FHBC Sermon Notes

How do we expect to meet God?  Do we expect to come to him in fear, that he might consume us with fire when we come to church?  Likely not.  But this was the reality for the people of Israel as God met with them.  What was the purpose of all this?  This is what consider now.

So, often when we read particularly Leviticus we sometimes wonder how this could possibly apply to us.  But it most certainly does.  There are three truths we will look at today in relation to our passage to illustrate how central this is to our lives.

If we were to categorize creation into the two simplest most important groups, then we must separate it into two things, God and everything else. God is holy.  He is completely set apart from us.  He is fully distinct. God being holy, is also fully pure, without flaw.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.  Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.  And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.  The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.  And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. Exodus 19:17-21

God's presence was terrifying. Yet, it was God's will that he would dwell among these people.  And so, one of the most visual demonstration of God's holiness is found in his instructions to his people in the building of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.  The place that he was to meet with his people.  The people knew there was something different when approaching this tent.  God gave them specific protocols for approaching his presence.  In the Holy of Holies, a room within a room, veiled by a curtain, God dwelt on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.

Through this God showed that he was separate, he was holy and different from anything else.

It is so tempting the diminish the holiness of God, by thinking this is no longer true.  Perhaps we think that Christ gives us the easy way into the room, and that the God of the new testament is different, no longer powerful and scary, not so holy as he used to be.

But God does not change. He is holy and he is present.  Some might think that God in this day is disengaged, that if he exists is aloof and far away.  But be assured he is present in his creation which just as much power and wonder as before.  

While God is perfect, we are the epitome of un-holiness. This is demonstrated in these passages in the story of the golden calf.  The glory of God having been revealed to them, they made an idol, which God had just forbidden.  In Leviticus 10, Aaron's sons in the exuberance offered unauthorized fire and God destroyed them.  We might question this, but we are no different.  We pursue what we want to pursue.  Our passions, our will supersede what it is that God has commanded us. 

>And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"  And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." Exodus 32:7-10

We also deserve to consumed, but God's mercy, shown in Christ has been placed upon us.  God does not hate sin any less that at that time.  We are just as condemned as those who mocked God's promises by ignoring his commandments. 

Yet… God does show grace to us.  He poured that wrath onto his Son.

We see two categories of God and not God, n the sacrifices and in our lives.  That which is set aside for the glory of God, which is brought into his presence, is made holy. 

Blood is what God requires of us to make atonement (to pay the penalty) for our sin.  We deserve to die, and in that day, God allowed their sin be paid for by the sacrifice of an animal.  The person would lay their hands on the animal to signify that their sin was transferred to the animal, who took the penalty for them. 

We might ask then, why do we not need to sacrifice animals ourselves.  What is obvious is these sacrifices were not sufficient.  Only in Jesus, judged and condemned instead of us, are we fully and truly redeemed. This is what Jesus has done forever more.

We have only to trust and obey him in this to meet God face to face.  To stand before Him, rather that to be consumed.  God has made provision for us in Christ so that we may be made holy before him.

What a privilege!  What a Joy, to stand redeemed by him in the presence of a Holy God!

Amen!