Where to Turn in Time of Need - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November 22nd. God promises to respond to the needs of His very imperfect children. Today's podcast visits the fourth chapter of Hebrews to explain where to turn in time of need.

Where do you go to get your needs met? Now watch this or the devil will just trick you right up. There is one place you can go that you never have to worry about getting a wrong answer. That he'll always give you the right answer and he's willing to give you the answer, willing to meet your need, and that is to one person and that's Jesus. Now, for the rest of this message, I want to show you why that's true. So, whatever your hang-ups may be about Jesus and so forth, I want you to be honest enough to listen carefully to what the Word of God says and why we would say that Jesus is the person to whom we're to go, listen, for our needs no matter what they may be.

You say, but suppose it's some financial needs. He knows exactly how to give you guidance to meet that need. All I ask you to do is to be honest enough and open enough to consider what the Word of God says. So, look what He says in this thirteenth verse, because He makes it so crystal clear that Jesus knows all about our needs. We think we do sometimes. We think, for example, that we know exactly what our needs are and, Lord, here's what I want You to do.

Sometimes we don't know what they are. So, notice what He said. He said in this particular passage, and He says in different ways, but He says, there is no creature hidden from His sight. That is, God sees every single person. He knows all about us. No creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and, listen, laid bare.

That means uncovered to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, which means the one to whom we are accountable. He sees every single thing. He knows every need we have every day and every hour of the day and every moment of it. He knows it. So, you say, well, why do you say go to Jesus? Well, let me ask you this.

Who else knows you so perfectly? Now, there's a second thing I want you to notice here, and that's this. He mentions here, Jesus is our High Priest before the throne of God. Now, listen very carefully because somebody says, well, High Priest, I'm not too interested in that. You ought to be.

Here's the reason why. In the Old Testament, for example, God set up the whole system for the nation of Israel to grow this nation and send the Messiah. And so, He began all the way back in the garden. And all through the Scriptures, there are sacrifices. And in the system which God set up among His people, there was the great High Priest who was the one who went into the Holy of Holies where no one could go without losing their life except for the great High Priest.

And so, God set up the whole system for the nation of Israel to grow this nation. And so, God set up the great High Priest once a year to place the atoning blood of the Lamb at that time to acknowledge the sinfulness of their nation. Now, that great High Priest was a symbol of many things. But most of all, He was a foreshadowing of the great High Priest who was the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That is Jesus who died on the cross, was buried, resurrected back to heaven.

And the tenth chapter says He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. It is the blood of Jesus that makes it possible for us to approach holy God. Now, I know that many people would say, are you saying to me that Jesus Christ is the only way?

Or are you simply saying to you there is only one great High Priest and He is Jesus? And without the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, there is no access to holy God. I know you may have many other beliefs, but I want you to answer the question.

If you disagree, answer the question. How does sinful man approach holy God apart from the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ? There is no answer. And for example, I think about this passage in the thirty-second Psalm and the very first verse. He says, How blessed is he whose transgression, listen, whose sins are forgiven, whose sin is covered.

It is the blood of Jesus Christ that covers our sin. And I want you to listen to the second chapter of Hebrews. And I want us to look at two verses here. Verse seventeen, Therefore He, that is Jesus, watch this, had to be made like us, like His brethren in all things. That is, He was both God and man. As a man, He's just like any other man as far as His being, flesh and blood and bone and so forth. He said, He had to be made like us in order to be a legitimate, acceptable sacrifice.

Now, let's think about that for a moment. Because we said, where do you get your needs met? Jesus is the one who made us. He said, He had to be made like us in order to be a legitimate, acceptable sacrifice.

We said, where do you get your needs met? Jesus is the one who meets our needs. He knows us perfectly and He's the one who died for us and paid the price for our sins. Now, the third thing I want you to notice here is this, that the Scripture says that Jesus sympathizes with all of our needs. Look at this passage. I want to read it a couple of times.

Watch this. Verse fifteen, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us. That is, Jesus is one who sympathized. That is, He can feel and sense this.

He experiences this. But one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Now, when He says tempted in all points such as we, because listen, if there was some area that you and I could be tempted or tried in, some difficulty or hardship we are facing.

If there was some area that we could be tempted and tried in that He wasn't, we'd say, yeah, but Jesus, here's the thing about it. You don't understand what I'm going through. You don't understand how I feel. If you understood how I feel, you'd hmm, hmm, hmm, you'd go on with a lot of excuses for sinning.

Everyone. He knows exactly how we feel. So, it would be foolish to try to go to somebody else to answer all my needs and to meet all my needs when there is only one who can meet them all. So, this whole passage is about this awesome Great High Priest, the Son of God, our Savior, Lord and Master, and how much He loves us, how much He understands us. And listen, He wants us to come to Him.

This isn't about don't go to God. This is about come to Him. Because listen, He is ready and willing and able to help us with our needs.

He's certainly able because He's all-powerful. An omniscient, He fully understands. For example, when you go through some difficult time in your life of personal disaster, whatever it might be, who do you want to talk to? You want to talk to somebody who's been there, somebody who can feel what you feel, or what He's saying in this passage? Whatever your hurt, your pain, your suffering, your sorrow, your temptation, your trial, Jesus says, I've been there. That is, He has felt something equal to what we feel no matter what situation we may be facing in life. And so, when you think about this, His very title, the Great High Priest. He's the one who's covered our sin at the cross.

The Son of God, the incarnate Son of God who came into this world to die for our sins. Our relationship to Him. He's our Savior and our Lord and our Master. He knows our needs and He desires that our needs be met. And when I think about that, I think about the way He expresses love toward us. And notice in this passage, twice He says, Therefore, look at this. He's just said that He knows all about our needs and so forth. And He says on the basis of that, Therefore, since we have a Great High Priest. And then after He talks about being sympathetic, again, He says, Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne for grace and mercy. So, when there is a need in your life, you have access to the one who knows exactly how you feel, exactly how to heal that, and how to help through that, and how to meet that need no matter what it might be. But I would ask you this, where do you go first?

Call your friends? You tell somebody else how you feel? He says, I want you to tell me. He says, Therefore, because everything is known to me, and I'm a Great High Priest, I can handle it.

Therefore, because I am and I'm sympathetic, therefore, I want you to draw near to me with confidence. And when He says we're to draw nigh, that's draw nigh to the throne. What is He talking about? He's talking about coming to Him in prayer. He says the throne of grace and mercy. This is why you found not condemnation, not judgment, not God rejecting us, but watch this, because you are a child of God, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have personally the Great High Priest who is interceding for you because by His blood He's covered your sin. And you're coming to Him asking for forgiveness. And that forgiveness is available because He's atoned for your sin at the cross and you've received Him as your personal Savior.

You have access to Him. And He says, I want you to come confidently. That's where I want you to come. I want you to come joyfully.

That is, when you're thanking Him or whatever it might be. You can come under great conviction. But He says, what I want you to do is I want you to come without hesitation, openly, without a doubt, knowing that you're going to be heard as a child of God. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. But if you ignore that, listen, watch this, the Bible says if we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is what He's saying is continually cleansing us from all sin. So, let me ask you this, you don't believe in Jesus?

You rejected Him? What about your sin? What separates us from the Father is sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from sin.

When you eliminate that, I ask you again, what do you have? What basis are you coming? It is a prideful thought that you could be good enough in your sins for God to accept you when He has already said, without the shedding of blood, there is absolutely no forgiveness. That's God's Word. So therefore, on the basis of that, and twice He says, therefore, here notice what He says. Therefore, He says, we are to come to Him confidently.

Why does He say that? Because we have a right to. But we're coming under the blood of Jesus Christ. He's atone for our sin.

He's opened the door. He says, we're to come, listen, boldly to the throne. Now watch this, He says, boldly to the throne of grace, find mercy and help in time of need.

Now watch this. Here's what mercy is. In mercy, God is not giving me what I deserve.

Do you get that? He's not giving me what I deserve. In grace, He gives me what I don't deserve. I don't deserve grace. But He graces us anyway.

In mercy, what is He doing? He's not giving me what I deserve. Because if He did, He'd cast me out.

He says, come boldly. Are you willing to get on your knees and read that Scripture to God and tell Him what your needs are? And the reason that you would bow on your knees before Him is simply because who He is. He's the righteous, holy God who has no equal.

That's right. I'll tell you something, it will transform your prayer life. Because what you're doing is you're getting on your knees before holy God and you are acknowledging His holiness, His righteousness, His perfection. You're acknowledging His omniscience that He knows all about you. You're acknowledging His omnipotency as the power to change in His circumstance of your life.

You're acknowledging His grace and His mercy that He would invite you to come to be forgiven or to be helped, whatever that might be. What would keep you from doing that? You may say, well, I don't have to get on my knees to pray.

No, you don't. Why wouldn't you? I know some people may have a physical problem. But I want to ask you very seriously, what would keep you from opening His Word to this simple passage of Scripture which is a passage of all, it's all about encouragement? What would keep you from getting on your knees and acknowledging that you need Him and that you don't have the right to come to Him except by the blood of Jesus? What would keep you from doing that?

One thing primarily, pride. I don't need to do that. God understands me. I got along this long without it. I don't need to do that. Which is one of the worst sins you can commit is pride because what you're saying is I don't need it. I don't need it. Or maybe there's some sin in your life that you don't want to give up.

You don't want to lay it down. See, it's certainly not going to get down and read this passage about the fact that He knows all about your sin. It will transform your prayer life. Here's what will happen. You'll get serious about coming to Him. You'll get serious about your relationship to Him.

You'll get serious about what's going on in your life. You'll get serious about the situation of His holiness. When I think about all the desires of the heart of God, what's worship anyway? We're not to worship anything other than the person of God. Pride will keep us off our knees. and say, well, I don't think that's necessary.

No, it may not be necessary. But let me ask you this, when is the last time you did anything that was an indication of your recognition of His holiness, our unworthiness, and His awesome love to save us? I challenge you to do it. Because you see, this is all about what He's doing for us. It's all about Him meeting our needs.

He knows all about them. He's paid the price. He's willing to do it. We have access to Him. And He says, come boldly, come confidently. I'm waiting. I want to help you.

I want to meet your needs. But you have to come His way by the blood of Jesus. And I will say to you, my friend, if you've never been saved, if you've never trusted Jesus, you should save you. Here's what I want you to understand. No matter what somebody tells you, what somebody claims, how many books you read, how many sermons you hear, how many times you go to confession, there is a truth that is absolutely eternally undeniable.

Jesus Christ, the virgin-born incarnate Son of God, came into this world for the primary purpose of dying on the cross and shedding His blood at Calvary, so that all who will accept Him as Savior also receive Him as the great High Priest who sits at the Father's right hand, making intercession, making it possible for you and me to come to Him to get our needs met. That is an eternal expression of love. And to reject Him is to reject your only hope. And to receive Him is to begin life from a whole different perspective. And that's my prayer for you. Father, how grateful we are for Your awesome love that You would say to us, come boldly to my throne, and you'll find mercy, and you'll find grace, my forgiveness and my cleansing, and the answer to every need of your life.

Father, You couldn't make it any simpler than that. And we just want to say we thank You and pray that every person who hears this message will be honest, intellectually honest enough to consider this truth and the fact that You're the God before one day they will stand and give an account for their life. In fact, You made it very clear that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to Your glory and honor. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Where to Turn in Time of Need. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.