Hebrews 4:16
19 October 2025
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So, as we come to this verse, what we already consider in the Book of Hebrews is that the battle is won and Jesus Christ is victorious. This is the glorious outcome of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and already the overwhelming narrative and focus of the Book of Hebrews, that the second Person of the Triune God has miraculously come to this earth, born of a virgin and living a life without sin.
He would stoop and submit to the Will of the Father. And He faced and bore the cup of wrath and was crucified on a cross, dying for sinners, His blood being shed in order that our sins, the People of God's sins, would be eternally put away. He is the sacrificial lamb who satisfies the righteous wrath of God, and He is the Great High Priest who atones for the sins of His people by His life, by His death, by His resurrection, and for all who come to Him in repentance.
In the faith we have in Jesus Christ, we have everlasting life because of a Passover Lamb who has been slain for sinners, who now comes as the Roaring Lion of Judah, who is risen and victorious and seated on the throne. This is Jesus Christ, who is alive today, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. And brothers and sisters, as the Lord of lords and King of kings, seated on the throne, He is interceding for us, representing His people, us, to God, praying for us, caring for us, watching over us.
For He is alive in us, we are alive in Him as a new creation. And this is what we live our lives for as a new creation, the purpose of glorifying and magnifying His Name, because we are His children, adopted into His family. And we now look to God, who is our Heavenly Father. And we, each of us as Christians, have the privilege and the blessing of coming to Him as our Heavenly Father. And this is what we now come to deal with as we get to verse 16 of chapter 4, the blessing of the ability that we have as Christians to come to God as our Heavenly Father, doing so in prayer.
Now, the subject of prayer is something that most people will have not only given some abstract or vague thought to, but most people will have tried to do it or have made a point to do it at certain points, maybe crises in their lives. And what we have the privilege of doing here this afternoon in Hebrews 4:16, is not simply dealing with the subject of prayer, but getting instruction about what it is from the Word of God and the One to whom we come to in prayer.
Now, this is important to dwell on because especially as Christians, we know prayer is a big topic. It is something that we know should be very important, even central in the lives that we live. And so often it is one of the most, if not the most, neglected and regrettable subjects in our Christian lives. And a verse like this is one that certainly will challenge, but it can greatly encourage us as it teaches and instructs us about this subject. Because we notice the language here. The language is about where we are approaching and how we are approaching God.
If people are wondering, 'Well, okay, yes, prayer is something I should be doing, but I have no idea what that looks like,' Hebrews 4:16 answers two very important points, questions, where we are going when we pray and how we are to go there in prayer. These are the two points that this verse deals with, two fundamental points when it comes to this topic. Now let's just briefly remind ourselves of the structure of this section in Hebrews as we begin to watch into this verse.
Because this is the third 'Let us' statement in the closing section of Hebrews 4. Notice back in verse 11 it begins, 'Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.' Then, middle of verse 14 it says, 'Let us hold fast our confession.' And then here in verse 16 we have the third: 'Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.' Now why do we dwell on this? Well, it's not just because we like the alliteration, but because there is significance in the argument being built. Chapter 4 has been giving us the great encouragement that as Christians we have a spiritual rest in Christ. That's what we come to enjoy as we gather on the Lord's Day. We know that we have a spiritual resting in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is sacred to our souls, and it literally foreshadows what we will have in glory.
So, there is the 'Let us strive to enter that rest' in the lives that we live in obedience to our King because of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. And this is verse 14, our confession, that we hold fast to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ and the life-saving message of the Gospel. Now this is important when we deal with the subject of prayer, that the Gospel is at the centre and foundation and everything in prayer. Because if the Gospel is not at the centre of prayer, but by Christianity, pick any religion, pick any spirituality, and you'll have some form of prayer involved in it, some sort of meditation, some sort of practice that might be able to give you some inner peace or whatever thing you might be striving for.
But as we come to this text, as we come to this verse on the subject of prayer, it is knowing that we have a spiritual rest in Christ, knowing that we are holding fast to a confessional faith we have in the Gospel because of Jesus Christ. That's our foundation. And every single subject that we deal with in the Book of Hebrews is absolutely central and integral to and because of Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel. And that is certainly the case as we come to it in verse 16 and the invitation that we now have to draw near to the throne of grace.
Verse 16 saying, 'Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.'
That is saying to you, Christian, that you can come to God, you can come to God. Who are you, who am I, that we would dare to think this day that we can come to the Living God, the Creator God, the God of this universe? Well, that's exactly what we have need to address.
As we come to the first subject of this verse, we're going to think about where it is that we're coming to. So, we're slightly dealing with this in a flip kind of order because it says, Let us then with confidence,' and then we have the 'draw near to the throne of grace.' And the first thing we're dealing with is the throne of grace, where we're going to, where is it that we can approach as we have in prayer? And that is the Throne of Grace.
Now, brothers and sisters, even if you're familiar with this verse and the phrase, 'throne of grace,' understand how staggering this is. The throne, something fitting for a king, of grace, that's quite the phrase. Something that is absolutely exclusive to biblical Christianity. And one of the ways in which you can see this is through key passages in Scripture. And we're going to turn to one of these now, if we can go in our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 4, Revelation chapter 4.
This is one of these chapters which is worth reading in its entirety. We're just going to pick out some of the key portions of this as we try to get a grasp of this phrase, the Throne of Grace. Let's look at Revelation 4:2–3, first of all. It says, 'At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne. And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.'
Notice how rich and majestic is the language here. The appearance of jasper and carnelian, precious stones, with an emerald rainbow signifying the promise of eternal life. This is a splendid picture of the throne of our Lord and King Jesus Christ. It's a splendid picture which continues in the chapter with those circling the throne, the elders, the creatures, and these angels like the ones we see in Isaiah 6, who are circling our Lord, who is on the throne. And what are they declaring as He is on the throne?
Verse 8 at the end: 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'
This is what is being declared of the Lord of lords and the King of kings.
'Holy, holy, holy.'
Now, the holiness of God is a term in itself which is so difficult to articulate and comprehend. And yet it is a term which very much captures the purity, the moral excellency, the absolute perfection of the Living God. Because Almighty God is absolutely distinct from any other being or creature and is exalted in infinite majesty.
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There is nothing which is before God.
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There is nothing beyond God.
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There is nothing that can stand in the place or to challenge God.
Because He is the one who was and is and is to come. He is infinitely higher and bigger and better than all that we can know and understand. And this is who Jesus Christ is, the One who was, who created the world, Hebrews 1, verse 2.
Jesus Christ, who is upholding the universe by the word of His power, Hebrews 1:3.
And this is Jesus Christ, who is to come, who will appear a second time to save those waiting for Him, Hebrews 9:28.
Jesus Christ is the one who was, who is, and who is to come.
And as we've already magnified, He has eternally put away sin. He has sat down, the work is completed, and He is highly exalted, above all things, reigning and ruling over all things. And this is why all who are before Him in Revelation 4, note this. All who are before Him, these majestic, magnificent creatures, and everyone who is before Him, what do they all do?
They lay down their crowns before Him.
And in verse 11 they declare, 'Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.' This, brothers and sisters, is the throne that is being spoken of in Hebrews chapter 4. A throne which is fit for a king.
And as we're noting, it is a Throne of Grace. And why is it a Throne of Grace? This is the kingly picture that we've seen, but why a Throne of Grace? Because as we're now unpacking and will do in the subsequent weeks and months in Hebrews 5 and onwards, our Priest has made the way of salvation. Not just any priest. Not just the high priest. The Great High Priest. The Priest who sits on the throne.
As Zechariah 6 prophesies of the coming Messiah, it says, 'It is He who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honour, and shall sit and rule on His throne. And there shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.'
Can we have a priest seated on a throne? Kings sit on thrones. Priests, they have another important work to do. And this is where we come to the unique, majestic, mighty one, Jesus Christ, who fulfils the office of prophet, of priest, and of king.
And He is the Priest who has tasted death, Hebrews 2:9.
'But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.'
Look at the language here of Hebrews 2:9. Language of a king, 'crowned with glory and honour.' Language of the work of a priest who himself would be sacrificed by tasting death, by the laying down of His life on a cross. This is why, brothers and sisters, it is the Throne of Grace. Because Jesus, laying down His life on a cross, being the Priest who would fulfil this office by being a sacrificed lamb, Himself, that it is all of grace. It is only by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that the One who is deserving of all this honour, worthy of such praise as the King of kings, would graciously lay down His life, a perfect, sinless life, for imperfect, sinful beings like us.
Now, this is the Gospel. And this is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the point where when we elevate and magnify the risen, exalted King who has defeated sin and death, risen victorious, the throne on which He sits is a Throne of Grace. Because otherwise, how could you, how could I possibly ever imagine going anywhere near such a throne? Were it not for grace, you and I would be eternally condemned in hell. Full stop.
And so, when we come to the subject of prayer, if you don't have the Gospel in you and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's done.
Because we are unworthy and undeserving to go anywhere near the perfect One. And yet where we are coming is not because Jesus now is a lesser Jesus. He's not so important or special because He is mingled with the likes of us here on this earth. It is because of how majestic, how magnificent, how perfect He is, that He is the one who would be able, as this King, to be the sacrifice for our sin, that He would defeat sin. He would be on this throne, having been triumphant over sin and death, and where even now His people, us, the Church, now know who we come to and approach: Jesus on His throne, the Throne of Grace.
Now, the second aspect of this, how we approach this throne. We would surely then imagine that we would be coming with fear and trepidation, a real sense of uncertainty that we're getting to come to God by the skin of our teeth and nothing more. Of course not. Because notice already what we see. It's the Throne of Grace. The thing that separates you from God has been dealt with, brothers and sisters, by this King, by this Priest. Jesus has eternally put away your sin, the sin which makes you unworthy and undeserving to approach God. We are therefore no longer hindered by the sin which separates us from God because this Lord who is on the throne has dealt with it. And so, what does that mean for the Christian? How do we then approach this great God? With boldness. That's an honour, because of Christ.
That's why the verse says, 'Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.'
Now, the English translation here in the ESV, confidence, is the word boldness. In the Greek it is the word παρρησία (parrésia), which basically means unreserved, uninhibited speech. It is a casting away, casting aside of all fear. Only grace and the Gospel does this, folks. Only grace and the Gospel produces this in any such a life as yours or mine.
Now, do you see as we're beginning to build this picture, how this is teaching and instructive on the subject of prayer? Who we are approaching and how we are doing so. Approaching Christ because of Christ, because of who He is, because of what He has done.
How we are doing it is because of Christ, who He is and what He has done.
Think of the apostles in the time of Acts. This word parrésia appears in Acts 4:31, when the apostles, having spent time in prayer, then go forth with this boldness to preach the Gospel. These same weak, cowardly, foolish men during the time they were with the Lord Jesus, what's happened to them weeks later? The Spirit of God has done a work in their lives, the glorious life-saving message of the Gospel. And what Christ secured in Calvary, that is what has changed everything. And so, they go forth, they go forth with this boldness. And this is a boldness that we are invited to approach God with in prayer.
Now, what we have to understand about this word, it's not encouraging the Christian to be irreverent, to be flippant and casual, as if to say, 'Well, because of grace, because it's a Throne of Grace, we can really take the high-five God approach and be really casual and pally.'
People in churches approach prayer in this manner. And it is absolutely not what Hebrews 4:16 is declaring. No, the God of the Bible, the God who created you and saves you, is the God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand, and every waking breath of every moment of your life is entirely dependent upon Him. That is not something to be casual, indifferent, or irreverent about. And yet at the same time, we do now have a familiarity and an intimacy where we can now come to the God of the Bible, Yahweh, and we can call Him what?
We can call Him our Heavenly Father. You and I, we are part of the family of God because of Jesus Christ. And that gives us a boldness. There is still a respect there, but there's a familiarity. Think in the Old Testament when Achsah approaches her father, Caleb. There is a respect there, but there is also familiarity, a warmth. And this is the Father that you and I can come to in prayer. Now, as we continue to build the picture of prayer, can you begin to see all the more how profound this is?
This is God that you can come to in this way, with this level of confidence, knowing who He is and that because of Christ you can yet still come to Him. What a blessing is this. And this is why the verse goes on to say, 'that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.'
Now this is an interesting declaration at the end of this verse, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It goes from the very emphatic and glorious picture of Christ on this Throne of Grace and the way by which we approach, to the very almost pastoral application for the lives of His dear children, you and I. Because prayer is not something that we are simply commanded to do and blessed to do. It's something that as Christians, we should be desperate to do. And desperate to do so because we know who we are coming to.
Because what are we as Christians here today? We are Christians who are in need. We are in need of the mercy and grace of our Lord every single day. With all that is going on in your life, with how upset you can be, with how depressed you may feel, with how sad and how defeated you may feel in life, you need God and you have the blessing of coming to Him, especially in time of need in all aspects of your life, as a passage like this lays out.
This is who you come to and the way by which you come to Him. It's why the campaigns like 'Try Praying' are completely missing the mark. Because, brothers and sisters, we are not being invited to try doing something in some endless, haphazard way. No, we are being given something very specific and something very intimate and something which is literally a blessing to your soul.
And so, when we come to this language of receiving mercy and finding grace, we might wonder, 'Well, what's the difference between the two, mercy and grace?' Let me give you some very quick definitions. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. Now, in some ways it might seem like they're both sides of the same coin, but there are distinctions here.
First of all, when it comes to the mercy of God, not getting what you deserve, what do you deserve? You deserve to be eternally cut off and sentenced to hell. And yet God in His mercy has not struck you down. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. And to get Christ, to get salvation, to get God as your Heavenly Father to whom you can come to in prayer, in worship, in your life, that is something that you do not deserve.
And when we look at this language of receiving mercy and finding grace, this is not to say that, well, this is something that is going to be adding to the salvation we have in Christ. No, what it means is we are availing ourselves to the grace that we already have in Jesus Christ. We do so in prayer. This is why prayer is so essential, because you are availing yourself to His grace. Because every day we need Christ for our dear lives. And this is why we avail ourselves to this grace.
It's what a saint does, and it is the maturing of the saint, the born-again believer. In our circumstances, therefore, we don't recoil and curl up because of how sad and distressing they become. We don't wallow in self-pity because of how prone we are to sin and giving into temptation. For example, if you've lost your temper again, if you've been hit by that same issue again, if the devil continues to prod and poke and that same weakness, that messenger of Satan comes again and again and that thorn in the flesh.
We not only come before God in desperation, in our weakness, but we do so in boldness. Note this, understand this about prayer. We come in desperation and weakness, yes, but we do so with boldness. Because in the hardships, in the trials, even in the face of persecution, in the struggles against sin, the Lord is literally your strength. We receive mercy, we receive grace. He is who we need and He is who we get in our time of need.
And it's why prayer is fundamental. It's why the Lord Jesus instructs us not to be led into temptation in the way by which we pray. Because this is who we come to and we know because of who He is, because of where He now is. It is something that is a blessing to us in our time of need. We have this God that we can come to.
Now, just think as we look to Christ and His example in His life on this earth, we see that He prayed even with how busy He was, with all of the expectations that people placed upon Him. He would get up early and go to a desolate place and spend time with His Father in prayer. Why was He doing this? He was not in need in the way we are in need, because He knew no sin. And yet He knew the blessing of time with His Father. Do you, Christian, know the blessing of time with your Father? Are we desperate to find time, to make time, to maximise time with our own Heavenly Father that we can come to with boldness, with this assurance of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He's on the throne? Do we have this urgency and this desperation in our daily lives?
Oh, brothers and sisters, this is a challenge that we should absolutely welcome in our Christian life. Because surely for every Christian, we can undoubtedly say that it's never wasted to set aside time and more time to pray. Now, certainly the time we set aside to pray could be being wasted in the way by which we are doing so. But to seek to prioritise and have that desire and hunger for our Lord is something that, especially in knowing in our time of need, it's something that we should long for. And yet it's so telling, isn't it? Think first of all, in your own personal devotional lives as Christians, what are we so quick to do and neglect, especially in times of need? We'll pray initially when something terrible happens. Yes, we will. At one point we will pray, but then very quickly it's something that we will neglect. It's something we will not persevere in, certainly not persevering in prioritising.
And even more so in times of difficulty. As you become more sad, as you become more frustrated, as you become more despondent, you become less prayerful. So let this be an encouragement to your soul this afternoon that this very hour Jesus Christ is still and always will be seated on the throne and He is interceding for you. And we will come to Him with boldness, receiving His mercy and His grace.
And may we be challenged to know the blessing that getting up even an hour earlier in the morning, setting aside an hour as we let go of some of the other frivolous things we've been doing to spend time with our Father. O brothers and sisters, what a blessing this is to your soul.
It's also why, in the context of the life of the Church, praying corporately is something that is essential. And again, it becomes so telling when churches are struggling, when there are difficulties that arise. What we would surely expect is that our times of prayer would be only more packed out, with members coming desperately together to pray. And yet what do we see regularly in church after church? The numbers dwindle. 'I'm tired. I don't have time.'
If we understood all the more the significance of this blessed state, we would be all the more desperate to increase the times that we can spend together in prayer. Minutes on a Sunday morning and a block of time on a Wednesday. Oh, that that would be even just a bare minimum of what we do together in prayer. Because what are we doing? Because of the Gospel, we're coming before the Throne of Grace because of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what prayer is. And it's why it is so spiritually profound.
We don't pray with boldness simply to be delivered from everyday aches and pains, as important as that can be. There's a more deep, intimate, and internal purpose, dear folks, for our Lord is more concerned with who you are and what it is you can do. He's more concerned with who you are and what it is you can do. And often when we come to the Lord praying for the desires of our heart, it is those desires that must be rent asunder.
That our desire and our longing will be for Christ and to be like Christ. Is that the heartbeat of the prayer of the Christian, of the Church? That we would be for Christ, that we would be like Christ, because anything that you do is grounded and governed by this. How often are we so busy doing and doing and doing, including doing it for the kingdom, prayer becomes utterly neglected? Or it's an afterthought in the process of our doing?
This is why when it came to Martha and Mary, what Mary did in sitting at the feet of her Lord was what Jesus commended. And this is why the sanctifying work that God is doing, and doing graciously in your life, is literally the building up of the People of God. And if that means not being healed from being bedridden or in prison, if that means that you are to endure long-term affliction, if that means circumstances of great difficulty, that we can and we must plead the grace of God, pray with boldness and confidence before this Throne of Grace, because that's what it means to approach the Throne of Grace with boldness.
The Lord hears and answers us and He strengthens us. He builds us up. This is what it means to receive mercy and grace. He builds us up as we come, as we draw near to Him, as we seek to do so for the Lord. And friends, as we think about this for the sake of and because of the Gospel, may one of the first things and continuous things that we do pray for with boldness is that we would have that desperation and that hunger. Come before the Throne of Grace this very evening and pray.
'Lord, may there be an even greater desperation. May I be desperate for You, to be more like You, to know more of You, to worship You.'
May there be this desperation that would produce a hunger, a hunger to pray, a hunger to pray in the morning, a hunger to find time during the day, a hunger to pray in the evening, a hunger to pray before we go to sleep. Oh, may it be that our lives are revolving around the time we spend with our Father, because we can do so. We can do so not aimlessly trying, but biblically knowing He is on the Throne of Grace, something you do not deserve.
And yet you can come to Him, and you can come with this boldness, a boldness that is an assurance of the salvation you have in Christ. And that assurance is what can literally bless your soul in your time of need. You receive the mercy and the grace of God. And may you know this in your daily lives. May the Church here in Aberdeen know this in this season of our life. May it make us more prayerful. May it make us more Christ-centred, Christ-focussed. For we know that He is on the throne and that this is the Throne of Grace by which we come with boldness.