If you're one who follows the
reading of the Word of God, I'll be speaking this morning from
the book of 1 Peter. If you want to find your Bible
and open it with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. And here's my subject. Who can bring us to God? Who can bring us to God? Now, I know that I'm speaking
to many people out there today. I know we have a quite a number
of listeners. I've heard from so many of you
and I'm grateful for every letter and card that you've written.
And I know that the people to whom I'm speaking are as different
as the snowflakes. Have you ever stood by the window
and watched snowflakes fall? Someone told me there are no
two, though there are billions of snowflakes, there are no two
just alike. And I know that listening to
my voice today there are just hundreds of people All of them
different. All different. Out there in our
area, some are old and some are young. And some are rich and
some are poor. And some are male and some are
female. And some are quite educated and some are not so educated.
Some are quite religious and others not so religious. But
in spite of all of our differences, and I could go on talking about
these differences, people are different. But in spite of all
of our differences, my friends, we have one single thing in common. One thing that every son of Adam,
every daughter of Adam has in common. Do you know what it is?
We're all sinners. That's right. We're all sinners.
That's what the Word of God says. And I think that's what you know.
I think your heart would say that, even if your mouth wouldn't.
But scripture says in Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. We're sinners. And Romans 3 says
this, there's no difference. Paul is talking about the Jew
and the Gentile. He says there's no difference.
There's no difference. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. James said to offend in one point
of the law is to be guilty of the whole law. Paul said again
in Romans 3, would you believe this? There's none good, none
good. And he adds, no, not one. There's
none righteous. There's none perfectly righteous.
There's none righteous like God. And there's none that understand
it. There's none that can comprehend the mysteries of God. And there's
none that seek after God. Oh, we seek the blessings of
God and the benefits of God, but not after God Himself. And
then 1 John 1, John declares this, if any man say he has no
sin, he deceives himself, the truth is not in him, he is a
deceived person. And he goes on, he says in verse
10, if any man say he has not sinned, if anybody, if I say
it or you say it or anyone says it, I have not sinned, I do not
sin. But he says he has made God a
liar, he is not only a liar himself, and deceived himself, and the
Word of God doesn't dwell in him, but he's made God a liar,
because God said, all have sinned, and come short of his glory.
God says that all men are sinners. Now then, here's the critical
issue then. Here's the critical issue. This being true, that
we're all sinners, and we know God is holy, then here's the
critical issue. How can man be just with God? How can man have fellowship with
God? Job said, how can man be clean
that's born of a woman? Why, he said, behold, the moon
shineth not, the stars are not clean in God's sight. How much
more, now listen to him, how much more abominable and filthy
is man who drinks iniquity like the water? Who shall bring us
to God? Who shall stand in his presence? Two can't walk together except
they be agreed. God said, to be accepted it must
be perfect. David said, who shall stand in
his presence? I'll answer that question. He
said, he that hath clean hands, clean hands, and a pure heart,
and who has never lifted up his soul to vanity. Now my friends,
I want you to listen carefully right now. Just listen real carefully. God is holy. Do you know the
chief attribute of God? You know what an attribute is?
It's a characteristic. It's that by which a person is
known. You have attributes, you have characteristics. We call
it personality sometimes. But what is God's chief attribute?
God's chief characteristic, if you were to If you were to define
God with one word, what word would you use? Now if you use
the word love, you've missed it. You've missed it. God is
love. But God's chief attribute is
not love. His name is not love. His name
is holy. Did you know that? Now listen.
Holy and reverend is His name. That's God's name. God is holy. God said... Now listen to all
these scriptures. God is in his, not loving temple, his holy temple. He calls his angels, not his
loving angels, his holy angels. Now isn't that what the words
say? The Bible is the Holy Bible. That's right. The tabernacle
is called the Holy of Holies. When the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he wore a mitre,
on which was inscribed some words. Do you know what they were? Not
God is love. He is, don't misunderstand me.
But his chief attribute is holiness. When the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies, on his mitre was written these words. Not
God is love, but the words written on the mitre of the high priest
was holiness unto the Lord. Holiness unto... Isaiah said,
I saw the Lord. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord. High and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple. And the cherubims and seraphims
around the throne cried, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. God is holy. The chief attribute
of God is holiness. Now listen to me. Don't get angry
with me. I'm telling you the truth. God
is holy. What's our chief attribute? Mankind. You know what our chief attribute
is? Sin. That's what we're called in the
Bible. Sinners. That's what the Word of God calls
us. It said in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. God committed His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, God loved us and Christ
died for us. You who were dead in sin have
to be quickened together. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Jesus Christ the Lord
died for the ungodly. That's what we're called. God
is holy, we're sinners. God is light, we dwell in darkness. God is life, we're death. There's
death all about you. There's death in you. There's
no death in God. God is true. The Scripture says,
God is true, let every man. be a liar. So here's the point,
who's going to bring us to God? We're opposites. He said your
sins have separated you and God. You can't come to God like you
are. You couldn't last, you couldn't live, you couldn't exist in God's
presence. God dwells immortal, invisible,
dwelling in a light to which no man can approach. That's what
scripture says. Oh, I know this. Now listen to
me. Who can bring us to God? What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? I know beyond a shadow of a doubt
that there's some things that will not bring us to God. Some
things that a lot of people think will bring them to God, won't
bring them to God. You know, two or three times
it says in the Word of God, there's a way that seems right to me
and in the end is destruction. God said, your ways are not my
ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts. And I know this,
the law will not bring us to God. Now you can hang the Ten
Commandments on the wall in the school, in the church, anywhere
you want to. But the presence of that law
just does one thing, it aggravates sin. The law entered that sin
might abound. The law doesn't do anything but
show us what we are. The law can't speak mercy, it
can't speak peace, it can't speak forgiveness. The law doesn't
forgive. The law condemns. You walk up
to a mirror and look into the mirror and you say, well, my
face is dirty and my hair is not combed and my clothes are
not kneed and ironed. Well, the mirror won't do anything
for you. The mirror won't wash your face. It won't comb your
hair. It won't clean your garments. You got to go somewhere else
for that. And that's what the law does. The law shows me who
I am and what I am and what I do. But the law will not bring me
to God, the law will not cleanse my heart, or my soul, or justify
me. Paul said in Romans 3, 19, What
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. No flesh. Not possible. The law won't bring you to God.
You read it, preach it, study it, strive to keep it. Only one
results. You'll cry, oh wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Or the body
of this death? Tell you something else, the
church won't bring you to God. Besides that, the church is not
a building. The church is not an organization.
The church is not a denomination. The church is an assembly of
people who have been brought to God. The church is an assembly
of people who know God. I hear people say, well, I'm
going to church Sunday. What do you mean you're going
to church? Going down to that building? That's not the church. The church
is an assembly of people in whom the Lord dwells. God does not
dwell in temples made with hands. He's not worshipped with the
figures and pictures of men's hands. A man can be a member
of the church and not be a member of the body of Christ or the
kingdom of God. Judas was. Judas belonged to
the organization, but he didn't belong to God. Demas belonged
to the organization, but he forsook it, having loved this present
world. Simon Magus was baptized, became
a member of the organization, but he didn't know God. Peter
said, your heart's not right with God. Alexander the coppersmith,
Paul said, did me much evil, but he was a member of a local
organization, calling itself the church. The church won't
bring you to God. Good works will not bring you
to God. What did those people say in Matthew 7 at the judgment? They said, Lord, while we preached
in your name, and prophesied in your name, and cast out devils
in your name, and did many wonderful works, many wonderful works,
and then will I profess unto them, God said, I never knew
you. I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. The reason good works will not
bring you to God is because our works before the presence and
holiness of God are not good. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please God. By the works of the
flesh no man is justified. There's none good but God. Or
we may do good things compared to what other people do. But
that's one worm comparing himself with another worm. We've got
to be judged in the light of God's goodness and God's holiness.
And in that light, there's none good. Good works won't bring
you to God. And then going to the front of
the church is not going to bring you to God. God's not down front. Whoever invented that, I don't
know. I just don't know. But going down to the front is
not going to God. God doesn't dwell at the front.
The heaven of heavens will not contain him. The earth is his
footstool. Why do men make a pilgrimage
down to the front of the church? There's some people been down
a half a dozen times and still haven't found God. They're looking
in the wrong place for God. God doesn't dwell in a place.
Praying the sinner's prayer is not going to bring you to God.
You can go through all these recitations and imitations praying
what somebody told you to say and not know God. I tell you
this, if a man would come to God, if a man would find out
who can bring us to God, you know where he's going to have
to go? He's going to have to go to the Scriptures. Because that's
where God is revealed in the Word of God. God speaks through
His Word. The Scripture says if they speak
not according to the Word of God, it's because there's no
light in them. And so if we want to find out how a man can come
to God, let's go to the Scriptures. Let's go to the Old Testament,
Law of First Mention. How men came to God, the end
is the way men come to God now, because God doesn't change. He
said, I am the Lord. I change not. God is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. In the Scripture, there's a Law
of First Mention. However a subject is mentioned
the first time, that's what it means all the way through. And
how men came to God back in those early days, in the days of Abraham
and Moses and other men. That's how men come to God now. In the Old Testament, now listen
carefully. In the Old Testament, there were three essentials to
coming to God. There were three essentials for
those who would come to God. Now listen, I'm telling you the
truth. For those who would come to God for atonement, for reconciliation,
For mercy, for forgiveness. That's how we come to God. God
is holy. We're sinful. We need something
to be done about our sins. Those who came to God had three
essentials. Number one, there was a tabernacle.
Number two, there was a priest. A high priest. There were many
priests, but there was one high priest. And there was a sacrifice. Now listen to it. Hebrews 9 verse
6. Now listen. Now, when these things were ordained,
that is, pictures of the truth and types of the truth and patterns
of the truth, when these things were thus ordained, the priests,
many of them, went always into the tabernacle, into the tabernacle,
into the holy place outside the veil, accomplishing the services
of God. But, now listen, into the holy
of holies, into the Shekinah glory and presence, into the
holy of holies in the presence of God with the high priest only
once every year listen not without blood which he offered for himself
and for the sins of the people do you see what I'm saying three
words in that text there's a tabernacle the holy of holies the presence
of God there was a high priest and there was a sacrifice and
once a year on the day of atonement that high priest went into the
presence of God where dwelt the Shekinah glory and there he put
the blood sacrifice and God forgave and God accepted and God reconciled
waiting for the coming Lamb of God let me show you this in the
scriptures back in the days of Israel when the encampment was
out there in the wilderness in the center of the encampment
there was a tabernacle It looked like any other tent from the
outside. It was covered, it was only 45
feet by 15 by 15. Not very large, not very imposing,
but oh, the inside. But on the outside there was
a badger skin, just old, gray, dusty, sandy badger skin protecting
it against the weather. And when you stood on the hill
and looked down, it looked like any other tent among many tents.
But inside, there was the ram skin dyed red, there was the
goat skin and there was the white linen and on the inside of that
tabernacle was a holy place and there was a four inch veil which
separated the holy of holies the holy of holies the dwelling
place of God There was some furniture out here in this tabernacle.
There was the candlestick, which is Christ, the light of the world.
There was the showbread, which is Christ, the bread of life.
And there was the altar of incense right in front of the veil, which
is the prayers of Christ always ascending to God. And there was
an altar out there where the lamb was slain, and there was
a labor of water where the high priest washed, picturing sanctification. But the many priests went about
the services of the tabernacle every day, noon, morning, noon,
and night, but once a year, into the Holy of Holies would come
the high priest, only the high priest, no one else, alone, once
a year. He would stop and get a censer
with the incense, which is the prayers of Christ, and he would
slip under the veil with the blood and the incense and come
into that Holy of Holies. Now listen, in the Holy of Holies
was the Ark, there was the Ark of the Covenant, and in that
Ark was Moses' law, the tables of stone which God gave to Moses
on the mountain. In that ark was Abram's rod that
budded, and in that ark was a pot of manna with which God fed the
people. And over that ark was the mercy
seat. Mercy seat. And over the mercy
seat, two cherubims, winged creatures, facing the center. And over the
top of that ark was the very glory of God, the cloud of God's
glory. the holy immaculate infinite
Shekinah glory of God and when that high priest representing
the people came into that holy of holies into the presence of
God he better have with him the blood atonement the blood of
the Lamb and when he came in he put that blood on the mercy
seat and for that year sin was overlooked and covered and atoned
for, and they did that every year, every year, until Christ
came. Now you say, well, what about
us today? When I listen to the next verses of Hebrews 9, you
read this, Hebrews 9, 6, 7, 8 through 12. Now watch verse 11 and 12.
But Christ being come, a high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, Not made with hands. Not a tabernacle of badger skin
and goat skin and ram skin. That is to say, not of this building.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood,
Christ entered once into the holy place and obtained eternal
redemption for us. Who can bring us to God? Who
can bring us to God? He said, just come over that
again slow. All right, watch this in the
Old Testament. And all the way through the book of Hebrews,
it tells you that these things were done as a pattern, as a
picture. And out there in the wilderness,
there was a tabernacle. Over that tabernacle was the
cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night. The
Holy of Holies was a manifestation of the presence and glory, the
Shekinah glory of God, God Himself. And once a year, That high priest
selected by God, appointed by God, no man took this office
upon himself, but the one God appointed, with the blood, that
high priest representing the people, would come into the Holy
of Holies once a year, not without blood, which he put on the mercy
seat for an atonement to reconcile and offering for the sins of
himself and the people. Now Christ being come, He tabernacled
among us. It says in John 1.14, And the
Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The glory of God
is seen in the face of Christ Jesus. Where was the glory of
God seen in Israel's day? In the tabernacle, in the Holy
of Holies, over the mercy seat. Where's the glory of God seen
today? In Christ. The glory of God is
revealed in the face of Christ Jesus. He tabernacled among us. He's God with us. Call His name
Emmanuel. God with us. And He's our great
High Priest. How many times the writer of
the Hebrews wrote, we have a High Priest? We have a High Priest. Now that we have a high priest
at the right hand of God, let us come bold into the throne
of grace. Christ is our high priest, and
Christ is our tabernacle wherein dwells the glory of God, and
his blood is the blood that maketh atonement for our souls. Christ
being come, a high priest, of good things to come, justification,
sanctification, redemption, acceptance, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, that is to say, not of this building, but in his
own flesh, with the blood, not of bulls and goats, but his own
blood, he entered once. You don't do this every Sunday
or every Sabbath day, once a year. Now Christ, by one offering,
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And this is the
way to God. And this is the reason Christ,
our great high priest, who gave his own blood by his own sacrifice
in the very presence of God, not in a tabernacle here on earth,
but in the presence of God. That's the reason he said, I
am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh to the
Father, but by me. You don't come to the Father
by laws and rules and organizations and professions and dedications
and reformations and all these, you come by Christ. Now listen
to the text, 1 Peter 3, I told you I'd get to it, 1 Peter 3
verse 18, now listen. For Christ also hath once suffered
for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us
to God. That he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Now in closing, I want to give you several things from the text.
Now watch it, word by word. First of all, it says Christ.
Who is he? Who is this man Jesus Christ?
Well, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and I
shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. Under us a child
is born, under us a son is given. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father.
He's God in human flesh. Our great high priest is God
in human flesh. He has an everlasting priesthood.
His priesthood never ends. He's a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Now watch it. Christ hath once
one offering, one atonement, one sacrifice, one life, one
death. Christ hath once suffered. He
suffered in life. He suffered in death. He was
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He suffered once
in life, once in death. Why? For our sins. For our sins. Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, He
was wounded for our transgressions. He is the Lamb of God. He's not
only the priest, and the altar, and the tabernacle, and the sacrifice,
He's the Lamb. It's His blood that was offered.
And he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was on him, and by his stripes
we're healed. He's the just who died for the
unjust. He's the sacrifice who brings
us to God, that he might bring us to God. And Paul, in a great
benediction, and a great time of praise and blessing, said
this, wherefore, Hebrews 7.25, wherefore, he is able, Because of who He is, because
of what He did, because of where He is. He is able, totally sufficient,
to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. He's able. All who believe, all
who receive, all who trust. No matter the sin, no matter
the past, He's able. How is He able? Because of who
He is, what He did, and where He is now. He's able to save
to the uttermost. Them that come to God by Him.
And then Paul wrote these words. There's one God. Only one. The Lord our God is one God.
And there's one Mediator. One Intercessor. Between God
and man. And that's the man, Christ Jesus. One God. One Mediator. Now I
have this message on a cassette tape. Who can bring us to God? Plus one that I brought last
week. on the subject, Reflections of 60 Years. You may want this
tape. If you do, send $2. We'll mail
it to you. Until next week, God bless you.