Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. Let us be desirous of his blessings. And the blessings I'm talking about is relating to him. The kind of thing that I have when I say, "You know what? I just want to be with God." Because it all comes down to that. The one thing I should desire, as C.S. Lewis said, the one thing that is the ultimate fulfillment of all these other little desires in my life is for me to connect relationally with my Creator.

Dave Drew: Like any relationship, our connection with God can become stale without regular attention. If we want to get closer to our heavenly Father, we have to take those steps toward him. So, what are those steps to strengthen that relationship?

Well, today on Focal Point, we're in a mini-series that addresses that very question. Pastor Mike calls the study "A Closer Relationship with God." We'll examine six ways we can draw nearer to our heavenly Father, and it begins with being motivated by all that Christ has done for us.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: We've been looking at all that the writer of Hebrews has been telling us about the comparisons between the Old Covenant and the New. And as he's done that, he's really underscored one of the primary themes in all of the Bible without ever using the word. He has presented for us a fantastic picture of what it means to be reconciled to God. That the barrier of sin had made it impossible for us as imperfect people to relate to this perfect God, and yet Christ had come, better than any of the systems or ceremonies of the Old Covenant, and he had come to take care of the problem, to remove the barrier.

Against the backdrop of the temple and the tabernacle, he says that barrier between us and the presence of God has been removed, not just symbolically. It's been removed in a very real way, a judicial way, from heaven's perspective, and now we have the right to enter into a real and a personal relationship with God.

In verse number 19 of Hebrews chapter 10, if you have it open, he says, "Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place." If we're in with God, here's the things it will be based on. Number one, it'll be by the blood of Jesus. It'll be by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain, that is his body. Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, and these are all the things we've explained in the book of Hebrews already. Christ has done the work for us. He lived a life as our high priest, our representative. He's gone as the sacrifice and died in our place. He did the work.

Let's just summarize it this way. Letter A under number one: a relationship with God based on those phrases we need to understand is simply this: it is something that is based on the work of Christ. Just jot that down. A relationship with God is based on the work of Christ. And that may be like a big yawner, I've heard that, great. But do you know how many people will gather in churches and all kinds of places of worship this weekend that will think that the relationship they have with God is based on what they do, not on what Christ has done? And that's a critical distinction.

Number two, letter B. Not only is it that a relationship with God is based on the work of Christ, take a look at what it says in verse number 22. I'm to draw near to God with a sincere heart. Now he's going to list some things that are in place in my life. The first one is in full assurance of—here's a key biblical word—faith.

I know this, that the Christian life, the relationship with God that ushers me into a possibility of relating to my Creator, is not only based on the work of Christ, it is inaugurated by this thing called faith. But let's use this word because faith is so often mystified in the modern era. Let's just use this word: it's inaugurated by trusting Christ. That's what *pistis*, the Greek word, means. *Pisteuo*, the verb, it means to trust. I'm placing my confidence in someone else.

So there are two components to this. I can't enter into a relationship with God if, number one, Christ does the work for me, and secondly, I put my trust in what Christ has done. And those two elements are distinct throughout the Scripture. It's not just that Christ has done something for me, he now calls me to trust in what he's done for me. Those are two separate elements. And that gives me access to God. I'd better put my trust in him. I'd better come into his presence with a full assurance of trust or faith.

Thirdly, back to Hebrews chapter 10. There are two components to letter C here that should already be in place. They're in the perfect tense as you see here in the middle of verse 22. Having—here's some things that are in place—our hearts sprinkled, which was an Old Testament symbol, the hyssop branch and the blood of the Passover lamb, and it's sprinkled on the people in Moses' day and it's put on the doorposts. You know the picture. Sprinkled, what does that do? To cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

There are two things listed there. The first one is that I've had my conscience cleansed from this guilt that I felt when I was excluded from this relationship with God. And when I enter into it now, all of a sudden I have this relief. The guilt goes away. And then there's this statement, we'll unpack it here in a minute, that our bodies were washed with pure water. Let's summarize it this way: a relationship with God is not only based on what Christ has done, it's not only inaugurated by my faith or trust. Number three, it is something that is evidenced by relief and by obedience.

Relief from what? Relief from the feeling that I'm not acceptable to be relating to a holy God. What's the problem? Well, I have sin, I have a guilty conscience, and it will probably lead me away from God. But when I come to Christ and I enter into a relationship with Christ, this guilt is taken away. You enter in as Paul said in Ephesians 3 with confidence. You approach him now with confidence. Why? Because the guilt is removed.

Secondly, back in Hebrews chapter 10. It says in that same verse, in verse number 22, we've also had our bodies washed with pure water. Now that has a clear *double entendre*. And a lot of us go quickly to thinking about the thing that is symbolic in the New Testament of people coming to Christ, the picture of baptism. And though I think that's clearly the second part of the *entendre* here, the real point of this is something that is throughout the Scriptures: the picture of the Holy Spirit washing us clean.

There's something about that rich symbolism that even goes back to the Old Testament Levitical ablutions and washings, that is clearly speaking of something that God does to our hearts. He washes us with pure water. Now that's a picture, but it couldn't have been avoided in the minds of the first-century churchgoer that it also brought them back to the day that they stepped up and were obedient to the call of Christ, not only to say, "I'll follow him"—that's the making of disciples—but the baptizing of the followers.

That was something that was going on all over the place. And when you have an analogy or a phrase like that, "having our bodies washed with pure water," the *double entendre* is I've had my sins washed away by God, by the Holy Spirit, but I've also remembered toweling off after being in the river and having the pastor dunk me in a pool of water or a river of water. I remember that. And why I think that's so significant here is that's more of the objective evidence of a relationship with God. And that is simply an act of obedience. As a matter of fact, baptism is the first act of obedience.

We're supposed to go and make disciples, and then they're supposed to do what Christ said, which was to be baptized in water. Does baptism save you? No. Does feeling relief from our guilt save us? No. These are just evidences of being a forgiven person who stands in the presence of God. And so it is that these people said, "You know what? I remember that." Not only was I washed by God and made clean in my heart, I remember toweling off after a baptism service that I was a part of, which proves that I'm willing to not just listen to Christ and trust him for salvation, but that trust, that faith, as Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1, is a faith that brings about obedience.

It is the obedience that comes from faith. And it starts for every Christian in the New Testament by not only trusting Christ, but being baptized. Some of you are starting to feel guilty, feel the cloud of guilt starting to get on your shoulders, getting a little heavy right now. That's because some of you have never been baptized. Does baptism save you? That's a trick question and you should stop and say, "Well, yes and no." And then your follow-up question should be, "Which one?"

Because the baptism of Christ placing me into him and into this relationship with him, that's *baptizo*, that's what the Greek word means, being placed into Christ. Yes, that saves me. But the symbol, the external expression of that reality of being baptized into water—no, that doesn't save me. It's an evidence of my salvation. It is an act of obedience and shows that Christ is now my Lord and my King and I do what he says. So the question for you and I is: have we been baptized after we've placed our trust in Christ?

Because God wants us all to respond obediently to Christ's command to be baptized. Make sure you have a relationship with God. Before we talk about bettering our relationship with God, let's make sure we have one. Let's make sure you don't think it's about your work. No, it's about Christ. Make sure that it's not a mental assent about Christ's works, it's a trusting in what Christ has done. And then make sure that you can look at the evidence in your life and say, "Yeah, not only have I felt the freedom from guilt, I've had not only my heart washed by the Holy Spirit, I've walked through the whole process, the symbolic process of baptism."

If you got the relationship with God, now we're going to work on improving it. Now the main verb in this text is found there in verse number 22. This is really what the text is all about, this one phrase: "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart." Now the rest of the whole book of Hebrews is going to try to unpack that concept. What does that mean? What does that look like? What does it mean to be close to God, to draw near to God? But that's what we're talking about. Now remember, that's a spatial analogy. You can't get any closer to God spatially than you are right now.

That's an analogy. What I'm talking about, and that's a spatial analogy we use it today about being close to our wife or being close to a friend, it's really not about physical proximity. It's about real emotional closeness. It's about relational and personal connectedness. So the concept here is about my relationship, if I'm in a relationship with God, making it better. So let's just jot it down that way. Number two on your outline: let us always seek to better it.

And if you're leaning back, smoking your Christian cigar, going, "I got it wired, I've been in it for years, I know more than everybody else, I teach Sunday school," look again at this text and realize it begins in the sentence in verse number 19 by him saying, "Brothers," and moving from second-person pronouns to first-person plural pronouns. And that should be a little convicting. The writer of the book, the guy who's out there elaborating on deep themes of theology like Melchizedek, he now says, "Brothers," and then look at verse number 22. I wish I could unpack the Greek grammar of this, the way it's done, it's so powerful. It's "let us all draw near to God." I need to, you need to, we need to. Let's all get closer to God.

So don't think, and that's why the word "always" is in this point, that somehow because you've reached some level of maturity that you don't need to. There's room for improvement in your life. There's room for improvement in my life. The depth and richness of a relationship with God always has room for progress. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul, arguably the most mature Christian we've ever read about, used to pen half of the New Testament. What does he say about his own Christian experience in Philippians chapter 3? "I haven't attained it yet. I'm not there. I haven't become perfect."

I mean, here's a guy who's just showing the virtues of the Christian life in mega-big large quantities and he says this: "I'm just pressing on. I'm moving ahead. I got to forget what's behind and I got to go forward." If there's room for progress in Paul's life, if the writer of Hebrews says, "Brothers, let us all do this. I need to do it, you need to do it," then I think all of us need to say, "There is room for growth in my relationship with God. I can be closer to him." And again, that's a spatial word. I can have a better relationship, a more intimate relationship, a more personal relationship with God than I've ever had, even if I feel like I've attained to some level that makes me a little bit more knowledgeable or godly than the person I'm sitting next to. Congratulations, you're more godly than the person you're sitting next to. Great. Let us though press on, as Paul said, to really move into a deeper level of intimacy with God.

Now here's the problem I have. He drops this exhortation in verse 22 and then really doesn't give us much other than verse 23 in this paragraph to explain what that looks like. He's going to take the next few chapters, the bottom of chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, and chapter 13 to explain it all to us. And since I'm not that good to be able to preach the whole rest of the book in one message or one point, bear with me and give me a little latitude to go to a place where in six consecutive verses we have, in a nice compact way, a great list of things that are going to be unpacked throughout the rest of the book of Hebrews. I found this great passage that pulls this all together in six consecutive verses and gives us a great summary of the kinds of things that need to be in place to better our relationship with God. All of which will be explained in one way or another in the rest of the book of Hebrews. And we'll find that over there in Psalm 73.

So turn with me to the book of Psalms and turn to Psalm 73. It's a Psalm of Asaph. And he goes through all these mental contortions about his struggles and his difficulties and he gets to the last part of this Psalm. If you drop down to the bottom, I'll just give you the theme of it, it's found in verse number 28. Psalm 73, verse 28. And again, I use this text because it's a spatial analogy. It's exactly what we're talking about here in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22. And he says, "But as for me"—listen to his resolve—"it is good to be near God. I just want to be near him."

And what does that mean? He wants to be physically closer to him? No, he's talking about a relationship that's more deep, more intimate, more personal. He draws closer to him. "As for me, it is good to be near God." That's the theme of the text. But let's go back up six verses and start in verse 23 and just quickly here very simple phrases. Six simple phrases that summarize what it means, what are the keys to getting close to God? And this will summarize the rest of the book of Hebrews. Are you with me? Verse 23. Psalm 73:23, Asaph says, "Yet I am always with you." This is highly poetic language. "And you hold me by my right hand."

This is all poetic about in his mind, he is aware of God's awareness of him. His mind is directing to God. Let's put it this way for number one: we need to be mindful of his presence. You cannot better your relationship with God unless you in your brain are thinking about God's presence. If you are not aware of his awareness of you. If you do not think about a person, you cannot get closer to the person. If you are not aware of that person's awareness of you, you will not enrich your relationship with that person. You have to be thinking about the fact that you and God are walking this path together, like he is holding your hand. Do you see that? Real simple. Let us be mindful of his presence.

Are you aware of his presence every day? Isn't that how Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28, what's the last thing after the Great Commission? What's the last tagline? "Lo, I am with you always. Don't forget that. I'm with you all the time." What does God say repeatedly in the Bible? "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you." God is trying to make it clear. Think of me! Think of me and think about how I'm thinking of you. No relationship can get improved without that. God says he's thinking about every hair follicle on my head. There's not one hair that I lose—and I'm losing them at a rapid rate—that he doesn't say, "Up, there goes another one. Poor Mike." He's thinking of me. And I need to be thinking about him thinking of me. And if we don't think together like that, we'll never improve our relationship. You should better your relationship with God and in some form, let's at least start with this: we need to be mindful of his presence.

Verse 24, letter B. "You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you'll take me into glory. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you take me into glory." Let's think that one through. "You guide me with your counsel." I got my hand on his hand, I'm thinking of him, and now as I'm walking down this path, I'm starting to go down this exit and then I think about God and I think, "His counsel is not to go there. His counsel is to go here." So I start to defer to his counsel and I make decisions in my day based on what God says, based on what God's preferences are.

I not only need to be mindful of his presence, letter B, I need to be deferential to his counsel. Deferential to his counsel. And if you want to put your ear up against the clouds and start to listen, "God, what is your counsel?" God's going to point you back to the place where he's recorded his counsel, and his counsel is recorded in that book that's on your lap. That's where God has spoken. Here is God's word. As J. Vernon McGee's old bumper music says, "What more can he say than to you he has said?" You got a book in your lap and that needs to be a part of your New Year's resolution to get that book into your life because it's full of his counsel for your daily life.

So I need to be committed continually to thinking through, "I'm holding his hand, I'm thinking about him being mindful of me, I'm mindful of his presence," and when it comes to my daily decisions, I got to start thinking what would God want me to do here? What is his counsel about this? That means I got to get into the word of God. I need to think about God. I need to get into the word of God. I need to bring that to bear on decisions of my life. I need to defer to his counsel. Let's just start there and just every day, let's just get into that. At the basic level, just read through the Bible and look for God's counsel for your life as you find it in the pages of Scripture. "You guide me by your counsel, and ultimately thankfully one day you'll lead me into a perfect guidance situation. You'll receive me into glory."

Verse 25, letter C. "Whom have I in heaven but you?" Now this is highly poetic. "And earth has nothing I desire besides you." Here all of a sudden he has this sense that "I'm thinking of you, I'm guided by you, and when it really comes down to it, when I think about being with you, man, that's a good thing." As a matter of fact, I desire that more than other things. And when I have an option here between being tantalized and satisfied by the things of the world, I realize it's really not as good as being satisfied and finding joy in my presence with you, in my relationship with you. Let's put it this way, and this may sound a bit crass or hedonistic, but let's put it down, letter C: let us be desirous of his blessings.

And the blessings I'm talking about is relating to him. The kind of thing that I have when I say, "You know what? I just want to be with God." And again, if that sounds crass or selfish, just recognize that's the kind of hedonism that we want, as John Piper says in *Desiring God: Confessions of a Christian Hedonist*. Great book if you haven't read it. Because it all comes down to that. The one thing I should desire, as C.S. Lewis said, the one thing that is the ultimate fulfillment of all these other little desires in my life is for me to connect relationally with my Creator. And if I could just learn and cultivate that desire this year and say, "I want to find the joy and fulfillment that comes by deepening my relationship with God."

Some of us don't even try to cultivate that. We're so busy with all the glitz and flash of the world that we're sucking all that in and God says, "Can you put all that aside for a little bit? Can you warm up to a little bit of the desire of verse 25 to where you can start to say time with me is really better than time with these other things?" I think the older we get as people, we start to recognize that because we start to see how plastic and how cheap a lot of the things in the world are, right? We start to recognize it really doesn't fulfill anyway. The only thing that is really fulfilling is for me to find that joy in God's presence. There's nothing wrong with that kind of hedonism. That's the kind of pursuit that we want.

As a matter of fact, keep your finger here and turn back with me to Psalm 16. In Psalm 16, a great text, verse number 11. Take a look at this great phrase in Psalm 16, verse 11: "You've made known to me the path of life." It's much like letter B in Psalm 73:24, guiding me with your counsel. "I'm walking on your path. It's great. And you fill me with the joy of your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." See, there's a key verse for the Christian hedonist. There's the idea of saying, "I really want to desire that more." And the more I taste that, the more I experience that, the less these other things on earth are in terms of a fulfillment for me. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's like the old hymn, the last hymn my grandfather ever sang, the last day he was alive: "The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." Remember that old hymn? The more we experience and deepen that relationship with God this year, the more we'll recognize the other things just really aren't worth putting a whole lot of effort into.

Dave Drew: "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart." That's the passage in Hebrews we looked at today. You're listening to Mike Fabarez on Focal Point with a mini-series called "A Closer Relationship with God." Every lesson in this study is waiting for you at focalpointradio.org or grab the free Focal Point app and take it with you wherever you go.

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And this month, when you send a donation to Focal Point, we'd like to put a book in your hands that lines up perfectly with where Pastor Mike is taking us. It's A.W. Tozer's beloved classic, *The Pursuit of God*. If you've never read it, you're in for something remarkable. Tozer writes the way a man writes when he's actually been with God, not just studied about him. He cuts past religious habit and straight to the ache at the center of it all: the soul's hunger for real, unmediated contact with its Maker. Few books have described that longing more honestly or pointed toward its answer more clearly. Request *The Pursuit of God* when you make a donation to Focal Point today.

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Well, I'm Dave Drew, and tomorrow Pastor Mike continues this study with a question: "Are you moving toward God or drifting away?" Don't miss Tuesday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. I pray today's message will help you live out your faith with truth and love. After all, that's the kind of biblical faith that changes lives and transforms a crooked culture. But if you haven't truly surrendered your life to Christ, then I'd like to invite you to get in touch. We'd love to pray with you and help you discover God's plan of salvation. Visit focalpointradio.org.

Dave Drew: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.