Exodus Chapter 19
There are always conditions with the promises and rewards that God grants to those who belong to Him. They will be God's peculiar treasure above all people. Israel was God's chosen people. Yet there were conditions. If the conditions were met, they would be the greatest, strongest, holiest nation ever to exist on the earth. If the conditions were not met, they would be cut off but if we study the bible closely, we know that God's eternal purpose for Israel is yet to be fulfilled. They lost their nation for a season because the conditions mentioned above were not met. They sinned against God in departing from His commandments and going into idolatry. They regained their nation after the captivity of Babylon but they still were not free but under the Medes and Persians, Greek and then Roman Empire. After the rejection of Jesus they lost their nation again in 70 AD. In 1948 Israel became a nation again and end time prophecies began to come to pass to bring the nation of Israel back to God through the savior Jesus Christ. We in other nations and not Jews also need to take heed. There are also conditions with the promises God made to us. We can read these in John 15, Revelation 2, 3 and the book of Jude for references to this. Jesus doesn't save people from sin only to have them openly return to sin without repenting. We have to come to Christ to be saved but after coming to Christ we must continue to walk with Him and keep His word.
This promise was given to Israel. They were the original recipients of the gospel. They were to become a holy nation. That was a promise given way back in the time of their father Abraham. Yet God also told Abraham that through his seed the Gentiles would also be blessed. When any one of us comes to Christ for salvation we are grafted into the vine of Israel. We never replace Israel but we become a part of the promises of God through faith in Jesus. God did not remove Israel only added us to them to make one fold with one shepherd. Since the vine is Christ, we know that one fold isn't yet complete but it will be. All, both Jews and Gentiles have to come through Jesus Christ since the time when Jesus became a human and dwelt among us. There is no other way to be saved. God would not have sent Jesus to die for sin and make that sacrifice if there was another way to be saved from sin and inherit eternal life.
This shows us the holiness of God. We cannot approach God in our natural selves. He is too holy and pure. We are too defiled and unclean to enter His presence without literally dying. He presence is mighty and powerful. I have seen occasions where the presence of God is so strong that people do fall to the floor overcome by the presence of the Lord. If God was to come into our midst in the fullness of His glory, we could not stand before Him. God had to make a way for us to be able to enter His presence. This was made possible when Jesus came and died for sins. When we believe in Him to the point of turning our lives over to Him and allowing His Holy Spirit to abide with us, we can then enter His presence without fear. We are separated from God because of sin. God made a way for the sin to be done away through faith in Jesus. Now we can boldly enter His presence when before, we could not. We see this in this chapter. We see how holy God is and how they needed to be changed in their inner soul and spirit in order to be worthy to be in His presence. Jesus had not come and died for sins yet so they had to go through ritual cleansing, animal sacrifices and all had to be done through Moses and Aaron. Even with all that they could not touch the mountain where God's presence abided. Now through Christ we could have touched the mountain if God were to come in that same way again. Yet we must go in reverence and respect.
When we take time apart to fast and pray we are to practice abstinence during that period but quickly return to our spouses after the period of fasting is over. Prayer and fasting is a time set aside just for seeking God.
God was trying to protect the lives of the people and instructed Moses not to allow them to break through the barriers out of curiosity. We must not take the worship of God lightly by worshipping in a light haft hearted manner. God is holy. Before Jesus died and rose from the dead, they had to go to God through prophets and priests. This was because they were still in their sins and in need of cleansing from sin. The blood of animals represented the future permanent atonement for sin but that could not take away the sin. We have access to all spiritual gifts now because Jesus already came and made Himself the supreme sacrifice for all sins. Now we who believe can approach God without a prophet or priest. Through Jesus we have access to the throne of God as individuals. What a great privilege we now have through Jesus Christ. Yet in saying that; we must not take it lightly or come into His presence in a half hearted manner. God warned the people not to break through because many would come not to seek God because He was God but because they were just curious to see God or see what was going on. Some may come just to find fault and spread about a false report. We must come to God with the attitude that we want cleansing from sin, we want victory over sin, we want forgiveness of sin and we believe Jesus can give us power over sin. We must not come with the attitude that we want to be saved from hell but we do not want to live for God and have no intention of forsaking any sin we enjoy. God does not give fire insurance; He gives freedom from sin and eternal life. He gives us the Holy Spirit and requires that we live in holiness because we love Him and want all He has for us. Many disagree on what holiness is but we start with the Holy Spirit within us and allow the fruits of the spirit to manifest itself within us. It starts from within. True holiness is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. God is holy and we do not have to understand all about everything but we need to have respect and awe for what little we do know. Jesus paid a high price for our salvation. God allowed His own Son to suffer pain and suffer having every filthy sin everyone committed be laid upon Jesus when He was upon the cross. He did all He could to save mankind from hell. He even gave the presence of the Holy Spirit to those who would believe and obey the gospel. To give the best He had to us just for us to take it lightly and make jokes about it is very dangerous. Whether we make light of worship services or make light of the gospel by turning back to the sin Jesus saved us from, it is dangerous. It is taking the price Jesus paid for us lightly and crucifying Him over again. There is a difference in committing a sin which causes us to immediately repent and make it right with God or going on with our sin knowing it is wrong and bringing a reproach to Jesus Christ. It is dangerous to return to sin not caring whether it is right or wrong and continuing in it. It will destroy us. We can overcome if we remember that Jesus died for our sin and give us the Holy Spirit for us to live like a new creature. The old creature was crucified with Him. It is gone. We must remember this in order that the tempter does not lure us back to the place we were before we came to Christ. We can not overcome the world ourselves, we have to let Jesus take over. We can't, He can.
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