Intercession of Christ Part 2

Review: Christ's Priestly Work of Securing and Supplying

0:01 So for the sake of those who are with us tonight and were not with us this morning, we'd like to catch just the main threads of truth that we covered this morning and then move into that second great aspect of the high priestly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we were not able to touch on this morning. The grand object of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ in all the glory of his person, in all the perfection of his work. Therefore, to consider him is the way to come to faith. Faith is not born in a vacuum.

0:38 The scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word and the great theme of the word is the word incarnate, even Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we are considering him in this series of messages as the great prophet, priest and king who is set before us as a prophet, as a priest and as a king, as the object of faith. And we are presently looking at our Lord's work as a priest in both its earthly and its heavenly aspects. Now this morning we sought to demonstrate from the scripture that there is an inseparability between our Lord's earthly and heavenly work as a priest.

1:20 The work of sacrifice and the work of intercession are not separated in the working out of redemption for men. You will hear many, many people say, Lord or Father, God, I thank you for Jesus Christ dying upon the cross to save me. But it has been a rare experience when I've heard anyone say, Oh God, I thank you that Jesus Christ lives and intercedes to save me. And yet we saw this morning in these five or six pivotal passages that our salvation is just as much dependent upon his present ministry of intercession as our salvation is dependent upon his present ministry of intercession.

1:59 As it is upon his past ministry of oblation or sacrifice. And so we tried to see the inseparability of our Lord's earthly and heavenly work as a high priest and the reason for this being that the nature of the salvation that God purposes to give to men is such that it demands not only the past work of atonement but the present work of intercession. And then we also saw as a second conclusion, with this inseparability, that God has the same objects in view, all for whom the blood was shed, those the Savior has upon his heart in intercession. As the high priest would take the blood of sacrifice and then on behalf of those who presented it would go into the presence of God for their sake, so also our Lord Jesus Christ, having suffered without the camp, the scripture says, he entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, now to appear in the presence of God for us. And then we concluded our study this morning by considering the specific nature of that heavenly work. It's inseparable from his earthly work. Well, what is the nature of his work?

3:15 What does he do in heaven now that is necessary to my salvation? We saw that it is necessary. Now what does he do that makes it necessary? And all we covered this morning was the first part.

3:28 It is a work of securing and supplying what was purchased. Just as surely as the death of Christ alone could purchase redemption, so the present life and ministry of Christ alone can apply redemption. He died that he might have a holy people. He died to have a people who love him and who will serve him and one day be with him.

3:52 Well, what assurance does he have that he'll get what he purchased? The assurance is his own people. He died to have a people who love him and who will serve him and one day be with him. Well, what assurance does he have that he'll get what he purchased?

3:58 In the eyes of others the third phrayal will myself pasar la v즉 Wan MPH . There must be some common goal or carro so as a holy blood will not have been slaughtered, as ex sectoi shura 2012 The fact is that come him nor will things happen. Let's make the sorts of things till there is no place for faith in God. Our idea of mediator l is to have an every day life in the ground, never even pasta!

4:07 The powerご With the work of the Spirit as inseparable or as separated from the work of the cross. All that was purchased by the cross is now applied with power by the Spirit in all things, whether they may be exenciated an exasperated or had any of the act or the power to totally in virtue of the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is exalted, the Scripture says, to give repentance and remission of sins. And then we closed with that wonderful text when Peter was about to betray the Lord, and the Lord said, Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.

4:49 If our Lord had not prayed for Peter, he would have become an apostate, as did Judas. But he said, I have prayed for thee, and he prays for all those whom he has savingly drawn to himself, and his prayer has as its ultimate end, as recorded in John chapter 17 and verse 24, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. So every need that this purchased child of God faces, from his being called out of darkness, to his being landed safely in the presence of God, the presence of Jesus Christ made like him by his grace, every single need, wherever that need arises, the intercession of Christ is directed to that need, to secure and supply all that is necessary to meet that need. That's the wonder of his priestly work. Paul said, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, what, with him, freely give us all things. Now that doesn't mean he's going to give you Cadillacs.

5:54 It doesn't. It doesn't mean he's going to give you a life free from pain and tribulation. Give us all things that are necessary to accomplish the purpose for which he gave him up for us. Why did he give him up for us?

6:05 To bring us out of darkness, to make us holy, to make us overcome, and to glorify us. Well, having delivered him up for us, shall he not now with him freely give us all things? What all things? All things that are necessary to land me safely in his presence, an object of distinguishing particular mercy.

6:24 Forever to fall prostrate before the Lamb in the midst of the throne and cry out, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive blessing and glory and honor and dominion and power. That will be our theme throughout the endless ages of eternity. Now, so much for review. That was an hour's, or 55 minutes, ministry in seven minutes.

The Second Aspect: Sympathizing and Succoring

6:48 We want to consider the second great area of our Lord's ministry, as an intercessor at the right hand of the Father. It is not only a work of securing and supplying what was purchased, but it's a work of sympathizing and succoring those who've been purchased. Now, I've chosen those words not to try to be clever, but try to give you a little mental peg as you think of his work. What is it?

7:16 It's a work of securing and supplying the blessings purchased, and it's a work of sympathizing, and succoring those who have been purchased. Now, where do we get the words sympathizing and succoring? Well, we get them from the Scriptures in direct relationship to the intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Will you turn, first of all, please, to Hebrews chapter 4.

7:42 Hebrews chapter 4.

7:45 What is our Lord doing at the right hand of the Father that is necessary for our salvation? Hebrews 4, verses 14 to 16. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The Greek word is almost the same in English.

8:24 What they did to get our English word sympathize, they simply took the Greek letters and anglicized them. This is the way it should be. It should be translated, the Revised Standard Version translates it this way, for we have not a priest who cannot sympathize with our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore, this has tremendous practical benefit for the believer, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Sympathizing: Feeling With Our Infirmities

9:01 So, his work is first of all then a work of sympathizing. Now, what does it mean to sympathize? Well, basically to sympathize means to be affected with the same feeling as another, to feel another, not to feel for. You're there with a stone just dropped on your big toe and someone comes along and says, I feel for you.

9:24 And he kind of chuckles under his breath while you say, you scoundrel, get out of here. You're a Job's comforter. But if someone comes along hobbling on crutches, and you had a boulder dropped on his foot, and you just tell him what happened to you, he stands there with his crutches and he says, I feel with you. You say, I feel with you.

9:41 He's reminded. You see, there's a difference. Feeling for and feeling with. And it says here that we have not in high priest who cannot feel with us.

9:52 And you see, sympathy is always based upon identity of experience. And that's brought out in this verse. Notice. How do we know that he can feel with us?

10:03 Because he was tempted. Like as we. Because he has passed through the same experience, he's able to feel with us in that experience. You see, the fellow stands back and says, Ha ha, I feel for you.

10:17 He never had a boulder dropped on his toe. So he can't feel with me. And so the whole thrust of this passage is that our Lord Jesus Christ as a great high priest not only performs a work of securing and supplying what he purchased, but of sympathizing with those whom he has purchased with his blood,

Succoring: Running to Our Cry in Need

10:38 then turn back to Hebrews chapter 2 and we shall see a second aspect of this work. It's not only a work of sympathizing, but a work of succoring. Hebrews chapter 2, verses 17 and 18. Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.

11:05 Notice in both of these passages, it's a reference to his high priesthood. This is not some fanciful imagination trying to build a sermon on Jesus. This is an integral part of his high priestly work. That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he's able to succor those that are tempted.

11:34 Now the word succor is a word that we do not use, and yet it's a beautiful word. It comes from the word succor. It comes from two Greek words, one of which means to cry, and the other one means to run. And so the word literally translated means to run to the cry of one in need.

11:50 Isn't that a beautiful picture?

11:53 I see this illustrated constantly with my dear wife, who has in every true sense of the word a real mother's heart,

12:01 who seeks to be sensitive to the slightest cry and expression of the need of her children. I can be sound asleep in the middle of the night and have her nudge me and say, Honey, did you hear that? Maybe one of the children was breathing a little heavy and she maybe feared they were getting the croup. Or one of them just whimpered and maybe she feared that they were cutting teeth and didn't feel so good and needed a little loving or something else.

12:23 But just that quick response to the cry, that's the picture here. He is able to respond of one in need. It's the same word used in chapter 4 and in verse 16.

12:37 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace. Grace to help. It's the same root word used here for help. Grace to have a succorer, one who responds to our cry in the midst of our need.

12:54 And so we have these two aspects of this second great category of our Lord's high priestly work. One of sympathizing, feeling with us. One of succoring, running to the cry of our need and with concern seeking to undertake for us. In that need.

How Christ Qualifies for Sympathy and Succor

13:15 These passages declare that this is His present priestly work. Now let me ask this question. How is He qualified for this work? And this has been a fresh revelation to my soul this week that has been one of the most wonderful truths the Lord has made real to me.

13:30 And I trust you'll listen carefully.

13:33 How does Jesus Christ qualify for this work of feeling with me, feeling with you as His child, of running to our cry?

13:43 There is no learning of sympathy except by suffering. If I would feel with a man, I must enter into the experience of that man. One has said you must go through the fire if you would have sympathy with others who tread the coals. Paul mentions this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

14:02 He says, God who comforts us in our tribulation, why? That we may be able to comfort others by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. He says, Therefore if we suffer, it is for your sake that as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so he says our consolation abounds through Christ. What he was saying was this.

14:22 He said, I realize as an apostle if I'm to minister to the suffering saints, I must as it were make myself a candidate for all kinds of suffering for it's only as I've passed through the jaws of that experience to change the figure, only as I've been beaten in the crucible of that experience and have proven the sufficiency of Christ that I can minister comfort to my brethren. How then does our Lord qualify? He's God. Spirit was not given to him by measure.

14:54 In him all fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. How can he feel with me?

15:02 You notice in both of these passages, both in Hebrews 2 and in Hebrews 4, it tells us how he uniquely qualifies for this work of sympathizing and succoring. Notice the passage in Hebrews 2. Wherefore in all things it behooved him or was necessary for him, Hebrews 2.17, to be made like unto his brethren.

15:21 In verse 18, for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted. We usually think of the sufferings of Christ in terms of his cross or beginning at Gethsemane and the terrible agonies that commenced at that hour and culminated in his cry, it is finished. But here it says he suffered being tempted.

15:45 Now what does this tell us? Without going into the theological debate, was our Lord's possibility of temptation real or not? Let the theologians pluck away at this business. But sticking to the text of Scripture, this tells me something.

16:00 It says that when our Lord was tempted, the temptation was real. And in the grappling with temptation, the comfort of being tempted.

16:12 When our Lord was an hungred after forty days and nights of fasting, and it says he was an hungred, the hunger was real.

16:20 And when the enemy came, the devil instead turned those stones into bread. We're told that those stones, in that region, looked like little oriental loaves. Our Lord, no doubt, and I trust I'm not being irreverent saying it, I imagine his mouth salivated. And all the enzymes and everything else that begin to work when a hungry man seeds food were all released in his system.

16:43 And that when he turned and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, this wasn't some little kind of a play acting business. He suffered being tempted. He felt a genuine pull in the direction of that inducement. To evil.

16:57 And he turned and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Is temptation a real thing to you? Is it? When your body and its passions and appetites cry out for something and you've got to say, oh God, by your grace, no.

17:15 That's suffering, inner spiritual conflict. What does Christ know about that? He knows something far more about it than I do. For this was a holy spotless soul wrestling with the foul defilement of sin.

17:33 And he suffered being tempted. Behold him in Gethsemane when there was the temptation to seek another course other than that awful baptism of agony and blood. And when he said, if it be possible, let this cup pass. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.

17:53 That's just not some pretty little phrase put in the Bible to be a theme for a missionary conference. Beloved, he suffered. Everything within him is a true man recoiled from the cross, from the physical agony and suffering. Yes, but worse than this, from that terrible spiritual agony that would be his portion, there was the temptation to seek another course.

18:17 And in choosing the will of God, he suffered. Not just on the cross, but that inner suffering that comes when there is an inducement to a course that is easy to the flesh but contrary to the will of God. And we must choose the will of God though it lead through difficulty and heartache. Now, how does our Lord qualify then for being this sympathizing, succoring high priest?

18:39 He qualifies in that he passed through the circumstances through which we pass. He himself hath suffered being tempted. The same truth is brought out in Hebrews 4. Verse 15, We have not an high priest who cannot be touched or cannot sympathize with our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.

19:02 Now, here's the focus of the truth that I mentioned has been so precious to me. If our Lord had gone, humanly speaking, now right from his baptism in Jordan's river when the Spirit came upon him and he was officially anointed for his task as Messiah, Savior of his people, if he had gone directly to the cross, his sacrifice would have been just as valid, the worth of it would have been just as meritorious before the Father. Those three and a half years added nothing to the worth of his sacrifice. He was no less God, at the end of the three and a half years, than he was at the beginning.

19:44 He was no less perfect then than he was at the beginning. But what did those three and a half years do? Follow me now. They were his classroom of being prepared for this second work of the priest.

20:00 Not the work of oblation, of offering, but the work of succoring and sympathizing. You see, it added nothing to the worth of his sacrifice, but it did add everything to his position, and place as a sympathizing, succoring high priest. This is why, notice what the Scripture says in Hebrews chapter 5, that in one sense Christ had to be made in his sinless nature, he was the essence of perfection. But notice verse 8, though he were a son, Hebrews 5, 8, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made, perfect what?

20:44 Being made a perfect savior, perfectly suited to sympathize and succor with men, because he passed through the circumstances like unto theirs. And oh, the wonder of this, beloved, that our Lord, knowing that his people, those that he had upon his heart, his sheep for whom he was to die, would not be immediately translated out of this world when he called them by his grace, but were going to have to live out their days in submission, in loneliness, in weariness, in misunderstanding, in opposition, persecution, abuse. He deliberately subjected himself to all of these things. Why?

21:26 For he knew there would be the time coming when he would be back at the right hand of the Father, and we would be here, and we would be lonely, and abused, and tempted, and misunderstood, and scorned, and mocked. And he wanted you and me to know that we had a high priest, who could feel with and run to our cry, because he entered through the same circumstances. Oh, beloved, what love! It added nothing to him, but it's because he had us upon his heart.

22:02 He had us upon his heart. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, being made perfect, a perfectly suited high priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. What are the practical results of this?

Practical Result 1: Boldness in Prayer

22:26 Well, looking at these passages again, notice the passage in Hebrews 4, realizing this, that our high priest is one who can feel with us, and one who can run to our aid. What should be the practical result of it? Verse 16, Let us therefore come boldly, and that word boldly literally means, with freedom of point, pouring forth. Let us therefore come boldly, with that of pouring, unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

23:05 Let me try to illustrate what he's trying to get at here. This is one of the great mysteries of the Roman Catholic Church to me. If I were a woman, facing the terrible perplexing problems that come to a mother of young children, how to organize her time, how to have time to pray, and time to spank the kids, and dress them in clothes, and keep a grouchy husband happy, and all the rest, I think I'd find it very difficult to come to some man who knows absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing, of what it is to see a wife burdened down with the problems of her home, snowed under by the responsibilities. I think any thinking Catholic would kick a priest in the shins, would try to tell him how many children they should have or not have. What's he know about seeing a wife going around, in pain constantly, discomfort that precedes and follows childbirth? What do they know about it? They don't know a thing about it.

24:06 Those of us who've had to stand by and see our wives go through it, we understand a little about that. And you see, you know one wouldn't feel free to go to a priest. What's he know about it? What would he read in a book?

24:19 Sure, that doesn't give you much comfort, does it? But that person who's been through that experience and has come out victorious, and there's that woman or that man who by the grace of God have reared their family, they've borne witness to God's grace in rearing a family in an age like ours, and you're a young parent or you're a prospective parent, you say, that person has gone through what I'm about to go through and they've come victorious. I want to ask them how it's done. And you go to them knowing that they can feel with you in your need and are able to help you, because they've conquered that need by the grace of God.

25:01 Now that's the picture of our Lord. When I feel the terrible inner pressure of temptation, what should draw me to come to Him to know that I have one who can feel with me? Because He passed through, but not only passed through, but came out triumphant. And I can say, O Lord, O Lord, I confess to you that everything within me, all that I am by nature, my depraved self would move me in that direction.

25:33 But Lord, I want to please you. I want grace. O Lord, you've promised, you've promised that there's no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape.

25:49 And you come with perfect freedom to pour out before the Lord your complaint, your problem, your need. Why? Because you know He can feel with you. For He passed through the similar circumstances.

26:04 Don't downplay the true humanity of our Lord. You'll rob yourself of freedom of access in prayer. Maybe this is why we've got so many professing Christians running to psychologists like crazy. Could it be? Could it be?

26:17 Nothing wrong with going to a psychologist under certain circumstances. I've referred people to them. But this widespread chasing around for professional help. Oh, beloved, how much better to come to one who knows all the intricacies of my heart and life, and all the involvement of my circumstances, and pour out my need to obtain grace.

26:39 Isn't that what it says? To obtain mercy and find grace to help. So we'll feel freedom of access because He passed through these circumstances. But blessed be God, we'll feel confidence in our petitions because He came through victoriously.

Practical Result 2: Confidence in Petitions (Omnipotent Compassion)

26:57 Misery loves company. That's true. And so a bunch of drunks may get together, and complain about their problem. But a man who's determined to get rid of his problem, he'll find the man who was an alcoholic, and is now no longer an alcoholic, and say, how did you get this side of it?

27:13 Right? So it's not enough for us to know that he passed through similar circumstances. Misery loves company. But it says, notice the little phrase, tempted in all points like as we, Hebrews 4.15, yet without sin.

27:29 There's the little clause. Yet without sin. He not only passed through, but he triumphed. So as the thought that he passed through and can feel with me, makes me draw near with freedom of access, so the fact that he passed through and triumphed, makes me draw near with the confidence of faith.

27:52 Small comfort would it be to simply come and know he can feel with me. I need not only someone to feel with me, I need someone to help me. And he can help. And it is what one servant of God is called.

28:05 I would never have put the two words together in a thousand years, but I think he hit the nail right on the head. In our Lord's high priestly ministry of sympathizing and succoring, we have omnipotent compassion. Now you'd never put those two words together, would you? I wouldn't, but that's it.

28:23 It's omnipotent compassion. If it's sheer omnipotence, might, and power, I'm driven back because I say I'm weak. What can omnipotence know of my weakness? But he was called.

28:36 He was tempted. There's compassion. If it was just compassion, he's weak, why come to him? I'm weak, he's weak, I've got to find someone strong.

28:45 So it's omnipotence. So as his passing through gives freedom of access, so the fact that he was without sin gives confidence in access. And I know that my sympathizing, succoring high priest is able to keep and guard that which I have committed unto him. Now in closing tonight, what are some of the practical conclusions drawn from this?

Theological Implications: Indefinite Atonement and Intercession of Saints

29:09 We've sort of interspersed our study with some application, but in a very specific way, having considered our Lord today and his high priestly ministry of securing and supplying what he purchased and of sympathizing and succoring those whom he purchased, what are some of the practical implications of this? May I say very briefly that there are several very important theological implications of this? And the first one is this, and I trust you'll listen to me. This scriptural truth breaks the back of the teaching prevalent in our day of an indefinite atonement.

29:50 An atonement that Jesus, which says that Jesus died for no one specifically and everyone generally, assuring nothing concretely. That's a dishonor to my Lord. To think that he died for no one specifically, everyone generally, assuring nothing concretely. Oh beloved, you can't, you can't pour over these passages showing, demonstrating that what he did on the cross is linked with what he's doing at the right hand of the Father.

30:21 It has the same end, the same objects in view without coming away with this conclusion that the atonement of Jesus Christ is an atonement that does something, that promises something, that is pledge of something, even the redemption of his people. Very few people see any relationship between the purchase of salvation and the application of salvation that we saw this morning. They're both inseparably joined. And he applies with power the salvation that he purchased by blood and he applies it on behalf of those for whom he purchased it.

30:57 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Very few see any relationship between the grace of forgiveness based on his blood and the gift of faith given by his Spirit. But beloved, the two are joined and just as much as there is no forgiveness except through the blood of his cross, there is no faith, true faith, apart from the gift of his Spirit. And that working of the Spirit is based upon the redemption and the purchase of blood.

31:36 And then, of course, another tremendous theological implication is it utterly breaks the back, of the Catholic doctrine, concerning the intercession of the saints. When did Saint Bartholomew shed blood for me? We have seen that all heavenly intercession is based upon earthly sacrifice and oblation. And when Peter sheds pure, spotless blood for guilty sinners, then will Peter's intercession avail.

32:03 And so the whole fabric of Romish teaching on the intercession of the saints is a travesty on the doctrine of our Lord's wonderful, wonderful work of intercession. But then there are some personal implications to those of you here tonight who are not savingly joined to Christ. I mentioned this briefly this morning, but it's a theme that I trust I'll never tire of proclaiming. What a wonderful Savior to present to you.

Personal Implications: For Unbelievers and Believers

32:30 Not the Savior who's like the governor seeking re-election, who's done all he can to get your vote and now sits in heaven with arms folded hoping you'll vote for him. Oh, no. If you've begun to see a little bit of your sin, you know you want a Savior who's not going to be passive in your salvation. Because you've begun to see you've got a hard heart that loves sin.

32:53 You've got a disposition so irresolutely bent in the direction of evil that you know unless God does something to bend your will to righteousness, you'll destroy yourself with your sin. Oh, I have wonderful news for you tonight. Such a Savior is our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his blood purchased forgiveness for sinners. And in that blood there is a sufficiency for all who will come.

33:21 That blood and its freedom from sin promised to all who come in repentance and faith is available tonight. But the Savior who shed it lives to give repentance and remission of sins. You say, I can't repent. Call upon the Christ who gives repentance.

33:39 You say, I can't seem to believe. Look to the Christ from whom faith flows down as the purchase of his blood. You say, I can't disengage myself from the world and the flesh and the devil. Call upon one who sets sinners free by his mighty risen power.

33:57 Oh, sinner, flee to Christ. Embrace him as your high priest, as your prophet and your king. Then there is a personal word to us as his people, especially as we gather about his table. Will you not tonight, before you pillow your head, yea, before we even come to his table, if you're savingly joined to this Christ, will you not lift up your heart and thank him, if you've never done it before, with awe and wonder, for his priestly work of sympathizing and succoring?

34:34 How long has it been since you thanked him for being a sympathizing, succoring high priest who runs to the cry of his children? That's your only hope. May God find us full of praise. May God give us a new boldness, knowing that he sympathizes and succors.

34:59 You see, we've gone on record here at this fellowship, for the sake of our visitors, that the weak, pathetic, helpless Christ preached in modern pulpits is not the Christ of the Bible. And the tawdry, human, weak, pathetic God of modern pulpits is not the God of the Bible. But the God of the Bible is a God who is absolute sovereign, who reigns in the world that he's made. He's holy.

35:27 Seraphim and cherubim, veil face and hands and do not look upon him, but cry with a holy restlessness as they fly about his throne. Holy, holy, holy. And this is a truth that's taught in the Bible, so that we who draw nigh should draw nigh, as the Scripture says, serving him with reverence and godly fear. But, oh, beloved, I would hate that that reverence and godly fear, would not be balanced by this truth.

35:55 Let us come boldly to the throne of grace. For there is in Jesus Christ omnipotent compassion, not drawing nigh to a weak, pathetic Christ with careless, irreverent hearts, no, but drawing nigh with boldness because he feels with us and he succors us. May the Lord help us not only to praise him, but to venture upon him as his people. I'm sure if we could somehow, or if God would be pleased to so move upon us tonight, that every one of us who belongs to him would be implicitly honest, there would come pouring forth from this assembly of people tonight, confessions of fears, of temptations, of problems and burdens that have you all knotted up and tied up in the inside. We don't need to sit here and pour them out to one another. Come boldly to the throne of grace. Come boldly with the pouring forth of your heart, with freedom of access.

36:58 And then the third practical implication this should have to each of us is that all the blessings we plead, we must plead on the basis of that sacrifice. If the Lord Jesus secures all the blessings that he does on the basis of that sacrifice, then, beloved, we have no other grounds to plead blessing from God than that they are purchased blessings. And let us in our pleading that God make us a holy people plead it on the basis of that sacrifice. He died that we might be forgiven, yes.

37:30 He died that we might be good. Don't be afraid of the word good. Just get at the right side of the cross, that's all. He died, the scripture says, to make us zealous of good works.

37:43 You plead with God on the basis of that blood to grant you fresh endowments of the Holy Spirit that you might live to his praise and be zealous of good works. How shall we not with him, but not apart from him, give us all things? And so in our intercession, let us come and plead purchased blessings as purchased blessings and trust God to grant them. Such is the Christ who is set before men as the object of faith.

38:09 Do you believe in him? Do you gladly commit yourself to him, to be cleansed by his blood, to be kept and preserved by his intercession? I trust you do. If you do not, may the Holy Spirit enable you to flee to Christ tonight.

38:28 May he enable you to cast the weight of your life, the weight of your soul upon him. Let us pray.