Beyond the Veil I

Sunday 04/02/17

Series: Doers of the Word

Message – Beyond the Veil I

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Beyond the Veil

Over the last few weeks we’ve spent time with remembering (as in NOT FORGETTING).

James told us to not be a forgetful hearer…because the forgetful are drawn away!

The POSITIVE of that would be REMEMBER…because those who remember remain near!

Which is to HOLD ONTO His words… continues to stay near it & abide in it.

Last week we ended with the statement that,

“The child of God was intended to press on beyond the veil into God’s presence and live our whole lives there.”

But we concluded that while the spirit will never be satisfied with anything less than God – our souls are a cheap date! Our souls are about PERCEIVED satisfaction….and so, any old spiritual fast food will do.

James tells us that DESIRE is the key!!!

READ James 1:14-15,

“(14) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (15) Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Desire IS to drawing near, what remembering is to enticement.

Drawing near requires desire and desire grows to ENTICEMENT by remembering!

I told you last week that James may have been drawing from Deut.4 when he wrote this, so let’s go look at that and a few other verses about drawing near.

Deut 4:5-14,

“(5) “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. (6) Therefore be careful to observe them (HEAR THE WORD – LISTEN); for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ (7) “For what great nation is there that has God SO NEAR to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? (8) And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

(9) Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, (10) especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ (11) “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. (12) And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice. (13) So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. (14) And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.”

In other words drawing near was a prerequisite to being a DOER!

Jesus quoted Isaiah 29 to the religiously devout of His day…

“(8) ‘THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME. (9) AND IN VAIN THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.’ “

Outwardly religious people (meaning those who practice piety of the body without the heart), are all show…and the first one they deceived into thinking they are truly devoted – IS THEMSELVES!

How many times does the word DECEIVE show up in James? He says,

Don’t BE…in regard to where good and perfect gifts come from
You ARE….if you are not a doer
You ARE…if you can’t even control what comes out your mouth.

Heb 7:19, tells us that through Christ as our High Priest

“there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we DRAW NEAR to God.”

Here the writer introduces HOPE as a means of drawing near.

What is HOPE? A favorable expectation. Something you look forward to – DESIRE!

Heb 10:19-25,

“(19) Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, (20) by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, (21) and having a High Priest over the house of God, (22) let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (23) Let us hold fast the confession of our HOPE without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (24) And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, (25) not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

So, if forgetting causes us to be drawn away…what causes us to forget? Visions of Self!

Remember we in our TOTAL self we have an INNER and an OUTER life and they are AT WAR with each other!

Last week I showed you the comparison chart between how God works and the devil works.

But our flesh has both an INTERNAL and an EXTERNAL influence towards evil.

While the devil IS external – our fleshly desires are INTERNAL to our Bodies!

So we have desires from within and satan attempting to stir our attention and allegiance towards those desires from without.

These are aggravated by…

Now the “veil” I mentioned last week, when I said,

“The child of God was intended to press on beyond the veil into God’s presence and live our whole lives there.”

That veil IS the flesh!

In the Old Testament that veil was represented by an actual physical veil which was torn when Jesus cried with a loud voice from the cross – Teleo (it is finished)

Let’s read the accounts in Mark and John…beginning in John…

John 19:28-30,

“(28) After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” (29) Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. (30) So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”

Mark 15:34-38,

“(34) And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (35) Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” (36) Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.” (37) And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. (38) Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Heb. 10:19-22,

“(19) Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, (20) by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, (21) and having a High Priest over the house of God, (22) let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Heb. 6:16-20,

“(16) For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. (17) Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, (18) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. (19) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, (20) where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

So the veil is the flesh.

I use this by permission because even though the scriptures do not specifically link the flesh of fallen man as the veil between them and God, it IS clear represented as the means by which His face is veiled or obscured from our vision.

Visions of Self – The flesh is the veil that was torn and the one we erect.

We will pick up here next week…Blessings!

I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will be mentioned.

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Blessings!

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!