Access Denied

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Hello to those of you who are listening to this first tape in our October series. Through a misadventure which has never happened before actually to us, we weren’t able to get a recording of the talk that I gave in the church on the Tuesday and so I’m repeating that talk to you now on this tape. So inevitably this may sound a little bit different from the ordinary Tuesdays when there’s a big congregation in front of me. And I’m speaking to them. However, I’m very much aware of you and it may be that actually more people listen to me through these tapes than listen here on a Tuesday during the lunch hour.

Now I started the October series, which is on the word access, by saying that I was a little alarmed when preachers announced that they were going to try to put the Christian gospel in a nutshell, as though it could be made as simple as that. The feeling one sometimes has is that the gospel they’re then going to preach is not much bigger than a nut. However, though I realise that danger of trying to simplify things too much, I am going to try to present the essential Christian gospel during this month of October in one word, and that word is the word access, which has been on our posters for the last few weeks. In English, I don’t think we have used this word access very much unless we happen to be building a house and we’re anxious that the builder should see if we had access for our car or whatever it might be. But of course the word has become famous in the last few years through the new credit card system.

This is the card issued by National Westminster and Lloyd’s in Midland, I think. And it was a brilliant stroke to entitle their card Access. I imagine that the advertisement men who were put to work to find the exact word had to work very hard to find just exactly the right word to give the impression that was needed. And this word access is just what they mean to say, that the card in your wallet will give you access to goods and services which would be otherwise out of reach. In other words, it brings you into touch with the otherwise unobtainable.

Now in Classical Greek, that’s very much the idea behind this word. Actually, it was used of getting a formal introduction into a royal presence, just as we would have to get an introduction if we were to be brought into the presence of the Queen today. So that then as now access means being brought near to someone or to something and in the Earl’s sense being brought near to someone through the introduction of another. Now with that very brief explanation it’s not difficult to see why the Apostle Paul in particular laid hold of this word access in order to explain the wonderful benefits of the Christian gospel and to put it in a word. And I’m going to read 3 verses from the New Testament now where this word is used because they rather perfectly express the wonderful fact that through our Lord Jesus Christ we can have access, we can have an introduction into the presence of God.

I don’t know whether you’ve got a Bible, those of you who are listening to this tape, but I’m going to assume that you haven’t got one near you, though if you have you can turn these verses up with me. But I’m going to start at Romans 5:1-2 where Paul says this. Romans 5:1-2: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. So through Christ and His reconciling work we’ve obtained access to this grace in which we stand.

The same thought comes in another very famous letter, that to the Ephesians, which is just a few pages on in the Bible. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18. And here Paul is wrestling with the great problem of the division between Jew and Gentile, and he’s rejoicing in the fact that in Christ Jew and Gentile have been brought together. And then he adds this thought, verse 18 of chapter 2 of Ephesians: Through him, that is through Christ, we both, that is Jew and Gentile, have access in one Spirit to the Father. That’s one of those rather splendid Trinitarian verses in the Bible.

Through the power of the Spirit we’ve been brought to the Father, through him, through Christ, we have access. And then over a page to chapter 3 and verse 12 in Ephesians, the same thought where according to the eternal purpose of God revealed in Christ, Paul says, in Christ we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. Through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we boldly can come into the presence of God and claim the right to be there, sinners though we may be.

Now that’s the meaning of the word then, access. That’s what we’re going to be talking about throughout the month of October. And what I planned to do was to spend the whole of the first Tuesday talk putting in the bad news and then the other 3 talks of the month the good news. So now we’re going to get— it may not seem a very pleasant thought, but now we’re going to deal with the bad news. I do this because you can’t really appreciate the good news without the bad news.

Just as the jeweller puts a black velvet cloth on his desk before he puts the jewel on top of it to make it shine all the more, It isn’t really until you have realised your need of access and the fact that you can’t get it on your own, in your own strength, that you begin to be glad for the gospel and the beauty of it. I feel this quite strongly really after our second talk on Tuesday which I gave just a couple of days ago when I was talking to a very respectable nice man who’d come for the first time and he thanked me in a kind of formal and slightly unenthusiastic way for my talk. And it was evident to me as I talked to him that he hadn’t begun to understand the good news because it hadn’t occurred to him that he didn’t have access into God’s presence. I imagine he was a person who went to church occasionally and took it for granted that he had access and therefore all that I was preaching was really water off a duck’s back. He hadn’t grasped the bad news so he didn’t welcome the good news.

Now here’s the bad news about access.

First, evidently mankind doesn’t have it. We don’t by nature have access into God’s presence and we know that if we think about it for a moment. I have time in a lunch hour service of course to only, to give only very few examples of a thing like this so let me take one and that is the example of prayer. Now I guess that there is nobody listening to me on this tape who hasn’t at some time prayed. There may be, for all I know, agnostics and atheists who will pick up this tape and listen to it, but I’d be bold enough to guarantee that they’ve never— that they sometimes have prayed, that there never was a person who sometimes in his life hadn’t cried out to God.

And yet whether you’re a person who’s done it only very rarely or whether you’re a person who’s quite often tried to pray, I think most of us would have to say that prayer is a bit of a disappointment. We can’t say enthusiastically that our prayers bring us into God’s presence. Very often it seems as though we’re talking when there’s no answer at the other end of the telephone. It seems as though we’re knocking on the door and nobody is at home.

I happened to receive a form yesterday from a fairly large supermarket, which I imagine is sent out at random, asking me to say whether I agreed that their products are the best. And they had a little box which had the following 5 headings: strongly agree, agree, don’t know whether I agree or disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree. So you had the question, are our cornflakes better than any others? And you had to put your little tick in one of those 5 things. And as I looked at the questions and tried honestly to get an answer, I really didn’t know whether I agreed or disagreed.

The cornflakes seemed all very much the same. So I find myself ticking the middle column which says, don’t know whether I agree or don’t agree. In other words, I’m not a dissatisfied customer but I’m not a satisfied customer. I don’t really know if it’s worth it or not to shop in that particular place. And I think that’s what most people honestly would have to say about prayer, that they can’t strongly agree that prayer is one of the great things in their lives and they don’t want strongly to disagree because that seems rather irreligious.

They don’t really know what to say. Prayer is frankly a bit of a disappointment.

Of course, if the kind of religious instruction we’ve had is simply to be, to say our prayers, and we’ve never been told anything more than that, it will become a very frustrating thing never to get any further. I think of a woman who came up to me in St. Helens some years ago. She must have been a middle-aged woman, and she said to me something like this, I, I do wish you’d help me in my prayers. Because all I say when I go to bed at night is, God bless Mommy and Daddy, and as it happens they’ve both been dead for 10 years, so it all seems a bit meaningless. She was quite frank about it, that she hadn’t any idea what all this meant.

I was amazed that she still believed that prayer was at all important if that is all that it had meant to her, because of course that kind of praying, when we never seem to get an answer and it doesn’t mean anything very much, can easily lead us to a kind of vague agnosticism, that we’ve tried it and we didn’t get through.

I often think of the prophets of Baal. If you want to read their storey, you’ll find them in 1 Kings 18. You may remember the very dramatic account of how Elijah challenged them to a contest, and they were both going to call upon God to send down fire on their sacrifices, and then the God that answered would be the real God. And there’s a very vivid account of how the prophets of Baal danced around their altar all the morning and they cut themselves and blood ran out and they raved and shouted and Elijah became more and more and more sarcastic, saying that perhaps their god was deaf or he’d gone for a holiday or in transatlantic English he’d gone to the bathroom. Elijah was on pretty devastating form that day and it must have infuriated the prophets of Baal.

At any rate, They went on until the time of the evening sacrifice, and nothing happened. Now supposing you’d met one of the prophets of Baal in the shopping centre at Carmel the next day, which of course you wouldn’t have done because they very quickly came to a sticky end, but supposing you had, and you’d had a conversation with him about these things, I can’t help thinking that you’d have met at least one of them who would have said, well, I’ve given up this whole idea of God, Baal, because he didn’t answer. We can’t be there.

I wonder if you’ve ever asked that kind of question to a clergyman. I’m afraid sometimes the answer is a rather unsatisfactory one, that we must just go on persevering in prayer, or we’re not to worry about our feelings, or we’re to try to exercise more faith. And I don’t think those kind of answers really satisfy us. They’re not radical enough. And I want to give you a very radical answer today.

I want to tell you that the real reason why our prayers get no further than the ceiling and the real reason why it is all so unsatisfactory is given to us at the end of Genesis chapter 3 where we have that account of man’s rebellion against God and where man and the woman are thrown out of the garden and in very vivid language we read of God locking them out and sealing the door and refusing to allow them to come back. Now that actually is the basic fact and I never understand how people can get any true picture of the Christian faith without going back to those early chapters of Genesis where we see a God who made us and who gave us everything for our good, finds us rebels and because we’re rebels and disobey his law and won’t have his authority, he locks us out of the garden. And we are therefore by nature outside of Eden today, we’re not inside, that’s why we can’t pray. And as we cry out in the land outside Eden, as we try to find God, all we can hear actually is the echo of our own voices. And that’s the state of man by nature.

He just can’t get back into God’s presence, he can’t really make God hear. It’s all very unreal and far away. So my first point, the first point of the bad news, is that mankind evidently doesn’t have access into God’s presence, and all his experience underlines that.

The second thing I have to say is that mankind evidently can’t get it, however hard he tries.

I’m sure you have watched on television religious series that have been quite a number of major series. There was one called The Search for God recently, I think, or The Long Search. And the thing that comes out of these programmes at the end is the disappointment, the fact that there can be no guarantee that we shall find what we’re looking for, that the pot of gold is still at the end of the rainbow, and however near we get to the rainbow, it always seems to recede from us. I remember a very old series on television about 25 years ago led by Christopher Mayhew in which this point came out very clearly. And at the end of the whole series when Christopher Mayhew had interviewed leading religious experts all over the world, it must have cost a fortune for the BBC to send him, he said that none of them could really tell him that they had found God.

And I remember that he went on to say in the epilogue of the series that perhaps when we reach the moon we shall begin to find the answers. Well, that day has come and gone, hasn’t it? And it still hasn’t found the answer to unanswered prayer. Man can’t get into God’s presence by space trips or in any other way. Now the Bible simply takes it for granted that there’s no way in and that man cannot find a way in.

It doesn’t matter whether he’s first century man or 20th century man. None of the great powers that modern science has given us or education or technology None of these things can bring us into the presence of God. And what the New Testament is saying is that we are helpless, we simply are unable to get into his presence and that Jesus Christ is indispensable.

Looking back at those 3 classic verses that I’d like to remind you of because I think they’re well worth reading again after this tape is over, each of these verses makes it very plain that it is through Christ and therefore through him alone, that there is any chance of access. Chapter Roman— Romans chapter 5 verse 2 says, through him, through Christ, we have obtained access. Not, we have obtained access now at the end of time, as though a man has made a supreme effort and broken through the door, but through him we have obtained access. He’s had to do it.

In Ephesians chapter 18, chapter, I’m sorry, chapter 2, there are 18 chapters in Ephesians, chapter 2 verse 18, it’s the same thing. Through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access when we come to him. There’s no other way. The Jew can’t find his way to God’s presence today in the strength of the Jewish religion. He must come through Christ.

Chapter 3 verse 12: In whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. Not through our deeds, not through our doing, not through our works, not through our efforts. Through our faith in him we have access. So that Jesus Christ is, according to the New Testament, indispensable and that’s, this is why we preach him. There is no other way to get through.

I really mean it when I say Jesus is indispensable. Language is getting ruined for use today, isn’t it? Because words are overused and become threadbare. In some of the theological journals I read, the book reviews always finish by saying, this book is indispensable for the working minister. And I despair because I know that I can’t possibly read them all.

And I strongly suspect that they can’t be indispensable because very few of us manage to read them all, and yet we all still get go on. Now it’s an exaggeration, isn’t it, to say that all the new books are indispensable? The only thing that really proves the worth of a book in the end is time, I think. So when I say Christ is indispensable, I’m not using the word wrongly, just as an exaggerated word. I actually mean it.

Let me quote 2 other great verses in the New Testament that it’s impossible to avoid if we take seriously the testimony of Christ and the apostles. John chapter 14 verse 6 is one that’s very famous, it’s worth knowing by heart.

Jesus said to him, to Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life, or as you might put it, I am the true and living way. No man comes to the Father but by me. Notice the emphatic negative. No man comes to the Father but by me, and that means you and me. No man, not you nor I, no man can do it except through Christ.

And then another very famous verse in Acts 14 verse 12: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Notice the tremendously emphatic negatives. There’s no other name, There’s salvation in no one else.

Now I realise that to some people this sounds harsh and narrow-minded and bigoted and over-dogmatic, as though we are the only people that are right. But we Christians are not saying that. We are saying that Jesus Christ is the only way that is right, and when we point to him, we are not saying that he is the way for just a few people. We’re saying that the bridge he has built is wide enough for everybody, strong enough for everyone to cross, that he opens his arms to the whole world. He’s the Saviour of the whole world.

So there’s nothing narrow in this at all. We’re not shutting people away from the chance of salvation. We’re opening salvation to them by telling them the only bridge that crosses the river. So the second bit of bad news we must face is that man not only hasn’t got access to God but he evidently can’t get it. He can’t get it because God had to send Christ to get it for him.

And thirdly, and this really I suppose is the nub of the bad news where it really rubs rather hard, mankind has tried to get access and to make substitute imitation ways to God, to build his own bridges and to pretend that they reach to the other side. And I want to mention very briefly as I finish 3 ways that are false ways and I want sincerely to warn you about them because many people have been deceived down the history of the world and will continue to be because they don’t listen to the voice of Christ. First there’s the way of religion.

I’ve mentioned this already and I won’t go on with that. We have here, it’s an Helen’s, a very enthusiastic Christian called B.J. Menon whom some of you will have met, indeed heard him speak. And I’ve often heard him say that as a sincere Hindu brought up in this way from his childhood, though he found many things in his Hinduism, no doubt of social value, he never found God. It didn’t bring him into the presence of God.

It didn’t break through to God’s presence so that he could have the joy of prayer answered. And we have to say that the way of religion is not the way of God. Christianity in a very real sense is not one of the world’s religions, it’s God’s answer. Christ is unique, he opens a way to heaven and the way of religion is a way that ends without opening the door to heaven. And so we have to say to our friends who have espoused some other religious way that if they have not turned to Christ, if they’ve not come to Christ, then whatever experiences they may think they’ve had, they don’t have access to God.

Now that is a tough thing to say, but if the Bible is right, that is something we must say if we’re to be faithful to its record. The way of religion. Secondly, the way of right living. Think of this man I met after the last Tuesday service. I’m sure he’s a right-living person, and I’m sure therefore he feels that naturally he must have access.

Some of you will have seen John Bunyan’s programme on the television a couple of Sundays ago and you remember how much he makes of this point, how a Christian on his way to the cross was sidetracked to follow after civility and legality and was told that to live with them was the way of a gentleman. Well, I, I’m certainly one who thinks we need more civility in everyday life and we certainly need more legality in everyday life. But neither of these things will save our souls. And you may remember that Evangelist caught up with Christian and, uh, ticked him off and turned him back and said, you must go through the little wicket gate in the cross. Right living is not enough.

This burden on your back will not be shed by trying to be a good person and to live a good life. It’s too heavy a burden. Only the cross will take that burden from you and give you access into the heavenly city. And thirdly, there’s the way of ritualistic Christianity, the way of ritualistic Christianity. Now I hesitate to say this because it may be misunderstood and I want to say straight away that I’m not undervaluing the Christian sacraments.

I don’t know any Christians who do. I remember when I was a curate at Sevenoaks Parish Church a long time ago now, the Salvation Army had a home for old officers, retired officers just opposite, I believe they still do, in a beautiful house and I remember a dear old Salvation Army colonel, a great Christian man, coming across to the Lord’s Table in the parish church regularly on Sundays and revelling in it. Now as far as I know the Salvation Army don’t teach the necessity of the sacraments and yet that elderly Christian found in them great comfort and joy in his, his declining years. So let me make it quite clear that I’m not undervaluing those sacraments that have given such comfort to so many people. But they, there can be a danger, can’t there?

People can rest in them and trust in them. And in my ministry I found that over and over again people feel that because they’ve been baptised, gone through confirmation, come to the Lord’s table, taken the sacrament, because of these things in some way they must have access. But my friend, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Can you pray? Do you know God’s love for yourself?

Have you found your way into his presence? It’s no good carrying the card in my wallet if the bank won’t, won’t back it, if the bank denies validity. And it’s no good carrying these cards of the sacraments in our pockets if they’re not real, if God doesn’t see behind them all a new heart, a heart that loves him, a heart that’s been cleansed from its sins. And so these 3 ways are false ways. They don’t cross the river, they don’t bring us into God’s presence, they don’t spell out access.

The way of religion, the way of right living and the way of ritualistic Christianity. They’re, they’re just indications of the way in which rebellious man tries to win his way into God’s presence without humbling himself and saying, I can’t do it, I must ask God to open the way, I must accept his way, however humbling it may be. Now that’s the bad news. And if you found it rather difficult to listen to and rather bad news, then I do beg you to listen to tape number 2 and 3 where we go straight on to the good news and hear how in sending Jesus Christ God has infallibly made an access into his presence for all who will turn to his Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening.