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Hold Fast
Hebrews 4:14-16
New King James Version
Our Compassionate High Priest
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
In this passage the Word of God is calling for us as Christians to
- Hold fast to our Confession
- And to come boldly to the throne of grace
We’re going to cover both tonight as they go together…
How can could we come boldly before the throne of grace if we don’t first old fast to our confession
We need to have confidence in the Lord, that is that boldness to go before the throne of grace completely trusting in Him
We can’t be wavering in our faith and at the same time go boldly before the throne of grace
James 1:5-8
New King James Version
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
We need to HOLD FAST TO OUR CONFESSION
(That is Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and that we put all our hope and trust in Him)
When I hear hold fast, it reminds me of being on a ride at the fair –
Story about Jayda
Our family goes annually to the fair; however our daughter Jayda is not a fan of the rides… And honestly neither am I.
Jeremy, Jarrett, and Nevaeh all LOVE THEM
Because Jeremy loves rides so much, he had convinced Jayda to get on the tilt a whirl with us…
Before the ride even started, she was yelling out, “I’m going to Die… “
The ride starts…”I’m really going to Die”
Jarrett Could hear her crying out from where he was standing and watching
She was holding so tight to me that she was making it spin faster.
She Clung tight to us till the very end, she was literally holding on for dear life. (Mom, I almost died!)
In life we will experience ups and downs temptation and persecution
Like Pastor Matt said Sunday, Persecution will come
It might even at times feel just like Jayda did on that ride…
Are you clinging to your Father?
Are you HOLDING FAST to your confession?
The term to HOLD FAST comes from the word Krat-eh’-o (Krateô)
Its to lay hold of and cling tightly
It’s to use strength to seize or retain (literally or figuratively)
Hold fast to your confession, your faith and belief in Jesus Christ
take hold of it with all your strength and cling to it!
Get in your Word and dig deeper and continue to strengthen and grow your relationship and faith in the Lord!
Stay in fellowship with other believers, strengthen and build one another up in the faith!
Because you have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens!
Jesus came down an lived a life here on earth and like us was tried and tempted, and yet remained sinless
15 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
He lived life here on earth just like us
He walked through trials and temptation beyond what we have even experienced
He was tempted by Satan when he fasted 40 days and nights in the wilderness…
He was tempted with food when He was hungry from fasting
He was tempted to test God
He was tempted to gain all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down to Satan
And each time He came against those temptations with the Word of God!
He was persecuted, betrayed by friends, beaten, and crucified.
He can sympathize with us, he knows and understands what your going through!
That’s our GOD!
The enemy is hard at word – Hold Fast
Don’t be swayed by false doctrine, or the ways of this world.
People are calling Evil Good and Good evil
Earlier this year I watched a video of a Streat Preacher:
I don’t know if it was the right time or place,
But what I do know is He was proclaiming the Word of God and calling for people to repent and come to Jesus.
They didn’t want to receive it
There were people trying to stop him from speaking
They were pushing him and waving incense in his face
At one point I think they actually knocked him down
They said he was speaking hate and being offensive towards others…
This world loves its sin
And they call it Good
And when told the Word of God they call it Evil, say its Hateful…
They call Good Evil and Evil Good
2 Timothy 3:1-7
Perilous Times and Perilous Men
3 But know this, that in the last days [a]perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
When I read that all together as a whole, I’m like Ya I would for sure stay away from a person like that…
But we also need to take time and read each one and make sure we don’t have any of these characteristics in US!
In the scripture it says these are also people who “have a form of godliness but denying its power”
Let’s read back through these characteristics and please take this time to evaluate yourself!
The first one was – being lovers of themselves (Selfish),
lovers of money (Greed) I’ve struggled with that and I have to make sure I don’t allow it back in, Jeremy is very generous. Gives Huge tips often. Trappers 40% Tip.
boasters (To brag) Remember Everything that is good comes from God
We need to glorify Him not ourselves
proud (Being prideful) It’s thinking of yourself higher than you ought to
It’s being wise in your own eyes, pride can make us unwilling to receive biblical correction
Psalm 141:5
5 Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.
For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
I’ve seen people be consumed by pride completely fall away from the truth
Don’t let pride take hold of you, humble yourself before the Lord
blasphemers, not showing respect or reverence towards God
disobedient to parents for the kids in here…,
unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [b]
unforgiving- As Christians WE HAVE TO BE FORGIVING
Colossians 3:12-13
Character of the New Man (In other words Character of a Christian…)
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
Matthew 6:14-15
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
That’s a big statement – If you do not forgive others you will not be forgiven
Just knowing what we have been forgiven of and the grace that’s been given to should compel us to forgive others!
slanderers, without self-control – if your lacking in self-control fasting is a great way to root that out,
brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (Does your need to comfort come before being obedient to God?)
If you are struggling with any of these things get them out
Go before the throne of grace, fast and pray and root them out!
Don’t even let these things creep into your household!
Don’t allow yourself to become gullible!
Read your word so that you have a firm foundation and know Truth
Make sure you KNOW what is Good!
Don’t be deceived, Cling on to God and hold tight to your confession!
because Jesus Christ – Our LORD came down and lived a sinless life here on earth
And laid His life down as an atonement for our sins
Before Jesus there was a separation between God and man, symbolically through the veil and spiritually through sin.
But Jesus broke down that wall of separation!
Hebrews 10:5-10
New King James Version
Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, [a]O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been [b]sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The veil has been torn!
This is why we are able to boldly go to the throne of grace!
The veil was literally torn when Christ died
It’s almost as if God was making a HUGE statement
That people could actually visually see it
And Matthew Mark and Luke all wrote their witness of it and we can now read about it!
Matthew 27:50-54
New King James Version
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
People saw this and knew Jesus was the Son of God!
The veil wasn’t only torn literally, but spiritually
Hebrews 6:19-20
New King James Version
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus has gone “behind the veil” for us, to serve as our High Priest.
In OT once a year the priest would go behind the veil to offer a sacrifice in the “Holy of Holies”
Exodus 30:10
New King James Version
10 And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
Leviticus 16:1-2
New King James Version
The Day of Atonement
16 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord, and died; 2 and the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
Chapter 16 goes in detail on how this was done, even down to the priests clothing
This wasn’t an easy task, the high priest could die if this was not done properly
The people could not even enter in…
But because of Jesus – We no longer need to go through a regular priest to have access to God.
We can go directly to Christ who now serves in the role of high priest.
Because of what Jesus has done We can now boldly approach the throne of grace!
with a heart of Repentance awe and reverence for the Lord.
Now we know why we can go, why should we go?
Because apart from Christ we are weak!
We desperately need forgiveness
Jesus didn’t tell us apart from him we will do okay…
He didn’t say occasionally come to me for a little advice from time to time
In John 15:5 he tells us apart from Him we can do nothing!
We need to continually come to the throne of grace
As we are continually in need of grace and forgiveness in our lives
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 the word tells us to pray with out ceasing!
Because we should be completely reliant on God
Continually allowing Him to shape us refine us strengthen us
We need to allow Him to convict and correct us and lead us into repentance
We need to continually go before the throne of grace and receive His grace and mercy and forgiveness in our lives!
And to clarify, I’m not saying to sin to obtain grace.
We should be striving to rely on the power on the Holy Spirit working inside of us to avoid sin.
But us, being human tend to fall into sin from time to time
And when that happens, we must repent
1 John 2:1-2
New King James Version
The Test of Knowing Christ
2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
So how do we go before the throne of grace?
Boldly through prayer with confidence
Story: My kids, no matter where I am will boldly come for any need small or large!
Actually, every time I worked on my sermon this week It never failed one of my kids would walk in. No matter where I was in the house they would come and find me.
We should be bold like that with the Lord
Lastly, what can we expect when we approach the throne of grace?
We can expect mercy and forgiveness when repent and come before the throne of grace! It’s a promise of God and the Word tells us to come boldly!
The invitation is there will you receive it?
Don’t wait any longer, and don’t isolate in attempt to hide your sin…
You can’t hide it from God anyway
So, don’t remain in your bondage to sin, Instead Hold fast to your confession
And boldly go to the throne room of Grace
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