4/7/2021 [Thematic Message 128] www.lifechurchmissions.com
Draw Near to God with Confidence <Heb 10:19-25>
Prelude: Actually, we humans seem to have a lot of fears, such as the fear of poverty, the fear of failure, the fear of illness, the fear of death, etc., but one of the greatest fears in humans, which we often do not realize, is the fear of being judged by God. When God's judgment is on a person, there is no peace in his heart. This is the reason why people look for religion. One of the purposes of religion is to resolve the fears in people's hearts, yet people do not know the root of such fears. Generally speaking, people think that as long as they are healthy, or things on earth are smooth-sailing, then they will have no fear. But this is by no means true. Sometimes, some people who have everything going well in life have even more fears (fear of losing), but they suppress those fears or use some methods to deal with them. In fact, the Bible clearly tells us that there is no peace in sinners who live under judgment. <Heb 9:27> "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." If a person is unable to reconcile with the God who is to judge him, or is often unable to get close to God, then he will actually continue to live his whole life in fears, with those fears increasing with each day. Perhaps we might ask, why people in the world do not obviously experience such fears? The main reason is because of human sin. The sinful nature of man not only causes them to sin, it even causes them to neglect the judgment brought about by sin, which is what they will have to receive from the righteous God. Therefore, <Ro 1:18> says they are people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, as if they are trying their best to push down a spring. They not only use the will of their hearts to suppress the truth, but they also use all kinds of knowledge of the world, such as scientific principles, medicine, psychology, philosophy, etc., and all kinds of temporary pleasures on earth to make their hearts happy and feel comfortable. However, a sinful person is already living in judgement and the fact that he will eventually be judged cannot be changed. In fact, the Bible tells us that the devil who has been judged lives in fear. In their fear, the demons oppose God daily <Jas 2:19>, but humans live in deception instead. Therefore, the more we understand God's words, the more we must walk out of our ignorance. We should know how to draw near to God with confidence. In fact, many Christians do not often draw near to God, and for various reasons, do not like to draw near to God. It could be because of busyness, or guilt, or because of weakness, or environmental temptations, etc. First of all, we must know that when people cannot draw near to God or do not want to draw near to God, that is actually a very serious spiritual problem. Rather we be in the midst of suffering but are willing to call upon the Lord, than for us to be in ease and comfort but are far from the Lord. When a person has no fear before the God who judges all people, has no condemnation in his conscience, and can draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, how great the grace he enjoys! He not only can see the help of God, he also continually enjoys the wisdom from God. Some people say, "I always cannot see God's help, and my life is always without fruits." In fact, have we ever thought that this problem has something to do with us often failing to approach God with confidence? <Ps 42:5> "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Sometimes when we cannot see God’s help, instead of us approaching the Lord with confidence, we become more helpless, and when we become more helpless, the more we look at our own problems. The more we look at our problems, the more we will be accused. The more we are accused, the more we cannot draw near to God with confidence. This is a vicious cycle. <1 Jn 3:21-22> says, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him." If this is so, we have only one problem, that is, how can we, who are sinful, draw near to God who is holy and righteous with confidence? It is easy and natural for us to think of our weaknesses and shortfalls. Therefore, these thoughts have become obstacles to us drawing close to God. What answer does the Bible give us in this area?
1. How do we draw near to God boldly and with confidence?
1）The rules for the entry of the high priests of Old Testament into the Most Holy Place
<Lev 16:1-2> The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.” We know that Aaron’s two sons were consumed by the fire of the Lord and died because they had offered unauthorized fire before the Lord <Lev 10:1-2>. After that, God had decreed the high priest could not enter the Most Holy Place at any time unless at God’s invitation and at the appointed time. Therefore, the high priest can only enter the Most Holy Place during Israel’s day of atonement (10 July). Not only so, before he entered the Most Holy Place, he must bathe his body in water and put on the holy linen coat and garments from head to toe. He had to bring a bull from the herd for sin offering for himself and for his house, before he could carry out various rituals to atone for sins of the people.
2）What is the difference between the Old Testament high priests and the New Testament believers in seeing the face of God?
Think about it, the high priest must bring a fear and trembling heart to enter the Most Holy Place, and stand before God. Yet today, we in the New Testament can come before God boldly and with confidence. Why? Is it because the God of Old Testament is holier and the God of New Testament is more casual? Surely not! In Old Testament, the priests must be so careful as they approached God because God is holy. In New Testament, we can come before the Lord easily also because He is holy. Where is that holiness? That is the most holy sacrifice that was offered by God Himself, which is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ’s body and precious blood. Therefore, we ought to understand the holiness deemed by God is not human works, nor our sincerity or faith, but Christ – the propitiation put forward by God <Ro 3:25>. How sincere can our sincerity be? How great can our faith be? Therefore, if we come before God on the premise of human conditions, then we have made a grave mistake. We tend to feel it is easier to draw near to God when the state of our life yesterday was better, but we find it harder to draw near to God if the state of our life today is not so ideal. Perhaps many believers do not understand this critical point well, hence their faith is always up and down. We are shaken by our own conditions, because we do not seek clarity on the centrality of the gospel (i.e. Christ).
3）Curtain Christ’s body hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
Curtain is a shadow. Christ’s body is true body. Cleansing of conscience is life (spirit). Today, the Jews are still holding onto the shadow, hence they cannot receive grace. Indeed, anyone who holds onto rituals, laws, works, merits or any human conditions to get God’s favour can never come before God, instead, his spirit may easily feel accused and his faith will keep going up and down. The only sacrifice that can satisfy God is Christ, the Word that became flesh and atoned for human sins. The body of Christ truly lived in the world for 33 years. He completely submitted to God to the point of death, and his body was torn apart for our sake eventually. From here, God has first opened a new way for us that goes straight to Him. Furthermore, His precious blood has cleansed all our iniquities, such that our hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and we are cleansed. That is not a feeling of cleanness, but a truly cleansed identity before God. Our whole faith is to keep learning to draw near to God boldly and with confidence, with this cleansed conscience through the new and living way.
2. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings (or KJV: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith)
1）If we do not draw near to the Lord with full assurance of faith, then faith is just empty talk
Is it a fulfilled truth that God has already cleansed our uncleanness in Christ and taken away our guilt? It is absolutely the truth. But we are unable to enjoy it because we usually do not draw near to God with faith, but mostly with our feelings and emotions. If not, we base on our faith performance to assess if we can draw near to God. The Bible keeps saying that the righteousness that God has given us in Christ is by faith from first to last <Ro 1:17>. Thus, blessed is the person who draws near to God only by faith. He will surely see the face of God. Other than faith, there is no other way to draw near to God. If so, what is the critical content of faith? That is, on the cross, Christ bore the debts of our sins on our behalf, thus imputing righteousness to us. Such a person lives because of faith, and because of faith (believing in the righteousness that Christ has fulfilled for him), he is not insinuated by any guilt or fear.
2）How much faith is enough?
What we have always gone wrong in our faith is not understanding the essence of faith, but only focus on the level of faith. In particular, when we cannot walk out of much guilt and fears, we get into a kind of pietism, starting to advocate our inner godliness and zeal. Then we start to ask, “How much do we believe?” When we go down this path, our faith becomes a kind of performance. In the church circle, there is also a kind of sin confession and repentance that emphasizes how contrite we need to be for our sins, then it is considered true repentance. Earlier in the 17th century, the Puritans had a kind of wrong teaching called “preparationism”. This teaching talks about preparing a kind of attitude when we come before Christ, or we must go through different degrees of understanding of our sins, then we can come before Christ. Such way of sin confession becomes a form of human merits and a kind of performance. All these greatly weaken the doctrine of justification by faith. Indeed, we can come before Christ solely by faith, and only by believing in the merits of Christ. This is completely the work of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Bible never talks about “believe how much?”. The Bible only talks about “full assurance of faith”. That means, other than coming before God by believing in the righteousness that Christ has given us, there is no other human ways or merits we can depend on. If human piety or merits are added to this, then it has deviated from the truth.
3）Faith will certainly bring about hope
By faith, our heart will certainly have the hope of seeing the Lord. <Heb 10:23> tells us that we must hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. But how can we hold fast to that hope? How can we not waver? Usually, when we see the Bible instructing us to “guard our heart”, we often feel very helpless. Because we know how weak and fickle we are. But every time the Bible instructs us to guard our weak and fickle heart, it will also surely tell us the foundation upon which we can guard it, and that foundation is the God who promised us is faithful. No doubt, we humans cannot be faithful, but God is faithful. Just as our faith is not believing we ourselves can believe, but believing in the fulfilment of Christ. Likewise, we can hold unswervingly to the hope not because we cannot be wavered, but because he who promised is faithful. Thus, we can come boldly before God, not because of ourselves, but because of Him.
3. The assurance of believers to draw near to God with confidence must be combined with the communion of saints
1) Not just inner assurance, but also need the outward “evidence” of communion of saints
Our faith and hope is a kind of assurance in our hearts. But how do we confirm that it is not a fake assurance? Therefore, our assurance must have outward evidence. If we can have the full assurance of faith to draw near to God with confidence, we will understand that God’s greatest concern is His people. If we have a firm hope, and are people who are waiting for the second coming of the Lord, we will surely be concerned about those who will be joining us in meeting the Lord, and enjoy each other’s encouragement. If there is no such outward evidence, our inner assurance may be an illusion. Some Christians say, “I am very clear with my relationship with God, but I do not like hanging out with other believers. They will influence our faith.” Actually, this is a big lie, and a huge contradiction. Think about it, we belong to one family, but how can we not enjoy being with the members of this family? If our relationship with Father God is good, how can we not enjoy being with those the Father loves?
2) Although we have real assurance inside us, we still need the “power” from the communion of saints.
Perhaps we have the assurance to draw near to God with confidence, but this does not mean we have the power to be salt and light of the world. Therefore <Heb 10:24> exhorts us to consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Often, our love has to be spurred on by people. Our good deeds can only be carried out with encouragement. Indeed, in the whole faith journey, it is easy to feel lazy and discouraged. Sometimes, the pastor’s urging and the brethren’s reminders will have an effect. Especially, when we collectively pray in the name of the Lord and see the answers and guidance that the Lord has given us, we will naturally find the strength to carry on. If we remain at just having assurance to draw near to the Lord with confidence, but do not live out the power of godliness, practically blessing the people around us, then our assurance does not bring us any benefit. Perhaps, we are at most like the prophet Jonah who ran away from God, but was unable to co-work with God with the same heart.
3) Although we continue to serve the Lord effectively, we still need the “protection” from the communion of saints.
The successful faith living of believers is not in some spectacular serving, but in persevering in the blessed serving. Indeed, God’s work in everyone is different. When we gain wisdom, strength and testimonies from God’s work in our brethren’s lives, then our lives and serving can be protected. Actually, in the days of battling, running and sowing, we very much need the encouragement of brethren around us, so that we can persevere to the end. This is like a marathon race, a team needs mutual encouragement, so that it completes the race and has victory. Such is the race that God has prepared for us. Therefore, the word of God tells us not to give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.