A COMPASSIONATE HIGH PRIEST AND A THRONE OF GRACE
By J.C.Philpot
Preached
at Eden Street Chapel, Hampstead Road, London, on Tuesday Evening, July 27,
1847
"For we have not a High Priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need."- .#Heb
4:15,16
WHAT reason the church of Christ has to
bless God for the epistles that issued from Paul’s inspired pen! And though it
may seem scarcely right to select one epistle more than another as pregnant
with heavenly instruction, yet, I think, we may safely say, that the epistle to
the Romans, to the Galatians, and to the Hebrews, have, of all the epistles,
been most signally blessed to the church of the living God. And when for a
moment we contrast their author, Paul the Apostle, with Saul of Tarsus, O how
striking, how miraculous was the change that grace made in him!
Let us take our thoughts backward to three
particular seasons in the life of Saul of Tarsus. View him, first, at the feet
of Gamaliel imbibing from his lips that traditionary law, that code of rites
and ceremonies, which forms at the present day the religion of Israel. Had it
then been whispered in his ear, ‘The time will come when you will declare these
things to be "weak and beggarly elements," trample them under your
feet, and scatter them to the four winds of heaven.’ Would not that youth have
said, ‘Perish the thought!’
Move a step further in the life of Saul of
Tarsus. View him working out his own righteousness, striving to set up a
religion whereby he could please God, and force his way to heaven. Had one then
whispered in his ear, ‘The time will come when all your hope will rest upon
justification by the obedience of another,’ he would have said, ‘That time
never will come; the sun may as well cease to rise as for me to look to
another’s righteousness whereby to be justified.’
Take one step further, and view him
keeping the clothes of the witnesses, who had stripped themselves lest their
loose garments might encumber them, while they were, according to the Mosaic
law, to throw the first stone at Stephen. Had one then whispered in his ear,
‘The time will come when you will believe in Jesus of Nazareth and die for his
name.’ would not the thought of his heart have been, ‘Let me rather die first
than that such an event should ever come to pass?’ But, doubtless, these very
circumstances in Paul’s life were mysteriously overruled for the profit of the
church of God. For he, having been in these states, has been able to trace out
with clearer evidence and more powerful argument the truth as it is in Jesus,
from having experimentally known both sides of the question.
The grand object of the Epistle to the
Hebrews is to set forth the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Into that
subject we cannot now fully enter; and yet our text leads us (and may the
Lord lead us by the text) into some attempt to shew who this High Priest
is, of whom the apostle here speaks. And I think the simplest, and therefore
the best division of the subject will be, to shew, as the Lord may enable, in
the first place, the mind of the Spirit in the 15th verse , #Heb 4:15
"We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin:" and secondly, the exhortation
which flows from, and is based upon the priesthood of Immanuel, "Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need."
I. -I need scarcely take up your time by
shewing at any length in what way the high priest under the law was a type and
figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, there are certain points of
resemblance, and certain points of difference, which it will be desirable to
enter into, in order to illustrate and set forth more clearly the mind and meaning
of the Holy Ghost in the words before us.
There were three points of resemblance
(there were more, but I confine myself to three) between the high priest
under the law and the great "High Priest over the house of God." The
first was, that the high priest offered sacrifices; the second, that he made
intercession for the sins of the people on the great day of atonement, by
taking incense beaten small, and, putting it on the coals which were taken off
the brazen altar, with it entered into the most holy place :#Le 16:12,13
and the third, that he blessed the people .#Nu 6:23
Now, in these three points did the high
priest under the law beautifully resemble and set forth the great "High
Priest over the house of God." But O, how feeble the resemblance! how dim
the type! how shadowy the figure! The high priest under the law could only
offer the blood of bulls and goats, which can never take away sin; the great
"High Priest over the house of God" offered himself -his own body and
his own soul -that precious, precious blood, which "cleanseth from all
sin." The high priest under the law could only offer incense upon the
coals taken from off the brazen altar; the great "High Priest over the
house of God" is offering daily the virtue of his sacrifice by
"making intercession for us." The high priest under the law could
only pronounce the blessing in so many words; he could not give or
communicate that blessing to the soul; the great "High Priest over the
house of God" can and does bless the soul with the sweet manifestations of
his lovingkindness and tender mercy.
But again. There are points of difference,
as well as points of resemblance,
i. The high priest under the law was but a
man; the great "High Priest over the house of God" is God-man,
"Immanuel, God with us," the eternal "Son of the Father, in
truth and love," having taken our nature into union with his own divine
and glorious Person.
ii. The high priest under the law died in
course of years, and was succeeded by a high priest as mortal as himself ; #Heb
7:23 but the great High Priest above liveth for evermore to "make
intercession for us."
iii. The high priest under the law might
be (and the apostle seems to make some allusion to the circumstance here)
one who had no sympathy nor fellow-feeling for the infirmities and sins of
those for whom he made sacrifice; he might be like some of our priestly Dons
who seem all holiness, and have no tender heart to feel compassion for
backsliders, and those that are out of the way: but the great "High Priest
over the house of God," the apostle here says, is one that is
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities."
iv. The high priest under the law might
be, or might not be, tempted: he might be, or he might not be, a man who knew
the plague of his own heart and the workings of his fallen nature, and
therefore might not be "tempted in all points" like unto those for
whom he might sacrifice: but the great "High Priest over the house of
God" was "tempted in all points like as we are." and therefore
can have, and has a fellow feeling for the tempted,
v. The high priest under the law was a
sinner: but the great "High Priest over the house of God" is
spotless, without sin, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens." But the two points to which the apostle
here refers, and on which I shall, with God’s blessing, now more especially
enlarge, are:
1. First, that our great High Priest, Jesus, is one
that is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and therefore
divinely suitable to us who are encompassed with infirmities. Here lies the
grand distinction betwixt the child of God quickened into a sense of his
deeply-fallen condition, and a self-righteous pharisee. The child of God,
spiritually taught and convinced, is deeply sensible of his infirmities, yea,
that he is compassed with infirmities, that he is nothing else but infirmities:
and therefore the great High Priest to whom he comes as a burdened sinner -the
Lord Jesus, to whom he has recourse in the depth of his extremity, and at whose
feet he falls overwhelmed with a sense of his helplessness, sin, misery, and
guilt, is so suitable to him as one "touched with the feeling of his
infirmity."
We should, if left to our own conceptions,
fancy naturally that Jesus is too holy to look down in compassion on a filthy,
guilty wretch like you and me. ‘Surely, surely, he will spurn us from his feet;
surely, surely, his holy eyes cannot look upon us in our blood, guilt, filth,
wretchedness, misery, and shame; surely, surely, he cannot bestow one heart’s
thought, one moment’s sympathy, or feel one spark of love towards those who are
so unlike him.’ Nature, sense, and reason would thus argue, I must be holy,
perfectly holy, for Jesus to love; I must be pure, perfectly pure, spotless and
sinless, for Jesus to think of.’ But that I, a sinful, guilty, defiled wretch
-that I, encompassed with infirmities -thatt I, whose heart is a cage of unclean
birds -that I, stained and polluted with a thousand iniquities -that I can have
any inheritance in him, or that he can have any love or compassion towards me
-nature, sense, and reason- religion, naturral religion in all its shapes and
forms, revolts from the idea.
And therefore, to set forth the difference
betwixt this compassionate, loving, merciful, tender-hearted High Priest, and
such a stoical priest as passed by the bleeding one who had fallen among
thieves, and would not turn his eyes lest he should be polluted by seeing blood
in the path -to contrast, I say, this tender-hearted High Priest with such an
unfeeling, religious stoic as this (and many such proud, religious stoics
have we in the pulpit and in the pew) the apostle says, "We have not a
High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."
It is as though he would thereby specially address himself to the poor,
burdened child of God who feels his infirmities, who cannot boast of his own
wisdom, strength, righteousness, and consistency, but is all weakness and helplessness.
It seems as if he would address himself to the case of such a helpless wretch,
and pour a sweet cordial into his bleeding conscience. It is almost as if he
said, What! thinkest thou, dear friend, that the great "High Priest over
the house of God" will spurn thee away because he is so holy? No; we have
not such a High Priest as this.’ There is the negative. ‘Let others have them,
if they will; let others rejoice in such priests as they may; let them have all
the comfort they can get from them.’ ‘Not so with us, dear brethren,’ he would
say. ‘We, the children of God; we, that know each his own plague and his own
sore; we, who carry about with us day by day a body of sin and death, that
makes us lament, sigh, and groan; we who know painfully what it is to be encompassed
with infirmities: we, who come to his feet as being nothing and having nothing
but sin and woe; "we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities:" but One who carries in his bosom that
sympathizing, merciful, feeling, tender, and compassionate heart that he
carried here below.’
There is no change in him; for he is
"the same yesterday, today, and for ever;" one and the same Jesus
that wept when he saw the tears running from the eyes of the Jews who would comfort
Martha and Mary; the same Jesus who did not reject the woman with the issue of
blood when she crept through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment: the
same Jesus who listened to the cry of the Syrophenician woman, and heard her
prayer: the same Jesus who went about doing good. and had tears to weep over
human misery and sorrow: the same tender-hearted, merciful, and compassionate
Jesus is now at the right hand of God: therefore "touched"
-how sweet the word! Do we not know somethiing experimentally of it, when some
one comes to us with a tale of woe: and we see the tear, not of the hypocrite,
but of unfeigned sorrow, trickling down the cheek? or when a child of God comes
to us, tells us how he is burdened with sin and guilt, and sets forth in sincerity
and godly simplicity the exercises of his heart -are we not
"touched"? Is there not a melting of the soul? a breaking down of
heart? He may have come into our company, and we sat stern and unfeeling; we
may have looked with a suspicious eye upon him, and doubted whether he had any
grace at all in his heart; but let him open his mouth, let grace be clearly
manifested in him, are we not "touched"? Is not our heart melted and
softened? and is there not a sweet union felt betwixt him and us?
Carry this, spiritually, into the idea of
our text. This compassionate High Priest is "touched," when we come
with our sins, sorrows, infirmities, and complaints, and confess those things
which from time to time burden and distress our minds. We have not to deal with
an unfeeling, hard-hearted, stoical high priest, who scorns us, turns his eye
away from us, and says, ‘Until you are very much holier, I can have nothing to
do with you.’ But his heart is touched, and softened "with the feeling of
our infirmities." There are some who have the abominable presumption to
say, ‘Away with your frames and feelings!’ These presumptuous wretches might as
well say, ‘Away with Jesus! away with the great "High Priest over the
house of God!" as to say, ‘Away with feeling!’ For is he not "touched
with the feeling of our infirmities"? Destroy feeling! and you do all that
lies in your power to destroy the great "High Priest over the house of
God."
Take away feeling out of my heart! you do
all in your power to deny there is feeling in the heart of Immanuel. Shall he
be "touched with feeling," and you and I never be touched with
feeling? Shall frames and feelings be ridiculed, and contempt poured out upon
them, when the Holy Ghost here sets forth Immanuel as "touched with the
feeling of our infirmities"? Blessings be upon his name: immortal honours
crown his brow, that he is "touched with the feeling of our
infirmities," that he is not that stoical High Priest which some would set
him forth: but that he has a tender heart, which melts, moves, and yearns over
our infirmities and sorrows. And I am bold to say, that we can have no
communion with the Lord Jesus Christ except we know he is "touched with
the feeling of our infirmities." When I go to a man, and tell him my
infirmity and sinfulness, if he assume a stern look, as though he were so holy
that I must not go into his presence, does not that daunt me? Can I tell out
the feelings of my soul -can I open the secrets of my heart to one that has no
sympathy? As Hart says,
A faithful
friend of grief partakes:
But union
can be none
Betwixt a
heart like melting wax
And hearts
are hard as stone:
Betwixt a
head diffusing blood,
And
members sound and whole;
Betwixt an
agonizing God
And an
unfeeling soul.
There can be no true union and communion with
the Lord Jesus Christ except so far as we know that he is "touched with
the feeling of our infirmities;" that we have his ear, and can pour into
his ear the feelings of our soul; that we have his heart, and when we tell him
what we suffer, his heart too is "touched with the feeling of our
infirmities." But O how numerous are these infirmities! The whole evening
might be taken up with but a slight description of them; infirmities in faith,
in hope, in love, in prayer, in reading the word, in preaching, in hearing
-infirmities all the day long, so far as wee are left to ourselves. And yet this
blessed, merciful, compassionate High Priest can be "touched with the
feeling of our infirmities."
2. But we pass on to consider the second
point which the Holy Ghost has here brought forward, connected with this
compassionate High Priest -that he was "in all points tempted like as
we are, yet without sin." I feel that I tread here upon very tender
ground. I must move cautiously, very cautiously, lest I be betrayed into
confusion and error. The Holy Ghost seems to me to have marked out the road by
boundaries on each side: and as long as we keep within these boundaries, we
keep to the mind of the Holy Ghost. What is one boundary? We must not pass it:
"tempted in all points like as we are." What is the other boundary’?
"Yet without sin." Between these two boundaries we may safely walk.
Are you tempted? Then you may see for your
comfort, if the Lord is pleased to apply it to your soul, that Jesus was
"tempted in all points" like as you. But then, there is this
difference betwixt the blessed Immanuel and you and me, that when we are
tempted it is not without sin. But he was "tempted in all points,"
like as we are, "yet without sin." Sin never touched him; it
recoiled, if I may use the expression, from his holy, sinless, spotless nature.
Sin charged upon him was the grief of his soul; but sin never found an entrance
into his holy, spotless nature. Satan might hurl his darts against him; but
"the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." But it is
not so with us. When temptation comes, there is that in our heart which
responds to it. And this makes temptation to be such a dangerous and painful
thing to a child of God, that there is that in his fallen nature which answers
to the temptation; there is that in him which temptation suits, meets, and
intertwines with; so that only by the grace of God is he kept in every hour of
temptation.
Now, I believe firmly, that every child of
God will have to endure temptation. James says, "My brethren, count it all
joy when ye fall into divers temptations:" and he adds, "Blessed is
the man that endureth temptation" .#Jas 1:2 Jas 1:12 Peter says,
"Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations" .#1Pe 1:6 And when Paul was recounting, in the
eleventh chapter of the epistle before us, the sufferings of the noble army of
worthies, he says, "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,
were slain with the sword" .#Heb
11:37 Thus these saints of God, in their day and generation, were tempted:
and you and I, so far as we are saints, and children of God, must be tempted
too. But how numerous and various are our temptations! Some of these
temptations are carnal: "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life:" with all those base workings of our deeply-fallen
nature, which are better alluded to than described. Then there are temptations
to infidelity, temptations to error and heresy, temptations to deny the truth of
God, temptations to doubt the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine of
the Trinity, the personality of the Holy Ghost: in fact, there is not one
branch of truth against which the most subtle temptations do not easily find an
entrance into the carnal mind, yea, temptations too base to name, too horrible
even to hint at.
Now here is the difference betwixt the
Lord Jesus Christ and us- that these temptations fell upon his holy and
spotless nature, but never entered into it: but these temptations do find access
to us. ‘But if that be the case,’ one may say, ‘how can the Lord Jesus Christ
feel a sympathy for a poor tempted sinner like me? The Son of God was spotless,
holy, harmless, undefiled: and I am sinful, evil, and wicked. I feel something
within me that closes in with temptation. I have never heard of an error in
which I have not found something for my heart to lay hold of. I never hear of a
sin without there being something in my heart that seems at once to close in
with it. Heresy cannot come abroad without there being something in me that is
ready to fall in with it. If the Lord Jesus Christ, then, were tempted like as
we are, what is the difference between him and us in this matter?’ I would ask
you, what is it in us that makes us feel temptation and groan and cry beneath
its weight? What is it that makes us hate sin, abhor heresy, and cleave to the
truth -which makes us look to the Lord to deliver us from the power of sin, and
trample temptation under our feet? The grace of God in the soul; is it not? The
Holy Ghost, we would fain hope, having raised up, through mercy, in our hearts
a spiritual and new nature that sees the temptation, feels the temptation,
hates the temptation, groans under the temptation and flees unto God to deliver
us from the temptation.
Now, if temptation is painful to us, it is
only painful so far as we are partakers of grace. Temptation is not painful to
the ungodly: it creates no agonizing feelings in the dead sinner; but those
whose consciences are made and kept alive, those who desire in their heart and
soul to love God and live to his glory, and to hate with perfect hatred
everything that he hates: they, and they alone, feel, groan, sigh, cry, and
lament deeply under the power of temptation.
Now if we who know and feel so little,
find temptation a weight and burden, let us look at the Lord Jesus Christ. How
his holy, spotless human nature must have felt, groaned, grieved under, and
recoiled from the arrows of hell shot by the infernal king of darkness! How his
holy soul must have shuddered at those things, which were presented to that
spotless human nature which he took into union with his own divine Person!
Thus, though the Lord Jesus Christ was "tempted in all points, like as we
are" -so that there is not a single temptation, trial, or painful feeling
which we may experience, that he has not experienced before us -yet through
mercy, infinite mercy, he was "without sin;" without one spot, or
speck, or tinge of the slightest evil. He stood spotless amid the darts of
hell, spotless amid the temptations that were shot like hail against his holy
human nature. It is this that so fitted him to become a High Priest -that he is
thereby "touched with the feeling of our infirmity." When we go to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and tell him how tempted we are, what a burden sin is to
our soul, what snares are laid for our feet, how our mind is exercised with
this and the other feeling; how we long after a deliverance from the gins,
traps, and snares spread for our feet -we go not to one who knows nothing of
these things through internal experience. He was "tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin." O what two sweet features in the blessed
Jesus -perfect holiness, and yet thorough acquaintance with temptation! And how
these features mutually harmonizing draw forth from time to time the affections
of our soul unto him! If he were not "tempted in all points like as we
are," we should not go to him with our temptations; if he were not
"without sin," he could not be the great "High Priest over the
house of God."
Thus we see in the Lord Jesus Christ a
union of two apparently conflicting things -a perfect acquaintance with
temptation in all its shapes and forms -a thorough experimental knowledge of
it, the only true knowledge -and an entire exemption from sin. Do men decry
experience? It is no less than taking the crown off the mediatorial brow: it is
doing what is in their power to dethrone Jesus from his high priesthood. Had He
not an experimental acquaintance with temptation? Did he look down upon
temptation as something he had no acquaintance with, no experience of?
something seen in theory, something beneath his feet, but which his holy soul
never entered into? No: he had a personal, deep experience of it: and
therefore, so far as we have a deep and personal experience of temptation, how
it seems to draw forth the feelings of our soul and the affections of our
heart, that, tempted as we are, we can go to him as one who has been tempted!
And, on the other hand, when we can see
his spotless holiness shining through all, this very holiness of his draws
forth the reverence of our soul toward him, and the tenderest affection and
love of our heart. So that, just as the union of the Godhead and of the manhood
in one glorious Immanuel, draws forth the affection and reverence of our soul
towards him as God-Man: so the union of perfect holiness and thorough
acquaintance with temptation, draws out the sympathy and tenderness of our
heart towards him, and draws forth too the sympathy and tenderness of his heart
toward us.
Thus, the apostle says, "We have not
a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities." Was Paul a man who knew infirmities? Yes, deeply. He tells
us that he gloried in them, that the power of Christ might rest upon him .#2Co
12:9 Was Paul’s faith, or hope, or love ever weak? Did he feel
helplessness, and mourn and sigh beneath sin? Deeply, deeply. Did he get upon
some lofty pinnacle, far away from human infirmity, helplessness, and misery?
No; he descended more deeply into it than you or I. Was he a man who stood
apart and away from temptation, clear from "the lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of life"? Were the darts of hell never shot
against him with infernal fury? "Tempted in all points like as we
are." Strike out that word "we." It cannot be "our
infirmities," if Paul had none; it cannot be "tempted like as we
are," if Paul never was tempted. If he had stood upon some lofty spot, far
away from infirmities, far away from temptation, he would have written a lie,
had he said "our infirmities," and "tempted like as we
are."
But Paul could look on the whole church of
God, in their infirmities, and say, ‘Like you, dear brethren, I am full of
infirmities: I am tempted, dear brethren, as you are.’ And I may say more: if
we have none of these infirmities and temptations, these words will not suit
us. Men may speak great swelling words about the Christ of God: but I am bold
to say, they have got far away from Christ who have got far away from temptations
and infirmities. It is through felt infirmity that we go to the great High
Priest who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities:" it is
through felt temptation that we come into a personal knowledge of our divine
and spiritual union with that great High Priest who was "tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin."
I would add one word more. The more we are
compassed with infirmity, the more we shall come to him: and the more we are
tempted, the more, as the Spirit leads us, shall we have sweet and blessed
communion with him. Hard hearts, unfeeling consciences -what communion have
these with such an Immanuel as the scriptures set forth? But God’s poor, needy,
tried, and exercised family, burdened with infirmities, and assailed with a
thousand temptations, through those very infirmities and temptations come to
have union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
II.- The apostle, therefore, adds, "Let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need." Observe the word
"therefore." What is the meaning of that word? It implies a
connection with the preceding verses. What had been his drift in the preceding
part of the text? "We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; let us" -What us? proud us?
presumptuous us? unfeeling us? dead, dry, notional, Calvinistic us?
O no; no such us as that. But we whose minds are exercised, we
whose souls are labouring under burdens and difficulties, we who feel
ourselves to be lost, ruined, undone sinners, we who are acquainted with
the desperate evils of our fallen nature, we that know, painfully know,
what infirmities and temptations are -"let us," none else -"let
us come." Why? Because we have infirmities? because we have temptations?
Not so; but because we have a great High Priest who is "touched with the
feeling of our infirmities;" because we have a great High Priest who has
been "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin."
That is the foundation of the
"therefore." Our infirmities, our temptations are not a sufficient
warrant. We must indeed have infirmities, otherwise we cannot go to him who is
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities:" we must have
temptations, or we cannot know him who has been tempted like as we are tempted.
But besides this, we must have faith given us to see this great High Priest: we
must have hope given us to cast anchor within the veil: we must have love given
us that our heart’s affection may flow forth towards him. We must therefore
feel the leadings of the Spirit drawing us to his blessed feet; we must have
our eyes anointed with divine eyesalve to see his beauty and glory, and our
hearts touched by the blessed Spirit to feel the power of his love and blood.
Thus these two things combined -our misery
and his mercy, our infirmities and help laid upon One that is mighty, our
temptation and the succour he affords to us in our temptation, our wounded
spirit and his tender heart -when these two things are combined and felt in our
soul’s experience, then we are drawn to a throne of grace. And this is the
foundation of the "therefore;" the reason, the spiritual reason, why
we should come, and why we do come.
1. But he says, "boldly."
What does that mean? Presumptuously? God forbid! Recklessly? Never let us
entertain the thought. Self-righteously! Perish the supposition. In myself? No;
let myself ever be a mass of ruin. What does boldness, then, imply? Holy
boldness, spiritual boldness: not reckless daring, not pharisaical presumption,
not self-righteous ignorance of God’s perfections, and thus rushing upon the
thick bosses of his buckler. But that boldness which is consistent with the
deepest reverence of the holy God; that union of godly fear and spiritual
confidence which is raised up in the soul by a sense of what I am and of what
Jesus is to me. "Let us come boldly," in opposition to slavish fear;
"let us come boldly," in opposition to an apprehension that because
he is so holy he will spurn me from his footstool. So that to come
"boldly," is to come not with daring hardness, not with
self-righteousness, not with ignorance; but to come under the sweet drawings of
the blessed Spirit confidently, and yet not presumptuously -boldly, and yet not
recklessly; the ground of our boldness being, not what we are in ourselves, but
what the "great High Priest over the house of God" is to us.
2. But where are we to "come?"
To "the throne of grace." How much this word is used! but it
is to be feared how little its sweet and solemn import is understood! Look at
the words. We use words sometimes till we use them like parrots: without
knowing or feeling their divine meaning. "A throne of grace!" What
does it mean? Let us analyse the expression. Grace is here represented as
sitting enthroned: in other words, grace as a king, as the apostle elsewhere
says, "reigning through righteousness unto eternal life." Grace
embodied in the Person of Immanuel is "the throne of grace." Then,
where grace sits embodied in the Person of Immanuel, where grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life, where grace superabounds over the aboundings
of sin, where grace wins the day in spite of guilt, sin and shame; where grace
sits like a monarch upon his throne, swaying his sceptre over his willing
subjects -there is "the throne of grace."
Now, look at it in this way. Perhaps you
fall upon your knees before you go to bed; and call this ‘going to a throne of
grace,’ when all the time you are upon your knees there is not one feeling in
your soul that grace is reigning through righteousness to justify, pardon, and
bless you. A mere dropping upon your knee, a mere stuttering out of a few
formal petitions is called ‘going to a throne of grace.’ So ministers will use
a set of mill-horse petitions, and call it ‘going to a throne of grace,’ when
they are ignorant what "a throne of grace" is, and never think when
they run their unmeaning round of senseless words, what "a throne of
grace" really and virtually means.
To come to "a throne of grace"
is to come to that spot where grace reigns, where grace wields its blessed
sceptre, where grace flows out of the fulness of Immanuel, as the rays of light
and heat flow out of the sun -and flows into the heart of sinners to pardon
their sins, heal their backslidings, save their souls, and deliver them from
the bottomless pit. To come thus feelingly to "a throne of grace,"
how different, O how different from falling upon our knees and tumbling out a
few senseless petitions with our mind’s eye at the very end of the earth! To
feel our souls encompassed with infirmities, assailed with a thousand
temptations, and yet by faith to catch a view of the great "High Priest
over the house of God;" to see and know that he is "touched with the
feeling of our infirmities," and was "tempted in all points like as
we are," for the very purpose that grace might reign through
righteousness, that grace might be manifested in his blood and obedience, that
grace might deliver our souls from the bottomless pit, that grace might flow
into our hearts and comfort our cast-down spirits, that grace might reign
triumphant in us -so to come (but O, how rarely we come so) is really to
come to "a throne of grace."
But we can only come thus when labouring under
the burden of infirmities. It is my infirmities that make "the throne of
grace" precious. The more temptations I have, the more grace I want: the
more infirmities I feel, the more the superaboundings of grace are needful for
my soul. The connection, therefore, between my infirmities and temptations and
"the throne of grace," is the closest imaginable. We come that these
infirmities may be pardoned, and we strengthened under them; that we may be
delivered from these temptations, and supported under them while they are
working together for our spiritual good.
3. "That we may obtain
mercy." What "we? We find mercy!" Surely the apostle
slipped in a wrong word here. Had he not obtained mercy? Had he not found
pardon and peace? Had not the Lord Jesus been made precious to his soul? Yet he
says, "that we may find mercy." What says Mr. Hart?
"Begging mercy every hour." O yes. The man that knows he is a sinner,
who feels sin deeply and daily, cannot be satisfied with having found mercy
once in his life, with having once tasted the mercy of God in his soul. I will
tell you those who are so satisfied -those who are not compassed with
infirmities, those who are not tempted nor tried.
But those who are compassed with
infirmities, who find themselves little else but one mass of infirmity, and are
tempted with a thousand temptations -their sins are so great, their
backslidings are so many, their inward iniquities and enormities are of
such an aggravated cast, that they want mercy, mercy, mercy. Mercy for every
unclean desire, mercy for every foolish, trifling word, mercy for every angry
or unbecoming expression, mercy for every look, mercy for every thought, mercy
for every prayer; and if ministers, mercy for every sermon: for sin, wretched
sin, is so mingled with all we think, say, or do, that we want mercy again and
again, again and again, to be manifested and revealed to our souls. But what
makes us want it? and where are we to go to get it? Why, it is infirmity and
temptation that make us want it, and we must go to "a throne of
grace" to obtain it. When then we can look to Jesus, see him with mercy in
his hands and love in his heart, find his glorious grace triumphant over a
thousand sins and backslidings, reigning through righteousness unto eternal life,
and rising with its mighty tide over all the workings of our filthy nature, and
receive it into our hearts -this is going to "a throne of grace that we
may obtain mercy."
4. And not only "obtain mercy,"
but to "find grace to help in time of need." What! had not the
apostle got beyond "time of need?" Surely he must have learnt his
lesson very imperfectly. Had he not the ‘five points’ all well established in
his creed? O yes; but he had his "time of need." And how often was
that? Once a year? once in two years? or once in ten years? I am bold to say,
that his "time of need" never outstretched a day. I should not go too
far, if I were to say his "time of need" never outstretched an hour.
What is a "time of need"? Every time that we feel infirmity, every
time that we are exercised with temptation. If I feel my infirmities, and know
I shall be carried away by them unless grace prevent; if I have temptations,
and find they will swallow me up unless grace be in counteraction to overcome
them, and deliver me from them, it will be with me "a time of need."
So that, the more I am encompassed with infirmities, and the more I feel the
weight and power of temptation, the more multiplied my "times of
need" are.
But is not this drawing a vast revenue of
grace out of Christ Jesus? Those whose "times of need" are very rare
do not want much grace. If they have very few infirmities and very few
temptations, it is a contradiction in terms to say they want "grace to
help." But in proportion to the multiplication of our infirmities, and in
proportion to the multiplication of our temptations, will be our want of
"grace to help in time of need."
So that would we prize, deeply prize, the
sweetness of mercy, we must walk in the midst of infirmity, and be compassed
with temptation. Would we find grace, the sweetness of grace, the power of
grace, the blessedness of grace, we must have "times of need," in
order to bring us to "a throne of grace." Are there not (to our
shame be it spoken) many times when we seem to need nothing? No exercises
of soul, no temptations, no trials, no inward going out of the heart after the
things of God? When there are these seasons (and they are too, too many)
there is no going to "a throne of grace." therefore, there is no
"obtaining mercy," no "finding grace to help in time of
need." But, on the other hand, when we are compassed with infirmities,
exercised with temptations, these are "times of need." Here is a
snare I shall fall into, if grace do not prevent: there is a temptation that
will carry me away, if grace do not help; here are my sins opening their jaws
to swallow me up, if grace do not save me; Satan is alluring me in a thousand
forms, and grace alone can deliver me from his wiles. So that I draw forth
grace out of the compassionate High Priest, just in proportion to my spiritual
knowledge of infirmities, and my spiritual acquaintance with temptation in its
various shapes and forms.
Who, then, are the people who really know
Jesus, and have union with him? The proud, presumptuous, unexercised, light,
trifling, hard-hearted, dry Calvinists, with a clear, well-defined scheme in
their head, but as devoid of grace as the white of an egg is of taste? No; they
may talk about Jesus with great swelling words. Christ may be first, Christ may
be last, and Christ may be their whole theme; yet an unknown Christ, an unfelt
Christ, an unapplied Christ, an unenjoyed Christ; because it is through
infirmities alone that we can have fellowship with him who is "touched
with the feeling of our infirmities," and it is through temptation alone
we come to know him who was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet
without sin." But would not you, many a time, have for ever done with
infirmities, your greatest plague, and with temptation, your sorest pain? Would
he not be your greatest friend who would take away all your infirmities, and
keep temptation from ever coming into your soul? Your friend, your friend! And
have you not thought sometimes you would get under such a ministry, where
infirmities and temptations were never touched upon? Your friend, your friend!
-your greatest enemy, your greatest enemy!
Take away infirmities, take away
temptation, and you take away coming to "the throne of grace:" you
take away sweet union to the great High Priest who is "touched with the
feeling of our infirmity." Take away your trials, your afflictions, your
various inward exercises, and you take away prayer out of your soul, sighing
and groaning to the Lord, breathing after his presence within, and sweet
communion with him. Take away your infirmities and your temptations, and you
take away a good part of your religion. Not that religion consists in these
things; but the comings in of the mercy and grace of God are so blended with
infirmities and temptations, that if you take away the one, you take away the
other.
Now do we not see a little of the sweet
connection of our text? Here we have the great "High Priest over the house
of God," "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and
"tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin;" and though
we are thus infirm, and thus tempted, the Holy Ghost invites and bids us, and
at times sweetly draws us, to come to this "throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." So that, while on
the one hand, there is every encouragement for the poor, needy, helpless,
tried, and tempted, there is not the shadow of a shade of encouragement for
those who are at ease in Zion, and have a name to live while dead.
The Lord encourage us from time to time who
know these things in our soul’s experience to come to "a throne of
grace." Though separated in body, we can meet there in spirit. And sure I
am, from personal experience, the more we know of these infirmities and
temptations, the more we shall go to "a throne of grace." And when
from time to time we "obtain mercy and find grace to help," we can
bless the Lord God Almighty that ever there should be such "a throne of
grace," and such a merciful, loving, compassionate High Priest seated upon
it, to comfort, save, and bless our never-dying souls.
Please direct your comments to Mike Krall.