The Christian's approach to the throne of grace.
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne," etc. Our text suggests the following observations:—
I. MAN'S GREAT NEED IS MERCY. "That we may receive mercy" is our great requirement. This will be obvious if we reflect for a moment on our position in relation to the government of God. Intelligent beings who have maintained their integrity and their loyalty to God, and are fulfilling his design concerning them, do not need mercy. Mercy implies demerit or ill desert on the part of those to whom it is granted. It is the mode of the Divine goodness to the unworthy and the evil. Because we are sinners we require mercy. We have no claim to God's favor; we do not merit the blessings of his goodness; by sin we have forfeited our title to his favor, and have deserved his wrath. "Every sinner stands in need of forbearing mercy. The sentence of death is upon all; all are under condemnation. Each sinner stands in need of preventing mercy. Inclined to evil from nature and habit, unless held back by preventing grace, he is continually falling into sin. The sinner stands in need of forgiving mercy. If he obtain not this, he must perish." All our salvation may be said to flow from the mercy of God. How great, then, is our need of mercy! Without it, we are lost. Having it, we have salvation.
II. MAN HAS SEASONS OF SPECIAL NEED. "And find grace to help in time of need." Alford: "Grace to help while yet there is time." Rendall: "Grace for timely help." The meaning is, to find grace for seasonable or opportune help; and thus suggesting the truth that there are seasons when man specially requires the help of Divine grace. We are ever dependent upon the mercy of God; but not infrequently we are pressed by temptations, or beset by danger, or assailed by dark doubts, or standing in slippery places, and at such times we specially need the mercy and grace of God.
1. There are times of temptation to sin, when our moral weakness is extreme, and our spiritual foes are persistent, and the tendency to sin which is within us is roused into activity. In such seasons how pressing is our need of succoring grace!
2. There are trials arising from worldly prosperity. Prosperity in temporal affairs has occasioned spiritual injury to many. It brings with it temptations to luxury, and to guilty conformity to the world, and to spiritual sloth, and false security, and presumptuous self-reliance. It is a season of special need.
3. There are trials arising from temporal adversity. In the hour of failure and defeat many a good man has felt with Asaph, "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain," etc. With poverty there come, sometimes, temptations to reproach God, or to despair of his goodness, or to resort to unlawful or unworthy means to obtain temporal supplies. Hence our need of grace.
4. There are trials arising from bodily afflictions. Sanctified sufferings are a blessing; unsanctified, they are only an evil, and a very great evil. If we rebel against the hand that afflicts us, we shall grow hard in heart, bitter in temper, impatient and distrustful, and probably some one will suggest to us that we "curse God, and die." Here is a season of peculiar need.
5. Trials arising from the bereavements of friendship. When death comes very near to us, it is accompanied with temptations to doubt the reality of the life beyond, to question the wisdom and love of God, etc.
6. Trials of our own dying hour. Great is the mystery which surrounds death. The moment of dissolution must be very solemn. Who can overcome then without "grace for timely help"?
III. THERE IS A THRONE WHENCE THE MERCY AND GRACE WE NEED MAY BE OBTAINED. "The throne of grace" is the throne of God; but of God, not as an august and awful Ruler, but as a gracious Father. It is the throne whence he bestows the blessings of mercy and grace to those who seek him. The treasures of his mercy and grace are inexhaustible, and he delights in communicating them to others. We have not to overcome any disinclination to bless us on his part. He gives freely; he gives bountifully; he delights in giving.
IV. WE HAVE AMPLE ENCOURAGEMENT TO APPROACH THE THRONE OF GRACE. "Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace." We have freedom of access to the throne, and we may have freedom of speech with him who sits thereon. We may draw near to God with confidence. This we have, or may have, through our great High Priest. He has revealed the infinite love of the Father toward us, and his delight in blessing us; he is the perfect "Mediator between God and man;" he was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," and he is able "to sympathize with our infirmities;" and he now wears our nature in heaven by his Father's throne. "Let us therefore draw near with boldness," etc.—W.J.
HOMILIES BY C. NEW