In this sermon, the speaker expresses gratitude to God for saving and bringing them into a wonderful fellowship. They emphasize the privilege of consciously enjoying God's presence each day. The speaker encourages the audience to draw near to God and experience the heartwarming and comforting presence of the Lord. They highlight the promise of God's presence and provision in the midst of turmoil and confusion. The sermon is based on Hebrews 4:14 and emphasizes the role of Jesus as our great high priest who intercedes for us.

Hebrews, chapter 4, and beginning at verse 14. Hebrews 4 and verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is fast into the heavens, he is as the Son of God, let us hold fast our professions. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This afternoon, when it was my privilege to speak here, we were looking a little at one of God's invitations as given to us in the book of Exodus, chapter 24. We were pointing out that the Bible seems to be full of invitations. Remarking, of course, that that well-known invitation, come unto me all ye that labor, and our heavy laden and I will give you rest, is probably one of the best known invitations that we have in the Bible. We thank God for the many thousands that have accepted this invitation and found it to be true. Then we were looking at that invitation in Exodus 24, where the Lord says to those who know him, at least he says to Moses who is representative of them, come up unto me and be there. God inviting Moses to come up into his holy presence and to be there. And we were noticing the number of things which Moses allowed to hinder him and delay him from accepting that invitation. And we grew the lesson that many of us in our devotional life, we put so many things first rather than to give the Lord the first part of each day. To come up into the mouth with him, that we may have that quiet time with him. I'm sure there'd be a great deal less anxiety among the people of God, a great deal more peace of mind and peace of heart if we knew more about that. Now tonight I'm looking at another invitation here in this last verse of Hebrews 4, where we have these words, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So therefore, in this verse of course, is based on what you have in the previous verses, where we are told that we have a great high priest. I don't think I shall ever forget, one time I invited a little boy who lived across the street from us in our hometown, to come with me to our little gospel service. He told his mother about this invitation, and she said, well if he'll go with you to our church, then you may go with him to his church. So he came back and told me, he said, mother says I can go with you if you'll go with me to my church. Well he was a Roman Catholic, and I'd never been in a Roman Catholic church in my life. And so I spoke to my father about it, and he said yes, he said to go with him, he said, and then make him keep his end of the bargain. So I went with him, and I was deeply impressed with the service, the pageantry of it all, and the sweet incense, and many genuflections, and all this. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I was just awestruck with it. When I came out, I couldn't help but express myself. I said, well Bill, I said, that really was wonderful. I said, now you're coming with me, aren't you, next Sunday night? Yep, he says, I'll be with you. So next Sunday night he came to our place, which was certainly plain by contrast. It was just a converted store for converted people. And we went to this store, and we had little chairs there, chain bottom, and the preacher that night was very simple, very plain. They were straightforward gospel message. When we came out, I said, well now Bill, what do you think about that? Well, he says, I guess it's all right if you're used to it, but he said, you ain't got no creed. And you know, this bothered me. Conversation stopped right there, and we went home. When I got home, and my father said, well, what did Bill say? Well, he says, I said, it'd be all right if you're used to it, but the thing that bothered him was that we ain't got no creed. Well, dad says, but we have. Well, I said, I've never seen him. Well, he says, I'll show him to you. So he took me to this portion of scripture that we have here. And this 14th verse of chapter, Hebrews 4 verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest. He said, you see son, we not only have a priest, we have a high priest. And we not only have a high priest, we have a great high priest. You know, I was really impressed. And here it was, it's Jesus the son of God. He's the priest. The one who's passed through the heavens. There he is, seated at the right hand of God in heaven tonight. I, as I was dwelling on this, I said, well, dad, what does he do for us? And my father turned me over to the seventh chapter of this same book of Hebrews. And here we have it in the seventh chapter in the 25th verse, where he says, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. I didn't know that word, intercession, for I was only a boy about 10 years old, 10 or 11. I said, what does that word mean? Well, my father said, that means he's praying for us. Intercession is praying for somebody. Well, I was fully honest. So the next day I saw Bill Waters. I said, Bill, I said, I found out last night that we do have a priest. He said, you did? He said, and you've never seen him? I said, no, but we've got one. And I had a little testament with me, and I showed him this verse. And I did what my father did with me. I emphasized the adjectives, the high priest and the great high priest. He said, yeah, but what does he do for you? I said, now, I was ready for him on that one. So I said, well, my father showed me another verse. He shows that he's making intercession. He's praying for us all the time. You know, that little fellow about my own age, and you'll excuse me if I quote him verbatim. He said, gee, it must be wonderful to have somebody praying for you all the time. Poor fellow, he, he'd been told he had to pay folks to pray for him. Yes, his parents, they were faithful in getting people to pray for them. I remember when his father died, the prayers that went up for his father's soul and how they paid to have prayers said for his father's soul. And I was just wicked enough to look in his father's hand as you lay him to test, and he had a 50 cent piece in his hand. And I said to my mother, what you got that half dollar for? She said, hush. We got outside. She said, that's to take him across Jordan. I said, what? To take him across Jordan? 50 cents. The Lord Jesus Christ had paid to get me across. Yes, with his precious blood. You can see, dear friends, that even though I wasn't a Christian at the time, I didn't really confess the Lord till I was 15 years of age, a teenager. But this thing stuck with me. One of the great truths that's been a great blessing to my life has been that the Lord Jesus is not only my savior, but he's also my advocate for restoring me when I've wandered from God, and he's my high priest to keep me out of trouble. And now this is it that the apostle is straining, he is in this in this passage of scripture here in Hebrews 4, and he says in that last verse, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. And there are two things here, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Now I understand that mercy is something that God bestows upon those who can't help themselves, they're just objects of his pity, and he bestows his mercy upon them at the throne of grace. The one who sits on that throne is none other than the one who hung up on Calvary's cross for you and for me. That's the same one seated there at the right hand of the majesty of me in the heavens tonight, with a mark of his passion stood upon him, and dispensing grace and mercy to whosoever will. But what does it mean to find grace? You know, I was much puzzled about this. How would I explain that? I can understand the mercy being shown to me, and a hell-deserving sinner, God saved me, but what about this finding grace? How do you find it, and what is it? So I took a concordance. You know what a concordance is? That's a book that has every biblical reference in it, so that you know one word in a verse in the Bible, you look up that word in your concordance in its alphabetical order, and you can find the location where it is. For instance, if you didn't know that verse that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, you could take any verse out of that, any word out of that verse, look it up in a concordance, and it would point to John 3 16. A nice book to own. I'm not in the book business, but my brother is, and I'm sure he's got plenty of them down there. I hope you'll avail yourselves of them, because one of the finest Bible study helps that I know anything about. Next to the Bible itself, the concordance, so that I can find a passage which perhaps otherwise I wouldn't be able to locate. Many of them, thank God, we now know from memory, because we've memorized whole chapters of the word of God, and therefore we know where those texts are, but then there are some texts that escape you, and the concordance is a wonderful thing. So I took the concordance and looked up this expression, finding grace, and to my utter amazement I found out that it is really an Old Testament expression. And I could see the reason, because here it's found in the book of Hebrews, which of course is written to Hebrew Christians, you see, or professing Christians, and naturally they would be acquainted with the Old Testament. And so we're going to the Old Testament tonight to find out what this expression, finding grace, really means. Now there are several places we could go. We could go to the book of Ruth, for example, and we hear Ruth using this word. She speaks of Boaz as the one after whom she wants to go and glean and find grace in his sight, and so on, the second chapter of Ruth. But I'm going back earlier than that. I'm going back to the book of Exodus again tonight, to the 33rd chapter of Exodus. Exodus chapter 33, and beginning at verse 12, Exodus 33 verse 12, And Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Evidently God told him this one day, and he never forgot it, that God knew his name. You know, it's a wonderful thing that God knows our names, isn't it? Yes, we're getting fast away from that in the United States. Instead of having names, we have numbers. Of course, it works much better on the IBM machine, you know, to have a number. But we also have names, as we are. Maybe you're just indicated by a punch hole in the card. I guess most of us are in the places where we work. But God knows us by name, and you know that suggests acquaintanceship. That suggests that there's been some relationship between the two when God says, I know thee by name. I'm asking you tonight, my friend, does he know you? Is your name written down in his book? You say, well God knows everything. Yes, but I'm using the word know, not in the sense of his omniscience, because he does know everything. But I believe the word know is used here in the sense of recognizing. You know, we use the word that way, don't we? People that go down the street, we know who they are, but we don't recognize them. Perhaps we don't want to recognize them, and therefore we can say we don't know them. Well that word is used in that way, and I believe here it is used in that sense, that God recognized Moses. He recognized him as such. He knew everybody. He knows everybody in the world. He knows you tonight. He knows exactly what your spiritual state is. If he didn't, he wouldn't be omniscient. But I'm talking about this matter of acquaintanceship, of recognition. Does he really have your name down in his book? When you say, how can you get it there? Very simple, dear friend, very simple. Once you come to the Lord Jesus Christ as a poor lost sinner, and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal savior, your name goes down in the book. It's down in the book of life, and there it is. I had this illustrated to me when I was just a kid in school. I used to get into trouble so easy. It just seemed like trouble was the easiest thing I could get into in school. We had a classroom down in the basement of old number seven, and the bell rope of the school hung right next to my sheet. Well, it was a great temptation when the teacher was writing something on the board to just give the bell a yank, which I did in the afternoon. Well, of course, immediately there was trouble upstairs, and the principal sent down to find out who was pulling the bell rope. And, of course, I was discovered and sent up to the principal. He was an old-fashioned kind that believed that the best way to cure those things was to raise the temperature of a part of your body, and he proceeded to do that. He had a little cane there that he used for that purpose. And these visits got to be rather frequent, rather frequent, but we got very well acquainted. And once in a while he said, what, you here again? Then, of course, a little note that I carried up told the story. The teacher would write a note. So one day we were going down the street. I was going down the street with the best boy in the class, Robert Draper. He used to get a P.F. on his report card, purpose. I sometimes got a P, but the F was missing. So what happened? Going down the street with this lad, and we ran into the principal. He ran his fingers through my hair, and he said, hello there. How are you doing? Oh, I said, I'm doing all right, Mr. Fitcher. He said, who's your friend? I said, don't you know him? No. I said, well, he's the best boy in the class. That's why I didn't know him. But he knew me. I was so glad to be acquainted with him, because after a while it got so, he used to say, well, now let's sit down and talk this over. And I was always so glad that I had reached maturity where he could really talk things over with me. But you know, dear friends, this is part of finding grace. This is it. It says so. Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Wonderful thing, that. You don't pay anything for this. You come to the throne of grace, and God gives it to you as a gift. But look, let's look at verse 13 in that same chapter, Exodus 33, verse 13. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. Notice a number of things that Moses associates with this finding grace. It's not only a question of knowing him by name, wonderful as that is. But the first thing he says here now in verse 13, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. In other words, dear friends, Moses wanted something more than to be known by name. He wanted to walk in the way that was pleasing to the Lord. And this is all part of finding grace. It's knowing what God wants you to do, and where he wants you to go. And this is so simple and so easy that you wonder sometimes why we make it so much of a problem. Young people coming into our offices and schools, this is another one of the great problems. How can they know the will of God for their lives? How can they know the way that they ought to go? Well, bow down at the throne of grace and say with Moses, show me now thy way. Show me now thy way. Dear friends, having proved it down the years, it's wonderful how God shows us his way. In the first place, you may be sure that if anything you're contemplating to do is contrary to something that you've seen in the word of God, that's not the way for you. That's simple enough. We cover about 50 percent of our guidance cases with just that. People say, I'm thinking of doing this, but I want to know if it's the will of the Lord. Well, let's see if this squares with the Bible. And you find the very thing that they want to do is to put it in the scriptures. For instance, here's a young woman. She wants to marry an unsaved young man. She professes to be Christian. She wants to know whether she really ought to do this. Would I pray with her that she might be guided about marrying this unsaved young fellow? I said, we don't need to pray about that. Don't need to pray about it at all, because it says right here in the book, be not an unequally yoked together with unbelievers, right there. When she said, does that mean then if I want to get married and would like to have you to do it that you wouldn't do it? I said, why no, I wouldn't do it. Oh, she said, you wouldn't? No, I wouldn't do it. Well, why not? I said, I wouldn't be guilty of joining two people together in marriage, one of them on a road to heaven and the other one on his road to hell. I said, I just don't do that. That's not the will of God. So you see, many of these things can be settled right there. God brings some text of scripture to your mind, and there it is. Show me now thy ways. But of course, there are other problems on which we do not have any direct scripture. There again, we can ask ourselves, is it consistent with the word of God that I do this? Do I have to have some specific text of scripture bearing on this, or is there something about the will of God, the way of God, that shows me this wouldn't be in keeping? This wouldn't be consistent with my testimony as a Christian. You know there are lots of personal habits which are never mentioned in the Bible. For example, I don't have any scripture which says I ought to not smoke cigarettes, but I don't smoke them. Is there a text of scripture bearing on this, or is there something about the will of God, the way of God, that shows me this wouldn't be in keeping? This wouldn't be consistent with my testimony as a Christian. You know there are lots of personal habits which are never mentioned in the Bible. For example, I don't have any scripture which says I ought to not smoke cigarettes, but I don't smoke them. I don't smoke them, and it isn't because I'm afraid of lung cancer. I really believe there is a connection between the two, but that isn't my reason, dear friends. I have several reasons for not doing that. In the first place, I'd have a guilty conscience if I were using the Lord's money to burn up his tobacco instead of putting it into his works. I'd have a guilty conscience about that. But on the other hand, how could I be free to go into some sick chamber, perhaps, and talk to someone about his or her soul if this was offensive to them? Hmm? Hey, I don't need any scripture there. This thing just doesn't fit, does it? It doesn't fit. And so, friends, we have these ways, you see, by which we can know the way of the Lord. And then you'll notice something else he says here in this 13th verse, the middle of the verse, and I think this is very precious, that I may know thee. This was a prayer of the Apostle Paul. Do you remember the third chapter of Philippians? That I may know him. You say, didn't Moses know the Lord? Yes, he knew him, but I think of something like people getting married. I've been married over 45 years, and I believe that in those 45 years we've gotten very well acquainted with each other, but you know it's wonderful to get to know each other more and more each day, getting to know the Lord better every day. But you say, brother, how do you get to know the Lord? You get to know the Lord by reading his words, spending time with him. That's how you get to know him. How did I get to know my wife? Why, we've been together these 45 years. That's how we've got to know each other. Why, she knows exactly what I like in food stuff. She knows exactly the amount of salt that I'll take. She knows. She knows how I like my coffee. I don't like to drink too much water to get a little coffee. She knows exactly how I like it, same way with the tea. And those are just little things, and sometimes people come and say, oh I've got a brand new recipe. I'm sure your husband will like it. What is it? No, she says, he just won't take it, because she knows I don't like any stuff that you have to put a lot of goo on to make it go down. I just don't. And she knows that. You get acquainted, and I'm using this crude illustration tonight, dear friends, to show that the way to get acquainted with him is to really live with him. That's finding grace, that I may know thee, as he says here. And then notice at the end of the 13th verse, he's not content with simply something that the Lord will bestow upon him personally, but he says, and consider that this nation is thy people. Oh friends, I think this is wonderful on the part of Moses. He's not content with merely getting a blessing for himself, but he wants the Lord to look down with favor upon this people of which he is one. Consider that this nation is thy people. And now notice the answer. And this 14th verse is another answer to the question, what does it mean to find grace? Let's look at this. And he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. That's finding grace. My presence shall go with thee. Let me ask you a very pointed question tonight. It was asked by, asked me some years ago, and it was a real challenge to me. And in one way it changed my whole way of living. When a brother put the question to me one day, very pointedly, he said, Carl, how long is it since you consciously enjoyed the presence of the Lord? Oh, that was a searcher. How long is it since you consciously enjoyed the presence of the Lord? Friends, this is a privilege we can have every day. My presence shall go with thee. And don't think that this is limited to the Old Testament, because the Lord Jesus in the New Testament made the same promise. He said, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. My presence. My beloved friend here tonight, my Christian friend, I hope you'll never have to live another day without enjoying this wonderful privilege of sensing, consciously sensing the presence of the Lord in your life. I would suggest, if you've never had that experience, to get along with God in your room, if that's possible. Get somewhere along with him where you can shut out the world, and just wait in his presence, till he makes his presence felt. It may take a little while at the beginning, because, well, it's so strange, isn't it? But let me tell you something, and I may be accused of being a mystic because of this, and if I am, I plead guilty to the charge. I wouldn't miss a day. I wouldn't miss a day without having that wonderful experience of sensing his presence with me. It's tremendous. He doesn't reveal himself in any visible form, but there's something so heartwarming, so glowing about the presence of the Lord when you're bound in his presence. You forget all about the cares of the world. You lay them all at his feet, and now he draws nearer. He says in his words, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. I challenge you to try it. It's tremendous. My presence shall go with thee, and then notice the effect, and I will give thee rest. Friends, in this day of turmoil, in this day of bewilderment, in this day when everything is topsy-turvy, what a promise is this. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And you won't find this in a tranquilizer bottle. You won't find this in worldly pleasure. You won't find this in some diversion that you find in the newspapers. This is something that you'll get alone with God when you sit with his precious words. You won't even need a commentary, and just have that heart-to-heart talk with him. O beloved, as one moves around, I think I'm aware of this fact that a great deal of the unrest that we see today, even amongst our own assembly folk, is due to this thing. They've never yet cultivated the presence of the Lord. As I say, it's simple. It'll take time, but it'll be time well spent. You'll never regret it. You'll be saying to yourself many times, as I said to myself after the challenge came to me, why did I waste so many morning hours? You never enjoy this. I'd rather do without an hour's sleep than to miss this. I say again, friends, this is tremendous. This is fine and great. But now let's notice verse 15 of our chapter. He said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not a pinch. Moses immediately sees how indispensable this is, and how futile it would be to attempt to go on without it. He says, For wherein shall it be known that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? See? Notice the argument he's using here. How simple, isn't it? When you put this chapter alongside of Hebrews 4.16, you say to yourself, what fullness of meaning there is in that coming boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And then you'll notice in the middle of that 16th verse, So shall we be separated. I think it's Mr. Darby's translation. I don't happen to have it with me this evening. I had it all day this evening. I left it behind, so I can't refer to it just now. But I do think Mr. Darby uses the word here, distinguished. So shall we be distinguished, I and thy people, from all the people that are from the face of the earth. And do you know what this distinction is, dear friend? Let me just give you a little hint as to what it is. You know that no Confucianist could say that Confucius is with him. Couldn't say it. So when the Christian says that the Lord is with him, he's distinguished from the Confucian. The Buddhist who bows down before the image of the Buddha, who I was told by an ex-Buddhist last week at a conference in Cedar Lake, Indiana. She gave her testimony. She's now a firm believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I said to her, I said, I was in the city of Colombo in Ceylon, and I noticed people prostrating themselves before the image of the Buddha, and putting flowers down, and actually thumping their heads against the pavement. Yes, she said, but they don't really worship the Buddha. Well, I couldn't distinguish between the two. But having stood before the image of the Buddha in the city of Colombo, Ceylon, I wondered whether those sightless eyes could ever do anything for anybody. Whether those deaf ears could ever hear anything from anybody. Whether that mouth which was dumb could ever speak a word to anybody. And it came away with a negative answer in my mind, you can't do anything for me. But herein we are distinguished. Our Savior is a living Savior. He talks with me, he walks with me. This is law and religion, that's distinction. The Muslim can't say this of Mohammed. We're distinguished from the, from the, from the Muslims. Islam has nothing like this. Friends, if you're not sold on Christianity tonight, I hope that you'll take another look at this and say to yourself, why I've ever thought of Christianity just being another one of the religions of the world. It isn't. It's in a class by itself. It's unique, it's unique. People tell us it's obsolete. Remember this, nothing is obsolete that's doing a job that nobody else can do. And the gospel is doing a job tonight that nothing else can do, and therefore it's not obsolete. I challenge them to bring anything that will do what the gospel will do. Not only in taking a person from the very depths of the gutter and the brothel, but taking any sinner and saving him, no matter what his station in life may be. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only power that will do it, and there's no other name unto heaven given among them whereby we must be saved. It's an imperative. Friends, this is unique. And then to think that the one who saves us is going to walk with us. Oh, this is wonderful. And Moses says, so we shall be distinguished. We shall be distinguished. But I must flow. Verse 17, and the Lord said unto Moses, I'll do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. He goes right back to where he started. He says, Moses, I know thee by name, and I'm going to do what you've asked me to do. This to me, dear friends, is not some special privilege extended to some particular person who may perhaps serve you. You consider much more faithful than you are. Here is something that's within the reach of every one of us here tonight who claims to be a Christian, and as we said earlier in the evening, we trust that you'll not let another day go by without enjoying it. Oh, friends, this is the secret of peace and joy in these days, these days of trimentals, these days when all the news you read upsets you, bound to upset you. But how wonderful to come back to this. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and that's not the last few hours of your life, that's your whole life. If you've been in the valley of the shadow of death ever since you were born, you'll never leave it till you get out of this world. And yet the psalmist could say, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Oh, may God grant that every one of us here tonight who claims to be a Christian will lay hold of this. You'll mark something from this conference in Oakland, California, in this month of September 1962. That may be a turning point in your life, that from this day forward you consciously enjoy the presence of the Lord and find grace in his sight. Let us pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we thank and praise thee again tonight, not only because thou hast saved us, undeserving as we were, and brought us into thy wonderful family, and brought us into this wonderful fellowship that we have with one another, but oh, to think that thou, the infinite, wonderful, majestic God of the universe, should condescend to walk with one who is contrite of heart. Blessed God, we pray that everyone here tonight who claims to be thy child may from this day forward really know each day, if only for a few moments, but to know at any rate each day what it means to consciously enjoy thy presence. To this end, bless thy word, we pray, in the name of him who loved us and gave himself for us, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.