How Can We Draw Near To a Holy God ?

[0:00] if you will, to Exodus chapter 20. It's kind of a fear and trepidation that we turn to this.

[0:17] God, please help us as we open your word.

[0:34] Please help us by giving us a heart that fears you, a heart of humility. And please be merciful to us.

[0:47] Lord, please would you show us your greatness and also your kindness. Please would you show us your Son and who you are.

[1:04] Please would you speak to us in a way that we can handle, reveal yourself in a way that we can take.

[1:14] Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. When Israel came to Mount Sinai to hear God, they see and they hear something that utterly terrifies them.

[1:32] So as we read this passage and as we go through it, as I was thinking about this, how can I sum this up?

[1:47] What is the tone of this? What is the point of it? And the question that was on my mind was, how can we ever draw near to this holy God?

[2:00] And so as we read this passage, and as we go through it, let's have that in mind. How can we ever draw near to this holy God? So let me read from Exodus chapter 20, verses 18 to the end.

[2:14] Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off.

[2:33] And said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

[2:52] The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said to Moses, thus you shall say to the people of Israel, you have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

[3:11] You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourself gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.

[3:31] In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones.

[3:43] For if you wield your tool on it, you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it. This is the word of the Lord.

[3:55] We pray that bless. He would bless the reading of it. Well, how can we ever draw near to this holy God? Well, as you know, if you know me, you know my fascination with space, stars and planets and the likes.

[4:19] And as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about where the earth sits in our solar system. And I don't know if you can see this, but it's the thing I was showing earlier, the two millimeter ball, which represents earth.

[4:37] And this 12 inch record, which represents the sun. And when astronomers look for life on other planets, they have a set of criteria that they look for.

[4:48] And part of that is a very narrow area in proximity to a star that is called the Goldilocks zone. If you know the story of Goldilocks, it can't be too hot and it can't be too cold.

[5:02] It has to be just right. And so if a planet is too close to the star, it's too hot and life cannot exist. If it's too far away, it's too cold and life cannot exist.

[5:17] There is an area called the Goldilocks zone where it has to be where it is just right. And so the energy, the light and heat we get from the sun, without the sun, there would be no life.

[5:32] And yes, I do mean that as a double meaning. Without the sun, there would be no life. And so in relation to this passage, how can we ever draw near to this holy God?

[5:44] It got me thinking about the proximity of earth to our sun. The earth is 150 million kilometers from the sun.

[5:56] 150 million kilometers from the sun. It's a massive distance. And it got me thinking, how much closer can the earth get? How wide is this band called the Goldilocks zone?

[6:09] 150 million kilometers away from the sun. How much closer can it get before life ceases to exist? Remember, the question is, how can we ever draw close to this holy God?

[6:27] And so I thought it would be helpful to illustrate this, that if the earth sits safely at 150 million kilometers, how much could it safely draw near to this colossal fireball of energy?

[6:43] How safely could it draw near? And the latest research suggests that if the earth were 1.5 million kilometers closer, then it would suddenly become uninhabitable.

[6:58] So that's how close it can get. From where it sits, it can get just 1.5 million kilometers closer, and then life disappears.

[7:09] And so you all know that. You can all picture 1.5 million kilometers, can't you? Well, I said my math genius friend, Ryan Dornan, Karen's son, crunched the numbers for me to scale it down.

[7:21] So this is a true representation of the scale of the sun being a 12-inch record and the earth being a 2-millimeter ball bearing. But the distances, I said to Ryan, I want to be able to show this in a room.

[7:36] It just doesn't work. The distance is incredible. And so I thought if the earth, this little ball was in Bells Hill Baptist Church, right, 150 million kilometers scaled down to this size would be basically Bridge of Allen.

[7:56] If anyone knows where Bridge of Allen is, just north of Stirling, or Broxburn, Broxburn Baptist Church, or even down by the coast next to Kilmarnock in that area.

[8:08] But anyway, Bridge of Allen. So imagine that record is in Bridge of Allen, and this little 2-millimeter ball is in Bells Hill Baptist Church. That is the true distance between the earth and the sun.

[8:22] Now, what we're going to do is we're going to take this little ball in our car, and we're going to drive north towards Bridge of Allen, and we're going to see how close we can get. So I want you to guess.

[8:34] We jump in our car with this. We drive to Bridge of Allen. How close can we get before life becomes uninhabitable? What do you think? How close?

[8:44] If you know the journey, what do you think? Sorry? Cumbernauld. Okay, we've got Cumbernauld. Can we see that and raise it?

[8:55] Anyone get any other guesses? Mossend, right? Mossend. Anyone else? Hollytown. Sorry? Carfin.

[9:07] Okay, so we've got various guesses of where we can take this before life becomes uninhabitable. How close can we get? How can we ever draw near to this holy God?

[9:19] The answer, the answer of where this would become uninhabitable is Tesco Roundabout. Just there. Isn't that incredible?

[9:31] And that's just a record-sized thing. Tesco Roundabout, and suddenly, it's incredible. We just, we cannot get close. We can't get close.

[9:43] The point is that this colossal nuclear furnace of fire and energy is vital for life on this planet, but earth cannot get too close or everything will die.

[9:55] She can't get too close or everything will die. The sun is a life-giving star, but we can't get too close or we die. And so this holy God, where we get our life from, is vital.

[10:09] Without Him, we have no life, but we cannot get too close or we die. Think about how big the earth is compared to a single person.

[10:20] The earth is about 3.5 million times larger than a human, yet the earth can barely get any closer to the sun. The sun, as massive as that is, is not a big star.

[10:33] There's massive stars, and yet the Lord God made these stars by the breath of His mouth. So how could a person possibly draw near to this holy God?

[10:47] You see, God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He is a holy God and a consuming fire. How can we ever draw near to this holy God? And so the whole time for Israel and Exodus, the whole time they've watched on as Yahweh has crushed their enemies, as He has rescued them out of Egypt, as He has led them through the sea and through the wilderness, providing for them all the way.

[11:13] And when they come to the mountain, they've already been rescued. They've already been chosen. They've already been provided for. Yet they experience God like never before.

[11:25] This is not a God for the mantelpiece. This is not like the gods that you make out of silver and gold and stone and wood. This is not a God that you can carry about with you.

[11:36] This is not like any God that they've ever heard of before or ever seen. This is a holy, incredible, majestic God. And so when God calls them to the mountain and speaks to them and speaks directly to them, it absolutely terrifies the life out of them.

[11:59] And when we think about God speaking the Ten Commandments, we might think, that would have been nice to be there. But everyone in Israel would say, no, you wouldn't want to be there. They don't want it to happen again.

[12:10] It's so terrifying. Now, have you ever heard someone say, if you've ever been talking to someone about God, and have you ever heard someone say, if only God would just show Himself, why doesn't God just show Himself?

[12:22] If God would show Himself, then I would believe. You ever heard someone say that? Well, if you ever hear someone say that again, just say, you wouldn't believe, you would die.

[12:33] If God was to show Himself, you would die. Or maybe you've thought yourself, I've certainly thought this, I would just love, I would love it if God would speak to me just directly, audibly.

[12:46] But yet, I don't think it would. I think it would be too much. For the entire nation of Israel, it is just far too much, far too terrifying. If that were to happen, we wouldn't want it, and we wouldn't be able to handle it.

[13:01] There's not a single person in the whole nation, except for Moses, who wants any more of this. Now, why doesn't God just show Himself? Why does God not just speak from Heaven?

[13:15] Would that make people believe? It would make people die. And if you ever asked that why God doesn't do that, why He hides Himself, it's an act of mercy so that we don't die.

[13:29] It would be too much for us. And so, how can we ever draw near to this holy God? Well, I think, as we go through this passage, I think there are three things that we can see in this passage that help us answer this question of how we could ever draw near to this holy God.

[13:46] In verses 18 to 20, we need a right fear. We need a right fear of the Lord. And then in verses 19 to 22, we need a willing mediator. We need a mediator.

[13:58] And verses 23 to 26, we need a sacrifice. We need a perfect sacrifice. So we need a right fear. We need a willing mediator.

[14:08] And we need a perfect sacrifice if we've any hope of drawing near to this holy God. Up to this point, Israel has been rather casual towards God.

[14:20] In fact, it's sometimes they've been downright arrogant in their grumbling and disbelief. When you consider how terrifying it is for them to hear God's voice and see just a glimpse of His presence, doesn't that highlight the incredible grace that God has had and the patience that God has had with Israel throughout all their grumblings, throughout all the challenges and all the tests and all their failures throughout the wilderness, when you consider how awesome and terrifying God is, doesn't it show you how gracious and merciful and patient He is?

[14:55] He is a patient and merciful God. And in this encounter, it seems evident that although Yahweh is their God, they just had no idea who they were dealing with.

[15:08] Many people think that if there is a God, if there is a God, well, clearly He doesn't care because He is so distant and hidden.

[15:20] Well, firstly, I would question whether He is distant. As Paul says in Acts 17, we get our life and breath and everything from God and He is not far from each one of us.

[15:32] He's not far. Secondly, I would question just how hidden He is because according to the Scriptures, He at least makes Himself known in many and various ways.

[15:44] Psalm 19 says the heavens are declaring the glory of God. Romans 1 says that all creation is revealing His nature. And so it seems to me that if we are not seeing it, it's not because creation isn't revealing God, rather it's because our eyes are blind in our hearts, refuse to believe it.

[16:04] You see, the creation is screaming about the existence and nature of God, screaming it. And the reason why we can't hear it and see it is because we have hearts that disbelieve.

[16:16] We have eyes that are blind and ears that are dull to hear. And so God does reveal Himself. He reveals Himself in creation. He reveals Himself through His Word and He reveals Himself through His Son.

[16:30] But He reveals Himself in mediated ways. In mediated ways. Because we cannot handle it. He needs to accommodate Himself to us. There is a sense in which He doesn't show Himself.

[16:43] Why won't He show Himself? What is with all this cloak and dagger, God? This apparent hiddenness of God is actually a philosophical argument against His existence.

[16:53] But what I think people fail to account for is the fact that we as creatures are simply not fit to come face to face with our Creator.

[17:06] We're not fit for that. We cannot stand before a holy God and live. What people fail to get is that it's a mercy of God that He doesn't show Himself in such an overwhelming and awesome and terrifying way.

[17:20] Especially when we are so casual and arrogant in our sin about it. Even to a man like Moses. Further on in Exodus 33, God says, No, Moses, you cannot see My face.

[17:36] For no man can see My face and live. I'll let you see My back and I'll hide you in a cleft of a rock. Even for Moses, what would become of those who do not fear God if they were to see Him?

[17:49] And so this is what it talks about in Hebrews chapter 10. Outside of the grace of God, to those who have no fear of the Lord, there is only a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that consumes.

[18:05] The writer of Hebrews says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Where is the fear of the Lord? Where is the fear of the Lord?

[18:16] Can the fear of the Lord be found in our society? We all wag our fingers and say, No, no. But can the fear of the Lord be found among ourselves?

[18:30] Have we become all too casual with the Lord, calling the Father our Daddy and calling our King Jesus our best friend? I feel it myself. I underestimate how awesome this God is.

[18:45] Do you remember, talking about best friends, do you remember who Jesus' best friend was? The disciple that was loved by Jesus, who reclined with Jesus at the closest place, John the Apostle, best friend of Jesus.

[19:03] Do you remember what happened when John saw Jesus in Revelation chapter 1? This is what he said. He said, I turned, and when I saw him, his hair was white like snow, his eyes were like flame of fire, his feet like burnished bronze, his voice like the roar of a flood, and in his hands were seven stars, and his mouth was a two-edged sword, and his face was shining like the sun in full strength.

[19:31] And John, the actual best friend of Jesus, said, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. How do you think we would fare if that's Jesus' best friend?

[19:48] So, if the Israelites, if they only got a fraction of an encounter with the living God, yet they trembled and stood far off, if they said to Moses, no, Moses, you speak to us, and we'll listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die, if that's the case, how can we ever draw near to this holy God?

[20:12] We need a right fear. This is what Moses said. This is the first thing Moses tells them to do, and it's confusing. It's confusing. Look at verse 20.

[20:24] Moses says, do not fear, and then he goes on to say, you need to fear him. What does he mean by that? Do not fear. Calm down, Israel.

[20:35] Do not fear. The Lord has come to test you that the fear of him may be in you. What does he mean? He means that we need a right fear.

[20:48] Throughout Exodus, this is one of the things, throughout Exodus, and maybe you remember this, and if you don't, let me remind you, throughout Exodus, since the day, the very day, that Israel left Egypt, the people of Israel have constantly struggled to believe that God doesn't want to kill them.

[21:05] Time and time again, they cry out, God's going to kill us. Oh, we're here at this, the foot of the Red Sea, and God's going to kill us.

[21:16] And time and time again, we've got no food, God's going to kill us. And Moses has to remind the people time and time again, God has not brought you out to kill you. He's not rescued you to kill you.

[21:28] He is faithful to his promises. So most of their struggle has come down to times of provision in the face of their enemies, to cross the Red Sea, to water their flocks, to feed their family.

[21:42] Time and time again, they've struggled to believe that this God doesn't want to kill them. That's the wrong kind of fear. That's the wrong kind of fear, thinking that God is out to kill you.

[21:55] But when they come to the foot of the mountain, it's not provision, it's their proximity to God that puts the fear in them. They think their lives are at risk. And so Moses tells them not to fear.

[22:09] They shouldn't think that all this thunder and fire is designed to consume them. It's not designed to consume them. Rather, it's designed to test them. You see, Malachi 3 says, I, the Lord, do not change.

[22:24] Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. It is because the Lord is faithful that they are not consumed. And Moses wants the nation to get this.

[22:36] God is not out to consume you. He's not out to kill you. Don't have that kind of fear. You trust Him. But you should have the kind of fear that sees that He is an awesome God and He is a holy God.

[22:49] He's not a God to be trifled with. He's not a God to be played with like all these other gods. You see, this terrifying encounter isn't designed to make them run away and hide.

[23:00] It's designed to give them a proper reverence and humility. They need to know. They need to know that Yahweh's telling the truth when He says that there really is no other gods like Him. You need to know this.

[23:13] These people of Israel need to know this at the foot of the mountain. There is no God like this God. This isn't a God to be carried about. This isn't a God to be made into an image.

[23:26] This isn't a God to be trifled with. This isn't a God to be casual with. Especially in this moment of making a covenant with His people. You need to know who you're making a covenant with.

[23:39] And so this God, this God isn't like a little stream that children play in. His voice is like the roar of a thousand rivers. God isn't like a little burning candle on a birthday cake that a child can blow out.

[23:56] His light is like the blazing furnace of a nuclear star. It's not just that He's bigger. It's not just that God is a bigger and more powerful version of us. He's not.

[24:06] He's completely different. God is so unlike anything in all creation. He is completely other and utterly holy. the divine simplicity, the otherness of God.

[24:20] If we have too little a view of God, it will make His commands seem like nothing more than suggestion cards. And it will make it easy to disregard God, and it will make it easy to destroy yourself with sin.

[24:34] And they go hand in hand. When we disregard God, we destroy ourselves with sin. And that's why Moses is saying that the fear of God is to help keep us from sin.

[24:46] Because sin is both an affront to a holy God, and it's also a disaster to His creation. Fear of the Lord is to help keep us from sin, because sin is the thing that will destroy us.

[25:01] sin. And so, it's this fearful God that has brought them out of Egypt. And now it will be the fear of Lord that will bring Egypt out of the people.

[25:14] The people have been brought out of Egypt, but Egypt needs to be taken out of the people. And so, whenever the fear of the Lord decreases, sin increases.

[25:26] We see this in the world in every place and every age. Wherever the fear of the Lord decreases, sin will increase. Wherever the fear of the Lord increases, sin will decrease. It's evident in every place and every age.

[25:40] And so, while Yahweh has brought this people out of Egypt with great and terrifying power, the people need to get Egypt out of them. And this is the theology of Exodus, that the slavery that they were in is pointing to the slavery of sin.

[25:55] The first thing we need is the fear of the Lord. The second thing we need is a willing mediator. The people said to Moses, no, no, no, you go. You know, you speak to us, we'll listen to you, but we cannot hear the Lord lest we die.

[26:10] You speak to God. You speak to God for us. And so, they stand far off and Moses draws near. You see that, verse 21, the people stood far off while Moses drew near.

[26:24] A mediator. He's the only one. a mediator. And so, the people need a go-between. They need an advocate. Psalm 24 says, Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

[26:38] Who shall stand in his holy place? And the second half of Psalm 24 is a prophetic vision of the ascension of Christ, which is also shown in Daniel chapter 7.

[26:50] Who else can approach the Ancient of Days except the one riding on the clouds? We need a mediator. And clearly, there is only one who can stand.

[27:01] And this will be a recurring theme throughout Exodus as we go on. There's only one mediator. He's a gracious accommodation by God.

[27:13] God accommodates us by giving us a mediator so that we will listen, so that we will live if we listen to him. And so, without the fear of the Lord, this is how they are connected.

[27:24] Without the fear of the Lord, man does not realize his need for a mediator. Until we realize just who it is we are dealing with, and until we realize our true state before him, we will never look beyond ourselves.

[27:40] We will never look beyond our own efforts to try and impress God. If we don't have the fear of the Lord, we will never see our need for such a mediator. And there's only one who can stand.

[27:53] And Paul says this, there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. Hebrews chapter 3 says, Moses was faithful in all of God's house as a servant, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.

[28:12] And while the law came through Moses, and his face shone with glory, only Jesus had the glory of the only son from the Father. While Moses only seen the glory of the back of the Lord while hiding in the cleft of a rock, Jesus alone has seen God.

[28:31] Remember in John chapter 1, no one has ever seen God except the son who was at the Father's side from the beginning and shared glory with him before the world existed.

[28:44] Jesus himself said to Nicodemus in John 3, no one, no one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the son of man who is in heaven.

[28:58] Christ is the mediator we need. We need a mediator. We need a willing mediator, and Christ is the willing and able mediator that we need because he's the son of God. And finally, finally we need a perfect sacrifice.

[29:14] See if you can spot the difference between verse 23 and verse 24. It's interesting.

[29:25] We're used to hearing you shall not, you shall not, you shall not, and especially when we came to the Ten Commandments, we're used to hearing you shall not make things. Don't make things.

[29:38] But yet the difference between 23 and 24, you shall not make that, but you shall make this. Don't make gods of silver, don't make gods of gold, don't make carved images of animals, but do make an altar.

[29:56] And on that altar you shall sacrifice these animals on your behalf. Now it might seem strange here. Why is he mentioning these offerings and altars and sacrifices?

[30:08] We've not yet gotten to Leviticus. Why is he mentioning it here? Moses already said, didn't he, in verse 20, that sin is going to be a problem.

[30:23] Moses already said that sin is going to be a problem. And already, way back in Exodus, if you can remember, why was it the message was to let my people go?

[30:36] Let my people go. Why? So that they can go into the wilderness and make sacrifice to me. That's what God said, didn't he? So we've already heard this.

[30:47] This is a need for the nation. Their need is not only to be rescued, but their need is for a sacrifice. And so this is way back in Genesis, not Genesis, way back in Exodus 3, when God is talking to Moses, and then Exodus 5 and Exodus 8, we hear this repeated.

[31:11] Let my people go so that they can come out and offer sacrifice to me. We need a perfect sacrifice. Why do we need a perfect sacrifice? Because sin is always going to be a problem.

[31:23] Sin is going to be a problem that needs dealt with. Egypt wasn't the only problem. And again, this is the theology of Exodus. Egypt and slavery to Egypt wasn't the only problem.

[31:33] It was sin. And sin needs dealt with. Now, were they only rescued? Were the people of Israel only rescued out of Egypt because God is just hungry for sacrifices?

[31:49] It's not like Pharaoh was the only one keeping them from drawing near to their God. See, Egypt and slavery to Egypt wasn't the only thing keeping them from drawing near to this holy God.

[32:06] Sin was keeping them from God. It's not like Yahweh is just some God that's hungry for sacrifices. Rather, how can you be in any kind of covenant relationship with God if you are stained by sin and prone to sin?

[32:24] We need a sacrifice. It's not that God is hungry for sacrifices. God is making a provision for us so that we can have that fellowship restored that was broken back in Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden.

[32:40] It's like that illustration of the earth sitting in the Goldilocks zone. If the earth gets too close, we all die. If the earth gets too far, we all die.

[32:51] You see, we cannot get too close so we need a mediator. We need someone who can get close to God and that is Christ. We cannot get too close but we cannot get too far or we die and sin is the thing that pulls us away from God.

[33:07] Sin is the thing that takes us out of that zone into the gloomy darkness where we freeze and die. We cannot get too far so we need a sacrifice. We cannot get too close.

[33:19] We need a mediator. We cannot get too far. We need a sacrifice. All these things go hand in hand. And so, Moses tells them of the sacrifices.

[33:30] He says, bring your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. These two sacrifices are designed to address our sin problem. And we see this in Leviticus.

[33:42] Leviticus 1.4 talks about the burnt offering. It's the whole animal is consumed. And in the peace, the peace offering or shalom offering is designed to restore fellowship.

[33:58] The burnt offering, the whole animal was consumed by the flames. That dealt with our sin. That atoned for our sin. And in the peace offering, partly that would be eaten.

[34:10] That would be eaten as a fellowship meal. It was a celebration of the shalom that results from the sin being atoned for by the burnt offering. So these two offerings, they go hand in hand.

[34:21] We need the burnt offering to atone for our sins and then the peace offering to celebrate the fellowship that's been restored because our sins have been atoned for. And this has been a need since Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden.

[34:35] When Israel was given this, they had to do it all the time. Every year, they had to do this. They were longing for a day when sacrifice was no longer needed.

[34:47] Where there would be a death sufficient enough to put an end to death altogether. And it was all pointing to Christ. All pointing to Christ.

[34:58] Ephesians 5 2 says that Christ gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. You see, even the altar itself, Moses says, this altar cannot be made of chiseled stones.

[35:16] Don't go making it look fancy. Because the handiwork of man would do nothing to remove his guilt.

[35:28] What can we bring? What can we bring to the altar? Can we make the altar fancy enough for God to accept us? It's nothing to do with the altar. It's nothing to do with the stones.

[35:39] It's everything to do with the thing that is on the altar being sacrificed. It's everything to do with the blood when Leviticus says that the life is in the blood. It's everything to do with the one who is on the altar being sacrificed on our behalf.

[35:54] It's not about the altar. It's about the spotless lamb that would be upon the altar. Peter says this in 1 Peter 1. He says, it's not with man-made things that we are ransomed, but it is with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish.

[36:12] And so this is why Hebrews calls these former shadows and copies of true things. It says this in Hebrews 10, since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, it can never make perfect those who draw near.

[36:38] Every priest stands daily at a service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered once for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

[37:00] For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And we are being sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

[37:13] Jesus is the sacrifice we need because he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So how can we draw near to this holy God?

[37:24] Well, we need a right fear. We need a right fear of the Lord. It's not meant to drive us away. It's meant to drive us toward him. Psalm chapter 2.

[37:38] Psalm chapter 2 says, Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. And then it says, Blessed are those who take refuge in him.

[37:50] You see, there's no refuge away from him. There's no refuge somewhere far off. You can't hide and be safe. You can only hide in him. You can only take refuge in him.

[38:03] So we need a right fear of the Lord. And we need Christ as our willing and able mediator because he's the Son of God and our advocate with the Father. Hebrews 7 says that he, Christ, is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.

[38:21] We can only draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession intercession for us. And we need Christ as our perfect sacrifice for he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[38:36] And then there's this statement at the very end. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. In every place where he causes his name to be remembered, he will come to us and he will bless us.

[38:52] And so, with the right fear, with the right mediator, and with the right sacrifice, we can draw near to this holy God through Christ.

[39:09] And it says in Hebrews 13, through him, through Christ, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips that acknowledge his name.

[39:23] We do this in remembrance of his name, remembering the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his body made sacrifice for our sins and has now ascended to God, that we may draw near to God through him.

[39:39] It's the only way. It's through Christ. And so, let me pray. Well, our heavenly Father, our holy God, what is it that is keeping us alive?

[39:53] What is it that enables us to draw near? It is your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for him. Help us to see the need for a right fear.

[40:04] Help us to see that he is our mediator. And help us to see that he is our perfect sacrifice. And only through him can we draw near to your holy presence.

[40:19] We pray and give thanks. Please accept the offering of our praise to you in the remembrance of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:33] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.