a throne.

I'm quite certain that before we can truly appreciate the honor that we have in prayer and that we lay hold of in prayer, before we can do that, I think we must grieve over how perfunctory they can be.

We aren't called to perfunctory prayer.

Familiar, yes.

As a child to their father, yes, but with little regard to his power and authority, no.

The Spirit helps us to pray.

But that doesn't mean we be slothful in it.

Let us draw near to God with an apprehension that we come to a throne.

And that means we are to come with reverence.

As our Lord taught us, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That'll change our prayers from being small and limited to the realm of our perceived ability and turn them into prayers of hope and his provision.

That's the kind of prayer or prayer meeting you attend with anticipation and expectancy.

That's the kind of prayer that will make you and I humble and yet watchful priests.

Because it's for our hope that we come to a throne.

If it weren't a throne that we came to, then prayer wouldn't be of much benefit at all.

But precisely because God reigns, he has all power and all authority over all things.

And so we have hope in knowing that he can do something with the desires that we bring to him.

John Newton quote the very spirit of this verse when he wrote, You are coming to a king.

Large petitions with you bring.

For his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.

Come with expectancy.

Come with large petitions.

But you might say, well, I understand I've been given access to draw near to God in prayer, thanks to Christ's finished work on the cross.

But I'm still not confident in my approach.

I know my failures, I know my sin, and although I do have some recollect faith, oftentimes I fail to draw these scriptures and promises to mind when I speak, and it makes me feel my weakness all the more.

How can I have a connection with God in such a state of weakness?

To that I'd say, my dear friend, the answer is right before you.

You have something to pray about.

He occupies a throne, yes.

But he is also your father.

He doesn't reproach you for your asking, he doesn't express disappointment or disapproval.

Tell him these things.

Don't think you need to muster up some kind of spiritual talk.

You don't.

What he wants from you most is your sincerity.

Start there.

As I said before, not just to dump your feelings, but by believing that he's actually for you and can do something with the things that you bring to him.

Don't lose any more time.

Plead your weakness and have fellowship in such a spirit.

Brian Chapel illustrates this beautifully in the form of a story or parable predicting, depicting God as the King and His Son as our Lord.

He writes, Once upon a time there was a king who looked from his palace window and saw one of his children collecting flowers in a distant field.

The king watched as the child collected the flowers into a bouquet and wrapped it with a royal ribbon of royal colors.

The king smiled, because the ribbon indicated that the flowers were being collected as a gift for his own pleasure.

Then the king noticed that the child, because he was a child, gathered not only flowers, from time to time the child also added some weeds from the field, and some ivy from the border of the woods, and some thistle from the unmown banks of ditches.

To help his laboring child, the king gave a mission to his oldest son, who sat at his right hand.

The king said to his eldest son, Go to my garden and pick from the flowers that grow there.

Then when your sibling comes to my throne room with his gift, remove all that is unfit for my palace from his bouquet.

Make it fit by putting in its place the flowers that I have grown.

The elder brother did exactly as his father had instructed.

When the younger child came to the throne room, his brother removed the weeds, the ivy, and the thistle, substituting all with flowers from the king's garden.

Then the firstborn son rewrapped the royal ribbon around the bouquet so that his sibling could present his gift to the king.

With a beaming smile, the younger child entered the throne room, presented the gift, and said, Here, my father, is a beautiful bouquet that I have prepared for you.

Only later would he understand that his gift had been made acceptable by the gracious provision of his father.

Friends, do you know something of this provision?

Praying in the Spirit is often like this.

Sometimes it's not until we're led to catch a fresh glimpse of his grace and majesty that we find the freedom to admit just how ignorant we are.

Been.

How much hope we may have lost.

It doesn't come from us, it comes to us.

We're led to see in that moment that all this time He has been working for our good in spite of us, in spite of our failures, faults, and doubts, our imperfections.

And in those times, we're surprised by joy.

And so the answer to the devil or even to your own conscience is this that our confidence is predicated upon his being full.

When the devil tells you that you're not in a state to pray, and tells you it's because you're a sinner and brings all your weakness before you.

Tell him, yes, I am a sinner.

And it grieves me.

And yet that is why I know Christ will listen to me.

Because Christ came to save sinners.

Friends, we have a high priest who sympathizes with us in our weakness.

He knows what it's like to be human.

He knows all our weaknesses, our ignorance, our waywardness, our character flaws, and our limitations.

And yet even then he has made provision for us to draw near.

We have a high priest whose name, or who has our name written on his heart, interceding for us before the Father at this very moment.

O friends, how can we not have Christ in our hearts when we are so close to his?

So wash off the weed of doubt at the labor of his courts and draw near.

Yield to him the ivy of timidity and approach his throne of grace confidently.

Hand over the thistle of double-mindedness and draw near to his mercy seat.

Let us come as a son or daughter to receive his love.

We have a high priest whose blood covers all our impurities.

He cares for you.

Oh, that we would understand all of the benefits that we have in Jesus Christ and walk in this freedom.

Come and draw near with boldness today.

And yet not only today, but whenever you have need.

And so we see we are offered mercy and grace to supply us for our need.

It's at the throne where he offers his children mercy and grace.

Gifts that invite us to come again and again.

Why?

Because he knows we need frequent approaches.

We find we need mercy and grace to help us in our weakness with regard to our inner man, our doubts, our fears, our follies.

And even more than that, in our need to combat the war waged against us.

That was the Apostle Paul's greatest concern.

He says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

That was his concern.

His concern wasn't with the things that he could see primarily.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but over spiritual forces of evil.

We give ourselves far too much power and ability and limit our effectiveness to conquer darkness when we as priests live by appearances.

And not by faith.

Not so when we abide in Christ.

Christ is not only the way of prayer, he is not only the one who taught us how to pray, but he is also the life of prayer.

What do I mean?

Well, we come not only to a forgiving high priest, but to a generous high priest.

But one might still say, I understand that he is generous.

I believe that.

But what confidence do I have of his being generous toward me?

For I know at times my own heart deceives me.

And to that I'd say his word.

You have his word.

If he offers a promise, he means for you to ask him for it.

If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father know how to give gifts to those who ask?

There it is.

Go to him with his own promise and patiently wait on him to answer.

Dr.

Lloyd Jones, a Welsh minister in London, had a keen interest in revival.

And he noticed that the greatest men and women used by God in the past were quite bold in prayer, highly specific, and had their mouths filled with arguments.

In commenting on Moses' prayer for glory in Exodus 33, he writes, I commend to you the reading of biographies of those who have been used by God in the church throughout the centuries, especially in revival.

And you will find this same holy boldness, this argumentation, this reasoning, this putting the case to God, pleading his own promises.

Oh, that is the whole secret of prayer, I sometimes think.

Thomas Goodwin uses a wonderful term.

He says, sue him for it, sue him for it.

Do not leave him alone.

Pester him, as it were, with his own promise.

Quote the scripture to him.

And you know, God delights to hear us doing it.

As a father likes to see this element in his own child, who has obviously been listening to what his father has been saying.

Did you get that?

Hold him to his own promises.

Quote the scripture to him.

Pester him even with his promises.

He delights to hear us doing it.

Now that's boldness before the throne.

And this is not disrespectful because it's a concern to ask God for what he wants.

Namely, it's a concern for his glory to be shown in the world.

This is the work of priests.

Never let the promises he has given to you rust.

Take them to him.

Completing his promises to his ear.

It's his delight to bestow favors.

He is more ready to hear than we are to ask.

Respond to every prompting of the Spirit to pray.

That's his gift to you.

You will not wear out your welcome.

His grace and mercy are inexhaustible.

For Christ always lives for us.

So come, ask, ask, and ask again.

Are you growing in your experience of how generous your heavenly Father truly is?

Take up the invitation and draw near for fresh supplies of mercy and grace.

And of course, we don't do all of this alone.

Yes, we come privately, but we also need one another in all this.

God hasn't called us out of darkness, into isolation, but into a priestly family, a communion of saints.

If Christ laid down his life to be the firstborn among many brothers, how much more then should we be those who lay down our agendas to pray with and for one another?

That will also give you confidence and boldness as you go about your priestly service.

Friends, all that we have received as a church has come through prayer.

And all that we shall receive will continue to come through prayer.

It's the breath and heartbeat of all that we do.

God has been so merciful and gracious to us in answering many prayers as a congregation.

But even then we don't stop.

For even then, he promises to give us more mercy and grace in our time of need.

And so we continue to pray.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Our gracious Father, we thank you for the immense blessing it is to come to you even now, to have the access to you, to have your ear.

We thank you for the confidence that you would have us coming towards you.

We thank you that this is all possible because of the precious blood of Christ.

And so we come this day, Lord, thankful.

Thankful for your spirit, thankful for your grace.

Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you for all the mercy and grace that you continue to bestow upon us.

Oh, Father, we pray that you would continue to give us a greater apprehension and understanding and experience of your generosity towards us.

In Christ Jesus, we pray.

Amen.