Entering His Presence Series: Come to the Garden Text: Psalm 95:1-11; Psalm 100:4 Date: August 2 nd, 2015 at 10:45 am Summary: The invitation from the Holy Spirit for us to come to the Garden is one which calls us to enter into and spend time in God s presence. Scripture teaches us that whenever we enter God s presence it is correct protocol to bring spiritual gifts or sacrifices, three of which are praise, thanksgiving and worship. Praise relates to God s greatness, thanksgiving to His goodness, and worship to His holiness. Praising God for His greatness and thanking Him for His goodness towards us are how we gain access, or enter into His presence (Psalm 100:4). Once we are in His presence however, in contact with and aware of His holiness, there is only one appropriate response: worship. 1. Introduction The last couple of times that I have talked to you, we have been considering the invitation that the Holy Spirit extends to all of those who are God s children. According to John 1:12, those who believe in Jesus and have received Him into their lives, these are the ones who have the right to be called children of God and I trust that all of us here today have believed in Jesus and received Him. If not, we will give you an opportunity at the end of the service to do so. So, if we are God s children, then we have an open invitation from the Holy Spirit to come to the Garden. But, what exactly does that mean? It means that we are invited into the presence of God to be able to spend time with Him, and to get to know who He is, and what pleases Him. It means that we have been invited to have a personal relationship with Him that is continuously growing in depth and in intimacy. In other words, when we give our life to Jesus that is not the end of the story. On the contrary, it is JUST THE BEGINNING. Think about it this way: when you are introduced to a person, when you meet them for the FIRST time, do you really know them? Of course not. You may have heard a few things about them, but you do not really know them because you can only truly get to know someone when you spend time with them. In the same way, when we meet Jesus for the first time, we do not really know who He is. Again, we may have heard some things about Him, but until we meet Him we cannot really begin to experience who He is for ourselves. And this is essentially what coming to the Garden is all about it is about spending time with Jesus and getting to know Him; it s about learning to live in the presence of God. We have been taught and correctly so I believe that God seeks and desires a relationship with us. I myself have taught this because I believe it is the Truth of what the Bible reveals to us. Some of the words that God himself has used to describe the kind of relationship He wants with us are these: a) Father He has revealed himself to us as a kind, benevolent, and loving Father. b) Friend at one point in their relationship Jesus said to His disciples, I no longer call you servants; I now call you friends (John 15:15). Notice, by the way, that He said this in the context of talking to them about the Him being the Vine and they (we) the branches. c) And, the Holy Spirit is called our Comforter and Helper. All of these words DO accurately and correctly describe who the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in relationship to us. They do also describe the kind of familiar (well known; of the same family) relationship that the Lord wants us to have with Him. But, as we will see, there is more to it than just this. Now, out of the twelve disciples of Jesus, there was one who was closest to Him while He was on this earth. His name was John. The Gospels reveal to us that out of the twelve there were three Peter, James and John whom Jesus often took aside from the others. For example, In Matthew 17:1 it tells us that Jesus took these three with Him up to the mountain top where He was transfigured before Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 1
them. Again, according to Matthew 26:36-37, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. When He arrived, he left the others and took Peter, James and John a little further to pray with Him. So, John was clearly one of the three who was closest to Jesus. But when John writes his gospel account, five times he refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20) and says that he reclined next to Jesus at the last supper. I think we can agree that, out of all the people who knew Jesus well while He was on the earth, John was at the top of the list. So John was very familiar with Jesus from a human, earthly perspective. He was also one of the three who saw Jesus in a transfigured (glorified) state on the mountain. In other words, John had seen and experienced Jesus both in His humanity and in His divinity as both man and God but both of these were on earth. With this in mind, it is really interesting to see John s reaction when He sees Jesus in heaven you can read his account in Revelation 啟示錄 1:9-20, but let me just read one verse to you, verse 17: 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 17 我一看見, 就仆倒在他腳前, 像死了一樣 他用右手按著我說 : 不要懼怕 我是首先的, 我是末後的 Did you see what just happened? John was one of the few who had received a revelation of who Jesus was when He was on earth. He had been the one who was MOST FAMILIAR with Jesus; we could even say perhaps that he and Jesus were BEST FRIENDS. John also had received a revelation of Jesus as God in a glorified state on the mountain top (still on earth). But here John gets a revelation of who Jesus is now glorified as He was on the mountain top, but this time in heaven after His ascension back to the Father. John does not see his best friend. He sees the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who has ALL authority in heaven and earth. And what is his reaction? He is overwhelmed by the glory, majesty, splendour the HOLINESS of the Lord and he falls to the ground as if he was dead. The only appropriate response for him is to fall at the feet of Jesus in WORSHIP. I want us to ask ourselves a question today, and the question is this: How do I see Jesus? I think that how we see Jesus has a lot to do with our attitude towards Him in general, and especially with our attitude when we APPROACH HIM or ENTER into His presence, be that individually in our personal times with the Lord, or corporately in a church meeting such as on Sunday mornings. If we have a tendency to focus on Jesus in His humanity, and to see Him from an earthly perspective, as a friend for example, then we may be inclined to come to Jesus in an OVERLY FAMILIAR kind of way that may even lead to us being casual, nonchalant, or even indifferent towards Him. This kind of attitude, when taken to an extreme, can cause us to feel entitled and even to make demands of the Lord like He owes us something. When we don t have a complete revelation of who Jesus is we will have a tendency to think that spending time with Him in prayer or reading His Word or just sitting quietly in His presence is an optional extra; it s something I can do if I have extra time but it s not a priority. When we only see Jesus as our friend and forget that He is also the One who is coming to judge the living and the dead, we will have a tendency to be too lenient on ourselves when it comes to sin in our lives or our short comings in how we treat other people. Dear friends, I believe that we are living in a time in history where we MUST ASK the Holy Spirit to REVEAL Jesus to us as John saw Him. We have to get a revelation of Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the One who has all authority in heaven and earth, the One who has the Name that is ABOVE all names. Why do we need a revelation of Him like this? Simply because He will soon be returning as this One. If we do not already know Him in this way, we may not know how to act in His presence when He arrives. [Just by way of a quick advertisement, in a few weeks I believe the Holy Spirit is leading me to share a few messages on the lateness of the hour in which we are living. Next week (August 9 th ) Ps. Randall will be with us and the following week (August 16 th ) Rusty Russel will be here. So starting on Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 2
August 23 rd for 2 or 3 weeks we will talk about where I believe we are on God s calendar YOU DON T WANT TO MISS IT. Please plan to be with us and, if you would like to, invite your friends. We are going to talk about some incredible things that are happening right now THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE OUR LIVES FOREVER.] Now, back to entering into God s presence: If you were to have an audience with a very important person, for example, somebody like the Queen of England, or the President or Prime Minister of your home country, or perhaps even the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, you would need to learn the CORRECT PROTOCOLS for how to enter their presence and how to act while you are there. There are certain things you can and cannot do. While it is true that Jesus calls those who are close to Him friends, and He does want us to grow in our familiarity of who He is i.e. to know Him, it is also true that we cannot just enter His presence in an attitude which is presumptuous, overly familiar and bordering on arrogance. There is a protocol for entering His presence which we must follow, and once we are there we must act accordingly otherwise His presence lifts from us. Is it possible that so many of us do not get our prayers answered, or we do not experience the manifest presence of God in our lives because we have not learned how to come before Him? I think it is. And that is why I want to take a few minutes to explore what the Scriptures say about our attitude when we come into the Lord s presence both in our own personal times with Him, and in our corporate times such as on Sunday mornings. I am grateful to the Lord for giving gifts to His Body. Today much of what I am going to share with you is inspired by a well-known and respected teacher in the Body of Christ named Derek Prince. Over my 34 years of walking with Jesus I have read many (perhaps most) of his books and learned so much from him. My father and I had the wonderful privilege of hearing him speak in South Africa soon after I became a follower of Jesus. I was fascinated by his knowledge of the Scriptures and his ability to clearly and plainly explain the meaning of passages and how they apply to our lives. I remember sitting there hanging on every word I was a new believer and eager to learn so much so that after about two hours when he said, In closing I would like to say I thought, What? It can t be over, we just got started. What had been close to 2 hours felt like 5 or 10 minutes. Anyway, I don t know if it will feel like that today and don t worry, I m not going to speak for 2 hours, but I do need to give credit to Derek Prince for much of the content of this message. Just as there is a correct protocol for when we enter the presence of dignitaries in this world, so too is there when we enter into God s presence. Whenever we come into God s presence, the correct protocol is to bring gifts or sacrifices. In Old Testament days the sacrifice of animals was required for the forgiveness of sins so that the priest would be cleansed and able to enter the Holy of Holies where God s presence resided. But, the people also brought sacrifices, sometimes animals, but also money and other material possessions which they offered to God. In the New Testament, we no longer have to sacrifice animals to receive cleansing and forgiveness for our sins. That is because Jesus became the perfect, once for all people and all time sacrifice for us. Now His blood cleanses us from our sin and forgives our sins and allows us to enter into His presence. But, we still bring gifts or sacrifices to God. For example, we still bring our tithes and offerings to the Lord. But beyond material things there are SPIRITUAL GIFTS and SACRIFICES that God s people have always been required to bring to him, both in the Old Testament days and now also in New Testament days. These spiritual gifts and sacrifices are 2. Spiritual Gifts and Sacrifices 1. Praise relates to God s GREATNESS (we praise Him for who He is that is His attributes) 2. Thanksgiving relates to God s GOODNESS (we give thanks to Him for what He does) 3. Worship relates to God s HOLINESS (we worship him because He is holy that is, the core or essence of His being) Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 3
Often we use these terms praise, thanksgiving, and worship interchangeably, but actually they are different and distinct, although they do overlap and blend into each other much like the distinct and different colours of a rainbow blur or blend into each other. The most difficult one of the three for us to connect with and understand is worship, because it has to do with God s holiness. Holiness is the attribute of God which is most difficult for us to comprehend because we have no example of it on earth. We can understand the wisdom of God because we know wise people; we can understand the greatness of God because we know great people; we understand the goodness of God because we know good people; we can understand the power of God because we have seen demonstrations of power (e.g. in an earthquake or volcano). But, apart from God, there is no earthly example of holiness and, because it is difficult for us to comprehend His holiness it can be hard for us to fully understand and enter into worship. Praise and thanksgiving are primarily utterances of the mouth, but worship is primarily an attitude of the heart. When PRAISE and THANKSGIVING are combined together, they give us access to God s presence that is the Garden that He invites us to but it is in His presence that WORSHIP takes place. Worship is the goal, but we cannot get to that place of worship unless we enter through praise and thanksgiving. Listen to what Psalm 100:4 says 3. Psalm 詩篇 100:4 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 4 當稱謝進入他的門, 當讚美進入他的院, 當感謝他, 稱頌他的名! Notice that there are two degrees of access. First, through God s GATES, and then through His COURTS. Thanksgiving brings us to the gates; as we go through the gates, we come into the courts with praise. This is confirmed in Isaiah 60:18 which says this 4. Isaiah 以賽亞書 60:18 18 No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. 18 你地上不再聽見強暴的事, 境內不再聽見荒涼毀滅的事 你必稱你的牆為 拯救, 稱你的門為 讚美 Notice that God dwells in a place of perfect peace and tranquillity where there is no violence, ruin or destruction. This is a place that is surrounded by the walls of SALVATION which itself has gates in it called PRAISE. Doesn t that sound like the same characteristics of a GARDEN that we talked about before? Now, in the Jewish mind, all this talk of walls, gates and courts would have immediately reminded them of God s House, the temple or before that the Tabernacle of Moses. Keep in mind that the basic layout of both the Tabernacle of Moses and later the Temple was the same, because they were both patterned after God s dwelling place in heaven. 5. God s Dwelling Place When God gave Moses the plan for the Tabernacle He was very precise in the measurements and in details of how everything needed to be made. Moses was instructed to be very careful to follow every detail of the plan with great care. This was because what Moses was making was a replica of God s dwelling place in heaven. Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 4 Here I have the basic layout of the Tabernacle of Moses. The same exact layout was used for the Temple later on. I have not included the various pieces of furniture because my goal for today is just to show you the progression of entering into God s presence, and how thanksgiving, praise and worship enable us to
enter into and experience God s presence. This same basic pattern is still in effect, I believe, for us as New Testament believers. However, many believers do not understand this process, and unfortunately seldom enter into true worship as a result. There is a beautiful passage in Psalm 95 that depicts this process of entering into worship in God s presence. We ll go through the Psalm verse by verse and we ll see not only this pattern of praise, thanksgiving and worship, but also the reasons why we should praise and thank God, the results of worshipping Him and the results if we do not worship Him. 6. Psalm 詩篇 95:1-11 1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 1 來啊, 我們要向耶和華歌唱, 向拯救我們的磐石歡呼! First, the process begins with loud, jubilant praise a lot louder than some churches would permit. When it says shout aloud it means just that shouting means shouting. When was the last time you shouted in church? Now, of course, this is talking about shouting praises to God, not just shouting or screaming for the sake of it. Psalm 145:3 says Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Praise all about focussing on God s GREATNESS. The thing that makes God great is His attributes that is, the things that make Him who He is. 7. The Seven Attributes of God 1. Light (1 John 1:5) 2. Love (1 John 4:8, 16) 3. Justice and Judgement (Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Genesis 18:25) 4. Anger and Wrath (Nahum 1:2; Revelation 14:9-11) 5. Mercy and Lovingkindness (Psalm 51:1; 106:1) 8. 6. Grace (Hebrews 4:16) 7. Power (Psalm 139:1-4) 9. 10. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 2 我們要來感謝他, 用詩歌向他歡呼! Second, we come with thanksgiving. Notice again the two stages of gaining access: praise and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving focusses on God s GOODNESS, and especially His goodness to us. In other words, the things He has done. The next three verses tell us why we should praise God and thank Him. I m so grateful that the Bible is so logical it doesn t just tell us to thank and praise God; it also tells us why we should. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 3 因耶和華為大神, 為大王, 超乎萬神之上 4 地的深處在他手中, 山的高峰也屬他 5 海洋屬他, 是他造的, 旱地也是他手造成的 Again, notice the focus on God s greatness the Lord is the GREAT God, the GREAT King above all gods. This is who God IS. We acknowledge His greatness who He is with loud, jubilant, and excited praise. We give Him thanks because of what He has done He has created the earth; the depths and the mountains, the seas and the dry land. Notice that praise and thanksgiving are VOCAL the involve singing, shouting, extolling (lifting up) Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 5
11. 12. 13. and music and song. That s quite a bit of noise, I d say. But, it s important because, when we come to God in this way, with praise and thanksgiving, it puts our focus on Him and takes it off ourselves or our problems. This is ESSENTIAL for entering into worship, because the GREAT ENEMY of worship is self-centeredness. As long as we are all wrapped up in ourselves and our problems, or the things that are going on around us, we ARE NOT in a position to worship God. Praise and thanksgiving are the way we access God s presence. These are not what we do once we are in God s presence, but we can t get into His presence without first entering the gate (thanksgiving) and the outer courts (praise). Now we are ready to worship because we are in God s presence. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7a for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. 6 來啊, 我們要屈身敬拜, 在造我們的耶和華面前跪下! 7a 因為他是我們的神, 我們是他草場的羊, 是他手下的民 Notice the change in this verse. There is no more loud singing or utterances from our mouths. Now it is all about our ATTITUDE. And what kind of an attitude must we have if we want to worship in God s presence we must BOW DOWN and KNEEL. This is an attitude of humility and submission. What happens is that, when we turn our focus and attention on God through praise and thanksgiving, we suddenly begin to see Him in His holiness. We cannot truly enter into worship until we have a revelation of the fact that God is HOLY. Holiness is not a set of rules, of do s and don ts. God is not holy because he has a list of rules in front of Him by which He checks His conduct. Holiness is the essence of who God is. Everything about Him is holy He is holy in each of the seven attributes that we looked at earlier. Holiness is the sum total of all God s attributes. The word holy is the only word that is used three times in the same sentence to describe who God is in both the Old and the New Testaments. In Isaiah 6:4 it says, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory! And, in Revelation 4:8 it says, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! It does not save love three times, or light, or grace, or mercy. It says HOLY. When we get a revelation of God s holiness, the only appropriate response is to do what John did when He saw Jesus in heaven to fall flat on our faces and worship Him. Again the Bible tells us WHY we should worship God (vs. 7a). First, we worship God because He is our God and we are His people. Worshiping God sets us apart as His people. It is through our worship that we declare who our God is the one, or the thing, that we worship is ultimately our God (or perhaps god). Second, we worship God because it is the appropriate response to His tender love and care for us: we are the flock under His care. The remainder of the psalm tells us the results of our worship and also the price of failing to worship God. Let s continue 7b Today, if only you would hear his voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 7b 唯願你們今天聽他的話 : 8 你們不可硬著心, 像當日在米利巴, 就是在曠野的瑪撒 9 那時你們的祖宗試我探我, 並且觀看我的作為 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, They are a people whose hearts go Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 6
astray, and they have not known my ways. 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, They shall never enter my rest. 10 四十年之久, 我厭煩那世代, 說 : 這是心裡迷糊的百姓, 竟不曉得我的作為 11 所以我在怒中起誓說 : 他們斷不可進入我的安息 So, true worship is the act of bowing down and kneeling in the Lord s presence. When we do this there are two results that happen to us. 14. Results of Worshipping God 1. We hear His VOICE (vs. 7b) We pass from the stage of loud, exuberant praise and thanksgiving into a stage of inner rest, tranquillity, and quietness where everything is hushed and we are still in the presence of God. In other words, we leave the hustle, bustle and stress of everyday life, by entering the gate and crossing the courts through praise and thanksgiving, and we come to the Garden, to the place where the presence of the Lord is. When we are in this place, in an attitude of worship, we can hear God s voice in a way that we can never hear when we are focussed on ourselves and our problems. 15. 2. We enter into REST (vs. 11) Worshipping and hearing God s voice brings us into a place of rest that is not possible in any other way. Only those who really know how to worship can really enjoy His rest. The Garden is a place of rest, free from the stresses of this life. I don t know about you, but that s a place I would like to live in. The Psalmist recounts the time in Israel s history when they were in the desert and refused to trust God even though they had witnessed His miracles time and again. In other words, they refused to worship God they would not bow down and kneel before Him. There are at least four results of having this kind of stubborn, un-submissive attitude: 16. Results of Not Worshipping God 1. Their hearts were hardened (vs. 8) 2. They did not hear God s voice (vs. 7b) 3. They provoked God to anger (vs. 10) 4. They failed to enter the rest that God had appointed for them (vs. 11) 17. Conclusion Copyright 2015, Stephen G. Negus 7