In his book The Porn Problem, Vaughan Roberts talks about Bobby Moore. He was captain of the English soccer team that won the World Cup in 1966. After Queen Elizabeth handed him the trophy, an interviewer asked him to describe how he felt.
He talked about how terrified he was as he approached Her Majesty, because he noticed she was wearing white gloves, while his hand, which would soon shake the Queen’s, was covered in mud from the pitch… As the triumphant captain walks along the balcony, he keeps wiping his hand on his shorts, and then on the velvet cloth in front of the Royal box in a desperate attempt to get himself clean.
Roberts continues, “If Bobby Moore was worried about approaching the Queen with his muddy hands, how much more horrified should we be at the prospect of approaching God? Because of our sin, we are not just dirty on the outside; our hearts are unclean. And God doesn’t just wear white gloves; he is absolutely pure, through and through” (Vaughn Roberts, The Porn Problem, The Good Book Company, 2018, Page 51; www.PreachingToday.com).
So how can sinful people like you and me approach a holy God? How can people with dirty hearts hope to even get near the pure, powerful God of the universe? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 27, Exodus 27, where the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle shows us how to approach God’s tent.
Exodus 27:1-8 You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made (ESV).
God instructs Moses to make an altar of acacia wood, overlayed with bronze, 7½ feet square and 4½ feet high. This was the first object a worshiper saw in the tabernacle courtyard, a place where people continually made sacrifices for sin. So it becomes very clear, that in order to get near to God, you have to…
COME THROUGH SACRIFICE.
You approach the holy God of the universe only through a bloody offering.
You see, when you approached the tabernacle, you brought a goat or a lamb with you as a sin offering. You would tie that animal to one of the horns of the altar, lay your hands on that animal, and slit its throat as a sacrifice in your place for your sin. Then the priest would put its blood on the horns of the altar and roast its meat on the grate in the altar. In that way, you covered your sin and received forgiveness before you got anywhere close to a holy God (Leviticus 4:27-35).
First, you had to deal with your own sin through a bloody sacrifice. Then, you could enjoy the presence of God in the courtyard of the tabernacle.
Before Christ came, you brought a sacrifice to meet with God. Then, Jesus came as the sacrifice for your sin (Hebrews 10:1-14). Now, instead of coming WITH a sacrifice, you come THROUGH the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Just acknowledge your own sin, believe that Christ died in your place for your sin, and accept the forgiveness He offers. Please, if you haven’t done it already, do it today. Do it right now before you leave this place. Then you can enjoy the presence of God in your life.
In his book Closing the Window, Tim Chester quotes several men, who have struggled with the guilt and shame that comes from viewing pornography:
“It's made me want to hide from God… It makes me doubt my salvation, and then the depression comes and with the depression comes temptation to sin again.”
“I feel crap about myself. I don't feel worthy to serve God. And I don't believe I can break the habit.”
“I feel dirty and unable to approach God after looking at porn… So often I feel unable to come to him in repentance, even though I know my sin is already dealt with.”
“I couldn't talk with God about my problems. My picture of him was that he would accept me if and when I had 'scrubbed up' enough.”
Then, Chester offers the following words of hope to people who are struggling with pornography or the shame of any sin:
Jesus lived God's welcome to sinners. He embodied God's mercy. He was known as the friend of sinners. The religious people didn't like it, because it turned their proud systems of self-righteousness upside down. But Jesus sat down to eat with prostitutes, adulterers, and porn addicts… On the cross, God treated Christ as a porn user… [Paraphrasing 2 Corinthians 5:17], “God made Jesus, who never looked with lust, to be a porn addict for us, so that in him we might become sexually pure” (Tim Chester, Closing the Window, InterVarsity Press, 2010, pp. 67-70; www.PreachingToday.com).
God treated Jesus as a sinner on the cross, so He could treat you as righteous. In fact, Christ died not only as the sacrifice for your sin. He died to sanctify you from sin, i.e., to perfect you in His holiness (Hebrews 10:10, 14).
Mark Twain’s novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, tells the story of an ordinary man (a Connecticut Yankee) from the 19th century, who is transported back to the medieval world of King Arthur. At one point he convinces King Arthur to dress like a peasant and take a journey through his kingdom. At first, the king, completely oblivious to life in the trenches, tries to carry on with all the pomp of the court. Those around him, not knowing who he is, simply think he is crazy. But towards the end of the novel, in a chapter titled “The Smallpox Hut,” the king and his companion come upon a beggar’s hut. The husband lies dead, and the wife tries to warn them away:
“For the fear of God, who visits with misery and death such as be harmless, tarry not here, but fly! This place is under his curse.”
The king replies, “Let me come in and help you—you are sick and in trouble.”
The woman asks the king to go into the loft and check on their child.
“It was a desperate place for him to be in, and might cost him his life,” observes the Yankee, “but it was no use to argue with him.” The king disappears up a ladder looking for the girl. Then, the Yankee continues:
“There was a slight noise from the direction of the dim corner where the ladder was. It was the king descending. I could see that he was bearing something in one arm and assisting himself with the other. He came forward into the light; upon his breast lay a slender girl of 15. She was but half conscious; she was dying of smallpox. Here was heroism at its last and loftiest possibility, its utmost summit; this was challenging death in the open field unarmed, with all the odds against the challenger, no reward set upon the contest, and no admiring world in silks and cloth-of-gold to gaze and applaud; and yet the king’s bearing was as serenely brave as it had always been in those cheaper contests where knight meets knight in equal fight and clothed in protecting steel. He was great now; sublimely great. The rude statues of his ancestors in his palace should have an addition—I would see to that; and it would not be a mailed king killing a giant or a dragon, like the rest. It would be a king in commoner’s garb bearing death in his arms” (Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, chapter 29; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s Jesus on the cross! A king in commoner’s garb bearing sinners in his arms, sacrificing His own life for theirs.
Dear friends, if you want to get near a holy God, you have to come through sacrifice. Specifically, you have to come through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. So come, first of all, to the cross. Come to the cross to find forgiveness for your sins in order to draw near to a holy, all-powerful God. But don’t come to God by yourself.
COME WITH FRIENDS.
Approach God in the company of other believers. Draw near to the Lord in fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You see, around the tabernacle was a huge court, designed for people to gather together. Take a look.
Exodus 27:9-19 “You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side. Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten bases. The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits. The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars and with them four bases. All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze. The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze (ESV).
The court surrounding the tabernacle was 150 feet by 75 feet, about a quarter size of a football field. Only designated priests could enter the tabernacle itself, but anyone could come into the courtyard—priests and common people, young and old, rich and poor, male and female. So the courtyard became a gathering place for worshippers, where they fellowshipped with each other and celebrated what God had done in their lives.
Along with a sin offering, worshippers sometimes brought a peace offering, which became the central part of a thanksgiving feast. They brought a lamb, a goat, or an ox and roasted it on the altar. Now, the law required them to eat the whole animal in one day (Leviticus 7:11-15). So they invited their family and friends to join them in the courtyard, where they announced what God had done for them. Then they enjoyed lamb chops or a steak dinner together, celebrating the goodness of God in their lives.
As they drew near to God, they partied in the courtyard of the tabernacle! Psalm 100 says, “Enter His courts with thanksgiving”—literally, enter His courts with a thank offering. So, the courtyard was a place for God’s people to gather and celebrate God together.
Now, today we don’t bring animals to worship, because Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice once and for all (Hebrews 10:10). However, God still wants us to come to worship with our friends and family to celebrate His goodness together.
Hebrews 10 says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
We must meet together on a regular basis, so we can encourage each other in these dark days before Jesus comes.
Towards the end of last year’s London Marathon (2023), a runner began to double over and almost collapsed as other participants whizzed by. Take a look (show London Marathon 2023, www.reddit.com/r/HumansBeingBros/comments/13avse5/marathoners_help_a_fellow_runner_to_the_finish/?rdt=57835).
But before he falls to the ground, another runner comes from behind him and grabs his arm. He’s able to hold the runner steady enough to keep going. Shortly after, another person appears on the man’s other side. Together, the three runners make their way to the finish line (Sara Barnes, “Struggling London Marathon Runner Gets Help From Fellow Athletes To Finish the Race,” My Modern Met, 5-11-23; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s part of what the church is all about. When life gets hard and you’re about to quit, you have friends to run beside you and help you along the way.
Christian Wiman, an American Poet, writes:
I got the news that I was sick on the afternoon of my 39th birthday. It took a bit of time, travel, and a series of wretched tests to get the specific diagnosis, but by then the main blow had been delivered, and that main blow is what matters. I have an incurable cancer in my blood. The disease is as rare as it is mysterious, killing some people quickly and sparing others for decades, afflicting some with all manner of miseries and disabilities and leaving others relatively healthy until the end. Of all the doctors I have seen, not one has been willing to venture even a vague prognosis…
Then one morning, he says, we found ourselves going to church. Found ourselves. That's exactly what it felt like, in both senses of the phrase, as if some impulse in each of us had finally been catalyzed into action, so that we were casting aside the Sunday paper and moving toward the door with barely a word between us; and as if, once inside the church, we were discovering exactly where and who we were meant to be. That first service was excruciating, in that it seemed to tear all wounds wide open, and it was profoundly comforting, in that it seemed to offer the only possible balm…
So now, Wiman says, I bow my head and try to pray in the mornings… because to once feel the presence of God is to feel His absence all the more acutely… I go to church on Sundays… because faith is not a state of mind but an action in the world, a movement toward the world. How charged this one hour of the week is for me, and how I cherish it… (Christian Wiman, "Gazing into the Abyss," The American Scholar, Summer 2007; www. PreachingToday.com).
Wiman wrote that 17 years ago (2007). Today, his cancer remains in remission and may return at any time. Even so, he still cherishes the gathering of God’s people every Sunday.
Max Lucado once said, “Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries, when we mix, mingle, confess and pray, Christ speaks (Max Lucado, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, Thomas Nelson, 2009, p. 144; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, please, don’t go through life alone. Hear Christ speak to your doubts and fears in the company of other believers.
If you want to get near a holy God, 1st, come through sacrifice; 2nd, come with friends, and 3rd…
COME IN THE POWER OF GOD’S SPIRIT.
Approach God with the oil of His Spirit in your life. Draw near to a holy God with His Holy Spirit.
Exodus 27:20-21 “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel (ESV).
God requires that each Israelite brings pure, beaten olive oil to worship, so the priests can ensure that the golden lampstand in the tabernacle burns from evening to morning every single day.
According to one commentator, “Oil obtained from fresh, ripe olives beaten in a mortar rather than crushed in a press, would be of a finer quality, burn with a bright, clean flame, and produce little smoke (Freeman & Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible).
God wants the best from those who worship Him, the best of your time, the best of your talent, and the best of your treasure. So come to worship with your best and nothing less.
However, even our best is often tainted with ulterior motives and sin. The prophet Isaiah says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).
So the Holy Spirit must empower your worship. God’s Spirit must permeate your heart and life so you can worship God with pure motives.
That’s why God asks His worshippers to bring pure, beaten olive oil to worship. It’s because oil in the Bible represents God’s Holy Spirit, especially the oil that goes into the lampstand in the tabernacle.
When Zerubbabel was rebuilding the Temple after Israel’s exile in Babylon, God gives Zechariah a vision about the golden lampstand. Two olive trees stand there supplying oil for the lampstand. Then God tells Zechariah, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:1-6). That oil represents God’s Spirit empowering God’s people to worship God.
Jesus said, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23).
That is, true worshippers worship God in the power of God’s Holy Spirit based on the truth of His Holy Word. So, when you come to worship God, come in the power of His Holy Spirit. Come under the Spirit’s control and influence. Come full of God’s Spirit in your life.
I like what Sam Storms says in his book Practicing the Power. He writes:
Imagine that you've decided to go sailing. The problem is that you know next to nothing about sailing. So you go to the store and purchase several books to find out what's involved. You carefully read them and then you talk to a veteran sailor who answers questions for you. The next day, you rent a sailboat. You examine it closely to make certain that everything needed for a successful sailing experience is present and in good working order. Then, you take your boat out onto the lake. Your excitement is at a fever pitch, though you're also afraid. But you follow the instructions you've read and the counsel received from the experienced sailor, and you launch your boat into the water. You carefully monitor each step and hoist the sail.
At that precise moment you learn a crucial lesson. You can study sailing. You might even be able to build a sailboat. You can seek from the wisest and most veteran of sailors. You can cast your boat onto the most beautiful of lakes under a bright and inviting sun. You can successfully hoist the sail. But—and this is a big "but"—only God can make the wind blow! (Sam Storms, Practicing the Power, Zondervan, 2017, page 34; www.PreachingToday.com).
No matter what you or the worship team does in preparation for worship, you’re not going anywhere unless the wind of God’s Spirit fills your sails. So, when you come to worship, come full of God’s Spirit in your life.
Chuck Swindoll, in his book Embraced by the Spirit, writes:
By the time I graduated from [seminary], I had many convictions and few questions, especially regarding the Holy Spirit… But during a lifetime of ministry that has taken me around the United States and to many countries abroad, I have found that the work of the Holy Spirit continually keeps me off balance. I'm not alone in that. Those in church leadership seem afraid the Spirit is going to do something we can't explain. I've found that disturbs many folks… but I'll admit it energizes me.
I've come to realize there are dimensions of the Spirit's ministry I have never tapped and places in this study about which I know very little. I'm on a strong learning curve. I have witnessed a dynamic power in his presence that I long to know more of firsthand. I now have questions and a strong interest in many of the things of the Spirit I once felt were settled. To say it plainly, I am hungry for more of him. I long to know God more deeply and more intimately (Charles R. Swindoll, Embraced By the Spirit, Zondervan, 2010, pp. 25-26; www.PreachingToday.com).
Is that what you long for? Then embrace the Holy Spirit more in your life and in your worship.
If you want to get near to a holy God, approach Him through sacrifice with friends in the power of His Spirit.
In his book The Pressure's Off, psychologist Larry Crabb tells a story from his childhood. He writes:
“One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
“Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn't do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, ‘I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom.’
“My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream.
“’Are you okay?’ Mother shouted through the door she couldn't open from the outside. ‘Did you fall? Have you hit your head?’
“’I can't unlock the door!’ I yelled. ‘Get me out of here!’
“I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bathroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
“’Thanks, Dad,’ I said—and ran out to play.”
Larry Crabb says, “That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!”—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.
“Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn't open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn't heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?
“God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn't walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn't budge. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, ‘Come sit with me!’ He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
“I don't always see it that way. ‘Get me out of here!’ I scream. ‘If you love me, unlock the door!’
“Dear friend,” Larry Crab says, “the choice is ours. Either we can keep asking him to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and represent him well in this difficult world” (Larry Crabb, The Pressure's Off, WaterBrook Press, 2002, pp. 222-223; www. PreachingToday.com).
The good news is even when you couldn’t get near to a holy God, He drew near to you. So just enjoy His presence for a while even in the darkness.
