Bring Me Near

I have just started preaching through the book of Leviticus and have found it a true blessing in my own life. I have been studying it for a couple of months already and the depth's of its riches continue to unveil themselves.

Studying and preaching Leviticus is no easy task. I am probably messing it up some, but the challenge is rewarding.

It has caused me to think on many topics. I have found myself pondering on the elements of the tabernacle, the relevance of scripture, and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

When I first got saved a couple of Christian friends had an influence on my life. One area that Eric and Jason influence me was music. They listened to Christian music and I began to enjoy it as well. The hot group at the time was a Christian rock group called "Petra". I still like them. They did an album of praise songs. And there was one that I thought about while studying Leviticus.

The songs lyrics say this:

Take me past the outer courts

Into your holy place

Past the brazen altar

Lord, I want to see Your face.

Take me by the crowds of people

I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness

And it's only found one place.

Take me in to the Holy of holies

Take me in by the blood of the Lamb

Take me in to the Holy of holies

Take the coal, cleanse my lips

Here I am.

The tabernacle is a visual reminder of our sin, our separation from God, and His grace to bridge that separation. But the only way for them to get close to God was through blood. And even then, only the high priest could enter the holy of holies.

I wonder if a regular Hebrew guy ever desired to go into the Holy of holies to be in the presence of God? Did it frustrate them that there was not a way for them to draw nearer to God?

That is why Jesus came. His blood was a perfect blood. The blood of a goat was insufficient, but the blood of the Lamb of God was fully sufficient. It was so sufficient that I don't have to stop at the outer court, and I don't have to pause by the brazen altar. His blood offers me access to the Holy of holies.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your blood. Draw me even nearer. May I never be complacent but always seek Your face.

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

An Accounting Confession

The conviction of God is something that hurts good. His Word is piercing and yet brings healing to the soul.
Here is a quote I read that fits that description. I am thankful that I am even in the service of the King, and shouldn't be keeping my account.

This quote is from Dr. Martin-Lloyd Jones:

Do not keep a record or an account of your work? Give up being book-keepers. In the Christian life we must desire nothing but His glory, nothing but to please Him. So do not keep your eye on the clock, but keep it on Him and His work. Do not keep on recording your work and labour, keep your eye on Him and His glory, on His love and His honour and the extension of His kingdom. . . . Have no concern as to how many hours you have given to the work, nor how much you have done. In effect leave the bookkeeping to Him and to His grace. . . . There is no need to waste time keeping the accounts, He is keeping them. And what wonderful accounts they are. May I say it with reverence, there is nothing I know of that is so romantic as God's method of accountancy. Be prepared for surprises in this Kingdom. . . .

Let me make a personal confession. This kind of thing has often happened to me in my ministry. Sometimes God has been gracious on a Sunday and I have been conscious of exceptional liberty, and I have been foolish enough to listen to the devil when he says, 'Now, then, you wait until next Sunday, it is going to be marvellous, there will be even larger congregations'. And I go into the pulpit the next Sunday and I see a smaller congregation. But then on another occasion I stand in the pulpit labouring, . . . preaching badly and utterly weak, and the devil has come and said: 'There will be nobody there at all next Sunday'. But, thank God, I have found on the following Sunday a larger congregation. . . . You never know. I enter the pulpit in weakness and I end with power. I enter with self-confidence and I am made to feel a fool. It is God's accountancy. . . . He is always giving us surprises. . . .

We should not only recognize that it is all of grace, but rejoice in the fact that it is so. . . . The secret of the happy Christian life is to realize that it is all of grace and to rejoice in that fact. . . . Was not this [Jesus'] own way? . . . He did not look at Himself, He did not consider Himself and His own interests only; He made Himself of no reputation, He laid aside the insignia of His eternal glory. . . . He humbled Himself, He forgot Himself, and He went through and endured and did all He did, looking only to the glory of God. Nothing else mattered to Him but that the Father should be glorified and that men and women should come to the Father. That is the secret. Not watching the clock, not assessing the amount of work, not keeping a record in a book, but forgetting everything except the glory of God, the privilege of being called to work for Him at all, the privilege of being a Christian, remembering only the grace that has ever looked upon us and removed us from darkness to light.

It is grace at the beginning, grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us at the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, and it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, (Eerdmans, 1965) p. 130-32.