a man's gift to maketh room for
him, and bringeth him before great
men. It's an interesting principle, an interesting reality in ordinary
things, in earthly things that teaches what everything in the
scripture teaches, the gospel of our Savior. There's no room
for an ordinary man at the table of a wealthy or powerful man
unless, this is the essence of what our verse teaches, there's
room for you and you can come before them if you have what
they want. What does a wealthy man want?
More wealth. A great king or a prince is not
going to make time for the likes of you unless you have what they
want. And it boils down to money, as
our Lord summed it up. You can't serve God and money,
mammon, game. You can call it what you want,
but that's what it boils down to. And this has always been
true, it's true now, and it always will be, as long as this world
stands. It's going to take giving somebody
what they want if you're going to have any standing with them whatsoever.
So the question is, who do you want an audience with? Who is
it important for you to stand before? If you want to see your
favorite music star up close, that'll be an extra hundo or
two. No problem. Backstage pass. You want to have dinner with
a powerful politician? 1,000 bucks a plate, no problem. But if you happen to be interested
in coming before the king of kings, the Lord of glory, the
one who created everything, the one who owns everything, the
one who controls everything, the one who gives eternal life
to whomsoever he will. What are you gonna bring to him? What gift would he want? What does God want? Well, there are two answers to
that, and the reason there's two answers to that is that if
you're gonna ever have any hope of coming before the God of heaven
and earth, someone else must also come before him, before
you, for you. It's the only way to see God.
There's one God and there's one mediator between God and men,
that's the man Christ Jesus. You're not coming before him
unless there's a forerunner. The one who must come as your
forerunner must have something to offer. There's something God
wants, and he gets what he wants. In order to make room for you
there, he must have what God wants, and God The only things
that God wants on the authority of scriptures, I can tell you
what God wants. It's clear in all through the scriptures. He
wants justice. He wants glory. He's gonna get
glory one way or the other now. He wants perfect obedience. There ain't no good outweighing
bad. There ain't no did my best. He wants perfect obedience, and
he wants satisfaction for sin. That's what God wants. You mark
it down. You don't need to mark it down.
God already did. Read this book. That's what God wants. And the reason that someone must
go before you is that you don't have what God wants. You just
don't have it. You don't have any of it. You can't provide justice. Justice
is not done with you. Glory, well, I'm gonna give God
glory. That's fine, that's scriptural
language, but you need to understand, you don't have any glory to give
him. You're just attributing glory unto him when you give
him glory. Perfect obedience, can't cut
it. You're not gonna have it. and
satisfaction for sin. You've got no way to pay your
sin debt. It's infinite. And so that's why there are two
answers to this. That's why there must be two. If you're gonna ever have an
audience with God, if you're ever gonna come into his presence, then it can't be just you. You
don't have what he wants, you can't produce it. In fact, you
are the antithesis of what he wants. The only one who has what
God wants is God's son. And another way to say that,
and a good way to say that is simply this, the only thing that
has what God wants is God. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now what
will Christ bring before God that will satisfy his justice, that will satisfy his wrath against
my sin, that will epitomize perfect obedience
unto him, and will infinitely exalt and
display his great glory? What is it that satisfies all
of the wants of God? Just one thing. One gift, one
offering. His own precious sin-cleansing
blood. God is glorified nowhere like
at Calvary. His justice is satisfied at Calvary. And bless God, there's one more
thing that God wants. There's one more thing he wants.
And it's really the same thing. That which glorifies him, that
which puts on display his satisfaction of his own justice, that which
is the very definition of satisfaction for sin, of propitiation, of
atonement. That which brings him the ultimate
glory. God wants sinners to be saved. And that happens the same way
by his precious blood. That's what's accomplished. In
satisfying all of those wants of God, it satisfies his purpose
for having a universe. He has a universe because he
has a people. And he will have mercy on whom
he will. He is love. And love not expressed, love
not satisfied, is not love. The blood of God's own Son makes
room for us at the table of grace and brings us before the presence
of his great glory with exceeding joy. That's how room is made for you.
That's how you get an audience with the King. He gets what he
wants. And that's how. Why would the holy God have any
use for me or give me the time of day? Why would he not in fact
throw me in hell where I belong? That's where we all belong. You don't have to take too long
to look at us to realize that. We ought to go to hell. If you
don't understand that, you just never taken a good long look
at yourself in the light of God's word, in the light of reality. Why don't he just toss us in
hell and be done with it? Because the God man's gift has
made room for us. and has brought us before the
King of glory, our precious Savior, suffered for our sins, the just
for the unjust, why? That he might bring us to God. That there might be room for
us. That we might have an audience with the King. I'll to the gracious
King approach, whose scepter mercy gives. Perhaps he will
receive my touch. And then the sinner lives. I
can but perish if I go, I am resolved to try, for if I stay
away, I know I must forever die. And he does receive our touch
because of Christ and what he did for us. And him entering
into the presence of God as our forerunner. So when we come before God, what
do we bring? What else is there? What's left
to bring? Remember Isaiah 55, one through
seven? If you're thirsty, come. Come
to the waters, and we're told in the context of that, if you
want to jot that down, Isaiah 55, one through seven, in the
context, we're told what it means to come to the waters. Talking
about the water of life, because it says in that context, seek
ye the Lord while he may be found. That's what it is to come to
the water, just to come to the Savior. How are you going to
come without money and without price? If you try to add anything, your
service, your works, your out walking, your decision, your
religion, then you're a traitor to the
God of heaven and earth. You've trampled underfoot the
blood of Christ. You've said that's not enough,
but I've got this. God's lamb didn't mean anything
to Cain, but look at the produce that I've produced. Listen to Psalm 3418, the Lord
is nigh unto them. How are you gonna come into his
presence? He's gonna come to you first, that's how. If Christ
has gone into his presence for you, then you've already come
to God in Christ. And he's gonna come to you now.
And he's nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit." In other words, he doesn't save people who have something
to offer to him. He saves people that need something
from him. They've got a broken heart. They're
in the dust before God. And it says, those that are of
a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise.
He's not gonna say, what's he doing coming into my presence?
He's not gonna say, I've got no time for that. He cometh nigh
unto such. You see, when a sinner comes
before God, it's you that are in want, not him. He's already
satisfied. We need to understand this. The
Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He's the one that saved us on
Calvary. When He shed His precious blood
for you, you were saved. When you hear the gospel and
believe, you're just finding out about it. He's not trying to get you to
do something for Him. He's telling you what He's done
for you. God is satisfied. You don't need
to bring anything. In fact, you must not bring anything. You're in need, not Him. You
need a new heart. You need to be fixed. You need
your sins put away. You need perfect righteousness
before Him. God is already satisfied in all
of that, not by you, but for you by Christ. If you come to him, if you believe
on him, not on the condition that you
believe on him, but that's how you know. Chris, am I one of
the elect? Do you believe on Christ? Then he loved you before you
ever walked this earth, before your first cry. Christ's coming before God for
you and his gift and sacrifice is so perfect and pleasing unto
God that though you're not even looking for God, he's looking
for you. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite
heart. Oh God, thou wilt not despise. He seeks you first. He comes
to you first because Christ came unto God and we by Him. Because you were His, because
you were bought with the precious blood of His Son, your coming
before God actually was Christ coming before God for you. Think
about this now. Turn with me to a couple of scriptures. Hebrews 619. Let's look at Hebrews
619. Hebrews 619. which hope, and he's talking
about, of course, the hope of salvation, the hope of coming
before God and being accepted of God, which hope we have as
an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. It's an unmovable
hope. It's a reliable hope. It's an
unfailing hope because, look, and which entereth into that
within the veil." That's the hope that we have, is to come
into the very presence of God. The veil was that which covered
the most holy place in the tabernacle, where the very presence of God
dwelt on the mercy seat, and He communed with sinners there,
and He was atoned for sin. There was atonement for sin between
God and the sinner by the blood on the mercy seat. That's the
veil he's talking about. We get in there. We go inside
with the high priest because the high priest went in for us.
Not without blood. Where the forerunner is for us
entered. Verse 20, even Jesus made an
high priest. We've got to understand what
a high priest is. He makes atonement for Israel
for the elect of God by the blood of God's sacrifice brought within
that veil into the most holy place. and offered there on the
mercy seat, the blood is Christ, the high priest is Christ, the
mercy seat is Christ. And Christ our forerunner entered
in. We get in the veil because he
went in before us. Even Jesus, made in high priest
forever. after the order of Melchizedek.
He's a high priest without beginning of days or end of days. Turn
with me to John 14.5. Just a couple of scriptures in
closing. This is what How do we get an audience with
God? What's gonna bring us before
the great king? How's there gonna be room for us there? John 14,
five, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou
goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. Now don't picture that, and I
always did when I was younger, as Christ being the way. He's
the road to God. That's not what that's saying.
You look at the context of it and look at this particular truth
throughout scripture. No man cometh unto the Father
but this way, by me going to the Father. That whole context
is him saying, I've got to go, I'm going, I'm going unto my
Father. Why? Because that's how I go
to the Father, in my representative. You see the difference? I don't
go just by way of Christ. I go by Christ going as my representative. That's me going to God in him.
And then we come to God, eventually we're going to meet Him in the
air and we're going to forever be with our Lord. But me going
before God in sinless perfection and holiness, that's already
happened. He calls us his glorious church
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. How does that happen? By me walking down an aisle?
No, by the son of God going into the very holy of holies, not
made with hands, as my representative, as my high priest, and offering
his own precious blood for me. That's what the publican was
saying. God be propitious to me on the mercy seat. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. So our text stands
true in the truest way. The only way we get to come before
God is if we have what God wants. And in Christ Jesus, we do. We
do. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and
ever. That word now is what we're doing
here. That's why we have church. Glory
be unto him now. He's glorified in that we bear
fruit. How are we gonna do that? Except
you abide in the vine. If you abide in me, you'll bear
much fruit. He's glorified in the salvation
of sinners. How's that's gonna happen? By
the preaching of the gospel. They please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. What a glorious day when God,
when we come before Him faultless in the presence of His glory
by our Lord Jesus Christ. We're already there in Him. Cause to rejoice. Let's pray.