Where to Turn in Time of Need

We'll be right back to It's Such a Wonderful Life. In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, where to turn in time of need. Everybody has needs in life, some of those needs could be If you have a need, where do you go for the answer? Well, many people go to different avenues for answers to their needs, and oftentimes those avenues leave them exactly where they were in the beginning. They don't get their needs met. Because there are many very deceptive attitudes and very deceptive avenues to walk in order for a person to get their needs met. And especially is that true in the area of people's emotional needs or spiritual needs, but it's true also in physical and material. Where do you go when you have a need in your life? Is there a place or are there many places? For example, when you have some emotional need, where do you go for that? When you have a spiritual need, where do you go for that? Whatever the need may be, you have some place you attempt to go on some way that you attempt to fulfill that need. What I'd like to do in this message is to give you one place you can go that I can guarantee you without a shadow of a doubt, you will get your need met. Now, when I tell you what it is, you're going to say, Oh, it couldn't be that simple. That's not the way it is. Well, just listen carefully. I want you to simply ask the Lord to speak to your heart and

to show you that maybe you have some need or needs in your life that you've been trying to meet, and somehow it's just not working right. I want to show you how it can work right. So, if you'll turn to Hebrews chapter four, and I want us to read just a few verses of this chapter. And while you're turning there, I want to look at the twelfth verse just to give you a word to preface our regular Scripture we're going to read. He says in the twelfth verse, For the Word of God, the Bible, is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Which is His way of saying, when you open the Word of God and you begin to read the Word of God, what you'll do is this. You will discover God's perspective and His view of what your real thoughts are, what you really feel, what your real desires are, the secret desires, the open desires, your hurts, your pains. In other words, what the Word of God does, it helps us to understand and to see ourselves as God sees us. So, in light of that, then here's what He says, beginning in verse thirteen, And there is no creature hidden from the sight, from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confidence, our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with us

and our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted, and all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now, so we ask the question, 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. Suppose it's some health need. He is the great physician. You say, Suppose it's some emotional need. I'm depressed. He is the answer to every single need we have. 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? He is the only person in existence that knows everything about us, inside, outside, what we think, how we think, why we do, what we do, our actions, our motives, our desires, the secret sins of our life, the open things that go on. He's the only one who knows. Jesus is the one to whom we should go for all of our needs, no matter who and what the need may be. Now, there's a second thing I want you to notice here, and that's this.

He mentions here, listen, 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 the 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 would come because He says here, Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That is, Jesus who died on the cross, was buried, resurrected back to heaven in the tenth chapter says He is now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Now, what is all that about and what does that have to do with God meeting my needs? Well, the throne of God is where He sits beside the Father. And that throne is a very, very important place. And in the Scriptures, for example, there are many

references to the throne. There is the throne of grace in this chapter, the throne of God in Matthew, the throne of God and the Lamb, the glorious throne, the great white throne, the eternal throne. It is a word that suggests royalty, power, authority, ruling, and reigning. Jesus is the ruling, reigning Lord who sits at the Father's right hand making intercession for us. Now, what does that have to do with God meeting my needs? Simply this, the Bible says, For all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Listen very carefully. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Scripture says that our sins have separated us from God. So therefore, the truth about our relationship to Him before there is a salvation experience is that we are sinners, that we've sinned against God, we live as we please, we do as we want to do, and our sins have separated us from God. And so, we have to ask the question. Now, listen carefully because I'm going to repeat something about four or five times. Ask yourself this question. All of us know that we've sinned against Him. Upon what basis can you go to a holy God who has no sin in His presence, God is light, there is no darkness in Him at all, the Scripture says? On what basis can you go to God the Father and pray and expect God to hear and answer your prayer? You recognize how prideful that is that you? A sinner separated by your sins from absolutely holy God, and

you're expecting Him to hear you on the basis that you have not been too bad and you've been pretty good. Now, you may not like the way I say this, but it's the truth. It is an act of pure pride and deception and ignorance and misunderstanding. Because here's what the great high priest did in the Old Testament, presented the blood of a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel. When Jesus came, He came as the great high priest. When Jesus came, He came as the Father's final and ultimate sacrifice for the sin of all mankind. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, He went to the cross as a Lamb, as the Lamb of God. He came into this world not just to teach and preach and heal, though He did those things. He came primarily in order to die and shed His blood at Calvary, and the shedding of His blood at Calvary atoned for, paid the sin debt of all mankind in full in one act and one moment of time, so that you and I would have access to holy God. If and when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, which means that we accept Him as our atoning sacrifice for our sins and receive Him as our Savior, the Son of God. Now, that's how we have access. Because now our sins have been atoned for. It is the blood of Jesus that makes it possible for us to have access to holy God. 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 sympathize. 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, let's think about that for a moment, because that's an awesome statement. Look at this passage. In that second chapter in the seventeenth verse, what He said, and He said it so clearly, Therefore, He had to be made like us. That is, the incarnation is that God the Son came in this world in the form of a baby born of the Virgin Mary. He had to be like us growing up as a child, as a teenager, and as a young man. And He says here, Therefore, He had to be made like His, brethren, in all things for a reason, so that, what? He might become merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Now, why was that? He says, For since He Himself was tempted in that which He was, He suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are Now, let's look at this for a moment. When we think about Jesus being tempted, we usually think about Jesus being in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. Do you think that's the only time He got tempted?

He was tempted, listen, He was tempted from the time He was young. He was tempted in those early years. He was tempted in His adult years. He was tempted, listen, He was tempted even to the cross. Tried in every way. Somebody says, Now, wait a minute, you mean to tell me that Jesus was tempted in every way just like we are? Well, what does it say? It says He was tempted in all points such as we. Watch this. This is the reason He says that He sympathizes with us. To sympathize with somebody is to enter into their feelings, their hurt, their pain, their losses, their whatever is going on in their life, that He was tempted in all points as we. So, whatever you might think, for example, when He began His ministry, people rejected Him. So, He understands what rejection's all about. And He was tempted by the devil to become prideful and throw Himself off the temple. He was tempted in every single possible way. He had sorrow, just like any other man would have sorrow. He certainly felt the pain and rejection of the fact that His whole nation rejected Him. So, He knows about rejection. He knows about sorrow at Lazarus' tomb. And sorrow about people who were around Him. And I think about the loneliness. He must have felt. The night of His crucifixion, before His crucifixion, all of

His disciples left Him. Of all the moments in His life that He needed the assurance and the help, He said to them, Look, will you just go over here and pray a little while? And then He went and found them asleep. He knew all about loneliness and rejection. He knew all about pain on the cross. 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 that 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? You 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. Why does He say that? Because we have a right to. But we're coming out of the blood of Jesus Christ. He's at home for us and He's opened the door. He says we're to come, listen, bolded to the throne. Now watch this, He says, bolded to the throne of grace, find mercy and help in time of need. Now watch this. Here's what mercy is. In mercy, watch this, in mercy God is not giving me what I deserve. Do you get that? In mercy, 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. Now listen, that doesn't mean irreverently and, oh, the man upstairs, him I talked to, whoever it is up there, very irreverent. We've forgotten the fact that God is holy. And we come to Him, we're to come to Him in a spirit of submission and humility and humbleness before Him. I'll tell you where you can check out whether you reverently come to Him in a spirit of submission and humility before He says, come boldly, come confidently, because I want you to come. He says, look, this is not the throne of judgment. This is not the throne of condemnation. This is not the throne of rejection. This is not the throne of rewards or final rewards. It's a throne of grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, cleansing, a new beginning, a new beginning, a new beginning, a new start, all that we need, whatever it might be. So, I want you to think about something for a moment. You say, I'm a humble person, I'm not prideful. Well, let me ask you this. If I said to you, I want to suggest to you that beginning tonight before you go to bed, that you, and whatever you need is that you want to bring to the Father, I want to suggest that here's what you do. You get on your knees beside the bed and you read this passage to God. Now, I know He knows it all. You read this passage to God and you said, Lord, You said that You know it all anyway.

And You said that... Jesus, You've shed Your blood in my behalf, and You said You understand exactly what I'm feeling and what my needs are. And You said I have the right to come to You and what I'll find mercy and grace to help in this time of need. 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 whatsoever. And 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 omnipotence, He has the power to change any 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. Or maybe some sin in your life that you don't want to give up. You don't want to lay it down. So, you're 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'll happen. You'll get serious about coming to Him. You'll get serious about your relationship to Him. You'll get serious about the recognition 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'll keep us off our knees. Pride will cause us to rationalize 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 would say to you, my friend, if you've never been saved, if you've never trusted Jesus, He's your Savior. 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. Father, You can make it any simpler than that. And we just want to say we thank You. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.