Good morning. Let us pray together, shall we? Lord, we wanna thank you that we turn our eyes to you. The one who is living. The one who was dead and is now alive. Lord, we just wanna ask that you will come and speak to us afresh. Lord, speak to those who are here in this building, speak to those who are watching online. Lord, open up your word and minister to all who hear. We ask this in your name, amen. Well, we're continuing to keep going on our series, the one that I was challenged with, and I have been being challenged with, I must confess, as we look at the law of God. You remember just so far as just a quick recap, to date our current series on the Law of God, we've looked at what is meant by the Law of God. Many times we think of the Ten Commandments, but we've looked at it actually means or can cover the whole Torah, the five books, the Pentateuch. So it's used in different ways. And so when we talk about the law, we're talking from Genesis through to Deuteronomy, or when we talk more specifically about what we would class as the Ten Commandments, but we also realize that there are more than 10, there are actually 613 commands. and we've been unpacking them and we will see what relevance they have for us as Christians. We also then looked at the civil law, because we looked at the law as divided up into three parts, civil, ceremonial, and moral. And so we looked at the civil law, what does that mean, and how the law defines God's people. The Jews were given a specific set of laws which differentiated them from the people around them. And so when someone said, I'm a Hebrew or I'm a Jew, they knew that they were following a specific way of living. And even the foreigners who lived in the Israelite camp, they didn't have to, but if they chose to, they were brought in to living by the law of God. Then we took, if you wanna say, a slight break from looking at the three aspects, and last week we looked at remembrance. It was Remembrance Sunday, but we looked at the fact that we had this command this law to remember and what we were to remember. So now we go back to it, and this morning, we're gonna look at the ceremonial law. What does that mean? How does that impact us? What implications is that on us as church? So if you're taking notes, or if you're going back over this in the recording, and you wanna take notes in that way, and you want a title for this morning, you could say it's God's Law for Life, part three. Or you could also look at it as this, to enter God's presence, God did say there is but only one way. Okay? There's only one way to enter God's presence, and we will look at this as we go through. So I wanna read the passage we will be, not necessarily unpacking, per se, but springing from, as we look at the ceremonial law, and it's Psalm 95. We're gonna read Psalm 95, the whole Psalm. You'll be glad that it's not Psalm 119. Psalm 95, there's only 11 verses in it. So let's read together. says this. Oh come let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms for the for the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods. In his hands are the deep places of the earth, and the heights of the hills are also his. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship, and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the days of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work. For 40 years, I was grieved with that generation and said, it is a people who go astray in their hearts. and they do not know my ways. So I swore in my wrath they will not enter my rest. There's a lot in there, but I just love the way the psalmist says there are people who don't know my ways. And you remember we looked at how one of the aspects or one of the descriptions of commands is God's ways and how the people of God, be it the Israelites, initially and then the early Christians were known as the people of the way that's what they were known as so in essence you should be known as a person or a follower of the way and so here the psalmist I love the way he says they don't know my ways So there's a challenge for us to know God's ways. But I just wanna break down as we enter into what it is, what the ceremonial law is about and how it applies to us and the implications it has. I wanna just break down this psalm briefly, because this leads us into the presence of God. If you listen to it being read, it invites us to come and bow before the Lord, to enter his presence with joyful thanksgiving. So it says here, our reading begins, it focuses on Christ as the rock of our salvation. We have to understand that as we come into the presence of God, we're not coming in on our own merit, but we're coming in because Christ is our savior. We are invited to enter his presence, not to stand at a distance. If you have the idea of the tabernacle, you're invited in, you're not to stand outside. outside the door but to come through the door into his presence. The psalmist invites us to go into the presence of God. He focuses on the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign. I know our world may try and say otherwise. I know fear may creep in. Concerns may creep in. But in everything, the way dictates, the way of God declares that he is sovereign. and he's never once not been sovereign. I know it's hard to grab hold of sometimes, especially when life's getting a bit out of kilter, and we're very tempted to ask, where is God at this moment? But even in that question, we have to hold on to the reality, because it is a reality, that God is sovereign in all that he does and in everything that he says. Then we're asked to consider the awe and vastness of our God. We often, sometimes I think we diminish God in his awe and his vastness. I remember speaking to an evolutionist in Wales, I think I told you this story before, but I remember speaking to him and we were going to a meeting and he was there giving out tracts and I said to him, well you just go in, I'll be with you in a minute, I'm just going to speak to that person. I missed the whole meeting because I spent all my time speaking with this guy outside. And he said to me, he said, are you a literalist? I said, what do you mean? He said, do you read the word literally? I said, now, before you jump down my throat, I said, yes, I am a literalist. I said, but before you get all your arguments out, I want to let you know something. He said, what's that? I said, my God, it's so big he could have made the world in six seconds. I want to know why he took so long. How big is your God? We sometimes diminish God and we put God in a box. God cannot be boxed in, confined in any way. So the psalmist invites us to look at the vastness of God. That he holds everything in his hands. He is vast and he is powerful. Then we're invited to kneel before God and to worship God who is our creator, our maker, the maker of everything. We are called to realize that we are small compared to him. If you think you can come into the presence of God and think you can stand, you're not coming into the presence of God. If we truly went into the presence of God, if the glory of God truly fell and filled this place as it did in the tabernacle, just like the priests, they couldn't do their work because the glory of God. And even in the temple, when it filled the temple, the priests couldn't do their work because the glory of God filled the temple. They had to wait for a while before they could go in. If we were really in the presence of God in its fullness, we would all fall face down. That's the awesomeness of our God. And this is who the psalmist invites us to come in and bow down before and do worship. It reminds us that we are the sheep. We are his sheep. We are small compared to God. We need him as our shepherd. He is, because he is sovereign and he can provide for our needs. And then the psalmist, we heal and encourages that if we hear his voice, As we kneel in his presence, we shouldn't harden our hearts. So many times, we are told that God speaks, and as we come into the presence of God, we may hear his voice, but how many times have we pushed it to the back and thought, well, that's not for me, and we've walked out. The psalmist instructs us and instructs each and every one of us that if we hear God's voice today, do not harden your hearts. And he's given an example. The psalmist gives an example, he said, just like our fathers did. They were released from captivity, they heard God's voice, they rebelled against God, and therefore God didn't let them into the promised land. And so here's the reality. I mean, he uses the word rest, and I will encourage anyone, as we walk in obedience to God, life may not always be easy, but there is an element of rest that we can have. because God will give his rest. So the psalmist here in verse 95 puts us in straight into the presence of God, invites us in there, but what does that mean? How do we go about that? That's the challenge. Again, the psalmist says in chapter 24, verses three and three through to five, 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. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Only he who has a holy and clean heart. That's where we're going with this. The psalmist is very clear that if we come into the presence of God, there's going to be a There's gonna be a challenge on us personally. Something we don't like, or we're not comfortable with, because we like to keep, we like to sing the songs we like to make ourselves feel good or to keep God at a distance. We like things in a way that is comfortable for us, but here's the reality. When we come into the presence of God, when I come into the presence of God, God is looking at my heart. God is looking at your heart. Not fundamentally what we do, but we'll get to that shortly. So here we're told that you need to have a holy, a pure heart and clean hands to enter God's presence. There are three definitions or three titles that the tabernacle is given in scripture and I think each one will speak to us as we think about this ceremonial law and what that means. The first one is sanctuary. The sanctuary emphasized the sacredness, our holy place. This is the most common designation. We come into the sanctuary, the holy place. We run a risk when we diminish the place where we meet with God. We come into his sanctuary. It is his place. It is holy because of him. It is not holy because of the pews or how big the church is or how the church is made out or what we do or don't do. The place is holy because he is here. And we come into his sanctuary and we come into the holy place. Are you prepared for his holiness to shine on you? I know sometimes I struggle with that. If I'm being completely honest, sometimes I'd rather hide from God than stand there front and center with God's holiness shining on my life. Because we've all had a week, haven't we? We may have thought things we shouldn't have done, but we've excused it away. We may have said things we shouldn't have said, We may even have done things we shouldn't have done. And as we come into the holy place, that's on full view to God and to us. So the most common description of God's presence or being in God's presence is his sanctuary. There we have the tabernacle. The tabernacle literally means, as you know, tent dwelling or a dwelling place. It will emphasize the nearness or closeness of God's presence with the Israelites. That's why he was in the center of the camp, as we looked at with the civil law, that the whole camp was based around the tabernacle. He was in the center. His dwelling place, and so here's what has been striking me. If we really want God to be in our centre, at the very heart of who we are personally, and who we are collectively, then the holiness of God's gonna be in the centre, and we're gonna have to contend with that. God will not give up his throne to anyone or anything, and God will not let anyone diminish his holiness. We come into the presence of God, and it's in that presence, that imminent, personal, close presence that we engage his holiness. God invites us to have that type of relationship. And of course, the third description is the tent of meeting. It emphasizes the function of being a place of meeting between God and his people. So here's what we're being invited into. We're being invited into a place where God wants to meet with you and won't meet with me. We're being invited into a place that is intimate, where God is close. and we're being invited into a holy place. Get that, a holy place, where unholiness cannot stand, where sin cannot bide, because we're in a place of holiness. So as we think about God who dwells or tabernacles with us and wants to meet and talk with us, we must realize that we're coming into that holy place. So God's ceremonial law was established, was set out on how the Israelites should worship and enter his presence. When we think about the ceremonial law, we're thinking about a set of laws, a set of commands that God says, here's what you should do, or here's how you should act in order to come into my presence. If you don't do certain things a certain way, and you come into my presence without doing certain things, like sacrifices, you could be in trouble. You may not get out of his presence if you go into it in the wrong way. That's how severe it was. And sometimes we make God's presence, we enter it in a very blasé way, like it's just something we do. We're coming into the presence of God our creator. The ceremonial law had a function. It was not just how to enter God's presence, but it was there to focus their attention on God. It wasn't to focus their attention on the altar, per se. It wasn't there to focus their attention on the priests and what the priests were doing, per se. The whole aspect of the ceremonial law was to bring them in to the presence of God and to focus their attention solely on this holy God that they had come into the presence of. That's why we keep saying it's not about me, it's not about us, it's not about the leadership, it's not about the band, it's about God and coming into his presence. And that's what we are here to think about. The ceremonial law was instructions to do with sacrifices and things to do with clean and unclean, Sabbaths and Passovers and New Moon festivals. In fact, if you think about it, there are seven pilgrimage feasts that the Jewish people had to do, and most of the times they had to go up to Jerusalem to do it at the temple. And so here, all this was geared around focusing our mind on Christ, what he had come to do, and what he is going to do if we had time, perhaps someday we'll look at the seven pilgrimage feasts, and how they were all, if you wanna say, prophetic in nature about what Christ was going to do and what Christ has done and what he is still to do. And so here you've got this great picture, these ceremonial laws that will lay out what is clean and what is unclean. You know, like for them, pork was unclean. Confess your sins if you like a bit of bacon. Ah, I see some hands. You know, now there's the challenge for us, but we'll get to these things as we go through. The ceremonial law was to divide what was clean and what was unclean. It was to set times and seasons to remember God and what God had done. All these ceremonial laws were to focus the adherent's mind on God. So for us, the reading of the word, the opening up of the word, the worship of God is all there to focus our minds. Communion, when we have communion, is all there to focus our minds on Christ, not on anything else and not on anyone else. It's all on God because that's what the ceremonial law was to do with. How do you enter God's presence right? And how do you engage with God? Our focus was to be on God alone. Here's the interesting thing. We touched on the tabernacle to begin with. So we're going to go there again. On the south side, next to the door, you know, there's only one door in the tabernacle. Again, we'll look at this at some point. I got so excited when I looked at the tabernacle again. But there's only one door, and we know that the law, the Levites were to push everybody around to the door that they would enter into God's presence via the door. Okay, in case you're wondering, Christ, okay? We enter God's presence via Christ's death and resurrection. Now, here's the interesting thing, that when you enter God's, when they entered via the door, the first thing they seen was an altar, a place of sacrifice. and they had to enter it by a place of sacrifice. They came through the door and then the first thing they had to do was kill something, sacrifice something. that speaks to me about what do I need to give up? What do I have to sacrifice? What am I? Am I coming in for what God wants, God's will, God's desire to come and just humble myself before God? Do I have to sacrifice something, kill something, kill some form of pride or desire or what I want to be in the presence of God? Perhaps I do. The sign, the way the tabernacle was set up was the first thing you seen was an altar. was an altar. The second thing you seen was a liver made of brass. It was a like a big bowl for all intents and purposes. And here's another thing that strikes that. There's a bit of a debate. Some people thought that the people had to wash in it to purify themselves. Other people believed that the priests, after sacrificing, would come in and wash in this liver because they had to be cleaned into the presence of God. Here's the reality, and this is what I love. I remember in a boys' brigade camp, okay? Anybody ever done the boys brigade camp? Anybody ever done camping? I'll tell you, sort of seven o'clock in the morning, a bowl full of cold water, oh, thrills your heart, it does. And when you look into something like that, at certain times, you only see one reflection, don't you? You are the person looking into it. And here's the reality. I go into the presence of God via the door. I have to give up what I want for the sake of what God wants. And the minute I go in, the one person God is speaking to is me, because when I look at it, it reflects and I see me. God is speaking to me. So one thing we shouldn't do, and I've said it before, whenever we come into church or come into the presence of God, is say, I know who that was for. If only so and so had have been here, that would have been a great message for them. No, I look in and the word of God reflects me, it reflects my heart. So as I come into the presence of God, God's holiness deals with me and you, but deals with me. So here's the picture we get, and this is a wonderful picture, that the ceremonial law is to focus our minds wholly, squarely on God, God's holiness, and to get us ready to engage with God in a real way. Now, I was thinking about what New Testament aspect I could get out of this, and one jumped to mind very quick, and it was in Luke 18. chapters nine to 14, and all you Bible scholars know is the parable of the Pharisee and the text collector. Pharisee walks in, and I'm just going to summarize here because of time, but the Pharisee walks in and says, God, I bet you're glad I'm on your team. Look at all the stuff I do. I tithe. Of all the stuff I have, I give tithes. I pray twice a day. I adhere to your laws. I'm not even like that tax collector back there. But Christ says the tax collector wouldn't even, he'd barely come in. He knelt down. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. And he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. saw an altar and the other one just marched straight in. He thought it was all about boasting about how great he was and missed the fact that God wanted to reveal what was in his heart and Christ said that the tax collector was the one that left change, not the Pharisee. So here's the reality, the reality is the ceremonial law in all its definitions of sacrifices and clean and unclean and festivals, we're all there to get our minds to focus on Christ and how we should enter his presence. Very simple in that aspect. That we may be, dare I say, like the tax collector, that once we've gone in, and we've seen the altar and we've sacrificed, we sit down and we say, God, I see my heart and my heart needs the touch of your holiness. I need a touch of your spirit. Forgive me for something I've done this week. Because do you mind if I ask you, if you can go through seven days without sinning, can you come and speak to me? Because I struggle. None of us are perfect. And we all need that place where we come and say, God have mercy on me, a sinner. So we're coming into the presence of God. The fascinating thing is this, that the holiness of God is like light, and it's like fire. If you look throughout Scripture, and again, we don't have time this morning, but His holiness is like light, and it's like fire. It lights up. It's like a torchlight. It zooms in and highlights all the sin that we carry into His presence. And it's like fire. It burns it up. It consumes it. It takes away all the dross out of our life. That's what God's holiness does. So it's a bit like fire and it's a bit like light. And we're coming into that where we're saying, God, reveal to me what needs changed and then purify me. That's really what we're saying as we come into the presence of God, and the ceremonial law, with all its complexities, helps us. 1 Kings 19, verses nine to 13. Again, we know it. We've read it a number of times in different places. That's where the prophet Elijah is on the run. Hides in a cave. God gets him to go to his cave. He comes out and we know it says that God wasn't in the storm or the fire or the earthquake, but God spoke and he was in the still small voice. Still small voice. And here's what verse 13 says. So it was when Elijah heard it, that's a still small voice, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. He didn't boldly brush in. He realized he was coming into the presence of the holy God and he covered himself. God wants to speak. He'll not always shout at you. He'll not always yell at you to get your attention. Sometimes it's that still small voice. But when God speaks, are we prepared to humble ourselves? that we may hear what he has to say, humbly wrap ourselves. Again, we're told about the holiness in Exodus 33, verses 19 to 22, when we know that when Moses comes before the burning bush, God says, don't come any further, take off your shoes, because the place you're standing is holy ground. where God is, even in a burning bush, God made that place holy. And Moses had to remove his shoes. Why? Glad you asked that question. Because according to certain lines of thinking, your feet are a sign of ownership. You remember what Christ said or what God said? Everywhere where you put your foot, I will give you that land. So the feet were a sign of ownership. And God said, take off your shoes, because in my presence, you own nothing. In my presence, you come into my presence. I am God. In my presence, take off your shoes. You have what I give you. And here's the reality, we come into the presence of a holy God, owning only what he gives us. And as he speaks to us from his holiness, do we hear him or do we harden our hearts? In Psalm 63, verses one and three, it says this, in thirsting for God, do we thirst for his holiness? Psalm 63, verses one and three says, oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you. In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, so I have looked for you in the sanctuary. to see your power and your glory because your loving kindness is better than life. Your, my lips shall praise you. Do we long for God that much? Do we desire God that much? Or do we put other things above God? Or does God have to compete with things in our life? Psalmist says, I long for you, I desire you. Everything else the world has to offer is dry, barren. But I long for you. And listen to what he says. In essence he's saying, I long for your holy presence. The sanctuary where his holiness is. I long for your holiness. And so here, you get this great desire that we come in, as the ceremonial law points to, into the presence of a holy God. So let's not mess about in his presence and play games. In God's presence, there is, let me just go through this very quick. There is, Psalm 16, verse 11. You will show me your path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In God's presence, there is fullness of joy. Not happiness, joy, difference. If we come in and we worship God, there are days, as someone like me who loves to sing and worship God, there are days that I struggle. But the minute you start to worship God, it just feels like a weight comes off. Because in the presence of God there is fullness of joy. Psalm 27 verse 1, There is confidence and there's protection in the presence of God. We don't have to fear, there's no fear in the presence of God. because God loves us and he wants us to be like him. In fact, if you want to know one of the laws that is in the New Testament, that is in the Old Testament, you'll find it in Leviticus 11, you'll find it in 1 Peter, be holy for I am holy. Holiness plays a big key part here. This isn't just a ceremonial law thing, this is a Christian thing, a follower of Christ thing, a people of the way thing. In Hebrews 10 verses 19 to 22, it points that Christ is our high priest. Christ is our door. We have gone through. Christ has removed the veil that we may see, that we may have life and enter the presence of God. We'll look a bit more at that veil this evening. But Christ has removed that, that we can enter. I suppose the last thing is this, and it links with the Pharisee and the text collector. Hands and hearts, not just religious action. Hands and hearts, not just religious action. The Pharisee student said, I obey all the law. Tick. You must be glad I'm on your team. But God wasn't. because he didn't actually hear what God was saying. He didn't understand the requirements of God, and he just did religious actions. 1 Samuel 15, 22 says, oh, so Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings, or sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. To obey is better than sacrifice. He's not trying to say sacrifice isn't important, but obedience is of greater importance. So let's not just come in and play games and do religious actions. God wants to know in our heart, in our hearts, are we being obedient, and does that work out in our life, in our hands? Obedience is better than sacrifice. Again, in Hosea, it says, for I desire mercy, not sacrifice. That's Hosea 6.6, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. So when we come into the presence of God, are we desiring to be more Christ-like? Are we wanting to know him more? Do we want to desire his holiness? Or do we just want to have our behavior rubber stamped by God? Proverbs 21 verse three says, do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Acting right, behaving right, doing what is right is more acceptable to God than sacrifice. Religious actions. Now, here's where we draw a distinction. What God is not saying, that in essence, don't do any more sacrifices. He's not talking to an Old Testament people and saying, don't do sacrifices. What he's saying is, I desire you to want to live my life, as well as enter my presence correctly. That's the question. Are we wanting to live the way Christ wants us to live? Again, I go through scripture upon scripture, and I love Isaiah 1, verses 11 to 18. We all know Isaiah 1, 18, don't we? Come, let us reason together. Though your sins were as red as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they were as red as crimson, they shall be as wool. I love that verse. But you know what it comes after? It comes after Christ critiquing them for all their sacrifices, yet worshiping idols. God says, don't just live like out there lives, and then come in here and play church. He says, if you wanna be my people, then come let us reason. I want you to be holy just as I am holy. I want you to enter my presence right and let me work in your life to transform you to be more like me. Come let us reason this out. I desire obedience more than sacrifice. But I will say to you this, the minute you start to obey and obey as more and more as you can, There's not one thing you wouldn't give up for God. There's not one thing you wouldn't give up for God. So obedience leads to wanting to give things up, sacrifice. But sacrifice never leads to obedience. Think about that for a moment. Isaiah says, come let us reason together. I could go through Jeremiah, Amos, Micah. It is all there. Time and time again, God is saying to his people all throughout the Old Testament, obedience is better than sacrifice. I want mercy and justice, not just sacrifice. I want you to live right. Your hearts and your hands should be right in my presence, not just religious actions. So ceremonial law is key. It is key because it helps us enter God's presence correctly and it helps us approach God as we are. Not looking to the person, to your right or to your left, but you enter God's presence as you are. And a holy God says, okay, let's talk. You remember that thing this week that you did that you shouldn't have done and you tried to hide it? Well, I know it. I seen it. Can we talk about that? and he will purify us because he is a holy God. And we come into the presence of a holy God and he wants us to come in in a right way and let him transform us that we will walk out with our hearts and our hands in complete unison doing stuff that will glorify God. The psalmist says only clean hands and a pure heart. Here's the challenge that we have. So as we conclude, The ceremonial law, I have wanted to go through every aspect, because I know that may break some people's hearts if we look at bacon and shrimps. But, you know, I just wanted to keep it as tight as we can, that these ceremonial laws were to deal with clean and unclean. And we'll get to that, what is clean and unclean. The ceremonial law had to deal with how we enter God's presence through the door by way of sacrifice. Personally. The ceremonial law had to do with listening to God, being in the presence of a holy God. So God's standards of holiness were high. And they remain high. While today God does not demand that we observe the priestly rules of dress and conduct, it is clear that God's standards of holiness are much higher than ours. Shall I remind you what scripture says? God hates sin. So when we come into the presence of holy God, are we prepared to do business? Do we come in on the right way? Do we deal with God correctly? Do we let God deal with us? And do we leave transformed by him in his holiness, in his presence? 1 Peter 1 14 to 16 says, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy. As we leave The ceremonial law is about how we enter God's presence. The moral law is also about how we leave God's presence and live out in the world. And as we come into God's presence, the ceremonial law reminds us of the need for holiness. Hebrews 12 verses 14 and 15 says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see God. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness spring up, cause trouble and by this many becoming defiled. In essence, look at your own heart before you look at everybody else's. As we come into the presence of the ceremonial law, there's only one way to enter God's presence, the door. But the door requires sacrifice. And the sacrifice is for the person, not for the group of people around you. It's for us individually. So we are called into the presence of a holy God who wants to meet with us, talk with us, relate with us, transform us, and his request is this, obedience is better than sacrifice. So that is the ceremonial law, how we enter God's presence, the God that we meet in whose presence we stand, and how we are to leave when we walk out of God's presence. The ceremonial law had so much to say about that. So how do you enter his presence? How have you entered his presence? Do you realize you're in the presence of a holy God? Do you lift up other things to compete with God? Are you prepared to sacrifice those things to hunger and thirst after God alone? All these is what the ceremonial law brings us in contact with. We are in the presence of a holy God. Only a holy God can forgive us. Only a holy God can transform us. And may we never forget that every time we gather together as church, be it here, or be it in the hall, or be it anywhere, when a group of Christians meet together as church, we are in the presence of a holy God. Because he promised, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. A holy God is with us. And we are called to understand how we enter that. How we act in that presence. and how we choose to leave. Do we leave transformed or the same way as when we walked in? That is your choice. Amen. We're gonna close our service with our final hymn, Only a Holy God. Two bells could make everything fragile. Two bells could burst further in darkness and woe. Only a holy dove. ♪ God rest ye merry, gentle men of God. ♪ Oh Oh Let us pray. Lord, forgive us when we enter your presence in a way that is unfitting. Forgive us when we try to hide. Lord, deceiving ourselves, thinking that you do not see, You are God, you see everything, you know everything. Lord, as we have been invited to come and worship a holy God, may we always keep in mind that we are in your presence, the holy God. May we be aware that we have to come in through the door, through you, and be faced with that sacrifice. Lord, not to hold on to anything, but be prepared to surrender all for you. Lord, we thank you that you deal with each one of us personally. And may we desire obedience above religious sacrifice. Lord, we pray as always that if anything is not being from you, take it away. Remove man's wisdom or ideas. Leave only your truth. And may we be a people who enter your presence with clean hands and a pure heart. Amen. You've done a good job there, Brian. Doesn't matter, brother.