June 19th, 2020

Yesterday we talked about drawing near to Him because of the sprinkling of blood but 
just because you have the blood of Christ on your life does not automatically mean that you are brought near.  It only qualifies you to come near. Now that we are sprinkled and qualified righteous before God, under the blood of Christ, sprinkled by faith we now have boldness to come into the holiest place. We are qualified to draw near not because we have had a good or bad day, only on the basis of one thing…we draw near to God based on the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ on our lives.
 
In the Old Testament people drew near to God in the same way…the shedding of blood. 
o   The sprinkling of blood in the New Testament has Old Testament precedent to it; God always wants intimacy with man.  It is the same story in the Old Covenant, but every time God got close, people would die. 
 
Numbers 17:13 Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die. Shall we all utterly die?”
God in His holiness is not going to change so He had to do something because of their sinfulness.  God established a way He could draw near to the people without them dying. It was called sprinkling of blood. The sprinkling of blood allowed God to draw near without killing them.  The New Covenant is more superior.
 
Old Covenant                                                                                                New Covenant
Animal blood                                                                                                 Christ Blood
Only one man could enter holiest place (High Priest)                            Anyone can enter in
Once a year (Day of Atonement)                                                              Anytime
The priest went in and out                                                                          We can stay there
 
Exodus 19:11-12 11 And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

You can close but not too close. What is the definition of near? In the Old Covenant, if you come too near-you’re dead BUT if you don’t come near-you are in rebellion. So how close is too close?
 
In the New Covenant we don’t have to be nervous in coming in too close. The New Covenant invites us to come as close as we want.  He will draw near to you.
James 4:8  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you

It becomes an invitation to find out how close you can get. The secret place is the exploration of the saints to find out how close can we can get to God? We draw near…He draws near.

How close do you want to get to God?
What is hindering you to draw near?