Photo taken by B Smith from the Patio
274 - ACCESS TO GOD
May 3, 1964
Henry F. Kulp
Romans 5: 1 - 5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
God starts this chapter out by talking about justification, and I wonder if you realize that justification is everything. When you have justification, you have all that an individual needs. You might say, what is justification? Justification is the Lord Jesus Christ calling you something that you are not. You are not holy, but God calls you holy. Justification is God accounting to you be in possession of something you do not have. You do not have holiness, but God counts you as being holy.
1/ Then we have another word, the first word is justification, the second word is peace—justification by faith we have peace with God. This is not the peace of God, this is the peace with God.
When the Lord Jesus had finished His work on the cross of Calvary he was received back into Heaven. Then God held nothing against the human race. Jesus Christ died for every man. God is not standing over man as a great judge, waiting to whip him. God, right now, has His arms outstretched, and He says come to me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is peace with God. Jesus Christ made this peace.
Colossians 1: 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Notice the word, made. He made it by the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary. There on the cross, God put your sins on Him, He paid the price of redemption. It is all done.
Now notice the 22nd verse In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
In the body of His flesh through death to present you how? Holy. That is justification. We poor, miserable, sin-stained, lost and undone, presented to God Holy. That is justification.
2/ I want you to recognize something. Since the blood flowed on Calvary, God is not charging sin to man, He is inviting man to come to salvation. There is a great deal of difference in that. You can go to any man, women, or child on the face of the earth, and tell him that Jesus Christ died for him, and if he will believe, instantly, he will be made a child of God. We don’t have the right to go around charging man with sin—our business is to invite them to Christ. The very worst of sinners can be saved. This is the Gospel.
3/ Notice our ministry today, and God presents it so clearly to us.
II Corinthians 5: 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Here is a truly remarkable thought. You may not have noticed it before but notice it now. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of what? The word of condemnation? Are we to go around and rail on sin? No, notice, He hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We have no right to come to any man and condemn him. For that man is in the place where you were if you are saved now. And God didn’t condemn you, but you have a right, a duty, to go to that man and plead with him to be reconciled today. That is the ministry that we have. It is the ministry of reconciliation. Anyone who is saved can exercise this ministry. God’s arms are outstretched, and invites every man to come.
4/ Hebrews 4: 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
That Jesus Christ is upon the throne of grace—not the throne of condemnation. We do not have a ministry of condemnation—we have a ministry of reconciliation, and all who believe, have peace with God, for Christ has made this peace.
5/ You say that is something that it causes you to go out and live the way you want. No, it doesn’t. Not if you really understand. Not if you appreciate in your heart what God has done for you—it should be a motivating force for you to live for Jesus Christ. Let us show you something else here.
Colossians 1: 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
In the body of His flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblamable.
Do you realize that Jesus Christ even takes your blame? I wonder, do you ever praise Him for that? You might say, I want to be blamed for what I did. But the Lord Jesus Christ was blamed for what you did, and what if you go out and do it again? Don’t do it again, because if you do it again, He’ll be blamed for that too. You are unblamable. Jesus Christ has taken your blame. What a wonderful thought this is.
6/ Notice, Romans 5: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
You see, by Jesus Christ we have access, we have access to the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ, and only by Him. This access into the holy place is by the blood of Christ. I want to show you that.
Let us go to Hebrews 10: 19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
All of these words are connected with blood. We are justified by blood. The price of justification is the blood of Jesus Christ. And if we want access with God the Father, and boldness to enter into the holiest, it is by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the modernists want to do away with this blood—they ridicule it. They say we don’t want that slaughter-house religion, but here it is—if you want to have access with God the Father, it must be by blood. Blood is the important thing—there is nothing else beside that.
7/ Among men they have secret societies, and you have to know how to get into these secret societies. Sometimes it is just a sign, sometimes it Is just a word, sometimes to get into the place, you have to know a secret entrance, but whatever the entrance or access into this secret society is, you have to know it. We also have to know how to have access to God, and there is only one way—that is access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ.
John 16: 7 - 9 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Jesus Christ said, when the Holy Spirit is come, He will convict, reprove the world of sin, not sins. It is singular, and of righteousness and of judgement. Of sin, singular, because they believe not on Me. It is not a sin question today, it is a Son question. What are you doing with God’s Son? He has made peace, if you will believe on Him.
8/ I wonder if you appreciate this wonderful privilege of having access to God. Did you ever read in the Bible and study how access to God was under the Old Covenant? Under the Law? And then compare it to what you and I have in Christ today. When God prepared Israel for the coming of the Law, He revealed to them that He was holy and could be approached only one way. Read the Books of Moses and see how carefully God revealed the access to Him was to be in only one way.
Exodus 19: 12 - 13 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
When God came down on Mt Sinai, He warned Moses that the people must be far from the mountain. And thou shall set bounds for the people round about saying, Take heed that ye do not go up into the mountain, nor touch the border of it. Whosoever shall touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch it, but he shall be stoned, whether beast or man, He shall not live.
So you notice the only one who had access to God at that time was Moses, and the people were down at the base of the mountain, and this evidently did not satisfy them, so when Moses didn’t come down in what they thought was a reasonable time, they went to Aaron and said, Make us gods that they may lead us. They were not satisfied with this access up to this time. Their access was in a man by the name of Moses, but today, our access to God is in Jesus Christ.
Then, when the law came, have you ever thought about access then? Did you ever realize that of the Levites, the tribe of the priests, only the descendants of Aaron could touch the sacrifices. Their cousins supplied music and other parts of the priestly service. Then at the hour of sacrifice, the priests slew the lamb brought by the sinner, while the sinner leaned over the gate, his hand on the animal’s head, and confessed his sins before God. After confessing his sins, the sinner watched the priest offer the sacrifice for him. First the priest went to the altar, offered the sacrifice, then walked a few steps to the lever (lay’ ver) where he washed his feet. Returning to the altar, he took the blood of the animal in a bowl and placed it on the North side of the altar toward the tabernacle itself. Taking a censor filled with sweet-smelling incense, he walked into the tabernacle, but only into the first room, the holy place, and there he offered the incense, at its special altar. The altar stood just before the great vail, the one that was torn in two, when Christ died on the cross. At that point the priest could proceed no farther.
Then, finally, once a year, one man, the high priest could go beyond the veil of the temple on the great day of atonement when he went in with the blood. This was the climax of their access to God. But now all this pageantry taught that man cannot come to God in his own way. He must come to God in God’s revealed way, the divine way.
And today it is the same thing—there is only one way to have access to God, and that is in Jesus Christ and through His shed blood. Do not think that you can come to Him in any way you feel is right. God has set down the conditions under which you can have access to Him.
9/ Romans 5: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Now we have another word in this verse that is very important—it is in the word, stand. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. The word, stand, is the word, FIXED, and of course, this is eternal security. I think I won’t spend a lot of time on this, this morning, but I want you to see that we are saved forever. We are fixed in this grace forever. I don’t understand why some people who claim to love the Lord Jesus Christ don’t want to believe in eternal security. They all want social security, and I think this is far better, much better. I think it is a thousand times better—a million times better. Eternal Security is to know that when you are in Christ, you are in Christ forever. Notice, this grace wherein we stand, or are fixed.
10/ Now notice the rest, And rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The word, glory, is the word, EXULT, is a better translation than simply, rejoice. And exult, is a sort of bubbling over, when you exult over something, you are bubbling over inside. It is a nice word, I like it, and we exult in hope of glory. In other words, we are bubbling over inside in hope of glory. We have come to that place where Heaven is so real to us, that we rejoice. We bubble over inside every day in the fact that very soon we will be in Glory. I recognize we don’t all get to this place, but we should.
Someone told me the other day of a Christian who went to a doctor because of a very severe pain. After all the examinations and tests were in, the doctor had to tell this person that they had cancer. This person said, Praise the Lord! and the doctor hasn’t gotten over it yet. Heaven was so real to this person, Glory was so real that they were exulting in it—they were bubbling over inside because of it.
11/ Let me show you a verse that brings this out so clearly.
Hebrews 10: 34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
These people were persecuted. Their goods were taken, their homes were broken up, they had to go into dens and caves to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were glad in the midst of it. They were glad, first of all that they were permitted to suffer. They were glad they could share in the sufferings with other believers, because they had a testimony for Jesus Christ. They were willing to have everything spoiled. Why? Because they weren’t interested in today, they were interested in the future.
12/ Every time I think of this, I think of the time I read of the French kings who had some of Christians as prisoners in the middle ages. I think it was the Huguenots, but I’m not really sure. They were Christians in France. They had to meet in dens and caves, but they got so numerous that the king said he would do something. He sent word to warn them that they would be slain. His soldiers came back to the king and told him, You know, O king, these Christians don’t care anything about your edict so go ahead and kill them, because, they said they will go right to glory. Well, he said, go back and tell them they are going to suffer the most intense persecution I can think of. They came back and said they didn’t care for that either, because they say, the Lord Jesus Christ died and suffered for them, and they are glad to suffer for Him. What are you going to do with that kind of individual? What could you do with these folks? There wasn’t much this king could do. But that was the early Christians. I know we are not like that in this 20th Century. I wonder if you rejoice, if you exult in the hope of the glory of God.
13/ Starting with Romans 5: 3 and running into the 5th verse we have four words that follow each other logically. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Four words, let me show them to you. Tribulation, patience, experience, hope. These are four words that follow each other in God’s plan and method.
The first is, we glory in tribulation. Remember, he said in the 2nd verse we rejoice in our hope of glory. But look at the 3rd verse and see how it begins—not only so that, but there is something else—what is it? We glory in tribulation. But do we? That word, glory, is the same word as exult, we exult in tribulation. And I’ll give you another word of tribulation—it is the word, trouble—that is what tribulation is—it is all sorts of trouble, and we rejoice in that, we exult in that, we bubble over inside because of that? Yes, you say, but I don’t. I am sure I don’t know many people who do. I know early Christians did, and I wonder what is the matter with us in this day and age, for we do not rejoice in tribulation.
I wonder if you recognize that God has a plan. When God wants to give you something, we’ll say, a great blessing, He has to wrap it up in trouble, and I wonder if you realize that when God permits trouble to come into your life there is something wonderful in it. And when you see that, you will be able to glory in that thing that is so hard.
AMEN
Ref: 05/31/1964 / 274 - ACCESS TO GOD / 08/14/2020
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