APPROACHING GOD WITH CONFIDENCE

The blood of Jesus secures our new relationship with God, so we can get close to him.

Me: I have been insecure about my relationship with the Lord. (baptized 3 or 4 times).

WE: We have felt insecure about our relationship with the Lord. (Rededication, fleeing and running away, getting mad and angry in a prideful response to his beckoning call) How people may have treated us in the past, might have made us feel like we can't get back to him.

We can see the answer in the bible because the people of Israel are going through the same thing. In Exodus 19:10-12

God has come to visit them. He is a thundering cloud and he has warned them to keep away. How can I have a relationship with a God that says he is my people but won’t let sinners close to him.

Most of the time people are running away from God because they are aware of their shame! (Peep Adam)

How can they confidently approach their terrifying God?

Exodus 24:1–11 ESV

1 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” 3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Come near you guys but How?

built an alter and 12 stones (What does this mean?

sprinkled blood on the alter (What does this mean)?

Here is his law will you follow him.

Sprinkled blood on the people vs. 8

Went up halfway and looked at God. (describe it) “sapphire.

We are going to see it play out that it is the blood of the sacrificed animals that allows them to come close to God.

7. did not strike out at them. significance.

POINT: The blood of Jesus secures our new relationship with God, so we can get close to him.

The blood saves you

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Leviticus 17:11 ESV

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Hebrews 10:11–12 ESV

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

The blood sanitizes you

It not only takes the wrath away it removed the stain of past failures, and past sins that may have contaminated their lives.

1 John 1:7 ESV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

The blood seals you.

Freedom from guilt before God is foundational to the Christian experience—foundational in the sense that it is the beginning point. It is the gift God gives us that starts us down the path of an ever-deepening relationship with him. It is therefore unthinkable to go back and question that foundation at every bad turn.

Exodus 24:8 ESV

8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Mark 14:24 ESV

24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Hebrews 9:20 NLT

20 Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.”

The blood sanctifies you.

Makes you holy. Sets you apart. Prepares you so that you might be with him. You need no other preparation. You don’t have to get right to see him. He makes your right.

The blood of bulls of goats set them apart, prepared them for coming close to the mountain for all the people, for these 70 to go up halfway up the mountain.

Hebrews 10:8–10 ESV

8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

You don’t have to get ready, the blood of Jesus gets you ready.

Come Closer Confidently!

Exodus 24:9–11 ESV

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Prayer...

Loving our kinfolk

1 John 4:12 ESV

12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

US. What would it look like if we felt confident EVERYTIME we needed to see and spend time with our LORD.