Who You Are In Christ, Having Access to God

Well, maybe I should just stop for this since we have a visitor here this morning. We're actually going through this study. This is called Who We Are in Christ. And we're using it as a reference. In fact, I'll just give you, if I can find it here. I'm saying this without being able to find it. Anyway, may I just explain who we are in Christ. You know, you could do it from a variety of aspects, but we're using Dr. Schaefer, Lewis Schaefer or Schaefer from Dallas Theological Seminary.

He actually compiled in one of his writings what he called the riches of God's grace. And he goes through and he looks at the wonderful things we have in Christ. And this overhead, we're kind of in the middle of this. There's 33 of these and we're actually in the section from 20 to 25 and we're going to do having access to God today.

And this talks about our position, what we have when we come to faith in the word Jesus Christ. What we have is a permanent possession of ours. It's not dependent upon how we feel. It's totally dependent upon what Christ has done and our faith in that. And so this section that we're looking at is actually a section, if you look at the section, we talk about heavenly citizenship.

The Family and Household of God, The Fellowship of the Saints, Heavenly Association. Today we're going to do having access to God and then the much more care of God. I was kind of thinking this section kind of talks about the family of God and our relationship and how do we interact with God? We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, how do we interact?

And we're going to find today that we have this wonderful access which is based totally upon what Christ has done. Let me just go ahead and close this door here. It might be a little quieter. So this having access to God is based totally upon the work of Christ the Apostle and our faith and what he's done. So with that kind of as a preface, let's go ahead and look at the first Okay.

So if you look at the definition in Webster, we're looking at access. Webster says access is the ability or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use admittance. The example of having access to files. You might have access to your files for a company or whatever. You have permission. You're allowed to do that.

In scripture, a very New Testament Greek, a very similar definition, but there's some really interesting things. A couple of kind of key words in the Greek that really kind of open this up. Access is this, my pronunciation in the Greek is not stellar here, but it's kind of made up of three parts here.

There's pro, or pros actually. It's a little thing here. P-R-O-S. Oops, I kind of highlighted that, a little pin here. pros right here, which means facing. And then ago, which is kind of in the center. And then it's kind of an ending, which gives a verb tense. And it's a leading or bringing into the presence of. So I wanted to kind of look at this idea of pros. Pros is facing or face to face. And ago is to lead.

So you put those together, you have a leading to a face to face meeting, if you will. And there's a neat verse. Let's look at Romans chapter 5. I'll show you this kind of an action. It's a little hard to see in the English, but I think you'll... And if you've been around Holly Hills for a while, this has been mentioned quite a few times. Let me just go ahead and I'll just read Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. And we're going to cover Romans chapter 5 and verse 2 a lot as we go through this. But verse 1 says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, you know, you look at that and you say, OK, well, I don't really see anything about facing God or anything like that. Well, it's kind of hidden in the Greek there. It says we have peace with God. There's this little word pros, P-R-O-S. We have peace facing God or face to face with God. Our peace with God is like the world cannot imagine. We have a face to face peace. We can stand before God because of Christ in a face-to-face sense. I mean, it's incredible. And obviously that's something that we will not do physically until we go to be with the Lord, but we can do it now in terms of prayer. We can come before him. Many scriptures talk about that. So that's kind of the pros part of that. So this is a bringing or looting face-to-face is what this word access. I'm not going to pronounce it. I'm going to mess it up. I'll just leave it alone.

And then the other thing about this word for access, as I kind of did some research and looked at it a little bit, Have you heard like the, if you, the French has this word entree. We use it English. The dictionary says entree is used in the English. It could be like you serve a meal. But in French, but in French, it's actually almost this exact word. And this one author said he felt that the word entrée in French was the exact translation of access in the Greek. Because entrée means the privilege in French, the privilege of entering, access, a means of obtaining entry. So I thought that was really kind of interesting, entrée, and I didn't realize that before.

So we have this wonderful access to God. right now, 24-7, through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We're going to see how it plays out. There are three key verses in scripture that talk about this access that we have, this entree. So let's go on. The first verse is in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 3. And it says, if you look at the context, it says, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

So this kind of puts on a little modifier here. So it says, we have confident access, or literally, we have access and competence. And actually this phraseology we're going to see in here is It's really pretty straightforward. You have we, we the believer, have, it's something we have, we have access. In this case, it's modified by this in confidence.

We have access and confidence. So we don't say, well I have access and maybe, maybe it'll be taken away from me, maybe something's going to happen and that's going to change. No, it's not dependent upon us, it's dependent upon God. And that's what's really wonderful. And we can have confident access. So this word confidence is trust, assurance. It actually has its root in to be persuaded. And basically the confidence comes that we're persuaded that what God has said is true. So let's look at this verse in 2 Corinthians. Let me get somebody to read the 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 2 through 5. I'll volunteer to read that. If you have it Doug, would you read it?

He is our epistle written in the hearts, known and read of all men. Am I in the right place? You're in the right place. For as much as he is manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but a blessed tablet of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ through God words.

Okay, well it's very interesting in Doug's translation, I think he has the King James. Yes. They render it as trust, which is one of the alternatives. You know, many of these Greek words you can, they'll be depending upon the translation you have. So Doug renders it trust. And look what is kind of key here.

It's based upon, not something, it's based upon Christ basically. His adequacy. such confidence or trust we have through Christ toward God. So it's based upon what Christ has done. And I have a little explanation or maybe an application from Lise that talks about the root word here, to persuade, being completely persuaded with the result that we are in a confirmed and settled state of utter confidence. So our confidence is based upon what Christ has done, that we can have this access to God.

And actually, I've kind of given away part of the answer. How is this confident access possible? We've already kind of read the verse, through the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we obtain it? We obtain it by faith, simple faith and trust in what Christ has done.

So this is the first of about three verses we're going to look at. Questions or thoughts on this? All right, so let's go on. Now, the next section is about three charts we have, and this is going to look at this kind of astounding statement that we have access, face-to-face access, into God's grace, or into His grace. Okay, so we read Romans chapter 5, verse 1. This just kind of follows on.

We also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exalt in the hope of the glory of God. So I ask easy questions here. Through whom? And we've already kind of answered that too. Through the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, we have obtained.

Do you see the word access in here anywhere? If you don't look beyond that part of the chart. And what you'll find is that, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but you'll find that when you start looking through and start tracing through a particular word in the original language, you'll see it rendered different ways, just depending upon the context. And I think the translator is told here that we have obtained our introduction. that they like that better. You could translate that.

We have access in leading or bringing face to face by faith into his grace. So it's, you know, Doug, what do you have in your, I think King James one actually rendered. Do you have, could you read Romans 5, 2, 4 and King James? Romans 5 verse 2. Yes. Romans by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Right okay so so basically you see that kind of the you know and you'll notice as you walk as you go through scripture you're going to notice that depending upon your translation that's why I find it good You know, to look at a couple of translations, usually the King James is good to look at because you're going to find that's the one that's been studied historically for hundreds of years. You're going to find a lot of people that will speak in terms of, and they will give you insight based upon the King James. But it's good to see, you know, here's something that I use in the American Standard. So I read it.

So I would kind of miss, I would miss that word access here. I totally miss that. In terms of this study, I hadn't realized that was a word for access. So that's what's neat about Bible study. You discover all these wonderful things that's kind of hidden there.

Roger? Yes, go ahead. I have the NIV and it says, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace. Excellent. Gained meaning we didn't have that access before. Now we do. Exactly. Because of Christ. And the cool part is, and we're going to see it here just shortly, that's something that is a permanent possession of ours. It's not something that's fleeting.

You think, well, okay, I don't feel like I should have access to God today. I've been a bad girl. I've been a bad boy today. I'm making light of this, but I've sinned. that this is not talking about our condition, this is talking about what we have as a result of Christ's work on the cross.

We may act contrary to our position, but we have this irrespective. kind of gives an idea of your first access. When somebody introduces you to God or to someone else, you meet them face-to-face, you shake their hand. So I think introduction is actually kind of a neat word right there. It's the introduction. It's our... It's the beginning. Just gaining access. Exactly. No, that's good. And I'm our translator. Right.

It's actually kind of a neat thing. It brings out another idea. But I find it's good to know both. I mean, when you know both, then you think, wow, you can kind of see the decisions. You know, translators are humans. They're just like us. And hopefully they desire to... Their desire is to say, what does God's word say? That's their desire.

And I think looking at it from various, you know, this way, that way is good. I was going to say that this all centers around the act of propitiation. And when Jesus satisfied the anger of God, and God's anger is toward sin, when he satisfied that act of propitiation, he did it to reconcile the whole world. So that act is a world act. And we receive it through faith.

Exactly. So those who choose not to enter the act of faith, then this act of propitiation, even though it's there for them, they never received it. Excellent. No, I agree. That's perfect. No, that's good. That's really, really good. Roger, can I add something? Sure, go right ahead.

This is from a previous lesson on the same subject. Notes here in the Bible. Justified, and then by faith, it says faith is by faith, or in we stand, phase two. Rejoice in hope, phase three. Right, exactly. Well, we're going to cover that phase two here shortly. I didn't look at you. No, that's good. This is good stuff. This 5-2 is just a goldmine in my mind. Wow, look at this, look at that. That's great.

So let's look, excuse me. So I'm sure you folks are familiar with the tenses in English. Like the present tense is something I have right now. A future tense is something I have in the future. A past tense I have in the past. Well, the Greeks have this tense called the perfect tense. And it's kind of a unique tense. I'm not a language person, but it's certainly something I don't see in English. And this, we have access, or we have our introduction, is in this thing called the perfect tense. And I tried to render it here in the perfect tense, how you would say it.

We had access in the past by faith, so at a point in time, we've come to faith in the Lord Jesus. But it doesn't stop there. This tense doesn't just stop in the past, it continues on. and continues to have access up into the present and on into the future. So at a point in time you trust the Lord Jesus and that act has a continuing result into the present and on into the future. So that's this access we have. It's not something that's going to go away or change or disappear. That access is totally secure because of what Christ has done. And we're going to see this come up again in terms of what Doug was talking about, our standing. Our standing is in the same perfect tense. Our access is in this perfect tense, and our standing is in this perfect tense as well.

OK. Other thoughts on this part? We're going to dissect each section. We're going to go through. This is obtainer introduction. We're going to step through the next couple parts here. Go ahead. I don't remember exactly. I've got a cheat note in my other Bible, which I don't have. into the present, right? Right. It's basically, if you want the kind of textbook definition.

It doesn't necessarily tie to faith, but it can also tie to the act of the cross, right? Well, the perfect tense is used throughout scripture and it can tie in many different events, but literally it's a completed action with abiding results. and the burial, the resurrection, how does that go? The three things. He died, was buried, and resurrected. So that particular single event The results of that continue into the future. True, true. You'll also see those things also done in what's called the Eris tense. There's another Greek tense called the Eris tense. There's about five tenses in the Greek past, present, future, Eris, perfect tense. Eris is a once for all.

They kind of overlap a little bit. You think, well, it'll say, this happened. Christ died for me, which is Eris, I believe. He died for me at a point in time. But it does have, that fact has results. This one here is sort of almost like a little spotlight on it with the perfect tense. But Eris is kind of another one that has results that are valid for us right now. He'll describe the perfect tense as a completed past action with results now and continuing into the future. Exactly. Exactly. That's good. That's good. Yeah, completed past action. So it's something that happened in the past. Eris is also, I mean, you can go down that with Eris as well.

OK, so we're going to go to the next part here. Actually, I didn't highlight this section. OK. How do we obtain this access? Through faith again. We're going to see. There are a couple of common themes you want to see through here. We have this access. It happened because of Christ's work on the cross and our entering into it is by faith.

That kind of filters through all these verses. Okay, so now we're going to talk about something that is kind of a wonderful thing here about the grace, God's grace. And it says here, it's going to use this access, it says, this access into this grace. And so the question is, what is this grace? What is it talking about here?

And I'm going to kind of answer my own question here. I think there's kind of two things in view here. If you think about it, there's We are saved by grace, but we're also kept or safekeeping in grace. And this is a Schaefferism, if you will. He uses this term safekeeping in grace or standing in grace. And we're going to kind of examine that.

But there's several verses that I'd like to look at here that talk about that we are saved by grace. And maybe I can get some volunteers to read here. Could someone read? And actually, I'd like you to read maybe a little bit more than what I have up there. Acts chapter 15 verses 8 through 11 is the first one. Does someone have the Acts chapter 15, 8-11? I'd like to read that for us. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinctions between us and them, purifying them by faith.

I'm sorry, through 11. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they. Right. So actually verse 11 is what I was looking for here. It says, but we believe that we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as they also are. So this is where Peter was speaking about people were trying to get them to go back under the law and he said, you know, the Gentiles are saved in the same way. They're saved basically by God's grace through faith. Okay, so let's look at Ephesians chapter 2. I'll just go ahead and read that one. 2, Ephesians 2, 5-8. And this is a pretty familiar passage.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and then in parenthesis it says, by grace you have been saved. and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's a gift of God." So basically the message is that we've been saved by grace, God's grace not anything of our own merit. And I think the last verse is kind of neat too.

2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. Let's read 8 and 9. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me. who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Well that last part, you read that and that kind of blows your socks off.

It just says, and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. So this grace, God looks at the whole expanse, eternity past, eternity future. In eternity past, His grace was already in place to provide it for us. So that's kind of the first part here, the saved by grace. And now we're going to switch over to the next chart here and look at the safe keeping in grace and standing in grace. And that's what's being said about this verse here, that we stand in God's grace. We've already been saved by grace, but grace just doesn't stop.

You know, it's sort of like people think, well, OK, God, His marvelous grace saved me, but what about my Christian life? Well, this says that grace is going to keep on going. I like to sometimes kid Burn, he's the Energizer Bunny. I mean, he just doesn't stop. And God's grace doesn't stop. All right, so.

OK, so this grace in which we stand, We stand in grace. So what does that mean, we stand in grace? Stand is this idea of to continue to endure or abide unchanged. And there's a couple of, as usual, there's a couple of verses to look at here. And actually, let's just, before we do that, let's just look at, this is my favorite tense for this time, the perfect tense again. So I tried to take that perfect tense and re-render it with the stood in here.

We stood in grace in the past, completed action, and continue to stand in grace up into the present and I could add and on into the future. So just like with being saved by grace, we stand in God's grace and that's something that God maintains And I have a quote by Schaeffer here.

If that wasn't the case, then Christian life would be impossible. Because we'd be left to our own devices. We'd have to try to be kind to one another, love one another. We can't do that. We try, and we fail. I know I've tried to. Well, I'm just going to love that person really good. No, it doesn't work. Truly, only God can love. His love is the source that is to be active in the Christian life.

So we stood in grace in the past, completed action, and continue to stand in this grace up into the present. But what does that mean there? It says stand and then it says to continue endure. What do we have to endure? Isn't that a wonderful thing? We have it. Well, this is giving some possible meanings to that word.

Now the word, as I made, this word can be used, that word for stand is used about, I did a search, it's used about maybe 50, 60 times in the New Testament. It can mean just, like I'm doing right here, I'm standing. You say, Roger is standing, not sitting.

That word That would be the same word. So it depends on the context of the word. As you learn in studying New Testament Greek, context, context, context, context. What's the context of that word stand? In this case, it's talking about something different than just standing like this. It's not talking about me standing, right?

It's talking about me continuing. You're right. Enduring, we don't have to endure anything. Go ahead. I think the concept is like being planted. You're secure, rooted in this wonderful gift. Excellent. And actually, you and Schaefer agree. His rendering is, he, the believer, is ensphered in divine grace. Or actually, our dear brother Hal would say, he's entrenched in God's grace. It's something that God has done and he maintains that. It's an irreversible process. In sphere, you look that up in the dictionary, it's not in the dictionary. Schaeffer makes up these words that I just, at least not in modern dictionaries. It's pretty incredible. In sphere, in God, in divine grace.

And a couple of verses, this verse is talking about our position, what we have irrespective based on our faith. There are other verses that admonish us to studying our position. Let's look at one of those. 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 12. I'll just go ahead and read that one. 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 12.

Through Sylvanias, our faithful brother, for so I regard him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this true grace of God, this true grace of God, stand firm in it." So in this case, he's admonishing us. We have, we are ensfeared, we are entrenched in God's grace, but what Peter is saying here, stay there.

Don't let your mind wander off. Stay where you're positioned. We're in a think position. God tells us all these wonderful things we have in Christ. That's to be our mindset. He says stand in that grace. Don't depart from that. Roger, and I think that's where the word endure can come in. Exactly. Because there are temptations to do things that are not standing in God's grace. We are positioned there. There is something to endure. Paul talks about running the race. I think that the word endure does have some meaning there.

That's great. I love the verse, I fall by grace are you saved, but through faith in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, but then you may not boast. That one we talked about in terms of, that's the saving grace, we're talking about the standing grace. Yeah, and I agree, that's a good verse.

Okay, let's look at 2 Peter, another one here. 2 Peter. Roger, you can also look at standing as not in and out of something. Exactly, and that's where this unseared or entrenched, I mean, if you're standing there. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Right. And we're told, you know, like put on the full armor of God, you know, stand where you're positioned is another way of thinking. Okay, back to Ephesians 2 again, which we didn't go all the way down to verse 10, but so many times today what you find is that people when they come to faith, then they keep continually focused on the sin issue that's been dealt with. Exactly. Okay, what we're talking about here is standing, once you've Again, the faith issue is an aorist tense.

It's something that you did one time and it continues on. It was a one time event. You don't have to keep doing it all the time. You do it once. But then it says in verse 10, Ephesians 2.10, after Paul is talking about Why not putting the law back on the disciples and having to deal with the sin issue and keep thinking about that. So every day you get up in the morning, you think, oh, well, I said, I got to take care of this issue again today. Well, what he's saying, this is how I think this is what he's saying. This is how you're supposed to live.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, create that goes back to Genesis again, which we talked about before that we're created, created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We should walk in the good works, not in the continuing reaffirming our faith issue. Let's focus on the good works and move forward, I think Paul is saying, right? Because we are created in Christ Jesus.

That's quite a concept, created in Christ Jesus. We're born again. It's a new birth. I think it all kind of ties together there. Being born again, created. I see that as a... But what I'm saying is the good works issue should be what we're focusing on. Not the past actions we've already taken care of. I agree. I agree.

And you know, like 1 John 1.9 is an agreeing with God of where we're at. Not, you know, the word confess, you know, it says if we confess our sins, that word probably is better translated. You know, it's to agree with God. It's an agreeing with God about our sins. That we did sin. Right. So what was that you read? So I can write it down.

Ephesians 2.10.

Ephesians 2.10. So, okay, I have one more verse about, in terms of grace and our relationship to that in terms of, this is another pretty familiar verse. 2 Peter, chapter 3. So here we are, and let's look at verse 17 and 18. 2 Peter, chapter 3, 17 and 18.

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. So basically, we're positioned in grace, in spirit and grace, but the admonition of scripture is remember where you're at. Remember what you have. And that concept comes over and over and over again. We're talking about abiding. Abide in me. We have the Lord Jesus as our life and we're to abide where our life is at. So that concept occurs over and over again in scripture.

And I wanted to read here, This is from Schaeffer's, and Schaeffer has a lot of great books. One of my favorites is one on grace. It's a paperback. It's printed in the 20s. But he has a statement in here. I think it's just talking about this grace of safekeeping.

It says, the continuing exercise of divine grace toward the Christian is the one and only basis upon which one may hope to endure. For as certainly as grace is the one and only basis upon which God can save a meritless sinner, so certainly grace alone is the basis upon which God can righteously keep one safe, or the safe keeping.

Having begun in the Spirit, or wholly in the power and grace of God, there is no hope for continuance to be found in the flesh. or in the resources of human strength. Human ability can no more maintain a right standing before God than can it attain such a standing, salvation.

So he's basically saying You know, when you came to God by faith, you didn't say, well, God, I'm bringing some of my good stuff with me. You bring nothing. You bring simple faith. In the same way with our standing in grace, we're to totally focus on what Christ has done. And that standing is God maintaining it, not us.

So now we're going to kind of switch We have three charts on access into His grace. Now we're going to look at access unto the Father. And this is the third verse that talks about this access. We have access. In this case it's present tense. It's something we presently have right now.

We have access through Him, through the Lord Jesus Christ, in one spirit, or it could be rendered by means of one spirit. And if you notice in most Bibles that's capitalized, so I think it's referring to the Holy Spirit, to the Father or into the presence of the Father.

I thought a really good verse here is one that we studied here in the past. It's Romans 8, 26 and 27, talking about in terms of prayer, in our relationship to God in terms of prayer, and how we have this access to the Father in prayer. Romans 8, let's look at, and this is a wonderful verse. Verses Romans 8, 26 and 27.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray. Or literally, we don't know the what of the prayer. We don't know what to pray or how to pray, as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes according to the will of God.

So we have access to the Father through prayer, through the Holy Spirit, through ministering our lives. So we have access into His grace, access into the Father. And then there's a last topic here. Access is reassuring. A couple of verses in Hebrews.

Hebrews 4.16, Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And what's interesting here, this word confidence, and we've looked at the confidence before. The confidence we had earlier was the idea of being persuaded. And this word is a different word in the original. It's the idea of, some have translated it boldness.

If you have a King James, it says, let us draw near with boldness. So this is our freedom, our freedom from fear. Let us draw near, this confidence here is a freedom from fear. Let us draw near with confidence, this freedom from fear to the throne of grace. So we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So this is an access, this is a third access.

That's a crazy thing to write to the Hebrews because, you know, access to the throne of G will be ridiculous to them. I know, well actually I was thinking, that's exactly what I was thinking about as I was preparing that. This is written to the Hebrews, the Jewish believer, thinking, wait a minute, I can't go into the Holy of Holies, only one person can go in there, I'm dead meat, I'm gone in history, it's over with. So boldness is, to them that would be crazy bold.

I'm either righteous or I'm going to die. Exactly. It is pretty astounding that as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're encouraged to draw near with no fear. There's no fear involved. Well, there would be fear in the Old Testament situation. The high priest, if there was issues, that's why they put a rope around him, I think, to pull him out, because he may be dead. So, it's pretty amazing. And it shows you that it's God that is maintaining this relationship, not us.

And the second verse here is in Hebrews 10.19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter, it's the same word, this absence of fear, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. So this shows the cost of this access, and it was the cost of the Lord Jesus Christ, his very life. For us to have this access, absence of fear, freedom of access, it costs him his very life. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean. I think actually I lost the left off part for me. Evil works. I cut in paces. I think I chopped off the last part of that verse.

Roger. Go ahead. Is there any place in scripture that says what would happen to the average guy Not the high priest, if they went into the Holy of Holies. I don't know. I know a high priest had issues. He was concerned about himself. I'm trying to think of the average. Is there anything in scripture that says what would happen to that person?

I don't know. I think there's a concept presented, but I don't know if there's an actual verse. Yeah, I'm not sure of that either. I was just trying to... Think about... Go back to the Old Testament. Yeah. Think about Moses, you know, like the burning bush.

The idea of God dwelling in a place and man approaching that was considered... That's an impossible situation. I can't, you know, I can't enter into that. Well, Aaron's sons presented a strange fire and died. Exactly. That would be a principle. There you go. That's a good one. You're right. I mean, the fact of entering into the holy place where God is, is just off the map. I mean, it's not even considered.

But for the believer, it's part of this wonderful thing we have in Christ, a wonderful possession we have in Christ. And we're to have our mindset like that. For me, and it's always been hard for me to truly feel this way, because I was raised with the Old Testament philosophy of God's wrath. And it's so difficult to live a life when it's not the wrath that's motivating you, but it's His love.

Right. It's His grace and love. Right. I mean, to me, it's just, it's a conceptual thing that I've never truly been able to grasp because I was always raised with, well, you got to do this and you got to do that. You're going to be punished and God's mad at you if you do this. It's just, I still haven't grasped it. I know.

And actually, that's why you see people that are not believers, they'll look at the Old Testament and they'll say, I don't know what you guys are doing here. I look at what God has done. He just wiped every single person, every man, woman, child out. And when the children of Israel went through the, we're going to be getting to this pretty soon, in Genesis there. I mean, God His judgment was absolute and it looks harsh to us, but it showed His holiness and His righteousness. But then you look at the rest of the story, what Christ has done on the cross, and you see an incredible display of His grace and His love and His mercy to us that don't deserve it.

We don't deserve access into the presence of God. We shouldn't be there. It's only through Christ. I think that's what's neat about I mean, you know, Paul talks about, what are you saved by? You're saved by faith. So should you go back to works? No, it doesn't make any sense. And so a lot of, I think that's an unfortunate thing that a lot of churches have gone back to a law principle. They've gone away, they've ignored stand in grace, and they've gone back to a law principle.

And that's not what God, that's not what the New Testament talks about. It's not what the Bible says. No, they don't look at the totality of God's word. They don't see that what's presented in the Old Testament is information we need to know about His righteous character. But the wonderful part is, He's not acting as a God of wrath. He's acting as a God of love and mercy and grace.

Why do some churches do that? Well, the Catholics do. No, the churches. There's a whole lot of reasons why they could do that. The bottom line is, I think, in a church of that situation, they've given up, well, they've discounted the authority of scripture and done things on their own. But they want control. The hierarchy. Yeah, that's true. And the Catholic Church definitely used that over the years for control.

But then again, Roger, the problem you have as a church, you know, sin is an issue if you're unsaved. So when the to address the sin issue. So that point cannot be just removed. That's another problem that the church has today. A lot of churches don't even talk about sin. And so people who have not addressed that particular issue in their life, you know, They can't come to the throne of God without the understanding of the need for it. I know. Some people don't realize they're a sinner. Right.

In my own life, I remember I was thankful that I realized I was a sinner. I mean, I actually was thankful. I remember driving. I met the Lord Jesus in my car driving. I was listening to a tape and I said, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And I mean, that was a big deal because I thought I was pretty good. I said, hey, I'm right. I had gone to church, I had done all the things that I was supposed to do. I was baptized. I was an unbeliever. I'll be baptized. Sure, that's not a good thing to do. But then I was. I'm a sinner. That's a whole other ball game.

That's exactly what you're talking about. Until you realize that you're a sinner and that you need salvation, if you don't realize you need it, why would you ever grace if you don't realize that. So it's wonderful to realize you're a sinner. I think that's the greatest thing there is.

And that's my desire. And I talk with people, and like you said, they want to work around the sin issue. They don't want to just come out and say, well, wait a minute. I don't deserve any of this. I am a sinner in God's sight. And what's the remedy for that? The remedy is the Lord Jesus.

Okay. Well, great. Good discussion. We're going to go on to next week. We're going to have Within the Much More Care of God is the next topic. So this whole section is kind of cool. It's just sort of like we're looking at as heavenly citizens. We're looking at what that's about. What is it about being a heavenly citizen? We have access. Not up on our own merits, but on Christ's merits. Any last questions?

You know it's so amazing to me because what we are learning and all of the different apostles all have said the same thing so how could they be so smart and I'm still having a problem at times and so God must have instilled that knowledge in them Because they all say similar things. They do. The continuity of scripture is incredible. It's just amazing.

God's message, it talks about the idea of a ship being carried along. There's a word in the Greek, you carry along a boat. God wanted a direction. He wanted a message to be brought forth. And he carried along Peter and Paul, all these men, and they arrived at the same place. And it was God's truth. It is amazing.

Okay, let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. We thank you for your Word. We thank you that we can trust it. We thank you for the moral lessons we have in our Savior, how we have this access, this freedom to enter. And right now, Lord, we do it by prayer, we do it by And we thank you that one day we'll see you face to face. We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen.