…having boldness to enter the
Holiest by the blood of Jesus… —Hebrews 10:19
{CHAMBERS} “Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the
vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have
“boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.” […] We have the idea that there are certain
good and virtuous things in each of us that do not need to be based on the
atonement by the Cross of Christ. Just the sluggishness and lack of interest
produced by this kind of thinking makes us unable to intercede. We do not
identify ourselves with God’s interests and concerns for others, and we get
irritated with Him. Yet we are always ready with our own ideas, and our
intercession becomes only the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We
have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means a radical
change of all of our sympathies and interests. Vicarious intercession means
that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural
sympathy with them.”
{ELGIN} We must never lose sight of who God is. You think, “Oh I know who He is. He is the
……. “ Yet we can become irreverent in our attitude and even references
to God. Have you ever heard someone call
God “the man upstairs”? Normally when I
hear that I assume that the person is not born again, but that is not necessarily
so. When God spoke to Moses on the
mountain, (Exodus 3:4-6) “When the Lord
saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush,
“Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God
said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy
ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was
afraid to look at God.” Why take off his
sandals? When you are in the presence of
the Creator God, you must stand clean before Him. Taking off his sandals represented all of the
things that Moses had picked up from a sinful the world. We have access to the Holy of Holies – God’s presence
through the blood of Jesus – the veil was torn.
But that does not mean that we can approach God with sin in our heart ..
any way we want to .. like the relationship is up to us and not God.
Years ago it was customary
for people to dress up in the “Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes” when they went to
church. It was akin to taking off their
shoes in the presence of God. Today –
there is a casualness on church attire.
Shorts and flipflops are considered acceptable. It’s not really about the clothes you wear on
the outside but your heart on the inside.
Jesus said (Matthew 23:25-26)
“ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the
outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and
self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish,
and then the outside also will be clean.”
(Proverbs 21:2) “A person may
think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.” I want to encourage you to consider how you
approach God. If you are going to talk
with Him – your heart must be clean. You
should have a reverence toward Him. Moses
had to look away because of God’s glory.
I have a friend who stand in bare feet when he preaches. When I first saw that, I thought it was a
little quirky. But on reflection, it is actually
out of great reverence toward God. A
reminder to himself that what he is doing has eternal consequences as he is
fulfilling his God-given purpose. That he has a great responsibility to a holy
God and must stand clean before Him. Something
to think about.
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