Unlimited Access

We live in a day that is tagged by increased availability of resources and information. Things which were at one time inaccessible are now readily available. Technological advancement puts things within reasonable reach. And so from the inception of the internet all it takes is the tap of button and you can have almost all the info that you need. Now you can access your bank account and pay your bills on-line, you can view some of the bills you owe on line and make transfers between accounts on-line. Now you can even make applications and requests and even do courses on-line. But with all these advancements and availability of access there has to be restrictions. So there are codes and passwords and specified accounts which make it so you alone can access your accounts but even when you do there is only so much that you can do. Your access is limited.

It brings me to the next point which is that there are different levels of access. There is this particular place I know of and what they do is to establish different levels of entry on their network. So of course if you don’t work there you have no access. If you work there and it is necessary, you can access the info by a guest account but you can’t do anything about the info you access– limited access. There’s another level which is data entry only access – still limited. And then there is the administrator access who has power to do anything with the info and defines who sees the info – one could call this unlimited access. Let me pause to define the terms we’ve been throwing around

• Access - The right to enter; the right to obtain or make use of or take advantage of something; a code that must be entered in some way (typed or dialed or spoken) to get the use of something.

• Unlimited - Without reservation, interference or exception; that which cannot be entirely consumed or used up.

When you put it together the impact is astounding because it says it is the right to enter or obtain without reservation, exception or interference and when accessed it cannot run out. A songwriter says "I’m drinking of water… that will never run dry". I came to declare today that if you’re called by the name of Jesus you’ve been given unlimited access. But let us examine the text for in it we will discover that it wasn’t always so. Permit me to explore the state of Access Denied, the act of Grace Applied and the result, which is Mercy Multiplied

Access Denied

The book of Genesis informs us that when God created man and woman he came down and that he talked with them. It indicates to us that in the original context man had not only unlimited but direct access to God and thereby to the things of God. As the story goes man disobeyed God so when He came as He always did in the cool of the day to fellowship with man, he was hiding from the presence of God. Notice that I have said nothing about the devil, because as you will observe he had already lost his access. Man had a responsibility to maintain his relationship. Not only that but while we are always blaming the devil, the Bible says we are tempted when we are led away of our own lust and become entice.

The result of this insult then to God’s open access was man being forced to leave the garden and placed an angel as guardian of the tree of life. This signalled the end of unlimited access and now when man went by the garden where the angel stood with a flaming sword he basically saw the words “access denied!” Sin blocked man from God’s presence. Ah, but thank God that’s not how the story ends. He’s the God of a second chance. Someone said “mercy rewrote my life. I should have fallen…” The Fall had serious implications for man. Without the access he once had man was lost, tossed to and fro. He was just waiting for the call of death but God looked beyond his fault and saw his need; He saw his need for restoration. Why? Everything man needs is in the presence of God!

So Hebrews 9 tells us that God made provision for man as outlined in the OT. In order for man to have some access to the mercy of God an innocent animal had to die for the wages of sin is death; and the blood had to be sprinkled because without the shedding of blood there is no removal of sin. But the sin factor still created a problem – now only one man could access the holy of holies – only the high priest, having already sprinkled blood for himself, could go within the veil to offer sacrifice on behalf of those without the veil, thereby obtaining mercy for the removal of their sins. This indicates that although there was some access, the provisions of the law were limited. That’s limited access. To make it worse, Hebrews 10 tells us that although it was effective because it was instituted by God, yet it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Notice with me also that this did not even apply to us because it applied to the Jews. They had limited access but we who would be classified as gentiles had no access. So Eph. 2:12 tells us “That at that time we were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”