Shall we have a word of prayer?
Father, we thank You for gathering us unto Yourself. Once more, we confess our need of You, because without You we can do nothing; without You, we are nothing.
We thank You. Your desire is for all of us to live such a life as is acceptable in Your sight. We thank You for such grace. We thank You for such a calling.
Tonight, we pray that You enlarge our vision of Yourself. Create in us a real longing for You. We place ourselves at Your mercy.
God, bless Your people—not for our sake, but for Your glory’s sake. In Your precious name, we pray. Amen.
Let us turn to 1 Peter 2, verse 5.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us turn also to Ephesians 1, and read from verses 3 through 6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love:
having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace,
which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
I want to take the liberty of reading this passage from a different translation, because the language is very plain and helps us catch the thought behind it. Please listen carefully.
Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.
So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured out on us because we belong to His dear, beloved Son.
That is all the Scripture we will read for now. From these few verses in Ephesians, we come to a very clear conclusion concerning what was really in God’s heart before the creation of man.
Before He created man, He already had a plan. Man was created for the purpose that man would be acceptable in His sight.
Now, I think I have to repeat that one more time: man was created for the purpose of being accepted by God.
Whatever God creates must be good. What God creates must be according to His good will. Therefore, what He created must be acceptable in His sight.
Before man’s creation, God had already determined that He would have a people whom He would put in Christ Jesus, so that they would be holy and without blame before Him in love.
In God’s creation of all things, man holds His highest thought. When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,” He was saying, “This man whom I am about to create will be acceptable to Me.”
That is His best intention for every person He created. God never intended us to be unacceptable to Him.
We are unacceptable to Him because of our own undoing. Our present unacceptability is not God’s fault; it is our own fault.
God’s intention for man is that man should be acceptable to Him in His sight. That is the ground we have to settle.
In Genesis, once man was created, he was brought before the tree of life. God was telling man, “Your acceptance by Me depends on this tree of life. This tree of life is the key to your acceptance by Me and to your being acceptable to Me.”
That is why, immediately after man was created, God offered His very life to man. God’s life is the way for us to be acceptable in His sight.
We find this thought in Ephesians 1:4: before the foundation of the world, God’s thought was that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
For us to be satisfying to Him and acceptable to Him, God places us in Christ Jesus. In God’s sight, there is only one Person who is personally acceptable in His sight, and that is His Beloved.
For Him to accept us, and for us to be acceptable to Him, God places us in Christ Jesus.
Let me read another verse: 1 Corinthians 1:30. I will read it from a modern translation. Listen carefully:
God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus.
Let me read it again: God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. Only God alone can make it possible for us to be in Christ Jesus.
Once we are in Christ Jesus, He is the One who makes us acceptable to God.
There are a few thoughts I want to share that I think are very crucial, very important.
Only God alone has the power and the love to put us in Christ Jesus, because only Christ is the One who can make us acceptable to God.
For our being accepted and for our being acceptable to Him, it is all in Christ Jesus.
Apart from Christ, God accepts nothing. God accepts only that which is of His Son.
Because He wants to accept us, He gives us His Son—or He places us in His Son. That is His thought for all of us.
There is no hope higher than this thought. There is no thought more precious or dear to us than this thought.
But unfortunately, man made himself unacceptable to God by not listening to God. Unbelief makes us unacceptable to Him; believing in Him makes us acceptable in His sight.
Our being unacceptable to Him is not His fault; it is our undoing. Yet because He created man to be acceptable to Him, and because of His unchanging will, He does not give man up.
After Adam sinned against God, God did not give up our first parents. When they made themselves unacceptable to God, of course it was their shame and their loss.
But the loss to God was greater than the loss to man, because man was created to be acceptable in His sight. When man became unacceptable, it was a great loss to God.
Of course, it is our loss as well. Yet because He is love, and because of His unchanging will toward man, God sought them out in their shameful, lost condition.
God walked in the cool of the day and asked Adam, “Where are you? Where are you?”
If you trace the history of man in the Bible from beginning to end, the one work God is doing is to restore man so that man can be acceptable to God’s heart. That is His pleasure. Therefore, God never gives man up.
Unfortunately, we give ourselves up. Right in the Garden of Eden, God sought Adam out.
Adam and Eve tried to cover up their shame. The reason we cover our shame is that we hope somehow, by our own doing, that God will accept us.
But after they fell, God clothed our first parents with animal skins. The covering of their shame was provided by God, not by their own provision.
To cover our shame and to find our way back to God, that way must be provided by God Himself.
On one hand, the animal skins covered their shame. On the other hand, they pointed to the right way of approach to God. They had to rely on another life other than themselves.
We are unacceptable. We need another life that is acceptable to God to cover our shame and to be in us the way of access to God.
That is what we find in the offering of Abel. The emphasis in Abel’s offering is not so much the forgiveness of sins, though forgiveness is included. The emphasis is our acceptance before a holy God.
Please turn with me to Genesis 4, verses 3 through 5.
And in process of time it came to pass,
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect.
This is the first mention of a sacrifice. It is interesting to notice that in this sacrifice, blood is not specifically mentioned, but fat is mentioned.
We know, of course, that one cannot offer an animal and its fat without the animal being killed. There is no true acceptance in God’s sight unless sin has been dealt with.
But in God’s heart, the emphasis—what is dear to Him—is not so much our sins forgiven as our acceptance to Him.
For us, the forgiveness of our sins is very important. But with God, our acceptance is more important than our forgiveness. With us, forgiveness is the end; we have achieved our goal. But with God, forgiveness is the process toward our being accepted in His sight.
God forgives you and forgives me, but it is not that we are forgiven and that is the end. The purpose of our sins being forgiven is our acceptance in His sight.
According to the sacrifice, the emphasis is not so much that sin should be forgiven, but that we might be accepted before a holy God. Forgiveness is necessary, but acceptance meets the heart of God in love.
Now, I want to touch just a little on the offering of Cain. Cain’s offering was rejected.
Cain offered the work of his own hands and the fruit of this cursed ground. In his own estimation, what he offered to God was good enough for God.
Yet he did not realize the difference between his standard of goodness and God’s standard of goodness. Even though he offered an offering that God could not accept, God did not give him up either.
God came and spoke to Cain. Let us read Genesis 4:5-6.
But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth?
and why is thy countenance fallen?
God could have said, “Forget about it. You did the wrong thing. You made yourself unacceptable to Me. That is it.” He would have been perfectly right to do so.
But God always goes the extra mile in love. He said to Cain:
If thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted?
and if thou doest not well,
sin coucheth at the door:
and unto thee shall be its desire,
and thou shalt rule over it.
Another translation says, “Why are you so angry? Why do you look dejected? You will be accepted if you respond the right way. If you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out. Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you.”
You will be accepted if you respond the right way. However, Cain did not respond in the right way. He resorted to doing things his own way.
Both children belonged to the same parents. They saw their parents’ clothing. They knew that their parents’ clothing was not their own provision, but God’s provision.
Through God’s provision of clothing, their shame could be covered. When shame is covered, that is the ground upon which we may approach God.
A brother put it in a very beautiful way: God always gives light for faith to act upon.
Let me repeat that again: God always gives light for faith to act upon.
For example, how are we saved? What is the ground upon which our faith acts? By the Holy Spirit, we see that we are sinners. That is God’s preparation.
But God also shows us the Saviour. In Him there is true deliverance. When we see God’s provision, we say, “I want to be saved.” Our faith acts upon that.
God gives us light that we are sinners. Without divine light, none of us admits that we are sinners. But that same divine light shows us that Christ is the way.
Faith acts upon the light that is given to us. Abel acted upon that light, but Cain refused to act upon it. Cain’s way was the way of rejection, while Abel’s way was the way of acceptance.
In Christ there is forgiveness. Christ is our Deliverer. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our acceptance before God.
Therefore, Abel’s offering was accepted, and Cain’s offering was rejected.
The heart of the gospel is not merely that our sins are forgiven. The heart of the gospel is our acceptance before God.
God paid such a price not merely to forgive us. He paid that price to gain us for Himself.
Abel’s offering was for acceptance because he knew that what was in God’s heart was to gain him, not merely to receive something that he could offer to God.
That is very important. In our experience as God’s people, there are two sides to His work with us: our new birth is for our acceptance, but our consecration is for our being acceptable to Him.
We know that we are accepted, but we have to be honest: not all of us live a life that is acceptable to Him. That is what the Lord is really after.
Let me give an overview of several books in the Bible. We will not go into the specific chapters and verses in detail.
The first fifteen chapters of Exodus are for our being accepted, just as Romans 1 through 11 are concerned with our acceptance before God.
In some contemporary translations, words such as justification and reconciliation are expressed in terms of our being accepted by God. We are justified because we are now accepted by Him.
Then, from Romans 12 onward, the matter is our being acceptable to Him. To know what is acceptable to Him, we need to live a consecrated life.
Let us look at Romans 12:1-2.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Being accepted and being acceptable are the two ends of one thing. On one end is our being accepted; on the other end is our being acceptable.
Being acceptable is a process. We know that we are accepted, and God is working in us to make us acceptable to Him.
When we become acceptable to Him, God’s heart is delighted. That gives pleasure to His heart because we were all created to be acceptable in His sight.
The first fifteen chapters of Exodus concern our being accepted. From chapter 25 onward, the matter is our being acceptable in His sight.
From Exodus 25 onward, we see a people consecrated wholly to the Lord. They offer themselves to God for that acceptability unto Him.
All the furniture, all the tent coverings, and everything concerning the tabernacle had to be made according to the pattern in order to be acceptable to God.
The standard of acceptance is none other than Christ Himself. Everything must conform to Him. Anything less than Himself, God will not accept.
At the end of Exodus, when all the work was finished, Moses examined every piece of furniture and everything in detail. He made sure that everything corresponded exactly to what God had revealed to him on the mountain.
There was no deviation. Everything had to be exactly according to the pattern Moses had seen on the mountain.
When Moses examined every piece, he found that it perfectly matched the pattern he had seen on the mount. Then Moses put everything together, sprinkled blood, and anointed it with oil.
The oil represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot come to us unless there is something that corresponds to Christ.
When everything was put in place, the glory of God filled the tabernacle. How do we know that it was acceptable to God? The glory of God was there.
Where there is true acceptability before God, you see God’s glory, because that which is acceptable reflects what God longs for.
When the tabernacle was erected, God’s presence came down and filled that place. The priests could not even enter the tabernacle to minister, because the glory of God filled it.
There was no more work to be done. The work was complete. That is what God is looking for: a spiritual house and a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices through Christ.
Everything must be Christ, and then the glory will fill that place.
Now the tabernacle was properly fitted together, and God came in and took up His residence there. We heard this morning that God’s heart is to dwell among His people.
When everything was properly fitted together according to the heavenly pattern, God came in and took up His residence.
In Leviticus, God calls His people to come and commune with Him and to offer sacrifices acceptable in His sight. Let us read Leviticus 1:1.
And the Lord called unto Moses,
and spake unto him out of the tent of meeting, saying.
God was not speaking from a distance. He was speaking right in the midst of His people.
Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them,
When any man of you bringeth an offering unto the Lord,
ye shall bring your offering of the cattle,
even of the herd and of the flock.
Here we find a people who are acceptable to Him. When we are acceptable to Him, then we can offer sacrifices that are acceptable in His sight.
The offerer is more important than the thing he offers. The person is more important than the offering.
When I was reading Leviticus and Numbers, I had to readjust my understanding of these two books.
God is now in the midst of His people, and He is calling them to offer sacrifices that will be acceptable in His sight. What could be more beautiful than that?
As you read through these two books, there are many chapters devoted to cleansing, purification, what we can eat and what we cannot eat, what we can do and what we cannot do.
We can never be more acceptable to God than we are already accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ before God.
Let me say that again: we can never be more acceptable to God than the acceptableness that is ours in Christ Jesus.
We can never be more acceptable to God than the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
However, we have the option to be much less than what we ought to be. That is our problem.
No one can surpass the acceptability that he has in Christ. But we have the option to become less than what we ought to be in His sight.
We all have that tendency because we are living in an unacceptable world. We easily go the way of the world. We easily pollute ourselves again. We easily fall from where we ought to be.
The chapters devoted to cleansing, purification, and all these matters are simply to maintain us in that state of acceptability before Him.
We need His cleansing. We need His purification. We need to live a separated life, because that is the way we can be kept from being polluted.
Being acceptable to Him is so precious in His sight. If we lose that, it is also His loss. He wants to preserve it for Himself, and therefore He does all these things to maintain us in that state of acceptability.
We can come to one conclusion: being acceptable to Him is more important to Him than it is to us. That is why He goes into all the details to keep us and to make us always acceptable in His sight.
Let me touch a little on the fact that we all need to grow.
Especially in the book of Numbers, we see Israel’s journey from the wilderness into the promised land. They moved from station to station, progressively moving toward the promised land.
Along the way, the Lord’s hand was heavy upon them on many occasions because He exposed their flesh. If the flesh is not exposed, there can be no deliverance.
When our flesh is exposed, it is not for Him to condemn us; it is for Him to deliver us from it, so that we may maintain that state of acceptability before Him.
The journey is for our growth. It is for making us more acceptable to Him along the way. Therefore, dealings are necessary.
Why all the dealings? Why all the breakdowns? Why all the endings? It is simply to make room for Christ.
The more Christ there is in us, the greater the measure of acceptability to Him.
Growth is not for us; growth ought to be a delight to Him.
I want to draw your attention to one chapter that has become very meaningful to me recently. Please turn to Numbers 7.
And it came to pass on the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the tabernacle,
that he anointed it and sanctified it,
and all the furniture thereof,
and the altar and all the vessels thereof,
and had anointed them and sanctified them.
And the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses,
who were the princes of the tribes,
who were over them that were numbered,
offered:
and they brought their offering before the Lord,
six covered wagons, and twelve oxen;
a wagon for every two of the princes,
and for each one an ox:
and they presented them before the tabernacle.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Accept these of them,
that they may be used in doing the service of the tent of meeting;
and thou shalt give them unto the Levites,
to every man according to his service.
Now look at Numbers 7:10.
And the princes offered for the dedication of the altar
in the day that it was anointed;
and the princes offered their offering before the altar.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day,
for the dedication of the altar.
This chapter is one of the longest chapters in the Bible, and the same thing is repeated twelve times. Each day, the same offering is described in detail.
Why would the Holy Spirit take such care to record all these details over twelve days? Because it is repeated twelve times, it must be very important to God.
These offerings were not prescribed by the Lord. Their hearts were moved, and they gave voluntarily.
Sometimes we wait until something is prescribed before we offer. But there are times when we are so moved by God that we offer lovingly.
When they offered these gifts, the Lord said to Moses, “Accept them.” Sometimes you do not have to wait until something is prescribed and then offer it.
When there is true love, there is always willingness to offer anything that will satisfy God. When there is love, you do not have to wait until you are asked before you offer.
When He did not ask, somehow love touched their hearts, and God said, “Accept.”
It is not a small thing for God to accept an offering from us. It is a great thing.
The size of the vessel was not mentioned, but its weight was mentioned. God is satisfied with what is real in us when we offer it to Him.
It is not the volume that we offer; it is the quality that we offer. Silver speaks of redemption, and what is of redemption is acceptable to God.
Of course, the silver must be purified, and it must be shaped to become a proper vessel.
That is what God is doing with all of us. We are redeemed, but in the process of making us acceptable to Him, we need to go through a process.
We need to be purified. We need to be refined. We need to be formed into a vessel that can give Him glory.
That is what God is looking for. We may not all be Levites, and we may not all be called to serve as Levites, but in love we can all offer something acceptable in His sight.
The same thing is mentioned through all twelve days because these offerings are very important in God’s sight.
May we all be those vessels in His hands, because the vessel is more important than the things that we offer up to Him.
He is after the vessel, not so much what we can do or what we can give to Him. If the vessel is right, the content will be right.
This chapter has recently touched me deeply. What they offered was not prescribed by the law of Moses. Let me put it that way.
But out of their pure love for God, God said, “Accept.”
God is not after our doing so much for Him. If the heart is right, all the other things are right. If the heart is wrong, nothing is right.
In Leviticus and Numbers, all the dealings, all the purification, and all the things we need to avoid are to keep us in a state in which we can be acceptable in His sight.
This acceptableness must be constantly increasing.
When we come to Numbers 28, besides the regular offerings there are additional offerings. The more Christ we have, the more Christ we have to offer back to God.
That is what God is after. We are created for the purpose of being acceptable to Him.
He will not accept anything less than that. That is why He is dealing with us: for Christ’s increase, so that Christ may be all in all.
When Christ is all in all, we will be fully acceptable in His sight.
Let me share a few verses of Scripture. Galatians 4:19.
My little children,
of whom I am again in travail
until Christ be formed in you.
What was the object of Paul’s ministry?
I know some workers for whom the size of their gathering is very important. To them, success—or acceptance in ministry—is measured by the size of the gathering.
But that was not Paul’s way. Paul’s offering of himself in the work of God was for this purpose: until Christ is formed in you.
Put it in the language we are using tonight: Paul had the heart of God. Paul wanted those to whom he ministered to have Christ formed in them, so that they might be acceptable in God’s sight.
Is that the object of our love for the Lord? Let us look at another verse: Colossians 1:28-29.
Whom we proclaim,
admonishing every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
Paul’s ministry always had God’s end in view: “I want to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
My teaching and my warning are to make you perfect in Christ Jesus. That is God’s standard for all of us. His standard is absolute.
Then, in 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul says:
I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy:
for I espoused you to one husband,
that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Paul’s ministry was governed by what God wanted for Himself. Paul wanted to serve in such a way that the fruit of his labor would be acceptable in God’s sight.
This can be applied to our local gathering, and it can be applied to our individual lives. Why do we grow? It ought to be so that we may be acceptable in His sight.
Why do we gather? We gather because we want our gathering to be acceptable to Him. If He cannot accept it, it is a shame to us.
Finally, let us consider Ephesians 5:27.
If we are faithful to God, whether individually or corporately, whatever we do should have this desire: to satisfy His heart.
Whatever we do will then be found acceptable in His sight.
The end of our sacrifice, the end of our work, and the end of our love for Him and for one another is that He may sanctify the church and present her to Himself.
That He might present the church to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that she should be holy and without blemish.
In the end, He will present her to Himself: a corporate bride perfectly acceptable to Him.
This is what we have for tonight: that we can be acceptable to Him, because what He wants, He also provides the way.
Father, we thank You for Your presence with us. For this reason, we have to confess that human words are so inadequate.
We pray that You would speak beyond human words and speak to the depths of our being.
We pray that after this week, we will come to discover that we were all made to be acceptable to You. May we be willing to give ourselves totally to You, so that You may accomplish Your work.
In the end, Your heart will be satisfied. We give You all the praise.
We know that what You have purposed, You will surely accomplish one day. We give You all the glory. In Christ’s precious name, we pray. Amen.