Lie #2

Many Paths Lead into God’s Presence 

 

Intro:  I have heard people say that, people find God in different ways. Christianity is but one path to the divine.” These folks say they prefer spirituality to religion; they search for experience rather than truth. They believed in a pantheis­tic god, a force that need not be feared.

In our pluralistic nation spirituality is flourishing and with it a growing confidence that there are many ways to reach God. Creeds are out, feelings are in.

Christianity is being so redefined that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish it from Buddhism or other Eastern religious ideas. We can now be spiritual without God, without “beliefs.” And with this drift to pantheism, we also have growing intolerance toward historic Christianity. At a state university a sign read, “It is OK for you to think you are right. It is not OK for you to think someone else is wrong?’ In the last decade sin has been defined out of existence, but if one sin still exists, it is think­ing someone else is wrong. Truth, we are told, is not something to be discovered; it is something to be made up, something to be manufac­tured either individually or by consensus. One’s feelings are more important than, say, the words of Jesus.

Our pluralistic culture rejects outright the claim that God can be approached in only one way. All that the Southern Baptists have to do is ask their members to pray that their Jewish friends would recognize Christ as their Messiah, and a storm of protest erupts. The unity of all the world religions seems like such a worthy goal that those who oppose it are perceived as arrogant, bigoted, and yes, intolerant.

If secularism banished God from the heavens, spirituality has found God among us. In fact, according to current spiritual thought, He is in everything around us. The Creator is no longer sacred; the creature is. We are told our self is sacred, the earth is sacred, animals are sacred, and so on. Such thinking attributes the glory that should be reserved for God to His cre­ation, just as Paul described: “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom. 1:22—23).

Contemporary spirituality defines God as an equal-opportunity employer, the universal source of energy, waiting to be tapped by all of us. What we believe is not important; the challenge is to understand our­selves in light of this higher power that is already within us. If we need forgiveness, we must simply grant it to ourselves; we have broken the commands of no personal God. Since there is no God to offend, there is no God whose forgiveness we must seek. The craze is self salvation by self-knowledge. 

In the next few moments we shall speak of the severity of God, His uncompromising holiness and even anger. But later we shall speak of the grace of God, His acceptance of vile, undeserving sinners. The word holiness awakens our consciousness of sin, but God does not leave us there. He picks us up, makes us clean, and gives us the gift of righteous­ness that we truly need. In the end we will “feel better”—much better! 

1. APPROACHING GOD 

A.       A Way That Seems Right

1.       The Bible has two warnings for us.

a.       First, it warns against remaking God according to our liking. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3) is the first commandment. The words were freshly chiseled on Moses’ tablet of stone when the Israelites violated the commandment by fashioning a golden god in the form of a calf. As we learned in our last lesson, today we commit idolatry by setting up an idol in our hearts.

b.      Secondly, we must approach Him in the right way. Even in evangelical churches we often hear that it does not matter how we come to God, just that we come. But some people in the Bible learned otherwise.

2.       Cain and Abel disagreed on how to worship God.

a.       Abel brought the sacrifice from the flrstlings of his flock; Cain was more creative, think­ing he could come to God in whatever way he pleased.

b.       But God cared little about how much his offering cost him; he did not bring the cor­rect offering, so he was rejected (Gen. 4:5).

c.        The New Testament speaks of those who “have gone the way of Cain’ that is, those who think they can make themselves worthy to come to God. But Cain learned that pro­cedures are important.

3.       Nadab and Abihu were Aaron’s sons and Moses’ nephews. They were consecrated to God, the seminary students of the day, training for “full-time ministry.”

a.       One day they offered to the Lord “unauthorized fire.” and God replied in kind: “So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:2).

b.       We are tempted to charge God with overreacting. These were young men who deserved a second chance; furthermore, they were sons of Aaron, the high priest. We would expect a bit of leeway. But right there at the altar of God, Nadab and Abihu faced immediate annihilation— no trial, no second chance.

c.        Why did God do this? God Himself explained: ‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (Lev. 10:3). Moses asked two men to retrieve the men’s bodies and carry them to their burial; we read that they were still wear­ing their tunics.

d.       Moses told Aaron that he had better not create a scene over this incident or he might die too. He was not to leave the Tent of Meeting but to stay there until calm returned to the area.

4.       Not everything is sacred, but God is. Your self is important, but it isn’t sacred; the earth is important, but it isn’t sacred. The mistake of these men was not that they came to the wrong God; they just approached the right God in the wrong way. They thought they could dispense with the instruction book. But they learned the hard way that just any way will not do.

5.       If we approach God incorrectly, not much else matters. We might not be smitten down in this life but in the end we will experience eternal judgment. Think of the surprise of those who expected to be in heaven, but find themselves on the wrong side of the celestial gates!

B.       So how do we approach God?

1.       The good news is that the issue is not the greatness of our sin, but rather the value of God’s prescribed approach.

2.       We are invited to come into the “Most Holy Place.” but we can­not come alone.

3.       Keep in mind that God did not choose the attributes He has.

a.       His holiness, justice, and power are a given; He must be true to Himself.

b.       We dare not fall into the error of emphasizing the compassion of God to the exclusion of His justice and holiness.

c.        Nor dare we empha­size His justice and holiness without balancing these attributes with His love and mercy. The omnipotence of God without mercy is terrifying; the holiness of God without grace leads to despair.

4.       Because God is holy, sin is a personal affront to His beauty, His holi­ness, and His character. If we think we can approach Him directly, it is because we do not understand Him or ourselves.

5.       Augustine was right when he said, “He who understands the holiness of God despairs in try­ing to appease him.”  

2. FOLLOWING PROTOCOL

 

ILLUSTRATION : I’m told that when visitors have an audience with a king or queen, they are briefed on expected procedures. It would be strange indeed if God could be approached directly, without any thought given to the infinite ‘chasm that exists between us and His holiness. The more unlike us God is, the more attention we must pay to how we approach Him.

A.       God has meticulously spelled out the proper way for us to come into His presence.

1.       Let us review a bit of data from the Old Testament. In those times, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies one day a year—the Day of Atonement.

2.       The Holy of Holies, you will recall, was a small room in which God localized His presence. True, God exists every­where, but this was the place where He chose to reveal His glory on earth.

3.       When a priest prepared to enter the holiest room, according to the historian Josephus, a rope was tied around his ankle. That way, if he failed to follow procedure and God struck him down, the other priests could pull him out without having to go into the room themselves. Yes, you follow the prescribed path.

4.       When Martin Luther offered his first Mass, midway through, he froze. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. Paralysis struck him as he began to say the words, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, eternal God.. ‘ Later he explained: At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable pygmy say, ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God?’7

5.       Such words are strange to the modern ear. We hear people prattle on about God as if there is no reason to fear, no reason to feel unwor­thy.

6.       Such audacity only proves that those who are truly blind cannot appreciate the light; those who are dead do not feel the weight of sin that resides in their souls.

7.       When Moses longed to see the glory of God, the word was, “No man can see Me and live” Today, modern man self-confidently trapezes into the presence of God without the slightest thought that it might be a bad idea.

8.       Why do we need to follow the rules?

a.       First, because the moral dis­tance between us and God is infinite. When it comes to matters of purity, God and man share no common ground. The seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Holiness is God’s most distinctive attribute. We’ve already learned that everything about Him is holy: His love is a holy love; His anger is a holy anger; His justice is a holy justice.

b.       Then there is the gap between us and God’s majesty and greatness. His purposes are beyond us; His intentions are hidden, except insofar as he reveals them. Our first question is not whether He agrees with us, but whether we come to Him in a way that agrees with Him. It is not we who must be pleased; it is He.

9.       How, then, do we reach Him? The consistent teaching of the Bible is that we cannot reach up to Him if He does not first reach down to us.

10.    The Old Testament prescribed a ritual by which man was to approach God. The ritual’s purpose was to teach the people about God’s holiness and the need to approach Him as specified. In the New Testament that Mediator has come. 

3. AN ACCEPTABLE MEDIATOR 

A.       All entrance into the presence of God is mediated; that is, we need someone who can represent our interests as well as those of the offended party, who in this case is God.

1.       Similarly, it is practically impossible for an ordinary citizen to get the ear of the president of the United States on his own. He needs someone who knows the presi­dent, someone who has an “inside track’ to make the connection. God, of course, is the President of the universe, and we have offended His justice.

2.       In Old Testament times the priests were chosen to serve as media­tors, but because they were sinners their work was ineffective for final absolution of sin. They represented Christ, who would eventually “take away the sin of the world’ as John the Baptist put it. Read this passage, keeping in mind the contrast between the priests of the Old Testament and Christ. 

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sac­rifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Heb. 10:11—14) 

3.       In the Old Testament many priests offered sacrifices; in fact, they worked in shifts. But Christ, who lives forever, offered one sacrifice for all time.

4.       The previous sacrifices could take care of only past sins, which is why they had to be reoffered. But we read of Christ, “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (v. 14, emphasis mine). The priests of the old order were not allowed to sit down while working their shift. But Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father because His work was finished!

5.       Perhaps now we understand why there are not many ways into God’s presence. Only one Person is able to meet God’s requirements for a mediator. Only one Person can give us the perfection we need to stand with confidence in the presence of the Almighty: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

6.       I know you’ve heard someone say, “I have not left Christianity but just moved beyond it into spirituality.” This is a popular “progression” these days. But strictly speaking, if you move “beyond” Christianity, you must abandon it. Whenever you try to add to it, you subtract from it. Those who surrender the uniqueness of Christ do not simply abandon a part of the gospel message; they abandon the whole of it.

7.       Mathematics, like all truth, reminds us that there is only one way to be right, but many ways to be wrong.

8.       If our faith is in Christ, we can expect no complications at the bor­der when we make the journey from earth to heaven. Our Representative is already there, seated in our stead, assuring that we have a safe arrival. God does business with us by doing business with Christ.

9.       To stand in the presence of God without representation would be like standing a hundred yards from the sun; God’s holiness would liquefy us. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time” (1 Tim. 2:5—6).

10.    Let us not dare to think we can enter God’s presence alone. 

4. AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE 

A.       Why is a sacrifice necessary for the atonement of sin?

1.       Justice demands it. A simple traffic ticket cannot be forgiven without a payment. We are guilty of serious infractions of God’s law; indeed, we are an offense to His holiness. Thus we cannot enter unless God’s wrath is turned away. “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14): in the presence of Christ we stand both guilty and accepted; unworthy, yet honored.

2.       There are some sacrifices God will not accept.

a.       One is the gift of sin­cerity; some think God should receive them because they mean well.

b.       Another is the gift of service; some remember all the good they have done and think God owes them acceptance for their basic decency.

c.        A third is the gift of their own spiritual quest.

d.       And many bring the gift of guilt; they flagellate themselves, believing that if they feel sorry enough, they will pay for their own sins and God will accept them.

3.       Martin Luther has a word for such people: “What makes you think that God is more pleased with your good deeds than he is with his blessed son?”

4.       Yes, we must bring an offering, a sacrifice to God, but it cannot be of our own making if we are to win His approval. It must be the sacrifice He Himself made for us.

5.       A sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed. Because our sin is against an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite value. It follows that only God can supply the sacrifice that He Himself demands.

6.       That is the meaning of the gospel: God met His own requirements for us. That is the story of what God did for us. Christ’s death on the cross repaired the irreparable. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” 


5. AN ACCEPTABLE ATTITUDE 

Let’s read carefully our invitation into God’s presence: 

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19—22) 

A.               We come with our mediator and our sacrifice; we come with the knowledge that Christ is fully accepted, and therefore, we are too. Here we join hands with other sinners: the religious zealot stands with the prostitute; the righteous churchgoer finds himself alongside the murderer.

1.       Rather than driving us away from God, our guilt has driven us toward Him. The more clearly we see our sin, the more clearly we must see the won­der of Christ’s sacrifice and intercession.

“Therefore, since we have been justified though faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Rom. 5:1—2).

2.       Paul means much more than the fact that we have God’s ear when we come to Him through Christ. The word access means that we are brought directly into the citadel of God’s presence; we stand in the Holy of Holies.

3.       Now imagine that all believers in Christ were to die together. When we arrive on the other side of the gate called death, Jesus comes to join us on our journey enroute to our heavenly home. We go past one sen­try of angels standing guard on the path to the New Jerusalem. They look at Christ, then glance at us and say, “You’re with Him. Go on in.” Then we pass another band of angels and yet another. Each time, they look at Christ and then glance at us and say, “You’re with Him. Go on in.” Finally, we near the very dwelling place of God. We are almost blinded by what the Scriptures call “unapproachable light’ For a moment we have a flashback, remembering our sins and failures. Among us are women who had abortions; the prostitute referred to earlier is there with us. Former adulterers stand with homosexuals, thieves with the covetous; all of these, were redeemed and cleansed by Christ’s blood. Among the group also are many who were spared such evils, though they struggled with similar sins in their minds. The flashback is so pow­erful, so real, each of us protests, “I can’t go in! I can’t go in!” But the angels at the gate of the dwelling place of God look at Jesus, then they glance at us and say, “You’re with Him.... Go on in!” And so it is that Christ ushers us into the presence of Almighty God.

4.       Don’t ever think that there are many ways to the divine. Jesus is the one qualified mediator, the only qualified sacrifice, and the only qualified Savior. 

5. A PERSONAL RESPONSE 

If our trust is in Christ, we will share His triumph in heaven. The following description is a powerful reminder that there is only one Man at the center of the universe, one Man who is able to bring us into God’s presence. John’s Book of Revelation records the praise offered this man: 

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:   Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5:9—12)

 

Let us thank Him for introducing us to the Father and inviting us to the table for fellowship with Him.

Lie

Lie #2

Many Paths Lead into God’s Presence 

 

Intro:  I have heard people say that, people find God in different ways. Christianity is but one path to the divine.” These folks say they prefer spirituality to religion; they search for experience rather than truth. They believed in a pantheis­tic god, a force that need not be feared.

In our pluralistic nation spirituality is flourishing and with it a growing confidence that there are many ways to reach God. Creeds are out, feelings are in.

Christianity is being so redefined that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish it from Buddhism or other Eastern religious ideas. We can now be spiritual without God, without “beliefs.” And with this drift to pantheism, we also have growing intolerance toward historic Christianity. At a state university a sign read, “It is OK for you to think you are right. It is not OK for you to think someone else is wrong?’ In the last decade sin has been defined out of existence, but if one sin still exists, it is think­ing someone else is wrong. Truth, we are told, is not something to be discovered; it is something to be made up, something to be manufac­tured either individually or by consensus. One’s feelings are more important than, say, the words of Jesus.

Our pluralistic culture rejects outright the claim that God can be approached in only one way. All that the Southern Baptists have to do is ask their members to pray that their Jewish friends would recognize Christ as their Messiah, and a storm of protest erupts. The unity of all the world religions seems like such a worthy goal that those who oppose it are perceived as arrogant, bigoted, and yes, intolerant.

If secularism banished God from the heavens, spirituality has found God among us. In fact, according to current spiritual thought, He is in everything around us. The Creator is no longer sacred; the creature is. We are told our self is sacred, the earth is sacred, animals are sacred, and so on. Such thinking attributes the glory that should be reserved for God to His cre­ation, just as Paul described: “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom. 1:22—23).

Contemporary spirituality defines God as an equal-opportunity employer, the universal source of energy, waiting to be tapped by all of us. What we believe is not important; the challenge is to understand our­selves in light of this higher power that is already within us. If we need forgiveness, we must simply grant it to ourselves; we have broken the commands of no personal God. Since there is no God to offend, there is no God whose forgiveness we must seek. The craze is self salvation by self-knowledge. 

In the next few moments we shall speak of the severity of God, His uncompromising holiness and even anger. But later we shall speak of the grace of God, His acceptance of vile, undeserving sinners. The word holiness awakens our consciousness of sin, but God does not leave us there. He picks us up, makes us clean, and gives us the gift of righteous­ness that we truly need. In the end we will “feel better”—much better! 

1. APPROACHING GOD 

A.       A Way That Seems Right

1.       The Bible has two warnings for us.

a.       First, it warns against remaking God according to our liking. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3) is the first commandment. The words were freshly chiseled on Moses’ tablet of stone when the Israelites violated the commandment by fashioning a golden god in the form of a calf. As we learned in our last lesson, today we commit idolatry by setting up an idol in our hearts.

b.      Secondly, we must approach Him in the right way. Even in evangelical churches we often hear that it does not matter how we come to God, just that we come. But some people in the Bible learned otherwise.

2.       Cain and Abel disagreed on how to worship God.

a.       Abel brought the sacrifice from the flrstlings of his flock; Cain was more creative, think­ing he could come to God in whatever way he pleased.

b.       But God cared little about how much his offering cost him; he did not bring the cor­rect offering, so he was rejected (Gen. 4:5).

c.        The New Testament speaks of those who “have gone the way of Cain’ that is, those who think they can make themselves worthy to come to God. But Cain learned that pro­cedures are important.

3.       Nadab and Abihu were Aaron’s sons and Moses’ nephews. They were consecrated to God, the seminary students of the day, training for “full-time ministry.”

a.       One day they offered to the Lord “unauthorized fire.” and God replied in kind: “So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:2).

b.       We are tempted to charge God with overreacting. These were young men who deserved a second chance; furthermore, they were sons of Aaron, the high priest. We would expect a bit of leeway. But right there at the altar of God, Nadab and Abihu faced immediate annihilation— no trial, no second chance.

c.        Why did God do this? God Himself explained: ‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (Lev. 10:3). Moses asked two men to retrieve the men’s bodies and carry them to their burial; we read that they were still wear­ing their tunics.

d.       Moses told Aaron that he had better not create a scene over this incident or he might die too. He was not to leave the Tent of Meeting but to stay there until calm returned to the area.

4.       Not everything is sacred, but God is. Your self is important, but it isn’t sacred; the earth is important, but it isn’t sacred. The mistake of these men was not that they came to the wrong God; they just approached the right God in the wrong way. They thought they could dispense with the instruction book. But they learned the hard way that just any way will not do.

5.       If we approach God incorrectly, not much else matters. We might not be smitten down in this life but in the end we will experience eternal judgment. Think of the surprise of those who expected to be in heaven, but find themselves on the wrong side of the celestial gates!

B.       So how do we approach God?

1.       The good news is that the issue is not the greatness of our sin, but rather the value of God’s prescribed approach.

2.       We are invited to come into the “Most Holy Place.” but we can­not come alone.

3.       Keep in mind that God did not choose the attributes He has.

a.       His holiness, justice, and power are a given; He must be true to Himself.

b.       We dare not fall into the error of emphasizing the compassion of God to the exclusion of His justice and holiness.

c.        Nor dare we empha­size His justice and holiness without balancing these attributes with His love and mercy. The omnipotence of God without mercy is terrifying; the holiness of God without grace leads to despair.

4.       Because God is holy, sin is a personal affront to His beauty, His holi­ness, and His character. If we think we can approach Him directly, it is because we do not understand Him or ourselves.

5.       Augustine was right when he said, “He who understands the holiness of God despairs in try­ing to appease him.”  

2. FOLLOWING PROTOCOL

 

ILLUSTRATION : I’m told that when visitors have an audience with a king or queen, they are briefed on expected procedures. It would be strange indeed if God could be approached directly, without any thought given to the infinite ‘chasm that exists between us and His holiness. The more unlike us God is, the more attention we must pay to how we approach Him.

A.       God has meticulously spelled out the proper way for us to come into His presence.

1.       Let us review a bit of data from the Old Testament. In those times, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies one day a year—the Day of Atonement.

2.       The Holy of Holies, you will recall, was a small room in which God localized His presence. True, God exists every­where, but this was the place where He chose to reveal His glory on earth.

3.       When a priest prepared to enter the holiest room, according to the historian Josephus, a rope was tied around his ankle. That way, if he failed to follow procedure and God struck him down, the other priests could pull him out without having to go into the room themselves. Yes, you follow the prescribed path.

4.       When Martin Luther offered his first Mass, midway through, he froze. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. Paralysis struck him as he began to say the words, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, eternal God.. ‘ Later he explained: At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable pygmy say, ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God?’7

5.       Such words are strange to the modern ear. We hear people prattle on about God as if there is no reason to fear, no reason to feel unwor­thy.

6.       Such audacity only proves that those who are truly blind cannot appreciate the light; those who are dead do not feel the weight of sin that resides in their souls.

7.       When Moses longed to see the glory of God, the word was, “No man can see Me and live” Today, modern man self-confidently trapezes into the presence of God without the slightest thought that it might be a bad idea.

8.       Why do we need to follow the rules?

a.       First, because the moral dis­tance between us and God is infinite. When it comes to matters of purity, God and man share no common ground. The seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Holiness is God’s most distinctive attribute. We’ve already learned that everything about Him is holy: His love is a holy love; His anger is a holy anger; His justice is a holy justice.

b.       Then there is the gap between us and God’s majesty and greatness. His purposes are beyond us; His intentions are hidden, except insofar as he reveals them. Our first question is not whether He agrees with us, but whether we come to Him in a way that agrees with Him. It is not we who must be pleased; it is He.

9.       How, then, do we reach Him? The consistent teaching of the Bible is that we cannot reach up to Him if He does not first reach down to us.

10.    The Old Testament prescribed a ritual by which man was to approach God. The ritual’s purpose was to teach the people about God’s holiness and the need to approach Him as specified. In the New Testament that Mediator has come. 

3. AN ACCEPTABLE MEDIATOR 

A.       All entrance into the presence of God is mediated; that is, we need someone who can represent our interests as well as those of the offended party, who in this case is God.

1.       Similarly, it is practically impossible for an ordinary citizen to get the ear of the president of the United States on his own. He needs someone who knows the presi­dent, someone who has an “inside track’ to make the connection. God, of course, is the President of the universe, and we have offended His justice.

2.       In Old Testament times the priests were chosen to serve as media­tors, but because they were sinners their work was ineffective for final absolution of sin. They represented Christ, who would eventually “take away the sin of the world’ as John the Baptist put it. Read this passage, keeping in mind the contrast between the priests of the Old Testament and Christ. 

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sac­rifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Heb. 10:11—14) 

3.       In the Old Testament many priests offered sacrifices; in fact, they worked in shifts. But Christ, who lives forever, offered one sacrifice for all time.

4.       The previous sacrifices could take care of only past sins, which is why they had to be reoffered. But we read of Christ, “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (v. 14, emphasis mine). The priests of the old order were not allowed to sit down while working their shift. But Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father because His work was finished!

5.       Perhaps now we understand why there are not many ways into God’s presence. Only one Person is able to meet God’s requirements for a mediator. Only one Person can give us the perfection we need to stand with confidence in the presence of the Almighty: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

6.       I know you’ve heard someone say, “I have not left Christianity but just moved beyond it into spirituality.” This is a popular “progression” these days. But strictly speaking, if you move “beyond” Christianity, you must abandon it. Whenever you try to add to it, you subtract from it. Those who surrender the uniqueness of Christ do not simply abandon a part of the gospel message; they abandon the whole of it.

7.       Mathematics, like all truth, reminds us that there is only one way to be right, but many ways to be wrong.

8.       If our faith is in Christ, we can expect no complications at the bor­der when we make the journey from earth to heaven. Our Representative is already there, seated in our stead, assuring that we have a safe arrival. God does business with us by doing business with Christ.

9.       To stand in the presence of God without representation would be like standing a hundred yards from the sun; God’s holiness would liquefy us. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time” (1 Tim. 2:5—6).

10.    Let us not dare to think we can enter God’s presence alone. 

4. AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE 

A.       Why is a sacrifice necessary for the atonement of sin?

1.       Justice demands it. A simple traffic ticket cannot be forgiven without a payment. We are guilty of serious infractions of God’s law; indeed, we are an offense to His holiness. Thus we cannot enter unless God’s wrath is turned away. “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14): in the presence of Christ we stand both guilty and accepted; unworthy, yet honored.

2.       There are some sacrifices God will not accept.

a.       One is the gift of sin­cerity; some think God should receive them because they mean well.

b.       Another is the gift of service; some remember all the good they have done and think God owes them acceptance for their basic decency.

c.        A third is the gift of their own spiritual quest.

d.       And many bring the gift of guilt; they flagellate themselves, believing that if they feel sorry enough, they will pay for their own sins and God will accept them.

3.       Martin Luther has a word for such people: “What makes you think that God is more pleased with your good deeds than he is with his blessed son?”

4.       Yes, we must bring an offering, a sacrifice to God, but it cannot be of our own making if we are to win His approval. It must be the sacrifice He Himself made for us.

5.       A sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed. Because our sin is against an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite value. It follows that only God can supply the sacrifice that He Himself demands.

6.       That is the meaning of the gospel: God met His own requirements for us. That is the story of what God did for us. Christ’s death on the cross repaired the irreparable. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” 


5. AN ACCEPTABLE ATTITUDE 

Let’s read carefully our invitation into God’s presence: 

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19—22) 

A.               We come with our mediator and our sacrifice; we come with the knowledge that Christ is fully accepted, and therefore, we are too. Here we join hands with other sinners: the religious zealot stands with the prostitute; the righteous churchgoer finds himself alongside the murderer.

1.       Rather than driving us away from God, our guilt has driven us toward Him. The more clearly we see our sin, the more clearly we must see the won­der of Christ’s sacrifice and intercession.

“Therefore, since we have been justified though faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Rom. 5:1—2).

2.       Paul means much more than the fact that we have God’s ear when we come to Him through Christ. The word access means that we are brought directly into the citadel of God’s presence; we stand in the Holy of Holies.

3.       Now imagine that all believers in Christ were to die together. When we arrive on the other side of the gate called death, Jesus comes to join us on our journey enroute to our heavenly home. We go past one sen­try of angels standing guard on the path to the New Jerusalem. They look at Christ, then glance at us and say, “You’re with Him. Go on in.” Then we pass another band of angels and yet another. Each time, they look at Christ and then glance at us and say, “You’re with Him. Go on in.” Finally, we near the very dwelling place of God. We are almost blinded by what the Scriptures call “unapproachable light’ For a moment we have a flashback, remembering our sins and failures. Among us are women who had abortions; the prostitute referred to earlier is there with us. Former adulterers stand with homosexuals, thieves with the covetous; all of these, were redeemed and cleansed by Christ’s blood. Among the group also are many who were spared such evils, though they struggled with similar sins in their minds. The flashback is so pow­erful, so real, each of us protests, “I can’t go in! I can’t go in!” But the angels at the gate of the dwelling place of God look at Jesus, then they glance at us and say, “You’re with Him.... Go on in!” And so it is that Christ ushers us into the presence of Almighty God.

4.       Don’t ever think that there are many ways to the divine. Jesus is the one qualified mediator, the only qualified sacrifice, and the only qualified Savior. 

5. A PERSONAL RESPONSE 

If our trust is in Christ, we will share His triumph in heaven. The following description is a powerful reminder that there is only one Man at the center of the universe, one Man who is able to bring us into God’s presence. John’s Book of Revelation records the praise offered this man: 

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:   Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5:9—12)

 

Let us thank Him for introducing us to the Father and inviting us to the table for fellowship with Him.

Lie

Lie #2

Many Paths Lead into God’s Presence 

 

Intro:  I have heard people say that, people find God in different ways. Christianity is but one path to the divine.” These folks say they prefer spirituality to religion; they search for experience rather than truth. They believed in a pantheis­tic god, a force that need not be feared.

In our pluralistic nation spirituality is flourishing and with it a growing confidence that there are many ways to reach God. Creeds are out, feelings are in.

Christianity is being so redefined that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish it from Buddhism or other Eastern religious ideas. We can now be spiritual without God, without “beliefs.” And with this drift to pantheism, we also have growing intolerance toward historic Christianity. At a state university a sign read, “It is OK for you to think you are right. It is not OK for you to think someone else is wrong?’ In the last decade sin has been defined out of existence, but if one sin still exists, it is think­ing someone else is wrong. Truth, we are told, is not something to be discovered; it is something to be made up, something to be manufac­tured either individually or by consensus. One’s feelings are more important than, say, the words of Jesus.

Our pluralistic culture rejects outright the claim that God can be approached in only one way. All that the Southern Baptists have to do is ask their members to pray that their Jewish friends would recognize Christ as their Messiah, and a storm of protest erupts. The unity of all the world religions seems like such a worthy goal that those who oppose it are perceived as arrogant, bigoted, and yes, intolerant.

If secularism banished God from the heavens, spirituality has found God among us. In fact, according to current spiritual thought, He is in everything around us. The Creator is no longer sacred; the creature is. We are told our self is sacred, the earth is sacred, animals are sacred, and so on. Such thinking attributes the glory that should be reserved for God to His cre­ation, just as Paul described: “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom. 1:22—23).

Contemporary spirituality defines God as an equal-opportunity employer, the universal source of energy, waiting to be tapped by all of us. What we believe is not important; the challenge is to understand our­selves in light of this higher power that is already within us. If we need forgiveness, we must simply grant it to ourselves; we have broken the commands of no personal God. Since there is no God to offend, there is no God whose forgiveness we must seek. The craze is self salvation by self-knowledge. 

In the next few moments we shall speak of the severity of God, His uncompromising holiness and even anger. But later we shall speak of the grace of God, His acceptance of vile, undeserving sinners. The word holiness awakens our consciousness of sin, but God does not leave us there. He picks us up, makes us clean, and gives us the gift of righteous­ness that we truly need. In the end we will “feel better”—much better! 

1. APPROACHING GOD 

A.       A Way That Seems Right

1.       The Bible has two warnings for us.

a.       First, it warns against remaking God according to our liking. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3) is the first commandment. The words were freshly chiseled on Moses’ tablet of stone when the Israelites violated the commandment by fashioning a golden god in the form of a calf. As we learned in our last lesson, today we commit idolatry by setting up an idol in our hearts.

b.      Secondly, we must approach Him in the right way. Even in evangelical churches we often hear that it does not matter how we come to God, just that we come. But some people in the Bible learned otherwise.

2.       Cain and Abel disagreed on how to worship God.

a.       Abel brought the sacrifice from the flrstlings of his flock; Cain was more creative, think­ing he could come to God in whatever way he pleased.

b.       But God cared little about how much his offering cost him; he did not bring the cor­rect offering, so he was rejected (Gen. 4:5).

c.        The New Testament speaks of those who “have gone the way of Cain’ that is, those who think they can make themselves worthy to come to God. But Cain learned that pro­cedures are important.

3.       Nadab and Abihu were Aaron’s sons and Moses’ nephews. They were consecrated to God, the seminary students of the day, training for “full-time ministry.”

a.       One day they offered to the Lord “unauthorized fire.” and God replied in kind: “So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:2).

b.       We are tempted to charge God with overreacting. These were young men who deserved a second chance; furthermore, they were sons of Aaron, the high priest. We would expect a bit of leeway. But right there at the altar of God, Nadab and Abihu faced immediate annihilation— no trial, no second chance.

c.        Why did God do this? God Himself explained: ‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (Lev. 10:3). Moses asked two men to retrieve the men’s bodies and carry them to their burial; we read that they were still wear­ing their tunics.

d.       Moses told Aaron that he had better not create a scene over this incident or he might die too. He was not to leave the Tent of Meeting but to stay there until calm returned to the area.

4.       Not everything is sacred, but God is. Your self is important, but it isn’t sacred; the earth is important, but it isn’t sacred. The mistake of these men was not that they came to the wrong God; they just approached the right God in the wrong way. They thought they could dispense with the instruction book. But they learned the hard way that just any way will not do.

5.       If we approach God incorrectly, not much else matters. We might not be smitten down in this life but in the end we will experience eternal judgment. Think of the surprise of those who expected to be in heaven, but find themselves on the wrong side of the celestial gates!

B.       So how do we approach God?

1.       The good news is that the issue is not the greatness of our sin, but rather the value of God’s prescribed approach.

2.       We are invited to come into the “Most Holy Place.” but we can­not come alone.

3.       Keep in mind that God did not choose the attributes He has.

a.       His holiness, justice, and power are a given; He must be true to Himself.

b.       We dare not fall into the error of emphasizing the compassion of God to the exclusion of His justice and holiness.

c.        Nor dare we empha­size His justice and holiness without balancing these attributes with His love and mercy. The omnipotence of God without mercy is terrifying; the holiness of God without grace leads to despair.

4.       Because God is holy, sin is a personal affront to His beauty, His holi­ness, and His character. If we think we can approach Him directly, it is because we do not understand Him or ourselves.

5.       Augustine was right when he said, “He who understands the holiness of God despairs in try­ing to appease him.”  

2. FOLLOWING PROTOCOL

 

ILLUSTRATION : I’m told that when visitors have an audience with a king or queen, they are briefed on expected procedures. It would be strange indeed if God could be approached directly, without any thought given to the infinite ‘chasm that exists between us and His holiness. The more unlike us God is, the more attention we must pay to how we approach Him.

A.       God has meticulously spelled out the proper way for us to come into His presence.

1.       Let us review a bit of data from the Old Testament. In those times, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies one day a year—the Day of Atonement.

2.       The Holy of Holies, you will recall, was a small room in which God localized His presence. True, God exists every­where, but this was the place where He chose to reveal His glory on earth.

3.       When a priest prepared to enter the holiest room, according to the historian Josephus, a rope was tied around his ankle. That way, if he failed to follow procedure and God struck him down, the other priests could pull him out without having to go into the room themselves. Yes, you follow the prescribed path.

4.       When Martin Luther offered his first Mass, midway through, he froze. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. Paralysis struck him as he began to say the words, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, eternal God.. ‘ Later he explained: At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable pygmy say, ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God?’7

5.       Such words are strange to the modern ear. We hear people prattle on about God as if there is no reason to fear, no reason to feel unwor­thy.

6.       Such audacity only proves that those who are truly blind cannot appreciate the light; those who are dead do not feel the weight of sin that resides in their souls.

7.       When Moses longed to see the glory of God, the word was, “No man can see Me and live” Today, modern man self-confidently trapezes into the presence of God without the slightest thought that it might be a bad idea.

8.       Why do we need to follow the rules?

a.       First, because the moral dis­tance between us and God is infinite. When it comes to matters of purity, God and man share no common ground. The seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Holiness is God’s most distinctive attribute. We’ve already learned that everything about Him is holy: His love is a holy love; His anger is a holy anger; His justice is a holy justice.

b.       Then there is the gap between us and God’s majesty and greatness. His purposes are beyond us; His intentions are hidden, except insofar as he reveals them. Our first question is not whether He agrees with us, but whether we come to Him in a way that agrees with Him. It is not we who must be pleased; it is He.

9.       How, then, do we reach Him? The consistent teaching of the Bible is that we cannot reach up to Him if He does not first reach down to us.

10.    The Old Testament prescribed a ritual by which man was to approach God. The ritual’s purpose was to teach the people about God’s holiness and the need to approach Him as specified. In the New Testament that Mediator has come. 

3. AN ACCEPTABLE MEDIATOR 

A.       All entrance into the presence of God is mediated; that is, we need someone who can represent our interests as well as those of the offended party, who in this case is God.

1.       Similarly, it is practically impossible for an ordinary citizen to get the ear of the president of the United States on his own. He needs someone who knows the presi­dent, someone who has an “inside track’ to make the connection. God, of course, is the President of the universe, and we have offended His justice.

2.       In Old Testament times the priests were chosen to serve as media­tors, but because they were sinners their work was ineffective for final absolution of sin. They represented Christ, who would eventually “take away the sin of the world’ as John the Baptist put it. Read this passage, keeping in mind the contrast between the priests of the Old Testament and Christ. 

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sac­rifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Heb. 10:11—14) 

3.       In the Old Testament many priests offered sacrifices; in fact, they worked in shifts. But Christ, who lives forever, offered one sacrifice for all time.

4.       The previous sacrifices could take care of only past sins, which is why they had to be reoffered. But we read of Christ, “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (v. 14, emphasis mine). The priests of the old order were not allowed to sit down while working their shift. But Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father because His work was finished!

5.