The throne of grace is open to us. The substance of our hope is the new, living way made for us by the Blood of Christ. (Hebrews 10:19-22, Ephesians 3:9-12)

Speaker(s): Barry Quirk
Sermon 12406
11:00 AM on 11/13/2022

P. Barry Quirk –

Good morning, eleven o’clockers! I’m a foreigner here. I’m usually at the 9:00 service. It’s great to see
all your faces. Glad to see you’re still going to church, and you’re glad to see I’m still going to
church, right? Isn’t that awesome? No, it is fun to see some different faces, different locations.
Some of you are the same. You are in all of the services all of the time so that’s awesome, too.
What an awesome time of worship that was, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t it great? I love just absorbing.
We come into the presence of God and we hear the worship and it stirs us up and gets our
capacity ready for the message. Isn’t it just awesome to let God kind of take us from everything
else into this is what I want for you right now. It’s really an amazing thing, and I’m so thankful
that the heart of those that are in our worship team and that arrange for the service and pray
for it, this event, are really building the crescendo for the Word of God to come and for us to be
able to be ministered to, right?

And the beautiful thing about this church is that we’re not, weren’t not just passive participants
but we are actually, you guys are part of the production of the message and that happens by
your faith and the way that you listen and the way that we respond. It’s such a beautiful thing
to be a part of like-minded people who, you know, we kind of come here with our ears open
and we’re excited and we don’t know why sometimes but we get to hear the presence of God
and see the presence of God and we’re stirred up by it. It really is the fuel that we need for life,
isn’t it? So, may that happen this morning for those of you that are new. I’m not the normal guy
but I think it will be okay. Hang in there and come back again, alright? Fair enough? Alright.
Good. I got a couple nods.

We want to first of all this morning, this week we celebrated Veterans Day. We had a special
time in the – yes, give an applause for that. We had a special chapel in our high school, middle
school and it was really a beautiful time of testimony and reflection and encouragement and
maybe we could just have those that have either served themselves or have had close family
members that have sacrificed their life in the service of this nation. We could maybe just have
you stand for a moment so we could honor you. Could you stand up for us if you are part of
that? Beautiful. Just stay standing for just a minute. Yeah.

We want to say thank you. It’s not convenient to serve all the time, but you have served and
there’s been sacrifice and that sacrifice is why we can come this morning and open the Bible
and share it freely and not have to worry about the police barging in and shutting us down.
We’re so thankful for that. Now the rest of us, let’s stand with them. Isn’t that a beautiful
picture? Let’s stand with our military members. And let’s just have a word of prayer together.
You can take a moment and pray with the person next to you and ask God to bless this time we
have together this morning.

Please have a seat. You know what really is exhausting is trying to manage your life, isn’t it? I
just told you something about your life in case you didn’t know. That’s cause I have a life.
Sometimes people tell us, get a life! And we have lives and when we try to manage them in our
flesh, it’s pretty exhausting, isn’t it? Trying to figure out what’s next, what I’m supposed to do
or what job I’m supposed to take or how is that bill going to be met or how am I going to fix
that relational issue or – wow! It can be exhausting, can’t it? You know what is really
comforting? Entering into his rest.

Wait a minute. You can’t do that. That makes you a slugger or a slacker. No, that makes us the
wisest people on the face of the earth that we can enter into the rest that’s been given to us in
Christ. So much so that the Bible tells us to labor to enter into that rest. If you’re going to labor
in anything, make sure it’s I’m going to do everything I can to find my way into the rest of God.
So, this morning I was thinking a little bit about faith and this amazing provision hat we have in
faith. We could say this that faith is in Hebrews 11:1, faith is what? “Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

The word for “substance” there in our King James
version is the substance of things hoped for could alternately be translated as assurance,
confidence, or reality. Imagine that. Think about this: in the original Greek it says the terms
conveying the idea of substance are firm foundation, the real being, the actual existence, the
substantial nature, a resolute trust. One sense of the word refers to a title deed or a legal
document guaranteeing the rights to possess a property.

Imagine that. Faith is a firm foundation. Faith is the real being. Faith is the actual existence of
things hoped for. Faith is the substantial nature of things hoped for. Faith is a resolute trust of
things hoped for. Faith is a title deed to those things hoped for.

This is very interesting. One writer mentions this, one commentator says this, “by faith alone
we are sure of eternal things that they are.” Okay. By faith alone. “But by hope, we are
confident that we shall have them.” So really, all hope is presupposed by faith. In other words,
without faith there is no hope. Okay. Just think about that for a minute. We’ll develop that
thought a little bit.

Another writer…says this: “faith has this quality, that it can lift us into fellowship with the
unseen.” “That it can carry us within the veil. Faith thus has the power of realization by which
the invisible comes visible and the future becomes present. While hope is the confident
anticipation of a future regarded as future, faith appropriates that future as an experience in
the present.” Isn’t that awesome.

Faith is the assurance. It’s the assurance of things hoped for. We have a way that we have
embraced because sometimes that’s what’s been put in front of us and it’s very exhausting. It’s
very tiresome. But there is a new and a better way, a new and living way. There is a way when I put my trust in Christ and operate in that way, there’s not the burden of sin. There’s not the
burden of death. There’s the resurrection life that comes with the fellowship in Christ Jesus. It
lifts us up from the miry pit and takes us out and brings us into an even place where we can
have fellowship with God.

So, let’s think about this a little bit. Hebrews 10:19-22, if you want to turn there. Faith is substance,
right? Faith is substance.

#2. There is no hope without faith. Faith is something that becomes
very concrete not because of anything we have performed but because of the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ. God is faithful. Therefore, faith is real. If it’s up to me to be faithful, then faith is
intermittent, it’s powerful for a moment and then it fizzles out. But because the underlying
power behind faith is God who is faithful, God who endured all the way to the cross the
suffering and the shame. God who took upon himself all of the things that separated us from
him and he paid the price so we can have fellowship together with him. That’s why we can have
hope.

Do you know what hope is? Hope is an expectation that has real end when we are talking about
it in this way. That ELPSIS hope – that’s the word in the Greek – that hope is the fulfillment or
the expected end of what we are putting our hope in. We can literally have an expected end to
our hope because of the faithfulness of God. Because of who he is.

So, I wonder how many times have we come to the church service or to the Bible study or in
our personal fellowship and kind of obediently meandered our way there. And again, I’ve been
there, done that. We come. This is what we are supposed to do. It’s the church service. We’re
Christians, so we come to the church service and then we say, okay. I’m here, God. If you have
something to say, go ahead and say it.

Or we can come in and say you know what? I have no idea what’s going to happen but I know
that God has something to say this morning. God has something to say to me. God has
something to say to his Body. God takes great pleasure, great pleasure in Luke 12:32. He says,
“fear not little flock. It is my good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” I enjoy this. I want you to
come together. I want to give you fellowship. I want to give you joy. I want to give you
corrective, chiropractic work upon occasion.

Anybody feel that before? A little chiropractic therapy? You come out of the church service
going, ahh! Wow! Do I feel good. Man, I got worked over. Halleluiah! I got worked over! The
flesh is no longer there in those areas that God was dealing with, right? The Spirit gave me life.
What did I have to do in that church service? Did you have to jump up and down? Did they
count how much faith you had? Did it depend on how much money you gave in the offering?
Did it depend upon how your countenance was? No, it depended upon the faithfulness of God.

The hope that I have is because of the substance of God which produces something called faith.
I hope we get this this morning. It’s such a rich thought. We come here by faith, by faith. What
do you mean you come here by faith? I come here knowing that God is God and I am who I am.
We are not here to concentrate on who I am. We are here to concentrate on who He is. Isn’t
that beautiful? We are here to fellowship in the richness of the character and the nature of God
which does away with all the shortcomings of us in the plan.

We’re still here by the way. We still wake up in the morning. You still look in the mirror. You still
put a foot on the floor as you’re getting out of bed. But in those moments, cant we say thank
God for the faithfulness of God? Thank God when I look in the mirror and scared by who I am.
Sometime I am! But we look in the mirror and say, wow! In Christ, I am something beautiful. I’m
the reflection of the glory of God. Isn’t that a beautiful thought?

Maybe you came in here condemned this morning because of your life. If the life is not dealt
with, then sure we are going to be condemned. But the beautiful thing is the life is dealt with.
Okay. Christ dealt with that. Christ on the cross dealt with that. So, we come unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith.

The Israelites, when they were in the wilderness and being bitten by the serpents, they had to
look up. They couldn’t look at the wounds. They had to look up. And there was healing. When
they looked unto Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, there was healing. When
they were occupied with their shortcomings, when they were occupied with the wounds, they
experienced death. Sound familiar? Have we been in the battle? Have we been challenged?
Have we been filled with some kind of wound? And the more we look at that wound, the more
that it becomes festering. It becomes a root of bitterness and starts to affect others.

Did you know that my own walk with God can affect others in a positive way? Or my own lack
of faith and bitterness could affect others in a bitterness way? What am I feasting on? No
wonder he says feast on the lamb, because the lamb is the sacrifice, right? The lamb was given
so there would be no more remembrance of sin. If we feast on our wounds, what are we
feasting on? I’m hurt. I’m challenged. I’m suffering. My pain, my trouble, my difficulty. My, my,
my, my. It’s like the sea gulls in – me, me, me, me, me. I don’t even know what show it is. You
know. Me, me, me, me, me. How about him, him, him, him, him?

How about him, him, him. How about the devil tries a fiery dart at us and we say too bad it’s not up to me. If it was me,
you might have some place to go, Satan. But guess what? It’s not me. It’s him. It’s him.
I talked to P. Scibelli just for a brief second. He was getting in the car going to Wilmington,
Delaware to preach. Africa, Delaware, India. P. Scibelli just grabs the hem of his garment and
follows after him somewhere. He’s running through the maze. You don’t know where he is
going. He said what are you going to preach on? The armor of God? I said actually, I was going
to preach on faith. Well, they just preached on the armor of God and a good battle. He said if

you don’t have the armor of God, it’s not a good battle. Wow. That’s incredible. If we don’t
have the armor of God, good luck.
Anyone here ever fight a battle in the energy of your own flesh? It's exhausting. It’s tiresome.
What do we get out of it? We get bruised and hurt and injured. Or we can put on the armor of
God and let the battle be won for us. I don’t know about you but that’s what I’m opting for.
I thought about preaching about the doctrine of election. Not talking about elections any type,
way, shape or form! Can you imagine how we could be consumed with things? It didn’t go the
way I thought or better than I thought or went worse than I thought?

Who cares because ultimately God has a provision for us no matter where we stand. Imagine that! Imagine that!
God in the midst of a difficult day or whatever kind of day you want to see it as, has a plan for
us. We are in the midst of that plan and it’s so challenging sometimes to try and figure your way
forward when you don’t see yourself in the plan of God.

When we don’t see ourself in the plan of God, it’s like this is going to be awesome. God has
deliverance. How are you going to get out of that situation? I don’t know. The good thing is I’m
not. God is going to. God has. God is. God does. You know, we pray in the morning, Lord, would
you please come and visit me in my life? He’s like, what do you mean would you please? How
about God, thank you for coming to visit me in my life. Thank you that I am filled with your
Spirit. Thank you that I have the joy of the Lord as my strength. Well, you didn’t see me when I
woke up this morning. I didn’t have to. I saw me. And believe me, if it can work for me then it’s
nothing for you.

That’s the way God works. He is all powerful. He is Almighty. He is faithful. And faithful is he
who has begun a good work who will do it. He’s going to continue it. When? Until the very end.
Until he comes back for us. He’s faithful to us. He’s seated at the right hand of the Father
making intercession for us right now. He is our high priest in the holy of holies. His blood has
been sprinkled on the mercy seat so we can experience the Shekinah glory of God. What is all
that? It means that God has ripped the veil that has kept me from being able to enter into his
holy of holies. He ripped it in a manner that allows me bold access, so that I can come in a weak
sinner, saved by the grace of God and I can enter into his holy of holies and I can have
fellowship with the Almighty God.

So, what do I want to have in my life. Do I want to have a way that leaves me exhausted? A way
that is tiresome? A way that doesn’t have an answer? It just has suffering and frustration and
pain. Or do I want to put myself in the way of God. By the way, it might actually include some
pain and some suffering and some tiredness and it will all be to the glory of God. Because in the
end, it’s his battle. He has won it. He’s drawn me into it. He’s called me to it. And he’s faithful to
do it. Isn’t that awesome? It’s the faithfulness of God.

So, we wake up in the morning and we say today God, not my will but thy will be done. P.
Schaller has mentioned a few times when he went to visit a church up in New York that he
spoke at a seminar. There was a pastor there that had a million person church and he was
asked how do you manage all of that? How do you manage a million people? And he said, well,
I wake up in the morning and I ask God, what is your will for me today and then I do it. End of
story. God is the one who knows what’s needed, so God provides the provision. God asks of us
to be available to him so that he can use us as a vessel to provide what’s needed by his
faithfulness. And we’ll be a conduit of faithfulness to others. There is a new and living way. A
new way, a living way.

Did you know there was an old way? Do you remember the old way? Come into the holy of
holies as the high priest offers the sacrifice from self first and then come back out and offer the
sacrifice for the people. What happens if he did it the wrong way? They had to reel him in.
honestly. And was it effective for all the time? No, it wasn’t. Actually, the law was weak in that
we couldn’t live up to it, right? The law was righteous. The law was perfect. We were weak in it.
We couldn’t live up to the requirements of the law. Beautiful. We get that message.

But do you know what’s next? The faithfulness of God. The one time sacrifice that satisfies
everything that is needed so that I have bold access to the throne of grace. The mercy seat. The
holy of holies. That sounds a little far off but how about in your practical life? How about I step
off the public transportation or I step out of my car or I’m walking somewhere or I’m just seeing
people and I get some kind of oppressive feeling or there is some kind of challenging situation
or there is some kind of difficulty and I say, thank you, God. Thank you, God.

You’re sticking your head into the sand. You’re not confronting reality. No, you’re right. I’m not
confronting reality. Christ is. And I’m placing myself in Christ. Because I have bold access. That
access was made legitimate by the blood of Jesus Christ. That blood has effectiveness for all of
us for all of eternity. We place our trust in Christ. He is faithful. He is faithful and he is just.
Right, 1 John 1:9. We confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.

Even in our daily life, Lord, I want to walk with you. There are things that get in the way. I am
faithful. I am just. I am faithful. I will. I have. I forever will. I’m just. I’m able to. It is my legal
ability to do that and I have chosen to do that. The only one. The only one. The only lamb
without blemish or without spot. The only one qualified, paid the price so we can have eternal
life. It’s a new and better way.

The world has this thought about faith and hope and love. It goes something like this. Love is
what makes me feel good, right? Love is what makes me feel good. Oh, I love that. Or oh, I love
you until you cross me. They say people in the United Sates are like the weather. I grew up in
New England where it’s a little cold. People tend to be a little cold. You get to the mid-Atlantic.

They’re a little warmer. In the South, they are so warm and “why, good to see you!” But don’t
walk across the yard. The shotgun is trained, right? Get off my yard! I lived in the South. I’ve
lived in the mid-Atlantic. People are people. People are people. We all have need of Jesus
Christ. It’s nice that we have a little different temperament if the weather is nice. But it’s very
limited, isn’t it?

The first thing that comes upon us to push us outside of our little comfort zone and we’re
people again. We’re people again. I love you. Well, actually, couldn’t we say for the most part in
many instances that we could interchange that word with, “I lust you”? Couldn’t we? As long as
you give me some benefit, I love you. Well, the difference between love and lust is very clear.
Love is something that is done for the benefit of others and lust is something that is done for
the benefit of me. I lust you. There’s no lasting results from lust. Actually, lust becomes what?
Death. Right? It becomes death.

We shoot the arrow of intention to find out what is going to cause somebody to have joy in
their life. We do it and we find it and we’re so happy because we found the thing. We go try the
second time and it didn’t work. Why? Because they’re people. They’re not robots. They don’t
respond to one initiation the same way ever time. They might have had a bad morning or a bad
afternoon. They might not be in the Spirit. They might be in the flesh. They might have a
different thought about life today than they had yesterday.

Well, guess what? If I’m looking for result then every time I shoot the arrow, it’s a shot in the
dark. And every result I get is a lucky result. By the way, pot luck on the dinner for Thanksgiving.
It kind of like has a strange – potluck? Somebody bring some food. It’s like structured potluck
maybe. We have a different approach to that. Your name is there and if you’re lucky, if we’re
lucky, you’ll do your part.

Initiation when it’s done to benefit myself has failure built into it. When I initiate in the mind of
Christ which is really completely sacrificial without any personal benefit other than pleasing the
Father. He gave. He gave. The Father gave the Son, right? So, when we initiate in love and we
don’t have an expectation back in lust, then we are not dissatisfied. Because the source of our
initiation is God who is faithful and who meets my every need. It’s not out of my own deficiency
that I initiate. It’s out of the overflow of life that I have from having the grace of God poured
into my life. God is in me. God is faithful to himself, to his own vow. God is faithful. God is
diligently performed that thing which allows me to have boldness into the throne of grace.
In closing here, a couple other things. Hope in the world is wishful thinking. It’s wishful thinking.
I hope I get to do that. I hope I have enough money. I hope I have that friendship.

I hope we win the game. I hope I can get to school. I hope. But what’s the reality? It’s wishful thinking. I hope I
win the 1.9 billion dollar lottery jackpot. Well, if you don’t play, you’re not going to win and chances are you don’t play. If you do play, you probably shouldn’t. That’s why there’s 1.9 billion
dollars. Nobody every wins it! Hope, right.

Faith is believing without evidence. These are the world’s definitions. You Christians, you just
walk around with a crutch. I can see how you would think that way. You obviously have never
experienced the flood of grace that comes from a relationship with a loving Father that is not
interested in how badly I failed or how I responded to his grace and drew myself back into his
presence by his gift of grace and gave me bold access to his throne of mercy. And gave me an
opportunity to have my life hid in him and to have all those things that would seem to be marks
against me become the strength that he provides because of his overwhelming gift of mercy
and grace. I understand why you think that way.

But now it’s time to enter into the throne room of grace and have God revolutionize how we
experience life, how we make our decisions, how we receive when we come to the church
service. Today, God wants to give me something that will help me for the rest of my life. Every
church service. Imagine that. Adam and Eve were in the Garden in the cool of the day. He
ministered the Word to them. We have the similar opportunity every church service, every time
we open this book. Every time we have fellowship one with another.

Do you know that as members in particular in the Body of Christ that you have something to
offer that comes from the throne of God. I can receive a portion of the throne of God from you
when you express to me what’s going on in your life with Christ. I learn grace and mercy. Wow,
we need the Body of Christ. We need the message. We need the book. We need to be drawn
into his presence. We need to be filled with his life. Thank God we are drawn into his presence.
We are filled with the book. We do live by faith. What we have has been given unto us and we
boldly have access and we receive it with the same boldness and the same joy.

So, we have a new and living way and maybe that’s where we’ll finish. In Hebrews 10;20. It’s the
new and living way. The world only knows the old way. Satan would love to keep us in the old
way, the way that was not capable and that it was weak through the flesh. My flesh gravitates
to the old way, a way that there is no standards, only standards and a realization that it’s only
by the grace of God that I can be living above in his new and living way.

So, today, what do we know? We know the new and living way gives us assurance. It gives us
hope. It gives us boldness. And actually, it gives us a ministry. We are made ministers of the
new and living way in Ephesians 3:7. Then it goes on to say in vs. 8. Does it say we are perfect or
qualified or we are able? No, it doesn’t. It says least of the least, the Apostle Paul says. Vs. 9.
What is the fellowship of the mystery. Make all men see what? What is the fellowship of the
mystery. Not my ways but his ways. Make all men see it. vs. 11-12. Amen.

God is faithful. God has given us boldness. God has given us incredible access. God has given us
hope. He’s given us a ministry. And he’s given us comfort from fear because of a new and living
way. Would you bow your heads, please.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.