Dr. Ed Young - How to be Holy

TOPICS: Holiness

We have the idea-well, I can go and pray to God anytime. Oh, He’s omnipresent; He is. But you and I can’t pray anytime because I am unclean and you’re unclean. We go to God, and God is holy, and God will listen only to people who are holy. So you say, «Boy, He’ll never listen to me.» Let me tell you how holiness comes to every single one of us. Here we go right back to the ark-the reason God would come to the ark and withdraw from the ark, and use power in the ark, and there was glory in the ark, and He would speak through the ark, because the ark tells us exactly how we get right with God.

What happened once a year? The high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, the women’s court, the Gentiles in the temple, the holy place, then the Holy of Holies, and there was the ark. Remember what was in the ark? The Ten Commandments. What was on top of the ark? The two cherubim. What was between them? The mercy seat. What did the priest have to do when he went into the holy place? He couldn’t go in on any of himself; he was not holy. But he went in with a blood sacrifice, and the blood was put on the mercy seat. Why? Why is this some antique, old, ancient riddle and ritual?

Oh no, you see, the commandments were there. The Ten Commandments were there, and when we go before God, there’s always that covenant- the Ark of the Covenant. There are those commandments, and every one of us here has broken every single one of those commandments. If you doubt that, we’ll debate after church. Every one of us has broken every one of the commandments.

So we go to God, and we know there is the covenant that we’ve broken; therefore, there has to be the blood that covers that covenant so we can do business with God. So the mercy seat is always involved, and so we go as holy. You and I, we’re holy when we’ve been there and the blood of Jesus Christ has been applied. You’re holy, and I’m holy, and God can deal with us, and we can deal with God. He can come near to us, and we come near to Him, and then His power begins to flow in our lives because His power is always connected with His presence.