Sunday, 9th August 2020
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
“Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah” (Psalm 24:3-6)
Who may go up the mountain of the Lord and who can Stand in his holy place? This is a question Christians always ask. It’s not pastor, not cell group leader. David knew the secret.
Every year Jewish people went to the temple in Jerusalem to worship God. Priest would sing “Who may go up the mountain of the Lord and who can Stand in his holy place?” People would respond “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully“ but how to do it? Just do it, when we do it, we can enter holy place. But we will say it’s too hard.
So today it’s not about how to do it, it’s about why can’t we do it.
1. Movement- transgressions: what is sin? Sin blocks God’s blessing and destroys the relationship we have with God. There are two parts of sins. One is movement-transgression. We take actions to do wrongs. This is how the world judge people- by your transgressions. It’s outward moment.
2. Motivation- inquiry: inquiry is our inner motivation. This is the secret of Bible- God always looks at our inner motivation. Exodus 34:7, transgressions will not bring punishment to the third and fourth generation. But the society tells us not to do this and that, otherwise it’s sin.
Why do they educate people like this? Because the consequences of transgressions will affect people. That’s why every country have the law about outward movement. This brings up a problem if we don’t do wrongs, there is no guilt.
But in the kingdom of God, God is looking at iniquity. This will bring to next generations. King David took the wife of another man, because of the inner motivation, he started to lie. Inner motivation is dangerous because we open the door for the devil. The first thing we do is to lie and hide. Then we are away from God’s blessing.
After that adultery will happen. Adultery is you commit to other gods. Because David’s adultery, his first son was killed. Even king Solomon had wisdom, but did he have good result? The iniquity passed on to generations.
3. Motivation- by seeing
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.“ (Genesis 3:6)
How did Eve have the motivation to eat the fruits? Because she saw the fruit. When we see the things (house, shoes, car, things on the smart phone), we want to do it. Every problem is from seeing.
Everyone is looking for God. Even people are not looking for Jesus, they are still looking for the gods in the world. Because our desire inside doesn’t end. This is different as how God created us a pure a heart. God wants us to see the blessing not other people who are against us. If we don’t correct our sight, our heart will be hard.
“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mathew 5:28)
It’s our decision to stop looking at the wrong things. Stop to see the people against you, stop to see the handsome men and pretty women, stop to see the things on the smart phone. Put your phone in the living room, not in bathroom. Because we need to be aware how weak we are. We are not condemning the problems. But we need to identify what stops us from getting blessings and living in purity. It’s not about our movement, it’s about what we see and what we think.
Psalm 24:3-6: David is talking about prophecy.
How will it happen?
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
Transgression is not the end. Jesus has paid the price. God wants to give everyone the peace. God wants us to think what stop us to have the purity. Why is it hard when I want to have the purity? What distract us? Because something has blocked us from the Father. If we don’t have the feeling for the Father, we need to ask why. It’s the inside, what we choose. Today God wants to restore us by His Grace.