#Removing the Veil

We continue in this book. And what I want to do is just

make sure we're all on the same page because we need to

understand that when we talk about pursuing, God, we are not

talking about pursuing knowledge about God.

Although clearly knowledge about God is important, that leads us

to experience God as we know who he is, but we're not talking

about that. When we talk about pursuing God,

we're not talking about pursuing the benefits of God.

Although clearly God wants us to walk in the Benefits the

blessings that he has for us. When we talking about pursuing

God, we're not talking about pursuing the Miracles and the

wonders of God, although clearly he wants us to experience all

that. When we talking about pursuing

that we are talking about the suing God in actual series.

Now for some of us that might be a bit of a say, what moments

isn't God up there in the heavens detach from us Or for

some of you maybe you're here at church, maybe you're visiting

your thinking. Well, didn't God exist thousands

of years ago but you know there's no longer around.

He just some historical figure that we talked about.

See the heart of this message about pursuing, God is the truth

that we can pursue God, the truth that we can experience his

presence. A beautiful testimony, just

beautiful about the experience of presence of God, that he

prayed you gave it to him and you say presence that was a God

thing is, you share all that you've experienced God's

Direction in his God's wisdom? You experience his very

presence, God can be available to us if we pursue him and so

when we talk about pursuing God, we're not talking about the

suing God. In a passive sense.

In other words, as if it can happen by osmosis, We often

think who has heard that phrase, someone might have told you said

this to you are, were your Christian faith is just a

crutches. Yeah that's a few.

Yeah I'm I said that really have you tried a future of you being

a Christian Have you read the Bible?

About how we supposed to run the race with perseverance?

Have you read the Bible about? We have to fix our eyes on the

prize and throw off everything and other things that hinder us.

You think that's a crutch? He's easy because the truth is

that we have our part to play Jesus is we're going to find out

in a moment is that everything on the cross for us.

But we have a response to make for that truth and walk into the

freedom into the presence of God.

That Jesus is blood has paid for us and so when we talk about

pursuing God this message at its heart therefore means that you

have a decision. We I have a decision whether or

not I'm going to respond urge God places in my heart to see so

at the start of this talk, I'm going to ask you that question

and up with only, you going to pursue Do you want to pursue?

Because if the answers yes, then we have some work, which big and

it brings us to chapter 3, therefore of this book.

And it is called removing the veil removing the valve.

And we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 10 will be on

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

the screen and if you're at home online and your device will be

on your device as well. Chapter nine ten, nineteen to

twenty, the writer to the Hebrews right to this.

Therefore brothers and their sisters, since we have

confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by

the New and Living Way that he opened for us through the

curtain that is through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us

what draw near. With a True Heart in full

Assurance of Faith with our hearts sprinkled clean, from an

evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Wow, that's pretty heavy, right? And sounds pretty deep.

I mean, in some ways it sounds pretty confusing and complex and

aw Tozer does a very good job of expanding on this, which is what

I'm going to look at. And as I said at the start of

this series. No.

Apologies for based on a lot of my content on the book and you

see, let's look at this. What does it mean?

It says here. Therefore Brothers, since we

have confidence to enter what the holy places.

Now this holy place is We need to understand what that means,

if we to fully understand what Jesus did on the cross.

The holy place is or the holy of holies was actually a specific

place. And in order for us to

understand this, we need to go back to the Old Testament.

Because there's some of you may recall God instructed the

Israelites to build a tabernacle, a place where they

could go and worship God. And in fact, we've got a drawing

on the screen we can look at which gives you an overview of

what that Tabernacle look like there.

It is, you've got that tent of meeting their now you've got

there, the altar of burnt offering and this is where the

priest would sacrifice offerings daily.

And this area here is called the outer Court, okay?

And then what happens, they would go through.

And then you'd have What's called the lava there.

Laver sorry. Which is where the priest would

wash themselves, ceremonially. Okay, they had to go through the

that process before they got into the first place called The

Holy place. Now this holy Place, had a table

with the shewbread the bread, which was to be a foreshadow of

Jesus. The very bread of life who was

always in there. And in fact, it's called The

Presence broke the bread of presence. and then you would

have the curtain or the veil and this Veil would be segregate the

the the holy place with the most, holy place of the holy of

holies and in that place is where the Ark of the Covenant

was where the tablets of the ten commands, And so that was the

process. You had the art, of course the

holy place and then you had the most holy place.

And actually, if you read in Hebrews 9, the writer to the

Hebrews actually gives an overview for a 10 was prepared,

the first section in which, with a lamp stand and table, he's

talking about the Holy place there and the bread of the

presence. There you go.

It is called the holy place now but beyond Behind the second

curtain. There you go.

What's the second section called the most home?

Having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the

Covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden

urn holding the manner and Aaron staff that budded and the

tablets of the Covenant above, it was the cherubim of Glory

overshadowing, The Mercy Seat of these things.

We cannot. So that is what God had

instructed Israel to put together.

And then, if you read Solomon's Temple, they had us very similar

one, they Place the labor with something slightly different and

then we had the Third Temple. The second temple and then we

will have the third tent, read the book of Revelation.

Now, could anyone go into the holy of holies?

Right. That's why because this was the

very presence of God. Now God had promised that he

would present himself in the holy of holies the most holy

place and only the high priest could go into that place and

only then once a year on Yom Kippur which is that the

festival the day of atonement. So once a year, the high priest

would go through that ritual of washing themselves and they

would offer the insect and then they would go through the

curtain into the most holy place.

And God would descend and there would be the Shekinah, Glory

them, manifest glory of God in that place.

Now, it's interesting to note that Legend said that what the

priest. The other priests would do is

tie a golden wrote to the ankle of the high priest less, they

should die because they hadn't gone through the process

properly. And so the other priests could

pull them out. What does that show us, right.

You might be thinking. Wow, what a strange.

God, no, it shows us. What a holy God.

And that you are. Holy God cannot be with unclean

uncleanliness. Of which sin has made us

unclean. And so that is why you see that

curtain? Separating God from man.

Why? Because of the separation that

came in the Garden of Eden? See, that's what happens.

The curtain boom. Came down when Adam and Eve.

No more. Good man.

Have relationship with God. So this is the veil that we are

talking about here. And you know what?

I've got to say this fellow, I was doing some research, it was

about 60 foot high. 30 feet wide and it was about four inches

thick, this is not just some kind of well it's not that kind

of curtain, it's thick, it's 4 inches.

Now, you might be saying, okay, Mark, that's very interesting

and thank you to the historical overview For What on earth is

that got to do with the suing God.

Now I'm glad you asked me that question.

You're very clever, it's an important question and the

answer is found in the New Testament, of course.

And we could continue read Hebrews for the answer, but I

want us to look at Matthew 7, verses 50 to 51.

Your answer is found in the events.

Crucifixion. This is what happened and Jesus

cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his sister.

And behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top

to bottom. This huge curtain this 4 inch

thick curtain was suddenly torn. Supernaturally man could not

tear it you know they said that you couldn't even get to horses

on either side with a rope to try and pull this curtain aside.

It wasn't from the bottom up. It was from Heaven, down the

god, tore the court curtain no longer was there, a barrier

between God and man. You know, it says in Hebrews

Hebrews 10:19

10:19 20, what we have confidence to enter the most

holy Place. Why?

Because of the blood of Jesus By a New and Living Way open for us

through the curtain. Listen to this.

That is See, that curtain was his body and as his body was

crucified as he was whipped during the crucifixion process,

as they steered his side. That curtain was torn.

Because Jesus is our high priest and he entered that Holy place

on our behalf and rather than a sacrifice, that could only be

given once a year. He gave a sacrifice, the cover

was all time. It is finished. and so the good

news is, is that the veil That was once there to separate us

from entering into the very presence of God Son.

Tip, it's gone. That means we are we fully

getting? I don't think I fully comprehend

this because It's the same God that said, to the priest, you

need to go through that process and sacrifice in cleanse

yourself before. You can even come into my

presence that God hasn't changed.

I'm not, God, is inviting us into his presence hurting, you

find that mind-boggling. Well, we should be running then

really. I mean, we should be going into

his presence every time we can, I mean, we should be looking to

enter his presence with much frequency and duration.

Right? How come that doesn't happen?

Can you imagine if what if you love Back to the Future six

notes and you all know what it is.

I want a DeLorean. They're launching a new deloin,

a redneck. Like what am I doing?

Right there. Wasn't there wasn't there was a

point. Imagine if went to Back to the

Future and said to one of the high priests from over here,

what is this? It's hard to belong.

We need to get to 88 miles an hour and then we're going to go

to 2023 and he arrives, but where's the temple of God?

So what But where's my roads? And I have to work.

What? Where's the Laver?

No labor required. What This is amazing news.

You can imagine how excited he would be.

Why am I not that exciting? FairPoint is.

Imagine if we got into the car back back in time let's God.

Sorry mate, only the high priest over there.

I'm trying to just unpack it now, this is where Tozer takes

us from this point, where I'm going to start quoting a bit

closer because he makes the very good point, which is this?

Why is it therefore, that we don't run into God's presence

before vendors to? Well, the second title, this is

sakis this tale of two veils. It takes a pause for dramatic

effect. Let me quote toes it because he

does a better job of than I do of excitement.

We sent that the call is for us, but still we fail to draw near

and the years passed and we grow old and tired and the outer

courts of the Tabernacle. What hinders us The answer

usually given simply that we are hold will not explain all the

facts. You see there is something more

serious than coldness of heart. Something that may be behind the

coldness and be the cause of its existence.

What is it? What about the presence of

avail? Eval not taken away as the first

veil was but which remains they're still shutting out the

light and hide in the face of God.

It is the veil of our flesh. All of nature living on

uncharged within us on crucified and unreported E8.

And toes are goes on to say, it is woven of the fine threads of

the self. The hyphenated sins of the human

Spirit. They are not something we do.

They are something you are and therein lies, both their

subtlety. To be specific.

The self sins are self-righteous.

Self-pity and self confidence self, sufficiency and

self-admiration self-love and a host of others like them.

They dwell too deep within us in a too much part of our nature to

come to our attention until the light is gone Focus.

Hmm, I think toes are makes a very valid point.

See the grossest in that frame, those things that, you know,

drunkenness sex outside marriage or you know, pornography or, you

know, gossip or slander, or swearing, you know, all of these

things that are obvious. They say well we can name those

things. But what if I told you there are

these subtle sins that we have as part of our self life.

That we Justified to ourselves. Now I'm going to tell you here

that your pastor has some of these self sins shock horror.

I was praying about this on Friday, I was like, Lord, I was

thinking about the word that I was bringing them.

Like, Lord, you've got to work, this talk in me beat me because

I've done the research. I've read, I've understand it,

but then, all of a sudden, The Little Brook meself now indulge

yourself. No, I don't.

I'm just tired. And life is difficult.

And I have challenging. No, you indulge in self-pity now

I don't your ward. We don't have enough help around

us. The kids are of an age now where

they're going to know more you indulge in self-pity?

Yeah I've learned that God is not necessary gonna say anything

new after we've kind of accepted what he said the first time.

So I was like, okay, how do you know what?

As a Holy Spirit Shaunie's light on that.

I was like, you know, I have Justified a self sin because

I've made it so part of me but I couldn't see it.

But because I was willing and acknowledge the fact that I had

a veil, Holy Spirit came and Ash on enlightened.

And you see when we pursue God, we have to recognize that the

call to walk in as a disciple of Jesus requires us.

Do some work. Because often times we think the

Christian faith is this, Jesus died on the cross for you.

So go live your best life. I mean you just go surf YouTube

and you'll get hundreds those ports.

You don't have to do anything, just have enough Faith, you can

have whatever you want. Sorry, I wasn't the Bible.

Talk about the work. We've got to do.

Oh don't worry, God's done it all for you.

Yes, he's removed that Veil. There's nothing stopping us.

Get into God's presence but we've got available and that's

what I think is very important here and what toes are makes a

very good point So how do we go about removing that Veil?

What do I need to do pasta? Well, there's some good news and

some bad news. But you want this, it's right.

There is no bad news, no bad, but let me quote Tozer ago, not

delivery. Let us beware of tinkering with

our inner life. Hoping ourselves to remove and

render the Veil. God must do everything for us

posture. I thought you said that we've

got to do some estimate. Our parts field.

Our Paws, Guild. We must confess for sake.

And reject myself way and then reckon it.

But we must be careful to distinguish between lazy

acceptance from the real work of God.

You must insist upon what we dare not rest content with a

neat doctrine of self crucifixion.

What does toes mean mother? We can say that makes a lot of

sense. Get that?

See the real work happens. I'm going to invite the band up

as I bring this plane to smooth Landing.

You know, Jesus himself said to his disciples.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.

If anyone would come after me, if anyone would make a decision

to pursue me. So this is a dress if you have

said start of this service of the start of my talk I want to

pursue God so if you said to yourselves yes I want to pursue

God then listen up because you just talking to you right now.

Okay my clear if anyone would come after me let him deny

himself and take up his cross. Cross and follow me. but whoever

would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life,

for my sake, let me end with toes as words across You and I

are cool to take. That is rough and Eddie.

But it is effective. It does not keep its victim.

Hang in there forever. There comes a moment when it's

work is finished and the suffering victim dies after that

is resurrection glory and the pain is forgotten the joy that's

available taken away. We have entered into actual

spiritual experience of the presence