Holiness

And it says:

2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle.

We're in dark days, we're in days where everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes and Samuel is being raised up as a prophet but he's just been raised up, he's still a young boy, and Israel is a mess.

And the way that God had structured his relationship with Israel is that if you honor me, I'll honor you. If you dishonor me, you'll be dishonored. If you keep the covenant, you'll experience the blessings of the covenant. If you break the covenant, you'll experience the judgment and curses of the covenant. It's really simple math. Israel is now experiencing judgment.

They're experiencing the consequences of their choices to break and dishonor the covenant that God had made with them and the God of the covenant. So it continues:

3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?”

Which is the right question in a sense. Like, why is this happening? But they're not saying, why have we brought this upon ourselves? This is classic - we're going to blame God for what we brought upon ourselves. Why has God brought us this defeat?

And we could try to spin it and say, "Well, they knew that God was the one that was going to help them win and all that sort of stuff." But all I see in this text is kind of this self-centered, "Well, God, you let us down. Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? I know what we'll do. We'll repent. We'll keep the covenant. We'll honor God so that he honors us." No, no, no, no, no. That's not what they're going to do.

3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

Let's treat God like a tool. Let's use the Ark of the Covenant as a magical talisman. This is the whole theme of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hitler's like, if I had the Ark of the Covenant, then nobody can stop me. The nation of Israel has been given the presence of God... That's what the ark is the symbol of. God dwells there. God meets with his people there. And they're like, "Hey, let's use this to go beat up on the Philistines."

So they're going to treat God, they're going to treat the ark as a magic talisman. I think about this text often when I'm watching award shows and sporting events where you've got people that have a cross necklace or a cross tattoo. They're wearing the talisman of the cross, but they have no relationship, no allegiance, no connection to the Christ of the cross. We want to treat wearing a cross like some sort of magical talisman, like God's going to bless us because we've got it. But that's not the way God works. God is not a tool for us to use.

But they're going to try it:

4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.

They bring it in on the poles, and they got the Levites, and the priests are there, and they bring it into the camp. And they're like, "Yeah, now we got the ark. Now the Philistines are in trouble." And they're shouting, and they're excited. Excitement about God is different than actual relationship with God.

So they got all the markings. We're the people of God. We got the ark of God. We're super excited about God. But they don't know and don't care about God.

6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

So the Philistines hear this and they see Israel getting all excited about the ark. And they remember the stories about how the god (they say "the gods" because they're polytheists, that's how they think). They're like, "Oh no, we now we got to go up against the gods that defeated the gods of Egypt." But they say to themselves:

9 Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.” 10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.

They got whooped. Now, I've talked about this before. Numbers in the Old Testament, this is not a scientific, mathematical textbook. There was not a scribe sitting there counting exactly how many people died. These numbers are given in a lot of times symbolically. This is a theological history. So what you're supposed to know when you read this is that they got whooped. Big time. Devastated. The Philistines had an overwhelming victory.

11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

Now that's not a surprise to us because God said this is going to happen. And this is exactly how it happens. And so now all of a sudden we see, you know what? Israel's not able to use the Ark of the Covenant as a tool, but God is able to use the Philistines as a tool to enact what he wants to happen and bring his judgment upon the Israelites.

12 A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. 13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. 14 When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. 15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see.

There's some beautiful symbolism there.

16 And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?” 17 He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” 18 As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

So God has allowed Israel to experience this devastating defeat on purpose to fulfill God's will and God's judgment upon Israel, upon Eli, upon his sons. And it doesn't look good.

So what we begin to see here in this opening chapter is that we cannot manipulate God's presence through religious rituals while living in disobedience. We cannot manipulate God's presence through religious rituals while living in disobedience. You don't get to live any way that you want and then participate in some sort of religious ritual, and all of a sudden God is going to do what you want God to do. That's not how this works.

God's presence requires reverence and obedience. If God is who we say God is, if God is the ultimate, if God is the supreme, if God is the only truly necessary being, if God is the source and fountain of all of life and existence, then how could we imagine treating him any differently? God cannot be manipulated through rituals, through talismans, through objects, while we choose to live a life of disobedience. Paul might say it this way in the New Testament, "Shall we sin that grace may abound? May it never be so."

19 Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. 20 And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention. 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

So we have this heartbreaking, poignant, devastating image of what Israel has become because of the choices that they have made. So now we have this child born whose father's just been killed on the battlefield, whose mother dies in labor, and in her dying breath, she names him Ichabod. The glory has departed. The glory has departed.

Well, the next chapter says:

1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.

Ashdod is one of the five major cities of the Philistines. And Dagon is the primary god of the Philistine pantheon. And so they've got a temple there. They've got an idol of him. And so what do you do with a captured relic of another god? Well, you bring it into a religious temple. You bring it into that place. So they bring the Ark of the Covenant in. And in their minds, you've got to understand how they're thinking. They're like maybe the God of the Israelites and Dagon can become friends and maybe they can work things out together. And clearly Dagon's better because we defeated the Israelites. So, you know, let's just put the God of Israel and this ark in with Dagon.

3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

Come on now. God's got such a beautiful sense of humor. Oh, who knocked over Dagon? You just imagine the priests blaming each other.

4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.

This is not an accidental fall. It's like, oh, something's happening here. This idolatrous representation of this god Dagon is now on its face before God, but now his face and his hands have been removed and they're on the threshold of the temple.

5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. 6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.

So not only does God knock down Dagon and decapitate it and take his hands off and leave it just stumpy, God begins to bring judgment upon the people in Ashdod and around, and he afflicts them with tumors. That's an interesting word in the Hebrew language. In its verbal form, it means to break through, to break through a wall. English translations use tumors to probably be nice and clean. We're talking about some really bad hemorrhoids here. They're having a bad day. And a bad week, and it's bad.

7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.”

And you've got to at least admire their ability to perceive what's going on. Actually, the Philistines are a little bit more spiritually perceptive here than Eli and Israel were. They actually understand a little bit of what's going on.

8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.

So the five leaders of the five cities come together and the leader of Gath is like, "I'm not afraid of Yahweh. Bring the ark to Gath and we'll take care of it."

9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10a So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.

But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, this is like the worst game of hot potato ever. "I don't want it!"

10b But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” 11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

God doesn't need Israel to take care of him. He's more than capable of taking care of himself.

12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

So it starts bad and then it gets badder and then baddest. And people are dying. There's no hemorrhoid cream. It's a mess. And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.

6 The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” 3 They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” 4 And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords.

I like jewelry, but... So send five golden tumors and five golden mice because they're also being plagued. We didn't get this in the text yet, but they're being plagued with mice. There's probably sickness. There's chaos.

5 So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. 6 Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed?

Philistines are going to give glory to the God of Israel. They know the story. This would have made news big time. Let's not make the mistake Pharaoh made. Let's not harden our hearts. Let's not think we can take on Yahweh and have any chance of winning.

7 Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them.

So they're going to send the ark back, but they're also kind of trying to hedge their bets and cover it and see, make sure that this is really what's going on. So they go find two mama cows that have never been harnessed. They're not used for burden. They have calves. So they have these two mama cows and these two calves. And they're like, hook up those mama cows and then take their babies away from them and put them somewhere else.

Now, if you do that with a mama cow, that mama cow is going to go look for its babies. That's how this is going to go. They're like, okay, we're going to do it this way.

8 And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way 9 and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”

We're pretty sure this is Yahweh, but just in case it's not, let's play around with some cows.

10 The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12 And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

So these cows, they start going and they can't turn to the left or the right. They just go straight towards Israel to Beth Shemesh. And they're lowing. They don't want to go. They want to go back to their babies. But God is guiding that cart. So they go. And the Lord of the Philistines went after them.

13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it.

Like, could you imagine? It's just a Tuesday. You're out in your field. It's harvest time. You're not getting much sleep. You're working. You're sweating. It's a hot, dusty day, and you look up, and down the road, you see a couple of cows moaning and bellowing, and they're pulling a cart, and you look on the cart, and you see the wings of the cherubim rising up, and you realize what's coming down the road is the Ark of the Covenant. They see it, and they start rejoicing.

14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15a And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone.

Just remember what they did. The Levites, they're the ones that are supposed to handle the ark. They take the ark and they set it up on top of this great flat rock in the middle of the field.

15b And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.17 These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, 18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.

Who's the “he?” This is God. "He struck some of the men of Beth-shemeth." Now, who are these men? These are the Israelites. These are the ones that when they saw the ark, got super excited. Levites take the ark, put it up on stone. They're offering sacrifices. They're celebrating worshiping. "Hey, we got the magic talisman back."

Now, some of your Bible translations may not say 70. They might say 50,070, which is, I admit, a big difference. Here's what's going on. The most ancient, the most reliable, the oldest manuscripts that we have of this say 50,070. About the time of Josephus, around the time of Christ, the manuscripts from that time forward begin to say 70. And what's happening here is that people look at that and go, "Well, it can't be 50,000. There's just not that many people here. There weren't 50,000 people in Beth Shemesh. There probably weren't 50,000 people in Jerusalem at this time." And so they go, "Oh, well, that can't be right, so let's just change it to 70, because that makes more sense."

And my response to all that stuff is always the same. You're not reading it right. Understand what's happening. When Israel goes up against the Philistines, 30,000 of them are destroyed. When Israel goes up against God, 50,000 of them are destroyed. That's the point that's trying to be made here. Who should we truly fear? Who should we really have reverence and respect for? Who should we honor as the one who holds life and death in his hand?

20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”

Once again, they don't ask the right question. They don't ask the question, why? Why did God do this? Now that the ark is back, why were we destroyed? No, once again, they're blaming it on God. "Who can stand before God?" Which on one level is a very pious and true statement. But on another level, like in this context, is an excuse. They're blaming it on God. And they do exactly what the Philistines did. "Somebody else take the ark."

21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”

So before we move on, why did God kill, whether it's 70 or 50,070 or whatever, why did that happen? Well, because they were violating the terms of the covenant. They brought it upon themselves. In Numbers chapter 4, God gives instructions about how the ark is to be handled, about who can carry it, who can touch it, when it can be seen, when it can't be seen. And there are very specific instructions given that the ark is to be covered when it's not in the tabernacle, when it's not set up in the Holy of Holies, when it is being transported, it is to be covered.

What did we see happen? We don't see it being covered. We see them taking it out, elevating it, putting it on the giant flat rock, and everybody's coming up and looking at it, and they're offering sacrifices. They're using it as a tool to their benefit. They're not respecting the God who is represented by it, the God who gave it to them, and the God who commanded them how they should handle it. They want the God of the ark, but they want it on their terms.

God's holiness, God's presence is not to be trifled with. God is not to be approached casually. God's holiness demands respect and reverence. We're not called to approach God on our own terms. We approach him on his terms.

Chapter 7:

And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. 2 From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

Some 20 years passed, and then Samuel shows up again.

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

So Samuel shows up now and says, "Listen, remember the covenant. Remember who God is. Remember who you are. If you will purify yourselves, if you will repent, if you will separate yourselves from all these evil things, and you will come back to the Lord your God, he will be with you." That's how it works. So he calls them not to blame God, but to repent, to own their part of it, to recognize their sin.

4 So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

What a breath of fresh air that is. Finally, we're seeing some movement. Samuel is this great prophet of the Lord whose words don't fall to the ground. When he says something, it happens. So he calls them to repentance. They do. They tear down the Baals, the Asherahs. They cleanse themselves and they come and they serve God only.

5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”

"I will pray to Yahweh for you." The prayers of a righteous man availeth much. This is where we see another instance where Samuel is a prophet like unto Moses. You remember that scene? I mean, Moses was constantly praying and interceding for the people many, many times. You remember the one battle where Moses had to stand and hold the staff up, and if the staff was up, they would win, and if his arms got tired, he'd drop. So this is one of the great stories of Moses, and he had to get a couple people to help hold him up. But the point is, when Moses was praying, when Moses was interceding for Israel, then there was victory. And so now they call, and Samuel is called to come and pray for Israel.

6 So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

See here now Samuel is identified with the judges. He's the last judge that's going to bring in the monarchy in the kingdom.

7 Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Because, yeah, they'd been getting whooped.

8 And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”

Samuel, pray for us. We're going to be fighting while we're fighting. Pray for us. Pray for us like Moses did. Intercede that God may hear.

9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. 10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

Which is a cheap shot, like attacking while they're in a worship gathering. Good strategy, I guess. But Yahweh thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before the Lord.

So here they think, "Okay, let's attack while they're having their little worship gathering, and they're sacrificing," and they come, and God's like, "Not this time. Not this time." And thunder, and they're confused, and they're scattered.

11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

Ebenezer literally means rock of help, which you've been singing that hymn all your life. "Here I raise my Ebenezer." This is where it's called. I'm raising the rock of help to the one who has helped.

13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.

15 Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16 And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. 17 Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the Lord.

We made it. We made it through four chapters. Four chapters that deal with the ark in this story of 1 Samuel and the kingdom of Israel. It's a tragic story, but it ends in hope. And it's an important lesson for us to understand that God is not a tool that we use and that God is not to be trifled with. That when God says something, he means it. And God gives us unbelievable freedom to choose how we will live, who we will serve, what we will honor. He gives us that freedom, but there are always consequences to those choices.

Israel was God's people, but they lost sight of what that meant. They thought that it meant God was there to serve them, that he was to be used by them for their ends. They forget that they were made in the image of God. They were to be the Imago Dei. They were the tools that God had created. They were there to serve him.

It's a lesson that, man, I wish it wasn't relevant for us. But I think it is. I think far too often we treat God as this cosmic servant, the genie in the lamp. And we try to barter and negotiate with our religious performance or our behavior. We somehow think that if I make a moral decision here, sacrifice a little something there, then God should be obligated in some sense to do what I want him to do.

And let's be honest, that is a God that makes sense to us. That's how almost all religions work, if not all of them. Tit for tat, I do something and then you've got to do something for me. It's a God that makes sense to us. The only problem is it's not the God of the Bible. It's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is other. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. As high as the heavens are from the earth, so his ways and thoughts are apart from ours.

God is to be revered, respected, valued and treasured, honored and exalted in a way that we do to nothing else because there is nothing else like him. And the temptation to make God palatable, to shrink him down to our size, the temptation to try to use God as a tool is, let's just be honest, it's always there. Because we are people of desires and wants and hopes and needs. And that's how we operate in every other area of our lives. So why would we not then want to try to take God and use him?

These four chapters in 1 Samuel stand as this profound and disturbing rock in the ground that God won't be manipulated. God won't be used. God won't be mocked. On the other hand, when we honor God as God, when we come to him on his terms, when we keep the covenant and we come to him according to his will, then God is the ultimate rock of help. He is that Ebenezer, that one that delivers and rescues and satisfies us. The one who lifts us up.

Jesus is, of course, the ultimate rock of help. The ultimate Ebenezer. As I've been saying for the last couple of weeks, His grace is free, but it is not cheap. We cannot presume upon the grace of Jesus in our own terms. The grace of Jesus comes to us in his terms. Jesus says, "If anyone would follow me," anyone, male, female, rich, poor, smart, not so smart, tall, vertically challenged, wherever you are. Jesus says, "If anyone would follow me, they get to come. Let them follow." It's an open invitation. But he says, "Let them pick up their cross, deny themselves, and follow."

Following Jesus, responding to the invitation of the gospel, is not what it's so often made out to be. It's not a way for you to use God to get what you want. Whether that's not going to hell, whether that's life after death, whether that's something that you want in real time right here and now. The invitation from Jesus isn't, "Believe in me, pray a prayer, wear a cross, go to church, and I'll do what you want me to do." Although in a lot of pulpits and a lot of churches across the land, that's exactly what will be preached this morning. That's not the gospel.

Jesus says, "You know, if you want to come, deny yourself, pick up your cross, die to self, and follow." We have to come to Jesus, not on our terms, but on his. Because he's not our tool. We don't use him. He rescues us that we might be used by him. Jesus is the ultimate helper. Jesus is the one that helps. So we've got to come to him on his terms.

I'm going to say this once again. What we do matters. How we do what we do matters. Holiness matters.

Holiness is this quality of existence. Holiness, it comes from a word that means separation. Far too often, I think, we think of holiness as what it's separated from. Holiness is separated from sin, inequity, and the fruit of sin, death. That holiness is not that. It's the opposite of that. Holiness is not sin. It's not death.

This morning I want to challenge you to not just think about holiness in its negative sense, but in its positive sense. Holiness is life and beauty and order. Holiness is life the way it was meant to be lived, not in our terms, but in God's terms. What we do matters, and holiness matters.

Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 3. Chapter 3, verses 10 to 17. Paul writes this. He says:

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

Paul's talking about his ministry as an apostle. He would go into a place where Jesus hadn't been known or announced and he would announce the invitation of Jesus. He would call people to the gospel of grace. People would respond. They'd be saved. They'd be included into the body. And then Paul would move on to go start his next church and the church would begin to be built up. They begin to do life in the normal traffic pattern. And Paul says, "Hey, as you do that, be careful. Let each one take care how he builds upon it."

So hear what he's saying. He's writing to people that have heard the gospel, have responded positively, have committed themselves in allegiance and faithfulness to Jesus, have taken on the name of Jesus upon themselves, have gathered together as God's people, and Paul says to them, "Okay, now that you've done all that, be careful. Pay attention to how you build your life off of that because what you do matters."

And holiness actually matters. Listen to what he says:

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

And here we got a contrast. It's clear. So we got some good building material and some not so good building material. So you can live your life in a way that is reflective of gold and silver and precious stones, or you can live your life in a way that is reflected by wood, hay, and straw. How are you going to build your house? How are you going to build your life?

The great day of the Lord, the great day of judgment, the great day of accounting, the great transition from the old heavens and the earth to the new heavens and new earth. What you do matters. Paul says, like, there's a reward waiting if we will follow God according to his terms. There's blessing and honor and joy in life everlasting.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to enter the new heavens and the new earth smelling like charcoal. I'll be happy to be there. Get that. I get that. Why do we set the bar so low? Why do we make entrance into the kingdom everything? How about prospering in the kingdom? How about flourishing in life?

I'm not talking about ease and comfort. I'm not talking about God giving you everything your heart desires here and right now. I'm talking about joy in the midst of the sorrow. I'm talking about peace in the middle of conflict. I'm talking about the ability to be content in all circumstances because Christ is our ultimate satisfaction.

We've lowered the bar so much. Paul's going, "Hey, pay attention. So you've accepted Jesus. You're following him. You've given allegiance to him. You've been baptized. Great. That's the beginning, not the end. That's the start of life in Christ. That's the start of what Jesus came to give you. Don't stop. Don't coast. Don't flip. Don't blow this life that God has given you. Live it for the glory of God. Pay attention. Be careful how you live."

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Holiness matters. If you've been united to Christ and God's spirit is within you, you are now the temple of the living God. Your body, your life is now sacred space. Where you go, God goes in a profound way. So how can you then embrace acts and desires that are contrary to the God that now dwells within you?

Holiness is not something that we need to accomplish in order to please God. Holiness is something that we have been given by grace as a gift, a beautiful gift to live life the way it's meant to be lived, in the order and the beauty and the righteousness of God.

You know, the writer of Hebrews gives us this admonition:

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Strive for it. Strive for peace with everyone when you're on Facebook. When you're driving on the 10 and you see the snowbird license plate, strive for peace with everyone and strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Well, that's an interesting phrase. "Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." There's a holiness without which no one will see the Lord? So isn't that a works? I thought it was faith. I thought it was grace. Well, on one level, there is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord. It's one of the most no-duh obvious statements you could ever make. Of course death and sin doesn't survive or thrive in the presence of God. The day is coming when it will be consumed. It will be destroyed. So of course holiness is what it takes to be in the presence of God. There is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And we are to strive for it.

So what is that holiness? That holiness is Jesus' holiness. We're so narcissistic that when we talk about the sacrifice of Jesus and his death and resurrection, we make it all about us. And it is about us. He does take our sin upon himself. God made him who knew no sin to become sin. Yeah, God takes our sin upon us. But that's not how it ends. So that in him, we might become the very righteousness of God.

See, the righteousness of Jesus, the faithfulness of Jesus, the obedience of Jesus, the beauty of Jesus, the goodness of Jesus, the life of Jesus becomes ours. The holiness of Jesus. His separation from sin. He who knew no sin became sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Do you see what's happening here in the gospel, in the atonement, in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus? He takes our death, he takes our sin upon himself, and he gives us his life and his holiness. So the holiness that you and I are called by Hebrews to strive for is not like "I'm going to make myself really, really good so that I can see God."

I'm going to strive for the holiness of Jesus. I'm going to strive to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. I'm going to strive to clothe myself in the righteousness of Christ, to walk in step with the Spirit, to count and trust and hope not in my works but in his work. Because if anyone is in Christ Jesus the King, he or she is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. There is a righteousness. There is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And that is the holiness and righteousness of Jesus the King.

So church, do not be complacent. Do not be overly casual about Jesus. We come to him not on our terms, but on his. And when we do, he is the ultimate Ebenezer. He is the true rock of help. He is our fortress and our refuge. And he is the one that guarantees our great salvation. Amen and amen.