Entering the Holy of Holies (Part 2)

Now then, here is the tree of life, and man is now sinful and dirty. Man is now really a mess, right? He is really a mess. Does God dare have him eat that tree? Brothers, if he had eaten that tree that day, he would have lived forever the way he was. Would you have wanted to live forever the way you were when you were lost? I believe that could have been worse than hell, could it not? To live forever on this earth the way you were without Christ.

So the Lord has to do something to keep man from getting to that life, right? So God puts a cherub. He puts cherubim there, and the cherubim have a sword of judgment. You just try getting in there. The way to the tree of life is closed. Now man has no way to eat it. It was physically there to be physically obtainable; nobody will ever eat it that way again. The cherubim’s judgment is there. I don’t even know if I need to say anymore.

Do you see the picture? Deep inside the tabernacle is the ark. Right over it are the cherubim, and they’re just waiting for you to try to come and obtain that ark. You can’t get there…and don’t you try. They are called the cherubim of glory. Why are they called the cherubim of glory? Alright, let me define glory. Glory is God manifested. Anytime God manifests Himself, that is glory. When God reveals Himself, that is glory. John, if you read it carefully, shows us that Jesus Christ is the glory of God. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  All have come short of the manifestation and revelation of God.

The Ten Commandments are right up there in the ark. Look at them and read them. I’ve fallen short of God; I sure haven’t come up to that, but now God expresses Himself…and oh, what glory. I fell short not only of the Ten Commandments, but also of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They reveal the glory of God. I have fallen short of Christ, too.

Here are the cherubim of glory. They are protecting. They stand there, preventing anyone from coming in. Are you already kind of scared? The ark, the glory of God, is in there, which is Christ, and there are two cherubim there.

I’ve already told you we have to go to the altar. We have to go to the laver. And there’s one other big obstacle before we can get in there. According to the Book of Hebrews, something prevents us from getting in: the veil. The veil keeps us out. And what is the veil? Hebrews tells us what the veil is. Did the veil get rent in two? When did it get rent in two? And it just rent, right? From top to bottom, all the way. He rent the veil in two. Now then, He did it by His what? He did it by His what? By His flesh. By His flesh, being broken. Deep inside of Him is the Father. Really, I would say the Christ is inside that flesh; would you not agree? You know, this isn’t Gene Edwards. I’m really inside of me. This is just the pot that holds me; it’s my flesh. Inside of me is Gene Edwards, and praise the Lord, inside of Gene Edwards is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Walking around on this earth was a flesh…a human flesh. Inside of it, you might say, was the personality of Christ, and in Christ was God the Father. The first time such a situation ever occurred was with a Tree. The tree was there; you could eat it and take it in, but now it has been utterly closed off and is guarded by the cherubim, right? They had a sword. That veil there is what keeps us from coming in. We cannot get in. Now then, when Christ’s flesh is ripped open and divided, what comes out? Yes, the glory and the Spirit. The tree is made available again, only this time it isn’t a tree with fruit on it; it is the Spirit. The flesh has got to be ripped open. Now, this is true, but I want to turn around to you and say, in the same way, your self-life has to be torn apart too to get in there. It’s got to go—the self-life.

I’m not gonna spend a lot of time here, but I’m gonna give you a couple examples. There are the outward – a contentious spirit. I’m just going to argue with Brother Mike here because we disagree about something. No, we argue. Someone said, and I appreciated it, and I passed it on to you. You tell me how much a brother argues, and I can tell you how much he’s in the spirit, and how much he’s in the manifestation of this self. So outwardly, brothers, to pass to you, one thing is we have to keep losing, and the other guy has to keep winning. We have to lose, and the Lord has to win.

Alright, there is just this outward display; the outward things, the outward. These are the things we were talking about this morning. Anger, wrath, arguing, contentious; we have to turn away from these things. They have to be torn apart. But I would also like to say that within each of us, there is an opposite of boldness. There is an opposite of boldness. How do you come into the throne of God? There is only one way to get there, and that is “holy”. Do you realize that it is something of your self-nature that isn’t bold? I have been watching Christians for years, and just ordinary people and those who hold back get admired. We always seem to admire timid people. They’re never in trouble. My dear sweet wife, bless her heart. We’ve been through so many storms; you wouldn’t believe how they started. In all my life, she never makes an enemy. Someday I’ll tell you a story about what happened to me in the first church I pastored. This man said to me one day, “Gene, the only reason we’re putting up with you is that we love your wife.” Timid folks don’t ever get in trouble, but I’m going to say this too: they rarely ever get into the Holy of Holies either. All of us have got to go in. Boldly; very boldly. Something about your non-bold flesh, your self-life, has got to be torn apart, or you’ll spend the rest of your life floating around in the Holy Place. There has got to come that moment when you cast off your restraint, your fear, your timidity, your feeling of unworthiness. I think I know, not that it matters that I know because the Lord knows, but I think I know what it means to be really bottled up inside. I’m an expressive person, but when I was a child, at a time in my family’s life when I was left completely alone throughout my entire teenage life, I lived alone. My mama left home. Did your mama ever leave you? My daddy left me. How would you have felt? Would you have felt very loved? I didn’t feel loved. Well, it had nothing to do with me, but I read it that way. Are you understanding what I’m saying? I felt unworthy; I felt unloved. We all feel that way, but some of us are very closed up toward God. We don’t dare go boldly into the Holy of Holies. You have to deal with this in your self-life.

I want you to look and see the what and the how. Boldly. Look at the situation. Here are the cherubim up on the mercy seat, the cherubim of glory, and he’s looking over the ark, and what does he see as he looks down? He sees the Father. The glory. He looks down and sees the Father, and you would dare come in and lay hold of him? You dare come into the presence of the very divine Life of God the Father, and lay hold of it? The cherubim stand there, looking down at the Father. The cherubim of Glory with His Judgment prevent anyone from coming to this. He’s also looking at the door, just daring you to try to get through the east door of Eden.

Who can dare go in there? Just look at that closed curtain. What’s on the other side? Divine Life, that’s what’s on the other side. Can’t I go in? Before I do, I have some things to tend to.

Let us be at the business of attending to them, and then let us come. There’s only one way to get through that door, and it’s boldly. But how are you gonna get past this cherubim? He’s looking at the door; he’s daring you to come in, and he’s looking at the Father. You cannot possibly come up to the standard of the Father.