Pastor Stan Mons + Membership Service
Sermon Transcription:
I want to pray with you one more time before we go into the Word today. Father, I thank you that you have given us access to Your heart, that You have given the Spirit of Christ to dwell in our hearts and to make known to us the things we could never understand, Lord God. Without You, Lord, the things we could never receive, Lord God, without the blood of Jesus Christ, and the things we could never give out, Lord, without the power of Your Spirit present in our life. Lord, there’s no glory we can ever take for ourselves, Lord God, there’s no understanding we have given ourselves, no revelation, Lord God, we have collected by our words. There is nothing, Heavenly Father, that we ever received that was not freely given by You, Lord God.
I thank You, Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ came to bring us into Your court, to bring us in as family, to make us children of the Living God, even though we behaved as enemies. Lord Jesus, You have done something so loving, so kind, so definite. Lord, would You open our eyes today? Holy Spirit, would You touch every person online and every person here? Would You reveal, would You teach, would You open eyes, Lord, so that we all may say, "Lord God, once I was blind, I remember what it was like, and then Jesus Christ opened my eyes."
Father, I pray that You may do the desire that is in Your heart. Father, I ask, as the hindrances come up in our hearts and minds, that we may have repentant hearts to allow Your Holy Spirit to do in our lives what You so desire to bring to pass today, Lord God. Lord, help us to follow You in all things. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Thank you, worship team. Let’s give the Lord one more hand clap. Amen. He blesses us beyond what I’ll ever be able to explain to you. Amen.
The Lord has seen it fit to give me a series for you. I never liked series, and then the Lord started giving them to me, so I had to get with the program. But the Lord, so far, has already given me three words, all on the topic of seeing the Word. So far today, the title for the word the Lord has given is "Once I Was Blind." Then next week, we hope to speak on the word "Receiving Vision," and the week after, "Now I See." Now, I’m not going to tell you that it’s going to stay just three, because usually when I tell you ahead of time how the Lord is going to do things, I’m wrong. But so far, I know it’s going to be at least a three-part series on seeing the Word.
Today: "Once I Was Blind." This is a word for people online and those here in person who are experiencing the desire of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and minds. You may not know that it is the Spirit of God giving you these desires, but nonetheless, you are experiencing them. You would like to understand the Bible better. You would like to get to know Jesus. If it is possible to know His voice, you would like very much to know His voice personally in your own walk with Him. If it is possible to open the Word and see the Holy Spirit, in that moment, make the Word come alive and explain it to you, you would really like that. That is when you are actually experiencing the desires of Christ, and He’s sharing them with you, helping you understand what He would like for your life. The Word tells us no one seeks God, not even one. Those are not your desires; God is giving them to you, awakening them in your heart, trying to help you understand what He would like to give you, so that at the moment you come face to face with the opportunity to trade something in—really, that’s what it comes down to.
When we repent, the word literally means to turn, which means you always turn away from something. In this case, in repentance in the kingdom of God, we are always turning to Jesus—more of Him, less of me; more of Him, less of the world; more of Him, less of my strength. When the Holy Spirit begins to give you desires that really belong to Jesus, He would love for you to see the things that He wants to show you. He would love for you to understand the things He wants to give to you. When you begin to realize God is showing you His desire, His will for your life, you can expect some things to show up in your life that you'll have an opportunity to trade in, so that there's more room for you to receive the very will of God into your life, upon your mind, upon your heart, upon your family, and upon your house. That is the person this word is for.
If you experience that today, then the Lord desires to give you a miracle—something only God could have done. That's what He wants you to receive today in this service: something only God could have changed, something only God could have poured into the heart, something only God could have opened up to your mind—a God-story for your journey. He will do that if you simply, wholeheartedly respond to Him. There's going to be a time of altar call at the end of this service where we will pray together for the very thing that God is doing in your heart today. Whether you are online and far away or here in the service, if you wholeheartedly respond, that means you are making room in your heart for the thing God wants to do today. If you do that, God will show up and bring His will to pass. He's already showing you what He desires over your life. Amen, amen.
Just yesterday, I was worshiping and talking to the Lord about something. At the end of that talk, I said, "Lord, but what is Your message? What is Your message to this generation?" And the Holy Spirit whispered so clearly, the Spirit of Christ saying, "I'm coming soon." That's His message to our generation: "I'm coming soon." Such hope, such expectancy, such excitement to finally meet Him face to face, but also a call to become ready, to stay ready, to become prepared. As that time draws near, the more important it becomes that you and I so clearly see Him with the eyes of our heart in every decision we make throughout the day. To see Him with the eyes of our heart so clearly that, in light of His coming, in light of who He is, in light of what He has promised, in light of His very presence that dwells upon my life, I'll know what to do. The right decision will all of a sudden make sense when the soon coming of the Lord and His presence in my today is so tangible. It will be so much easier to make the right decisions with our time, with our resources, and with our very life.
But the more that time draws near, the clearer we need to see Him. We need to see Him in our neighbor so that we can invest in, support, and speak to Jesus in their life—not all the other things in their life. Seeing Jesus everywhere you look, seeing Jesus in the Word every time you open it—whether you're reading in the Old Testament or the New Testament, one verse or three chapters—every time you close this book, by the Spirit of God, you've seen something. Something was poured into your heart, something was given to you that makes you so giving to other people and excited to tell them about the very things that God is pouring into your life. It is my prayer—it has been my prayer—that this morning, every single person in the reach of my voice, or when you listen back online, that you may say with all of us, "I'm seeing. I'm beholding with unveiled face. My eyes have been opened to the glory of the Lord."
God wants to open eyes, and He wants to remove barriers today. That’s what God wants to do. The question is, do you desire God’s will today for your life? Do you want your eyes to be more open? Do you want this Word to be open to you? Now, I understand you may have completely gotten out of the Word of God. I understand very well if you say, “This book is closed up to me.” There’s nothing more discouraging than opening this book when you don’t know the Author. There’s nothing more discouraging—it’s locked up, closed off, and we’ll see that in this Word. But when our eyes are opened and we can say, "Once I was blind, but no more," then every day is a new day. It’s never the same day; it is a new day with the Lord. New things are being born in the Spirit, new things are being born in your heart, and new things are being given to you. That is what the Lord portrayed in everything He did.
I’m very excited to go into the Word in the coming weeks and to help you see. I’m allowed to do that—to help you see Jesus, especially in the Old Testament. There’s not a story, there’s not an account you can pick from the Old Testament that does not directly point to Jesus. That may be hard to believe or understand today, but the Spirit will begin to take you on a journey, and He’ll begin to show you things He’s never shown me yet, things you’ve never heard from anyone. He’ll take you into this Word and begin to show Jesus to you. Not because you have to preach, not because you teach Sunday school, not because you have to share from a platform, but because you came to Him believing that because of the Cross, there is a way for you to receive from God now. He will walk with you, and He’ll do relationship with you in a way that makes you feel like there’s no one else to Him in the world. He’ll make you feel like you’re the only one to Him. He has a way of doing that with each and every single one of us.
But that’s been my prayer—that your eyes may be so open and that you may declare in your heart, or out loud, “I can see now. Something was taken off my eyes.” The Word tells us when Paul actually began to see Christ with his heart, something like scales fell off his eyes. All this time, he had believed in God. He had believed the Messiah would come. He had believed that God was going to send the answer to every single problem. He believed God could heal; he believed in the God of miracles. He believed all these things, but he did not believe that Jesus had already been sent, that he was already forgiven for all his sins because of the sacrifice of this humble Jesus. That he did not believe, and so he was kept out. Then Jesus appears to him. He begins his journey, he’s prayed for, and something like scales fell off his eyes. I want to take you on this journey of seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. As I get excited, I may share more than I should, getting ahead of myself. But seeing Jesus in the Old Testament—just not too long ago, we looked at the story of David and Goliath. I’ve heard this story explained many different ways, but very often, David is the example to us. David is someone we should take lessons from.
In this story of David and Goliath, David came into this journey by faith, received instruction from the Lord, and was able to see deliverance from this enemy of the people of God. But we came to find out that really, David is a picture pointing forward to Jesus. We’re not anything like David, nor will we probably ever be. We are the cowering army that had no boldness, no courage—nothing to do about this giant that was defying the armies of the Living God. We, the people of God, are the cowering army in the back, and Jesus steps in front of us, fights our battle, and takes out the enemy. All of a sudden, everybody in the cowering army partakes in the spoil of a battle they never fought, partakes in a victory they never won themselves. Jesus Christ is revealed in that story, explaining to us today that in every situation, it’s okay if we don’t know what to do as long as we get behind Jesus and don’t try to fix it ourselves, but let Him take on our battle.
We see Jesus in the Old Testament everywhere. We spoke of the fall in the Garden of Eden and saw Jesus’s story begin to be explained by the Father even then. Adam and Eve tried to collect some fig leaves and put some work together to cover up their nakedness and mistakes. But God wipes it all away, bringing to nothing the work Adam and Eve had done. The Lord makes them tunics, clothing of skin. In other words, the Lord brought a sacrifice already then to cover the very consequences of sin—sin that Adam and Eve now had to deal with—pointing forward to the Savior, the Messiah, who would be sent to cover our nakedness, the very consequences of sin, and to make us presentable again in the presence of our Father. He draws us out of the hiding place, where shame no longer touches us, where the guilt of sin no longer pushes us away. In the fig leaves that we just grab together, trying to cover something—no, no, God does something. He does a work, He brings a sacrifice, He puts in His own work, and then freely gives it to us so that we become covered. Jesus in the Old Testament.
I want to read to you about the blindness that at one point in life, or maybe still today, every single one of us has experienced. That’s not a rebuke. This is all opportunity today for you. Amen? 2 Corinthians chapter 3, starting in verse 7. We’re going to read verses 7 to 14.
Starting in verse 7, 2 Corinthians chapter 3: "But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones"—that is referring to the Ten Commandments, we’re going to go there in just a moment—"if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious" (the Word says the law is good; it was a glorious ministry) "so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory."
"For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect or in this way, because of the glory that excels." What that means is that there was a glory to the law; there was a glory to what came from Heaven. But then when God gave something much more glorious, it was as if the former doesn’t shine bright at all anymore—that’s what the Word is saying. "For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains, or what stays with us, is much more glorious."
"Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, that same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ."
You see, there’s such a reality to every single person that has ever been alive—believer in God or not, calling themselves a Christian or not. Being alive means you are either under what we call the old covenant, the old agreement that God gave to Moses with commands: “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not,” or you have come under a new covenant. The Word tells us that the Father said to Jesus, “I give You now as a covenant to the people.” Anytime you are alive, you are either under the old covenant, the covenant of “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not,” realizing that never, ever can we perfectly live a life every day of our life measuring up to that standard, or you are coming to God through a new covenant—through Jesus Christ, a person, not a command. But when you are under that old covenant, you are able to see the law, you are able to see some things that came from Heaven.
If you are under that old covenant, that doesn’t mean you’re wrong in everything. You’re seeing things that came from Heaven; you’re understanding in part the things of God. You may believe in Him with all your heart, but you’re seeing the law, and you can’t get away from it. It's seeing you. You’re still alive to it. You can feel the law—you still feel guilt, you still feel shame, you still feel the need to hide some stuff, just like Adam and Eve with their fig leaves. You don’t feel like God has done something that covered you so perfectly that you can come out into the light, with nothing hidden. God did it all—that still hasn’t happened when you are seeing only the law. But you are blinded to the greater glory. When we cannot see that greater glory and this glory of the law is all we can see, it cannot pass away. That’s what the Word says: Only when we see that greater glory is the law ready to pass away. When you’re seeing the law and you’re blind to the greater glory, you cannot let the law go. It feels like you are rejecting God when you let that law go. It feels like you are blaspheming His holy name if you let that law go. It feels like you will lose the very tiny little bit of covering you had with all those fig leaves—all the “Thou shalts,” all the things you picked up to do to show God, "God, I’m so sorry, I’m trying."
When you let that go, it feels like everything will fall apart. All of your nakedness will be exposed. All of your sin will go wild in your life. You will lose all control. But when you are still seeing the law, and not the greater glory, the Word says there is a blindness on the mind. A veil remains. Symbolically, again, we see this throughout the entire Word of God. I pray to God that your mind will be able to see what that veil represents. The Word says it, but I pray that you may be able to receive it and see it in the spirit—seeing the law. Just yesterday, my wife spoke to me, and she said, "Stan, you have to remember: Your mentors have always said it. Every person that has ever had influence—our bishops have always said it: You have a special gift. You can almost pick any verse, and you just see the new covenant. That’s not normal. Not everybody has to live that way."
I said, "That’s true, that’s true." But that’s the point of what Jesus is trying to explain to us when He uses a parable—in this case, about blindness or having eyes. We have to pay close attention to the parable in order to understand what He means. A parable means to throw alongside. Think of a bowling ball—it means to throw alongside. “Parabolas,” “Paracletus,” means Holy Spirit—He comes to walk alongside. “Parabolas” means to throw alongside. Jesus is throwing a truth alongside something that He wants you to understand, and because He throws that little truth alongside it, it makes it easier for us to get the point. He’s talking about blindness and seeing. When you are physically blind, you don’t see anything—you can hear it, but you can’t see it. When you are physically able to see, you can see some things, but you can’t see everything. You’re not all-seeing, you’re not everywhere at all times, and you can’t see behind you. Spiritually, it is the same when God gives you eyes.
That doesn't mean you see everything. That doesn't mean you have perfect revelation from Genesis to Revelation. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need anyone else in your life anymore. But if you once were blind, then you sure know when now you can see some things. Amen? Amen. Amen. I remember what it was like, church. I only got saved later in my life, having gone to church my entire life, believed in God my entire life, but I was blind to the Word. I remember so clearly what it was like to, once a year, maybe come to a point—usually after a youth camp or some experience like that—where I was going to start reading my Bible.
I would open that Word, and if I read a couple of verses, maybe a handful, that took some effort. Sometimes I would read the same few verses three times. I remember the overwhelming feelings; I remember the discouragement. I remember what it felt like to close that Word and feel like I read it alone, all by myself, without a Helper present. I remember what it was like to close that Word, put it somewhere by my bed (that’s usually where I kept it), and then, two weeks later, notice that Bible and realize, "Well, that didn’t work." I would remember that I was going to read it, and that was the life I lived. I always was "going to," but it seemed to never really come to pass. It was the blindness that caused the discouragement; it was the blindness that caused the retreat out of the Word, pulling back from it. I remember what it was like to see other people read their Bible. Nothing could be more condemning to me. It always pointed out what I wasn’t doing or what I wasn’t able to do—all the more reason to pick up some fig leaves and hide those areas of my life I felt were unpresentable.
So, let’s go to the story that Paul is referring to in the Old Testament—the story where Moses covers his face. Let’s go to Exodus 34, starting in verse 29. We’re going to read verses 29 to 35.
Exodus 34, starting in verse 29: I’ll give you some intro to this. The people had been there for a long time. First, when they came to this mountain, Mount Sinai, they stayed a little bit away from it at first, but they were by that mountain for a while. When Moses went up the mountain, he stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights. This was the time when, so famously, Moses was sent down by the Lord because they heard singing, and Moses said, “This isn’t singing; this isn’t the sound of war or grief. I hear singing.” As Moses approached the tents, he saw they had made a golden calf—they had already made an idol and erected another god, worshiping this idol that they had fashioned by the hands of man. Moses was so upset that he shattered the Ten Commandments, dealt with the people, ground the idol to dust, and made them drink it in the water. He was quite upset. That’s been a while now. We’ve moved on from that. Moses went up the mountain again, and after moving further as the people of God, he was there for 40 days and 40 nights again. At the very least, we’ve been here more than two months, sitting at the foot of this mountain.
Now we pick up at verse 29: "Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So, when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out, and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with Him." Here we have, again, a pointing forward to the Christ who would come. Moses, after 40 days and 40 nights, comes out of a wild place, out of a wilderness, off this mountain, and returns to where the people of God were dwelling. After 40 days and 40 nights of Moses being away, not having any food or drink, the Word tells us that a measure of the glory of Heaven came into the lives of the people.
But his face was veiled—to cover the greater glory, if you will, from the people. The people were able to receive some things from Heaven—they were able to receive the law—but that glory, which was too much for them to look at, caused them to keep a little distance. Then we read of Jesus, who also goes into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. He comes out of that place and begins a ministry that brings a greater glory upon your life, making you right with God, bringing you into His presence, into the courts of Heaven, and close to Jesus. He brings you to a place where now that old glory that did come from Heaven, that was holy and good, is ready to pass away because God gave something even greater over your life.
All this time, the Lord has been trying to help us understand and see: Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. This is what I intend for you. This is what I want to give to you. I desire to open your eyes so that you can see as I see—in measure, on this side of eternity, absolutely—but seeing nonetheless.
Let me take you again to verse 14 of 2 Corinthians, chapter 3: "But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil—that veil that Moses put on to protect the people from seeing just a first glimpse of the reflection of that glory—remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ." Think of it, whether you're with us online or here in the building. Think of it for a moment. When you read the Old Testament, do you experience, feel, or see that it has been opened up? We hear it so often: "Oh, I only read the New Testament. The Old Testament is just... it may as well be a different language to me. I can't see it; I can't understand it. It's not opened up to me. I don’t see Jesus. I don’t see it. I don’t understand it. I feel like I'm reading it all by myself." When you read the Old Testament, do you see Jesus? Do you see the cross? Maybe not everywhere, all the time, but do you see it at all? Have your eyes been opened? Has the veil been lifted? Has God shown you what He is doing, what He has done, and what He will be doing through Jesus Christ? Or is your mind still blind to it?
If the veil today remains unlifted in your life, Jesus wants to take it away and open your eyes today. And when that veil is taken away, church, all of a sudden you see—as if your eyes have always been closed. You'll know the difference. When your eyes are opened, you'll know the difference. You never realized there was a curtain literally hanging in front of your face.
See, there are a lot of people who believe a lot of things about Jesus, just like these Israelites did. They were expecting the Messiah. They believed that one day they could be forgiven because of the Messiah. But they did not believe that Jesus had already been given. They did not believe that the miracle had already happened, fully upon their lives. They couldn't see it. It was still veiled. They were expecting it, but they were veiled from seeing that God had already brought that greater glory into their lives.
But when the veil is removed, we see, church. Moses' face radiating wasn't because of the law. The people were able to receive the law, to try and keep the law, to live with the law. But the greater glory of friendship with God that Moses had, the communion with God, the relationship with Him, knowing Him, knowing His voice—that was something they couldn’t enter into. The glory was too great, and so a veil shielded them. It shields you, and you end up living with the law but not being able to see that greater glory. As I said before, unless you're able to see that greater glory that God has sent from heaven—His only begotten Son—that we may come to the Father now through Christ and no longer through the law, you'll always see, when coming through the law, that you are not good enough, rejected.
You know, the Word says if you break one of the laws in your life, for the rest of your life, God views you as if you've broken every single one of them. Every time you come to Him, if every day of your life you live a perfect life except for one day—one little white lie—for the rest of your life, God looks at you as a lying, cheating, murdering, prostituting sinner. And you will feel it if you live with the law. Every time you open the Word, there are reasons why God will not speak to you. You feel them, you think them, the enemy accuses you, and it all seems to make sense, what he is saying. When you pray, it is a lonely thing, a closed-off thing. You don’t have testimonies often of the Lord just answering your prayers or giving you the desires of your heart. It is a dead relationship. It is a relationship of stone. It is a relationship of law.
But in Jesus Christ, the Word tells us the veil is taken away. That is your position today. If there is any veil at all remaining in your life, any blindness at all remaining in your life, you qualify for the ministry of Jesus Christ today, who takes the veil away for you and begins to show you what God will do: how God responded to sin in the garden, how God responds to sin in your life, how God responds when people complain in front of the Red Sea, and He sends the staff made out of wood ahead of them in order to make a way where there is no way—a reference to the cross of Jesus Christ once more. When we complain, when we don’t know, when we do all things wrong, God still sends the cross ahead of every mistake to make the impossible possible over your life. But until the veil is taken away, you can’t rejoice in these things. You know them as truth, you may even say "Amen" to them, but for you in your life, it’s as if it has not happened yet. It’s as if the mind is blind to it in your life. You believe this is possible for all people, but you’re still awaiting it—not sure when it may happen in your own life.
In Christ Jesus, the veil is taken away. We read another mention of that veil again—that veil. I can make this service very, very long. That veil is also such a reference. I told you in the beginning we’re going to look at it. That veil showed up first in heaven. That’s what the Word tells us—that Moses received revelation, which was a shadow of heavenly things. He received the revelation of how the tabernacle should be built, the reflection, the shadow of heavenly things, and he was told that there needed to be a veil in that tabernacle that separates the people from the holiest place where God dwells. Later, in the temple, that same veil shows up. Moses, coming from the mountain, shows that same veil—not able to even look at what it is like to be in the presence of God, not having a part of what it is like to be in the presence of God.
Let me take you to Matthew 27, verse 50, and the first part of verse 51: "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." This is where we see the revelation of that veil coming to pass. Another place in the New Testament tells us the body of Christ was the veil. This is the very body of Christ that was in heaven, already foreshadowed in the Tabernacle, that the Son of God would receive a body of flesh, that He would come and dwell in and walk among us. That body would be broken, that body would take the beating, that body would carry the sins, that body would be buffeted, rejected, and nailed on a cross—torn to pieces.
That veil had already, all along, been shown from heaven—on Moses' face, in the Tabernacle, in the temple. All these generations, it was a constant story: God trying to explain, "I have a plan for sin. I have a plan for the separation that is between us." And then, when Jesus died on the cross, Him being the Son of Heaven, the things on earth had to follow. Remember, the things on earth—the veil—is just symbolic. It is a reflection of the things in heaven; that's what God told Moses. So, when Jesus' body was broken, the veil was broken. And when Jesus' body was broken, all of a sudden, a way was made into the presence of God. The people panicked when they saw the veil torn in the temple, the holiest exposed—the place that people were terrified of, exposed. People didn’t dare go in there; they would die in the presence of the Lord. And Jesus comes into this world, and His body is torn for our sins, and the veil is torn in the temple, symbolically again, pointing towards what has happened in heaven—access for you and me into the presence of God at any moment, at any time.
You had to be perfectly cleansed in order to go into the holiest of holies. If you were not perfectly cleansed, you would fall over and die. They were so afraid of that, they put a rope around the waist of the high priest when he would go in. He had gone through all the ritual cleansing that all pointed forward to what Christ was going to do by pouring His blood over our lives. They would go through all the rituals, trying to do it all to perfection, and then they would go into the holiest of holies once a year to sprinkle some blood on the mercy seat—but not without a rope around their waist. And here, Jesus comes on the scene and tears that veil by giving Himself as a ransom for many, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life and not perish. You see what the Lord is saying? "I’ve perfectly cleansed every person that comes to me. There’s no veil anymore shielding you from what I’m willing to do, from what I’m willing to bring into your life." But when the veil is taken away, like Jesus showed He is so willing to do in the temple, you’ve got to understand, Church: when God says things, He says them for your understanding. He calls your body the temple of the Holy Spirit, and He seeks to take that veil out of that temple by the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is sin that caused the veil to be necessary, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, He seeks to always take the veil out of the temple. And when that veil is taken away, when the eyes have been opened, you begin to see for yourself: God has made a way for me to know Him, a way for me to begin to hear His very voice, a way for me to know His presence. A way for me to just know Him on every page that I open. He’s going to explain it to me, He’s going to meet me in the Word, He’s going to show me the Old Testament, He’s going to teach me that all along, every story, He had it written down, every page designed for me to see more of Jesus. Everything God ever did, He did for you to see Jesus, to give you divine vision. The Tabernacle, the temple, the Old Testament, the New Testament—all things God ever did was for you to see Jesus, that you may know the intentions of the Father’s heart, that He has loved you, that He has desired forgiveness for you, that He has desired your very presence and relationship. Even though you could not keep the law of lesser glory, He sent a higher glory to overrule the glory that was once sent—the glory of the law that could not bring you before the Father perfectly cleansed. God the Father loves you so much that He "cheated" the system and just made a way where there was no way. There’s one way, and His name is Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father but through Him.
If you would stand with me for a moment this morning, Church: the veil is taken away in Christ Jesus. Here’s your altar call, whether you are online or with us here in person: "Lord, I still experience the veil. I still experience it, and I have no hope outside of You removing it. Jesus Christ, save me from my blindness." If that is you today, I want to invite you to come up front, and we will pray together and receive from the Lord what He so desires to give you. If that is you online, I want to invite you to join us, to pray with us, and share with us what God is doing in your life. We’d love to give thanks with you. If that is you—"Lord, I still experience some of that veil. Save me from my blindness"—would you come, and let's pray? Hallelujah, hallelujah.
-Pastor Stan Mons